The famed actor discusses his career spent giving life to famous characters like the Tasmanian Devil, Darkwing Duck and of course, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too, along with his fun new podcast, ‘Toon’d In.’
Over the past 40 years, Jim Cummings has become a household name.The two-time Annie Award-winning actor, also nominated for four additional Annie Awards and two Emmy Awards, has served as the official voices of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh since 1988, Tigger since 1989, ’ Tasmanian Devil since 1991, and Mickey Mouse’s Pete since 1992.But, before all that, he was the manager at Video Depot in Anaheim Hills.
“That was where I made my first demo tape,” shares Cummings.“I recorded it, and then I sent it out to a man named Sal, who had just made a terrible horror movie that nobody went and saw.But he was my big connection, and he got my tape in front of Frank Brandt and Caroline Hay, two producers who were gearing up to do on The Disney Channel.
I went up on my day off to audition, and I got the role of Lionel the Lion.” Doing one or two episodes per week, Cummings says he was making hundreds more dollars in eight hours than he made working six days a week at Video Depot.And was having 10 times the fun. “I rapidly did the math and, as a result, get to now talk with people like you,” says Cummings to AWN during an interview at San Diego Comic Con. Since (1985), Cummings has voiced some of the most popular characters in animation, include Darkwing Duck, Pete in and , Hondo Ohnaka in and , the singing voice of Scar in , Cat on , Ray in , The Narrator in and, of course, Tigger and Pooh.Most recently, Cummings lent his voice to many characters in Seong-ho Jang’s .
And when asked which voices he can still call upon at a moment’s notice, Cummings’ reply is, “All of them, thank you.” His trick is keeping warm saltwater always handy in the booth and occasionally, in true Pooh fashion, a bit of honey. “I’m not typically the guy yelling at football games or doing a bunch of whiskey shots,” says Cummings.“It’s an instrument and I need to take care of it because it’s taking care of me.Plus, I’d been through puberty by the time I was hired.” But the actor claims he’d known his calling in life by the time he was five-years-old. “My dad liked to watch and Mel Blanc was a regular,” remembers Cummings.
“My dad said to me, ‘You see this guy? He does that Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck you watch on Saturday mornings.’ And I thought, ‘Well, he's not getting in trouble for being strange and doing odd sounds.I'll just do that.’ And so, I did.” But Cummings learned fast that voice acting, like any profession, had challenges and consisted of much more than making “odd sounds.” It required real stamina.Cummings shares that even one of his most recognized roles, Taz, who has plenty of amusing vocals, could get draining. “Pooh and Tigger were fine and Darkwing was fine but we did over 60 episodes of the show , which I insisted on doing in four-hour blocks on Friday afternoons,” notes Cummings.
“All those Taz sounds can wear on you.” Meanwhile, other voices felt very organic for the actor. “When I did Sergeant Spinelli from , that voice came from my Aunt Grace, God rest her soul,” shares Cummings.“That's the way she sounded to me.She probably didn't really sound like that.
And in I voiced a Cajun alligator named Leatherhead, and he sounded just like Leonce LeBlanc, the first captain on the Mississippi riverboat where I used to be a deckhand.” The voice that’s become the most familiar friend to Cummings over the years, to no one’s surprise, is Pooh.It’s a character in and out of which Cummings can effortlessly leap.Though the voice is heard a lot more in the Cummings house since the arrival of his grandson Jax.
“He's an eight-month-old pumpkin and so cute you can't stand it,” gushes Cummings.“And I sat there talking to him as Pooh and we had a nice conversation.He mostly listened.
He wasn't too vocal at the time, which was fine, because his job was to sit there and be adorable, and he was so good at it.” Chris Judge, Cummings’ stepson and fellow voice actor, also enjoys his stepdad’s plethora of more than 600 voices. “I think Pete is my favorite, and the first voice of Jim’s that I remember hearing,” says Judge.“With him and Patrick Warburton, at some point, I put it together that it’s their voices, the same people’s voices, in so many of these cartoons that I loved.I was five or six and had no idea what voice acting was and couldn’t comprehend how one person could do so many voices.
” Now, Judge not only joins Cummings in the industry, but the two have a podcast they produce together called . “About two years ago, there was a producer from Australia who approached Jim about doing a podcast, and Jim reached out to me because I went to school for theater and media arts technology and film,” says Judge.“So, Jim asked me if I could help out on the production side.I had never produced anything before, but I was directing and acting and it seemed like something I could learn.
I actually suggested that we film the podcast as well because it’s fun to see people’s mannerisms and expressions, especially when Jim and the other voice actors do their voices.You get to see them morph into another character.” It’s also a rare chance for Cummings to get into a studio with his voice acting friends, an occurrence becoming less and less common as remote work and solo recording sessions become the new normal.It’s one of the many ways Cummings has seen the neighborhood of animation change dramatically.
“Back in the day, we would always do ensemble cast, and everybody was there recording together,” shares Cummings.“But voiceover wasn’t as well-known then as it is now, that's for sure.There was no cast of Simpsons.
People like Billy West weren’t really known.Over the years, they started using big movie stars, who couldn’t be there that week because they were being movie stars, or this, that, or the other thing.And then, of course, with COVID, forget about it.
Then you were all flying solo.I do miss getting to work together with everyone.” gives Cummings a chance once again to get behind a mic alongside his long-time industry friends and reminisce about the early years.“It's very nostalgic and very cool to get an inside look at what it felt like in those booths back in the day,” says Judge, who also had the idea to take the podcast “on the road” to different comic and animation conventions.
“Jim does so many a year and that gave us access to other people in the industry without having to do too much coordinating,” says Judge.“It was really gorilla in the beginning, hustling the gear all around, going to these different conventions and approaching these voice actors and entertainers.But now it’s blossomed and a lot of fun.
It's very conversational.There's not really a set agenda and I think that brings out the most natural conversations.” The podcast has featured voice actors like Jeff Bennett (), Tad Stones (), April Winchell (), Maurice LaMarche ), Candi Milo (), Jodi Benson (), Keith David (), and many more. They’ve also had animators like Disney’s Andreas Deja and live-action actors like’ Sean Astin on the podcast. “To hear from some people who have done 20 or more voices and some guests who have built a career on one, it’s been interesting to hear about how the trajectory of somebody's career has played out, all under the same umbrella of entertainment,” notes Judge. Cummings chimes in, “It’s all for that smackerel of honey.” He continues, “Really, I love it.And it's my voice so as long as I can still talk, I’ll still be acting.” Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime.
She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment.Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
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