Movies - TV
Why David Hyde Pierce Refused To Be Credited For His Role In Hellboy
By SANDY SCHAEFER
Guillermo del Toro released "Hellboy" in 2004, and didn’t have the amount of creative control he has now. Studio executives were wary of del Toro, and wanted the character of Abe Sapien, who is physically portrayed by Doug Jones, voiced by David Hyde Pierce so the movie would have more star power.
In an interview with Comic Book Resources in July 2008, Jones revealed that, during filming, del Toro informed him Pierce would voice Abe in the final cut. The director assured Jones that there was zero issue with his own performance, and that Pierce’s casting was only because Sony was "thinking [about] getting butts in seats."
When he came in to record his vocals, Pierce felt that Jones "did his job, as he was hired to do, and did it beautifully," as Jones was later told. As a result, Sony's scheme back-fired: Pierce did his best to imitate Jones' original voice acting, then refused to take credit for the film or make the press rounds "out of respect to Doug Jones."
Pierce also "politely declined" to voice Abe in the animated films "Hellboy: Sword of Storms" and “Hellboy: Blood and Iron," which led to Jones being hired instead. Jones would go on to both voice Abe and play him physically in "The Golden Army," just like del
Toro had promised him.