Interview by Rafy Mediavilla, w/ Nancy Cartwright – “Rugrats” / Paramount Plus. #VoiceActor #Rugrats #ParamountPlus #ChuckieFinster
CRITICOLOGOS: What did it meant to you when they called you up and said, hey we need you to do Chuckie again in this new reboot?
Nancy Cartwright: Oh gosh, it was fantastic news. Are you kidding me? Yeah, yeah, you know I did not have the luxury of being involved at the very beginning because it started in. it has been on for 30 years and I wasn’t a part of it.
I didn’t even audition for it. I had not heard about it. I’m not sure what happened there, but you know, 10 years went by, and Chris Cavanaugh retired, and they brought me in and bought a boom. I’m part of this family now.
How long I was in it, maybe four or five years. Something like that and I did a movie also with them and I just fell in love with Chuckie. I just love him. All the problems and everything that he has, but at the end of that one episode. He ends up getting some confidence and he changes, and I like the little guy’s character arc because he changes all the time and he’s always a little bit afraid.
I think he sets a great example for a lot of little kids out there. You know they’re made older than two and three years old. You know if you’ve got 7- and eight-year-old watching the show. So, Chuckie makes it alright to to be afraid and kind of wonder what’s going on and then get a little confidence.
And maybe he’s inspired by a little friend, and he goes ahead and does something that he wasn’t sure that he could do. And then he does it and he and he succeeds at it. And then he gets his confidence. I love that. It’s a great message and so to be a part of a show that’s been around for 30 years, not I mean.
There’s another little show that’s been around a little bit longer than that, but it’s like to be a part of history. You know the Rugrats. They set some precedents. I don’t know of any other show. I’m not talking about The Simpsons. The Simpsons is made for adults. Simpsons is not. It’s not for children, even though kids watch it. It was always written for the writers. The writers wrote what they felt was. Kids watched it and it was kind of not OK for 10 years old to watch The Simpsons cause Bart was such a bad example, but the Rugrats is written for the children. For the you know for little kids and their parents, and it became a perfect, what do you call that? It’s symbiotic kind of this relationship where they they come together. And a bonding. It was bonding in a different way than The Simpsons was, cause some of the jokes were for the parents and most of them were for the little kids. So it was fantastic to be a part of that in our in our society.
CRITICOLOGOS: This time around Chuckie. I mean obviously visually Paramount made a huge jump forward in modernizing, obviously the show, but I want to know what’s the mindset of Chuckie right now in this new reboot the Rugrats. Where is he? Compared to where he was 30 years ago.
Nancy Cartwright: Yeah, you know what the core of the character is the same. And that’s what I love about the show. And same as the message they it’s always through the eyes of a child and you can see their discovery and see their trepidation. You see the fear you see the doubt and you see you know you see them being bossed around a little bit. The parents enter in, and they give their parental advice and everything, but the kids have their own.
Viewpoint and they’re you know everything is blown out of proportion. Everything is bigger than it should be. Everything is scarier than it should be, but the art. But the but the core of the show is still the same. It’s like through these babies. Lies and it’s. It’s a good, it’s it. It holds itself. The writing to me is still they kept the integrity of the original show and I love it really.
You touched on it. It’s like the thing that’s changed is the look of the show. It used to be 2 dimensional, but and now it’s 3 dimensional and I personally like it, I think. It’s like I want to, get the dolls, it’s very tech. It’s very tactile Chucky hair it looks like a carpet you know I want it felt it’s like felt and I want to have that.
Where, in in two dimension it’s not like that, but you know what. It’s really interesting. It’s like talking to some little kids that I know and talking to their parents. It’s almost like 2 dimensional is a little with modern technology, including comparing 3 dimensional 2 dimensional, 2 dimensional is a little boring. Because it’s flat and in three dimensional it’s more alive, so I get it there was. And on the other hand, I mean, I, I think it is more alive. I like it, I like it.
CRITICOLOGOS: You took me to a point that I want to talk about besides writing and how much control do you got over? You know, Chuckie, and he’s where he goes. Do you have any influence that you give the writers? Or do you just go by this what you wanted to say?
Nancy Cartwright: That you know, working with Kate Battalion and Eric and Charlie Adler, the director. It’s like there I want to be true to the words like the words or the main thing you keep that in because that’s the source that you’re dealing with. It’s put there for the actor. You know it’s there.
However, sometimes I get inspired and if I might have a suggestion, what do you think of this? Oh, they go, oh that’s great. Let’s do that. I like that better or they’ll say, yeah, do it man? Yeah, that no, let’s go back to this and you know I’m not offended it’s. It’s all for the good of the show, whatever works.
CRITICOLOGOS: Nancy, you’ve done so many voices how do you switch and control a lot of them? Without going crazy.
Nancy Cartwright: You know, here’s the deal. Like just doing Chuckie, it’s easy. That’s all I am on that show. I’m just Chuckie, but there’s no doubt that but I talk like Chucky and I’m not going to get confused. Simpsons are another story. You know. It’s sometimes I have a scene with Bart, Nelson and Ralph Wiggum and Kearney, and it’s like 3 boys. Four boys, you know, and you know I can highlight it. Yellow highlight. Right, uh, green, highlight blue, highlight, orange highlight I can circle it in a square. I could circle it the line in a circle if I indicated for myself. Because if I’m talking to myself, so to speak, meaning character to character, and they’re different, and there’s three at least even two of them can get confusing. cause sometimes there will be a Bart line and then direction and another Bart line more direction, another Bart line more direction, a Ralph line more direction. I got to make sure that I know who I am. Ah, and sometimes I make mistakes, and everybody gets a laugh on me
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