Futurama Blindsided Billy West By Having Him Audition For Fry
Prior to the debut of "Futurama" in 1999, preeminent voice actor Billy West was already a towering presence in his field. He had previously played Doug Funnie in the hit Nickelodeon series "Doug," in addition to voicing the Larry Fine-like Stimpson J. Cat on "The Ren & Stimpy Show" opposite show creator John Kricfalusi. When Kricfalusi was fired for missing deadlines, West took over the role, playing both leads for the bulk of the series. West also played Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in the 1996 oddity "Space Jam" and has voiced the Honey Nut Cheerios Bee and the Red M&M in myriad TV commercials.
In the normal course of seeking more work, sometime in the late '90s, West found himself in front of the casting directors for Matt Groening's and David X. Cohen's new sci-fi sitcom. West, of course, would be cast in multiple roles for "Futurama," including the shiftless delivery boy Fry, the doddering old fool Professor Farnsworth, the incompetent impoverished lobster Dr. Zoidberg, and the blowhard a-hole Captain Zapp Brannigan.
When he was still auditioning, however, West was a little taken aback by what was handed to him. Speaking at the 2023 Rhode Island Comic Con as part of the Funbearable panel (watch the full panel here!), the stalwart Stimpy himself told the audience about his audition an how he had to invent a voice on the spot. West had prepared a few voices he intended to do, but the actual parameters of the audition had not yet been stated. So, when the suits handed him a drawing, he needed to be nimble.
Billy West at 25
For the "Futurama" auditions, and indeed for all voice auditions for animated shows and movies, an actor is shown a drawing or a design of a character and then asked what they might sound like. The actors will have, as mentioned, a voice they may intend to perform, but it will likely change depending on character design. West had voices prepped but wasn't even thinking about the role of Fry, as he was told the role had been filled already. As such, when asked, West was startled:
"[T]hey show you a picture of the character. I sat there and I was ready to do a couple of characters. But they had already cast Fry, and so I wasn't ready for that. And they said, 'What do you think?' And I had to pull something out of my ass really fast. It was what I sounded like when I was 25. I was in a band and I was all whiny and nasally and complain-y. 'Ah, s***. I broke a string! Now what am I gonna do?'"
West knew that Fry was to begin "Futurama" carrying unrequited affection for the cycloptic pilot Leela, the role eventually played by Katey Sagal. His whiny, 25-year-old self, he figured, would improve his dynamic with the character:
"[T]hat would be perfect for Leela. Because she's so strong and decisive and he's needy and all over the place. But his heart's in the right place. So, I was a project for a girl. That's what I based him on. I was a project. It was like, 'Why do you wear that stained shirt? [...] Look at your hair! What's the matter? Don't wear a stupid hat.' And I was always like, 'Okay, alright, alright.' [T]hat was my interpretation."
Making Fry feel real
"Futurama" is, of course, a broad fantasy full of robots, alien creatures, and ineffable advanced technologies, but the actors know that their characters have to come across as real. Even if West is playing a callow anthropomorphic lobster or even a talking piece of candy, he understands that he needs to create a whole human being with his voice. West was on the panel with his "Futurama" co-stars Phil LaMarr (Hermes Conrad), Maurice LaMarche (Kif and so, so many others), Lauren Tom (Amy Wong), and John DiMaggio (Bender). Speaking for his co-stars, West continued:
"You know what it is? Johnny, everybody here will tell you: if you have a responsibility to do a character, you've gotta make it resonate. It's gotta have more than the two dimensions that you're looking at, because people have to feel like, 'You know what, I could know that person. I could know that — I do know that person in life.'"
We may not be able to meet Dr. Zoidberg on the street, but we likely know someone who's kind of pathetic and poor like Zoidberg. One may not personally know more than one or two sentient alcoholic robots, but we may all know bold, confident a-holes like Bender. And Fry may be a drawing on a page, but I can say with 100% assurance that we all know a whiny "he's a project" kid in his mid-20s who doesn't yet have their life together and whose every effort to do good is an embarrassing failure. Heck, it's just as likely that we can all relate to Fry rather directly. West's flash of inspiration, perhaps without even meaning to, tapped into something pathetically universal.