The Bad Guys' Marc Maron And Anthony Ramos Share What They Enjoy About Voice Acting - Exclusive
Both Marc Maron and Anthony Ramos have forged impressive careers in Hollywood. Maron is a renowned stand-up comedian whose long list of acting credits includes noteworthy parts in movies like "Almost Famous" and "Joker" and the lead role of Sam Silva in the beloved Netflix series "GLOW." Ramos originated the role of John Laurens-Philip Hamilton in the revered musical "Hamilton" on Broadway and went on to appear in "A Star Is Born," "In The Heights," and "In Treatment."
But while both Maron and Ramos are primarily known for their live-action work, they've each voiced their fair share of characters in animated projects too. The latest example is "The Bad Guys," where they each play members of a criminal band of predatory animals. Maron is Mr. Snake, an ace safecracker who considers guinea pigs a delicious delicacy, and Ramos is Mr. Piranha, the gang's fearless, if slightly loopy, muscle who also happens to possess impressive singing chops. In an exclusive interview, Maron and Ramos filled Looper in on what they enjoy most about voice acting.
Voice acting lets them get it perfect and avoid the gym
While Marc Maron and Anthony Ramos are used to being in front of the camera, they both feel there are some big perks to voice acting for "The Bad Guys" and other projects. "You can do things until they are perfect and there's no real constraints on location or amount of shots you can do," Maron observed of voicing animated characters. "You have a lot of freedom within the one little world you're working in."
Ramos agreed, noting, "You get to do as many takes as you need to get it right, and then at the end of the session, if you're like, 'Yo, can we go back to Scene 33 again? Actually, I want to try that one more time,' you get to go back. If you discover you did a reading later on in the script, and you're like, 'Oh, actually I would do that line differently now because I just did this one like that and I want to change that line there,' there's that freedom in animation."
As Maron pointed out, live-action movies and TV shows don't have nearly that amount of control or flexibility. "Once you do a live action," Maron explained, "it's in the can and you don't know what they're going to do with it."
There's one other major perk to voice acting that doesn't apply to live-action work: There's no need to worry about physical appearance. "It's a little easier, I would imagine, for most people than live action," Maron reflected. He pointed to Ramos as an example. "He's got to go to the gym for his next movie ["Transformers: Rise of the Beasts"] a lot. You don't have to do that for a cartoon."
"The Bad Guys" is currently playing exclusively in theaters.