To celebrate Cowboy Bebop‘s 20th anniversary, FANDOM sat down with Spike’s prolific voice actor Steve Blum — who has over 200 credits in video games alone. (He even teaches voice-acting classes for those looking for an affordable way to learn from a master.) We discussed why it’s so hard to pick a favorite role as a voice actor, why Spike and Zeb (Star Wars Rebels) should team up for a buddy movie, and that time he kind of voiced Batman.
Favorites Are Hard
When you’ve voiced hundreds of iconic characters, it can be a little difficult to play favorites. After all, voice actors are always on the move, constantly getting prepared for the next role. There isn’t much time to linger on the past. For Blum, his favorites change every day. “Mainly because I invest a piece of myself in each character and, like me, we’re all multidimensional beings,” says Blum. “We all have a lot of different emotions. We all have a lot of different parts to our personalities. So, my favorite is just depending on the mood that day.
“Right now, since we’re talking about Spike, he’s certainly always one of my top 10 because of his influence in my life and everything that came from that. That said, I tend to concentrate on the character at hand. So, whatever I’m working on today would be my favorite character. I have to invest myself 100 percent into that, or I can’t give it a fair performance.”
However, there are certain roles that stayed with him even after they were over. “There are certain iconic characters that have been super fun to play, like Wolverine, which has been amazing to me because I was a comic book kid,” recalls Blum. “Amon from Legend of Korra and Starscream from Transformers: Prime. Guilmon from Digimon was fun because [in the character’s voice] he was innocent and sweet, unlike most baddies, creatures, and tough guys I typically booked. And Leeron from Gurren Laggan just because he was completely different from everything I had ever done.”
Blum concludes, “My favorites are based on their personalities and how complete those personalities are. If I can feel like that’s a real person I’m embodying in the moment, then that becomes a favorite for me.”
Spike and Zeb, a Perfect Pair
Similarly, when asked which two characters voiced by him would make a great buddy movie, he notes that the answer would be different depending on the day of the week. But after a bit of thought, he comes up with the perfect duo, each space warriors in their own right.
“Since we’re talking about Spike, he’d have to be one of them. So, the other character? Maybe Zeb from Star Wars Rebels. He’s a warrior, and he’s got an interesting side to him. It would be kind of fun to see those two mix it up a bit,” Blum thoughtfully says. When asked about the plot, he elaborates.
“Well, Spike would be looking for meaning in his life,” Blum conjectures. “Simply to understand whether it was worth pursuing because he never seemed to be too enthusiastic about that. He had a lot of questions but tended to give in to apathy. Zeb would probably be going for the greater good and, perhaps, some resolution in his life because he’s sustained a lot of damage. I think Spike has sort of let all that go at this point, and Zeb would probably try to help him along with that, healing himself in the process. And, of course, a lot of ass-kicking in the process.”
Now, that’s a crossover we wouldn’t mind watching. We can see it now, the lost sessions of Cowboy Bebop, starring Spike and Zeb. The show could take place on the hidden planet of Zeb’s people.
On Voicing Batman
Cowboy Bebop and Star Wars aren’t the only popular properties that Blum has lent his voice to. The veteran voice actor used to think that his deep voice would’ve worked well for Batman. “I thought early on that I would be a good choice for the role of Batman because of my natural voice print.
“Then, I heard Kevin Conroy do it, and I went, ‘Oh no, no, he’s my Batman. I’m good.’ Then everybody else who has played him throughout the years. Troy Baker did an amazing version, Roger Craig Smith, so many people have played Batman and every take is different. I could’ve done a good job at it, but it would’ve just been different. It wouldn’t have been better.”
Blum notes that he did get to voice the Dark Knight. Well, actually, it was more so a series of grunts, but isn’t that basically how Batman communicates anyway? “For the record, I did get to play Lego Batman in the original Lego Batman game. It was nonverbal. He just went ‘mmm, ahh, mmm,’” Blum recalls. “But I did get to buy the little Lego action figure and put it on the shelf with all my characters. Honestly, that’s all I cared about in the end.”
Blum has an extensive action figure collection comprised of the characters he’s voiced. Some he’s purchased himself, but others were sent to him by fans, including rubber-ducky versions of Spike, Amon, TOM (from Toonami), and a Wolverine. It’s clear from Blum’s collection that he not only loves his craft but adores his fans. Here’s to hoping that he actually gets a speaking role in a Batman film.
