From the minds behind The Hub Productions, and the original founders of Oz Comic Con, Metro Comic Con is a new vision of pop culture in Australia. With over 40 years combined experience in the event space, the creators of Metro Comic Con have previously brought Australia guests of the calibre of Jason Momoa, Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando Bloom, Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Karl Urban, William Shatner, Robert Englund, Richard Dean Anderson, Patrick Stewart and Stan Lee.
Attending this years Metro Comic Con, and returning to Melbourne for the first time in over 20 years, Family Guy and Seinfeld actor Patrick Warburton spoke with Nick L’Barrow about his most iconic roles, and working with talents like Seth MacFarlane and David Spade over his career.
Nick: It’s such a pleasure to meet you! I’m genuinely a big fan of you and your work. I appreciate you taking the time to chat today.
Patrick Warburton: Ah, pleasure to meet you, Nick. Thank you for your time!
Nick: Thank you! I want to kick off with a story that I hope you might appreciate. I grew up on The Emperor’s New Groove, and my dad would do a bit where he would get my brother and me to come over to him, and he would say, “Pull the level, Kronk!” Then we would lift his leg or pull his finger, and he would fart. Then we would shout, “Wrong lever!”
Patrick Warburton: [laughs]
Nick: I guess you were a big part of my childhood, but maybe not in the way you expected!
Patrick Warburton: That’s great!
Nick: But, I’m really interested in asking about your convention experiences, because you’ve played so many iconic characters over you career that people love. But, I’m curious to know what are some of the deep cut projects that people come up to you at con’s and say, “Patrick, I loved you in this?”
Patrick Warburton: Well that would either be The Woman Chaser or The Civilization of Maxwell Bright. Independent films that are like passion projects and very, sort of, different for me. So, I always appreciate that.
I certainly get more The Woman Chaser than Maxwell Bright. It’s very hard to watch, you know, the first 20 minutes of that film. It was a period of time when most people would have walked out of the theatre back then because it was so stark, and in your face, and ugly. But there’s a redemption that happens. And I was very proud of the work everybody did on it.
It looks like garbage! It was shot on PAL, which was a European video format at the time. We should have shot it on a Sony Red or something like that. It just doesn’t look great, but there’s some great performances in it. The film as a whole, if you get through the whole movie – the second half is a lot easier to get through than the first.
Nick: I guess another part of the con experience is that some of these projects that people love, like Seinfeld, Family Guy or The Emperor’s New Groove came out 20-odd years ago, but people are still discovering these shows now. How interesting is it for you to chat with people who are such varying times in their lives when they watch your shows and movies?
Patrick Warburton: It’s fantastic. There are so many different generations of fans. So, if I go to a con, and I don’t do a lot of them – I never even did one until 7 years ago! – I really do appreciate the experience. I do just like connecting with everybody who comes through. That’s very important to me.
Sometimes I’m told to try and move the lines a little quicker. But I know that people pay money to go to these cons, they wait in like, and I try to make it as personable as I can, you know? As pleasant and positive as I can, which means not rushing. I look at Metro Comic Con here, and it’s a big trip! But I thought, I haven’t been to Melbourne since we shot The Dish in 2003, which was one of the great experiences of my professional career. It was great working here with Working Dog and the great Sam Neill. So, I wanted to come back here to connect.
Nick: There’s a rarity in your career that you’ve been in at least 2 projects that have reached 100 episodes, plus more, with Rules of Engagement and Family Guy. So, I’m curious to know what you process is as an actor to not just keep those characters fresh and interesting for an audience for so long, but keep it interesting for you to play for so long too?
Patrick Warburton: Well, a lot of it has to do with how much fun you’re having. Rules of Engagement, we only did 100 episodes. We should have done a lot more. The network did not own that show, and I found out later that the network only promoted shows that they owned. They didn’t own Rules of Engagement. So, we were like an insurance program for them. We were mid-season every year.
We only shot half a season, and then every year, a new show would “shit the bed”, as they say, and then they would just drop us in. So, we didn’t have a specific time every year. At the end of 7 years, we managed to do 100 episodes. The show’s done really well in syndication. But that’s a show we should have had full season pickups for, when we didn’t have any.
But cartoons is like winning the lotto. If you can get on a prime-time cartoon that had legs, then that’s a great thing. It’s been wonderful to be a part of Family Guy for all these years. Obviously, to the dismay of my parents. They hate the show! But that’s the nature of satire. It’s just not for them.
Nick: It was my parents as well! No The Simpsons and no Family Guy. But we always found a way to watch it! Speaking of both of your shows, you’ve worked with Seth MacFarlane and David Spade, and you’ve returned to do other projects with them likethe Ted movies and Joe Dirt 2. What is it about collaborating with those guys that made it so easy to want to work with them again and again?
Patrick Warburton: I think Seth is a genius, and I really appreciate that man. I’m very thankful that I’m actually voice Joe, being that he [Seth MacFarlane] voices so many characters in that show. I’m glad that he decided to hire me to do Joe, I love Seth.
I love Spade. I love Davey. I remember when he called me to do Joe Dirt 2, and it was some streaming movie at the time. So, I wasn’t doing cartwheels. But he called up and said, “Well, you get killed by Christopher Walken!” And I go, “Oh, he’s doing it… alright, I’m in!” I want to get killed by Christopher Walken.
While I was hanging out with him in New Orleans, which is where we shot it. It’s a rainy night, we’re under an umbrella. And I wanted something, just some unique Christopher Walken moment. And at one point, he just looked at me, and he goes, “Have you ever seen that movie, The Wild Ones, with Brando?” And I go, “Yeah.”
And he goes, “Goofy. It’s terrible!” It was just so funny to listen to Christopher Walken shit on Marlon Brando. It made it all worth it!
Thank you so much to Patrick for his time, and to Metro Comic Con and NixCo PR for organising the chat. Metro Comic Con is taking place between July 13 and 14. Tickets and information are available here.
