Features
Interview with Alex Borstein
By Mikenomn (Tuesday, August 10, 2004)
During our tour of the Family Guy Studios we were lucky enough to get an interview with writer and voice actress, Alex Borstein.
Planet-FamilyGuy.com: First, where did you come up with the voice for Lois?
Alex Borstein: The voice started in a sketch I used to?€?it?€™s where Steve and I met at the Acme Comedy theater in Los Angeles. It?€™s kind of like the Groundlings?€?and we used to do sketches there and a group friend of ours named Jeff Louis wrote a sketch. It was called ?€œMagic Man?€� and it was about a son telling his parents he wants to become a magician. His parents were disappointed with him, they wanted him to be a Doctor. I played the mother and the voice of that mother was pretty similar to Lois, but it was really slow and deeper.
Alex does the voice Lois was based off of
AB: It was a very slow kind of prodding thing and so when I first met Seth and started working on this, I tried that voice. He kind of liked that and we sped it up. Through the years it?€™s gotten higher and faster.
PFG: So you and Seth started working together on the Pilot then?
AB: Yeah. Seth was working with a woman named Leslie Small. She was the Executive of Alternative Comedy here at Fox. Which meant she was trying to develop cool, late-night, kind of hip shows. She also developed MadTV and her husband was one of the Executive Producers on it; Adam Small. So I knew her through that and knew them and they knew that I was funny and did characters like Ms. Swan. So she just asked me one night at a party. She said ?€œDo you do voice-overs??€� I said ?€œYeah!?€� which was kind of a lie. I had done one thing on Power Rangers, which is, you know, kind of a show, I guess. She said ?€œWell, I?€™m doing this pilot presentation with this kid Seth and it would really be a huge help if you could maybe help us to do one of the voices.?€� I was like ?€œSure!?€� I did it and met him at the place we recorded it and just worked on voices. He said ?€œYeah, I kind of like that one!?€� Then when we got picked up, I almost lost the part. They weren?€™t sure they liked me and weren?€™t sure if they wanted me.
PFG: So this was a Fox decision?
AB: Yeah, Fox came in and said ?€œMaybe you should audition other people.?€� So they auditioned all these other women and I kept hearing about how it was going and crying like ?€œPlease don?€™t take it away from me!?€� It came down to me and someone else. I think the producers of the show here at Family Guy then brought in tape recordings of the voices and played them blindly to the writers room. A lot of the writers weighted in on what they liked and it was then that Steve Callaghan who?€™s now one of the writers but then was a writer?€™s assistant then, heard my voice on the tape and had no idea that I was up for the job and that we were about to be working together.
PFG: You?€™ve probably been asked this a hundred times, but what?€™s it like being back to work on the show?
AB: It?€™s amazing. This is the first time that I feel like I?€™m on a winning horse. MadTV was always kind of the second best compared to SNL. Acme was always second best compared to Groundlings. I?€™ve always felt like I?€™m right there, you know? And now it?€™s the coolest feeling to be on something that everyone I talk to about it loves. When I heard it was coming back it was just like?€? It was almost a relief. And for Seth, I just adore Seth and all of his hard work and his heart and soul went into this thing. Knowing it was good and knowing what a hit it could be if they just would have let it sit in one time slot. It?€™s so great to see it come back. It?€™s amazing. It?€™s like a near death experience I guess.
PFG: Yeah, I heard about the news and almost passed out.
AB: I know. I mean, as soon as it came back, my site was out of control with Family Guy fans.
PFG: Do you keep your site up yourself?
AB: I do; my husband and I do. You know, we just wanted to put something up there to be able to keep in touch. It?€™s getting kind of crazy now because I?€™m several hundred emails behind, always. So feel free to put that in your interview.
PFG: Yeah, it?€™s very cool that you take the time to answer them all though.
AB: It takes a long time now. Every day, like at lunch I?€™ll do as many as I can and then in between breaks. As soon as I answer three, there are three new ones. But it?€™s been really cool. It?€™s exciting.
PFG: Which characters do you enjoy doing besides Lois?
AB: I like doing Stewie?€?no I?€™m kidding. I like doing Trishia Takanawa, the Asian news reporter. I like doing Mrs. Pewterschmidt, Lois?€™ Mom?€?and I think her Aunt. All of them really. I know it sounds stupid, but there?€™s never been anything that I disliked?€?ever. It?€™s so much fun and it?€™s fun creating them. At the table read today we introduced [a new character]. You get to just kind of try something. I don?€™t know, did you like it?
PFG: [laughing] Yes, it was hilarious.
AB: Yeah, see you just try something and see what comes out. If it works, it works. Sometimes it backfires because if you try something at the table and Seth doesn?€™t like it, he?€™s so non-confrontational, he?€™d rather hire someone else to do the voice quietly than ask you to make the change. Which sometimes is frustrating because you?€™re like ?€œWell just tell me, I?€™ll do something different.?€� Sometimes you even go in and record a voice and the show goes to Animatic and you see it for the first time and are like ?€œThat?€™s not my voice. I?€™ve been replaced.?€� He?€™s very picky but he knows what he wants and is almost always right.
PFG: You wrote a script for this season. What?€™s it like writing your own episode?
AB: It?€™s a total group process. Most often in TV when you see one person?€™s name on the screen, it?€™s kind of a laugh because the process is: We all come up with story ideas together. We all sit on the sofas and eat too much and get fat. We come up with ideas and everyone comes to an agreement on an area that we all really like. Then, as a group, we beat out the whole story together. On dry erase boards we go through really specifically and people start riffing in the room and telling jokes and getting ideas. Execpt for Steve, he?€™s terrible at it.
Steve Callaghan: [laughing] it?€™s true.
AB: Then, either David and Seth already have someone in mind that they want to assign it to, or someone expresses particular interest. If someone has an area that they love and want to do, they?€™ll sometimes request that script. Then they assign it to someone and someone has about three days to do an outline. The outline is pretty clearly what we?€™ve discussed, but then they add a little of their own flavor. Then if the outline is ok, which it almost always is, the writer goes away and spends two weeks writing the script. At that point, the flashbacks, the gags, the jokes?€? A lot of those things come from that writer?€™s alone time. Just him or her and the computer screen, staring back at them aggressively. So it?€™s very much the flavor of each writer, but when it comes back 2 weeks later, everyone just attacks the script like a pack of dogs. We tear it apart. Sometimes you want to go home and cry because they cut your favorite joke or they just didn?€™t get it. A lot of times for me, I feel like things that I put in are kind of in a ?€œchick area.?€� They?€™re coming from a woman and for a long time I was the only chick in there so those were the first to go. But then we got another broad in the room so we?€™re growing. But it?€™s a total group effort. Sometimes the scripts can be 80% of what the writer?€™s first draft was. It?€™s pretty rare, but sometimes it?€™s 50%, 30%, 20%. Then sometimes it depends on?€? While they were off writing this one, the rest of the team was still here working on another script. So they may come back with a joke from there?€™s that?€™s too close to a something we did. So a lot of times things a great but we did something like it so we can?€™t use it. So that?€™s the process really. It takes a lot?€?it takes a village to raise one Family Guy script. That?€™s my quote.
PFG: How do you get along with the rest of voice actors from Family Guy?
AB: I pretty much just can?€™t stand them. I don?€™t talk to anybody. No no, I get along with everybody. It?€™s kind of really lucky because there are a lot of casts. Whenever you?€™re dealing with a lot of personalities, you never know what?€™s going to happen. We really lucked out. Mila?€™s adorable. She?€™s 21 now but she might as well be 15. She?€™s like this bouncy little kid. She?€™s very energetic; really sweet girl. Seth Green?€™s hilarious. Adds so much to his characters by being a nut. I adore Seth MacFarlane. Although he?€™s a perfectionist so sometimes it?€™s impossible to please him. But it?€™s good because it keeps you on your toes; keeps you trying to be better and be as good as you can be. Patrick Warburton who plays Joe. Awesome. He?€™s so nice. We?€™ve had some of my fellow MadTV cast members?€?
PFG: Will Sasso.
AB: Yeah, Will Sasso, Phil Lamar, Nicole Sullivan. That?€™s great that I get to see them. I?€™ve only worked with Jennifer Tilly a couple times. She plays Bonnie, so I don?€™t really know her that well. But she?€™s hot. She?€™s like a hot piece of ass when she comes in here. All the boys like it. That?€™s the really funny thing about days where we have a hot actress coming in like Carmen Electra. The writers all rush out there by the booth and pretend to have something to do around here until someone says ?€œCarmen, this is so and so.?€� They all blush and?€? You know, we?€™re all writers for a comedy show so we were all lonely dorks growing up. We?€™re all uncomfortable socially and the guys get really excited around chicks.
Alex tells us about the staff around hot actresses.
PFG: So what about good-looking actors?
AB: Me and one of the writers?€™ assistants, we usually drool over them. But you know?€?there haven?€™t been as many. Patrick Warburton is foxy. We definitely like it when he comes in. Who have we had guy-wise?
SC: Ron Livingston?
AB: Oh yeah yeah yeah. He was cute. Who else was cute? I love Sam Waterston. I was excited when he came in. You know the guy from Law & Order? I have weird taste. I have a grandpa crush, shut up. But yeah, we get all excited over guest stars when they come in. And it?€™s cool because now that we?€™re this cult hit, they?€™re coming to us. Like Drew Barrymore was dying to do a part in the show and wanted to meet Seth. She wanted to go out to dinner with Seth, which was the greatest. He?€™s incredibly uncomfortable at the idea. But it?€™s very cool.
PFG: Seth is working on his new show, American Dad. Are you going to be involved in that at all?
AB: I?€™m not. I read for some of the parts in the initial audition but I really think it?€™s important to keep my voice separate. So much of it is going to have similarities anyway: It?€™s Seth, it?€™s the look of the characters, it?€™s his drawings, and he?€™s voicing some of them. I feel like, I?€™d rather give 100% and all of my voices to Family Guy. You know, I would hate to do something on that show and think ?€œOh, no I did that, can?€™t do that here.?€� It kind of seems like the GAP and Banana Republic; they?€™re owned by the same company. You want to shop at both, but you don?€™t want them to join stores. So it?€™s good to have a little of each.
PFG: You?€™re starring in Cat Woman.
AB: Well, Halle Berry is starring and I?€™m just along for the ride.
PFG: [laughing] Can you tell us a bit about it?
AB: Yeah, the movie?€™s hilarious. I mean it doesn?€™t make that much sense and if I had written the script, it?€™s probably not what I would have written, but it?€™s fun. It?€™s like a silly, ridiculous hour and a half. It?€™s a hero movie and it?€™s action and there?€™s really cool digital stuff. It?€™s just mind boggling to watch. At times it?€™s like you?€™re stepping inside a really cool game. Kind of a post-modern approach to movie-making. Instead of making a movie based on a game or making a game based on a movie, they kind of made it one in the same. And it was a blast. I had the easiest part. I get to come in for a few scenes and say a few mildly funny things and leave. And Halle and all of them have to do the stunts and the hard work and fit into that leather outfit. I just got to sit in my trailer and eat?€?watch them all work hard.
PFG: What part do you play?
AB: I play Halle Berry?€™s best friend. I?€™m like her Jimmy Olson for Superman fans. The funny thing though, is that we?€™re best friends but I don?€™t know that she?€™s Cat Woman. So how close can we actually be?
PFG: Well that?€™s the Superman and Clark Kent thing.
AB: Yeah, no one knows! But yeah, you have to kind of have that suspension of disbelief. But it?€™s really fun and you can?€™t take your eyes off of it. It?€™s the new cleavage movie of the millennium. It?€™s like, all you see in the movie is cleavage. Mine, Halle?€™s, Sharon?€™s. Just boobs, everywhere.
PFG: How did you get involved in the movie?
AB: I just auditioned. Went in for the audition, and got the part. I was just really lucky.
PFG: Do you have any other movies on the way?
AB: I am doing a cameo in a new Will Farrell movie. It?€™s called ?€œKicking and Screaming.?€� It?€™s a soccer movie with him and Rober Duval plays his father. And my childhood hero, Mike Ditka, is in it and is hilarious. Who knows if I?€™ll still be in it, you know? I mean I know will so it was sort of a ?€œcome and do this, it will be funny!?€� sort of thing, but we?€™ll see if it?€™s even in there.
PFG: When do you think we?€™ll see that? 2005, 2006?
AB: I?€™m not sure, maybe Christmas.
PFG: Oh, so you recorded it a while ago.
AB: Yeah, we shot it a few months ago. It?€™s all a blur because Family Guy is back. Do you feel that way Steve?
SC: Yeah, it?€™s basically been all Family Guy, all the time.
AB: Yeah, it?€™s crazy.
PFG: This is probably something you don?€™t remember, but in the episode Love Thy Neighbor, there?€™s a part where you call Bonnie ?€œDebbie.?€� Was that a joke or?€??
SC: I know the answer to this question. The character?€™s name was originally Debbie. It got changed to Bonnie so for some reason that was a goof. It was supposed to be re-recorded, but that one instance got overlooked. So it?€™s like a blooper of something.
AB: Yeah, they have to clear names?€?it?€™s a weird process. Like if you were to use ?€œSteve Callaghan?€� in a script. Fox has lawyers that all they do all day is clear names. So they will look up how many Steve Callaghans there are in Los Angeles, if that?€™s where it takes place. If there are thousands, it?€™s no problem and you can use it. If there?€™s only one, you can?€™t. That person could then claim defamation or something. It?€™s hilarious. So it may have been that Debbie Swanson was taken or something.
PFG: We were thinking it was a joke about Debbie Does Dallas or something.
AB: That?€™s a more interesting answer. What it represents is Lois?€™ aggression towards other women, her hatred?€?no I don?€™t know.
PFG: That?€™s better! How did the Montreal Comedy Festival go?
AB: You know, we?€™ve tried not to talk it up so much around the writers so much here because they didn?€™t get to go. But it was really like a hands on experience of seeing tangibly people that you?€™re affecting who like the show. I mean, Seth is unbelievable. We would do 4 shows and they were sold out. People were just so excited and so supportive. We had questions and answers at the end of it and people had great questions. It was just really fun to see them face-to-face. I guess there?€™s talk of maybe touring with it. It would all depend on scheduling. And for those of us working on other projects, it would be tough, but maybe there?€™s a way. Where there?€™s a will, there?€™s a way, right?
PFG: And I believe that?€™s it. I?€™m out of questions.
AB: That?€™s it? No embarrassing questions?
PFG: Not unless you have something.
Alex tells her embarrassing Cat Woman story.
AB: Ok?€?um. I have an embarrassing Cat Woman moment. In the movie, I?€™m in a hospital at one point. Halle comes to visit me. We?€™re shooting on the set and they build this room and this building and a hospital bed. The people on the set are really anal. It?€™s their job to make sure that the bed?€™s done perfect. So once I got in the bed, I didn?€™t want to get out, get back in, get out, between takes. They had everything set up perfectly and I thought I?€™d just sit in the bed. It was so hot, the lights were on so bright, and it was one of my first days working with Halle. So I was kind of sweating from nerves anyway and I kept screwing up a line so I was sweating even more. They were finally like, ?€œLook, we?€™re going to do a really big reset with the cameras, you should just take a break.?€� So I got out of the bed and I had a stand-in. They have people that, when you leave to take a break, look enough like you that they can take your place so they can continue lighting and setting the cameras. So I leave and don?€™t know anything that?€™s going on. I come back and everyone was fairly quiet on the set. I open the thing and get in the bed and say, ?€œDid you guys change the sheets??€� They said yes and the whole room was really nervous and I was like ?€œOh, because I was sweatin?€™ like a mother-fucker in here.?€� They were like ?€œOhhh! We thought you pissed the bed!?€� They thought I was so nervous that I pissed myself and the stand in was apparently in tears. She didn?€™t want to not get in the bed because it?€™s her job and she didn?€™t want to rat me out so she was kind of quietly almost crying. So they all rushed to change the bed while I was gone to not make me feel bad. ?€œShhh, it?€™s a secret! No one say anything about her bladder problem!?€� So, it was a lot of sweat but it was just sweat. I felt like an idiot. I think I felt most embarrassed that they all felt that they couldn?€™t tell me. With most actors they?€™re afraid to offend and I?€™m like ?€œI work on Family Guy.?€� We?€™re impervious to offense. I think that?€™s it. Anything else? Oh, Steve has an embarrassing dance.
SC: [laughing] No, that can?€™t be captured on audiotape.
Steve Callaghan avoids doing his "crazy dance" in front of us.
AB: He?€™s doing it right now! Oh my god, if only you could see it! Do we have any good Seth embarrassing stories?
SC: He always spills coffee on himself. And he always seems surprised that he spilled on himself.
AB: Yes, he?€™ll be in the middle of pitching a joke for a script, gets really excited and spills all over himself. Then he says, ?€œOh well, it was worth it.?€�
SC: And it usually is.
AB: What else could we divulge about Seth that he wouldn?€™t want us to? He seldom looks you in the eye. He doesn?€™t like eye contact.
PFG: Was he a nerd in school?
AB: I think like all of us, honestly, he spent a lot of time alone. That?€™s kind of how you start doing this. You start making up characters and stories and jokes. Whether you?€™re to fat or too short or to skinny or too ugly?€?
PFG: Or to smart?
AB: Or too smart, yes. I think he took his fair share of shit for a long time, but now look at them all. Now look at who?€™s on top. I keep getting emails from people about the Montreal show. Seth introduced the whole cast one by one on the as they went to their chairs. I was the last one and he was like ?€œHere is a woman who, if she wasn?€™t married, I?€™d propose. I love this woman.?€� Now my email is flooded with people asking ?€œIs that true?!?€� ?€œIs Seth in love with you?!?€� I don?€™t know, I think it was just a show-bizzy thing to say. It?€™s just a very flattering way to introduce me; he?€™s very sweet. Fans can be literal, be careful what you write.
We'd like to thank Alex for taking the time out of her hectic schedule to sit down and do an interview with us.
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