Being forced to stay at home is never going to be an ideal scenario but the current point in human history seems to lend itself to such a scenario being more entertaining than any other. With the list of entertainment options at our finger tips growing every day, Warner Bros. is gearing up to add SCOOB! to the on demand options as it was originally planned to be a theatrical release but will head straight to living rooms on Friday. For its Shaggy actor Will Forte, options like the Michael Jordan documentary on ESPN and Hollywood on Netflix have been helping him pass the time but he did set aside some time from his viewing schedule to talk about his work on SCOOB! with ComicBook.com.
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Forte is no stranger to voice acting. He has previously worked with Warners for The LEGO Movie where he was the minifigure version of Abraham Lincoln, in addition to other titles on his resumรฉ but a Scooby Doo role comes with an attached history. Shaggy is one of the most instantly recognizable animated characters, not only by appearance, but also by sound. It was just about enough to have Forte yelling, “Like zoinks!” The actor opened up about the pressure and how he made the character his own.
“The funny thing is like Shaggy is one of the [impressions] I can’t do! I’m not a great impersonator,” Forte said. “So, it was such an honor to be a part of this and it was huge shoes to fill with Casey Kasem , who is such an icon, and Matthew Lillard, who I thought did a fantastic job. You go in and I said, ‘I’m not sure that my voice.. I don’t know that I can do a spot on impersonation of either of thiese guys.’ They said, ‘Don’t worry, we’re not looking for that. Let’s figure out a way to make it your own.’ It was nerve racking because I know the connection people have to this character and the group of friends that are part of the Scooby team. It was nerve racking but., ultimately, what an honor! It was really fun to get a chance to do.”
Snapping into character for the audio booth was no easy feat, either. “It was just tough. It didn’t come super naturally,” he admitted. “People would love to drive by me on the way to the studio because I was just sitting there… I recorded a bunch of different versions of Shaggy and then my own self doing Shaggy so I could remember how I was doing it… It just looked like I was a crazy person talking to myself. It was a fun challenge and I loved doing it and what an honor to be a part of this thing.”
What resulted was a take on the character which honors the legacy of Shaggy but also makes the character very much Forte’s own, alongside a star-studded voice cast which includes Zac Efron, Gina Rodriguez, Mark Wahlberg, Ken Jeong, Amandra Seyfried, Kiersey Clemons, Jason Isaacs, and more.
SCOOB! is available on demand on Friday, May 15.
