Star Wars Rebel star Vanessa Marshall shocked about playing Irwin on Grim Advent

Tagged: 2008, Disney+, grim adventures of billy and mandy, rebels, Star Wars, Vanessa marshall

This topic has 4 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 11 months ago by Mustangride1.

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May 7, 2021 at 11:30 am #221536
Megazord_Jeremy
I had found a video from 2008 of Star Wars Rebels voice actress Vanessa Marshall who voiced Hera on the show who years ago at Comic Con 2008 talked about how she voiced a character named Irwin from Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.

But when Vanessa got to the part in the video where she brought up Irwin’s race….I in my opinion began seeing something very odd about her behaviour.

Vanessa at 2:00 in the video begins talking about Irwin how she had no idea that Irwin was African American because the outlines she was given weren’t coloured but in black and white yet and she thought Irwin was just a little kid before seeing the coloured versions of the outline?

All I got to say is…Irwin is a little kid who happens to be African American. But Vanessa why does it matter to you that Irwin is African American and not just another little kid who happens to be black?

How does Irwin being African American change the way his voice should sound and has to be done by a white female like yourself Vanessa?

Voice actor Kevin Richardson had voiced numerous characters not the same race as him and he never once made a big deal out of the fact that Shredder from the 2012 TMNT is Asian or the Joker he played in The Batman is a very very pale white man and he himself in real life is African American.

To quote another voice actor Phil Lamarr before he got woke and I might be paraphrasing a bit.

“A voice has no colour or race.”

So why does Vanessa Marshall seem so shocked and surprised when talking about her role as Irwin and him being black?

So how come Gina Carano gets in trouble for what she said and Vanessa Marshall is let off the hook for her strange reaction to Irwin’s race when she played him on Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy?

Just something I noticed, agree or disagree with me, I want to know your opinions on this everyone.
May 7, 2021 at 12:36 pm #221550
DigiCat
Moderator
She might be panicking’cause SJWs like cancelling white people for voicing non white characters

On a more practical note, knowing the race of the character you’re voicing is a good thing, it’d give you the opportunity to research if maybe the character might have a particular accent, or learn about that character’s culture, knowing these things can help the voice actor better develop the character
May 7, 2021 at 12:56 pm #221552
Mustangride1
Moderator
@Digicat
Race has absolutely NOTHING to do with culture.

Voice acting, you might need to know the “Accent or even the Geographic Location” so you get the proper accent and vocabulary down. But RACE is all about Politics and Pandering. I need to know where you are from, where you were raised and the sex of the character. Those things are all I need to know, WORDS KNOW NO COLOR.

Examples: New England Accent, man or woman its there, Southern Accent man or woman its there (pissed off southern woman its really there) California accent is even one of the best examples (northern is one way, southern another and even in the southern part you have Valley, Beach and Desert) You also have broken dialects where people were born in one country but after time have learn English or other and you can hear both.

Great examples of Words being Blind are all the original RADIO programs before TV really was popular. Close your eyes turn on the TV push the up button for 30 seconds, let it go and listen, see if you can pick the races of all the people you hear for 5 minutes, then go rewind and watch. You might be shocked. Probably why I love the old radio shows so much, they were just “good imagination of the brain”.
May 7, 2021 at 5:18 pm #221579
DigiCat
Moderator
@Mustangride1, you comply missed my point, my point was knowing a character’s background can only add to the performance

Since we’re talking about Vanessa Marshall, let’s use Hera as an example:

Hera’s a twi’lek, twi’leks are from Ryloth, they have a certain culture and accent, now Hera specifically doesn’t have a strong accent ’cause she’s lived a long time abroad, but her accent does come back when she’s pissed off, you can compare pissed off twi’lek women to pissed off southern women, as for culture, that is something that would in part shape her personality, so knowing these things can only help Vanessa when playing Hera, I mean, it wouldn’t make sense if Hera spoke with a gungan accent, would it
May 7, 2021 at 5:52 pm #221583
Mustangride1
Moderator
@Digicat, I understand the point of knowing background /culture.

Race/Color is not something people should care about though. That is how I took what you said as you said “knowing the race of the character” now if you meant Race as the Culture ABSOLUTELY the person needs to know that and was my point of the reply. I can give you another example.

Going to back to the Southern woman, we have friends that are 1st generation Americans Parents came from Japan, Hilarious when someone hears Cindy talk and then sees a Japanese woman. Same could be said if a Child was found by the Gungan’s and raised with them, the child could be from any world but they would be speak Gungan as if born to it. Hell I know some earthlings who speak fluent Gungan and Klingon better than English.
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Star Wars Rebel star Vanessa Marshall shocked about playing Irwin on Grim Advent

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