When Chris Rock Pissed Off Some Real Voice Actors

So you may have seen Chris Rock present the Best Animated Feature at last week’s Academy Awards (I did not, sleep was more important to me at that stage of the day), and you may have noticed that he apparently loves doing voice work in animation. If you didn’t see it, the clip is here, but before you click, please take a moment to admire the idiocy of the Academy for putting it online but disabling embedding.

What I’m sure Chris meant by all of this was to slag off the live-action folks who go into animation thinking that it’s an easy gig. We’ve all seen it before, where in the “making of” you hear said actor gush about how they can show up to work in jeans or shorts or hotpants or whatever. The only problem is that Rock comes off as a bit self-congratulatory when he mentions he earns a million dollars.

What you may not have seen or heard was the aftermath of his speech, which took place over on twitter in the days following the awards, when respected voice-actor Maurice LaMarche had this to say:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/MAURICELAMARCHE/status/174532519457329154″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/MAURICELAMARCHE/status/174732544145764352″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/MAURICELAMARCHE/status/174752694488154112″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/MAURICELAMARCHE/status/174834448792158208″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/MAURICELAMARCHE/status/174839487661228033″]

So Maurice was pretty pissed, but how about Tara Strong? She decided to take the humorous route instead:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/tarastrong/status/173979076258832386″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/tarastrong/status/173989067535564800″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/tarastrong/status/173992141775839232″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/tarastrong/status/174003560881725440″]

3 thoughts on “When Chris Rock Pissed Off Some Real Voice Actors”

  1. When I saw that at the Oscars I didn’t really think too much of it that he said he gets paid a million dollars for it, I was pretty surprised though and didn’t know it’d be that much, if it’s true. Idk how much voice actors make. I do think the monologue with his typical day at work mightve been problematic cause it comes off as VA get paid much to do very little, or maybe it’s just Chris Rock.
    Imo, it’s in the same vain as artists just “sit around painting pictures all day and get bucketloads for it” so I could see how from that perspective if some were annoyed.

    Did Chris Rock comment at all?

    1. I don’t think it was so much the notion that you get paid a lot as much as it’s easy work and anyone can do it.

      Clearly the people that do it for a living have to work hard at it whereas Chris Rock gets cast because he’s Chris Rock and he doesn’t feel the need to put in much effort.

      No response from Rock as far as I know, but Danny DeVito did comment on CBS: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505270_162-57388460/devito-reacts-to-chris-rock-oscar-animation-quip/

  2. Pingback: Chris Rock Goes After Chris Brown On ‘Today Show’ (VIDEO) | The Joke Site

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