I did receive an all expenses paid trip to Los Angeles to talk about Big Hero 6, but all dorkery, fan girling, and voice over attempts are my own.
One of the coolest things about meeting voice actors, is wondering if they LOOK like their voices sound. Sometimes they do, like Ryan Potter and Daniel Henney the voice of Hiro and Tadashi in Big Hero 6. Other times you are WAY off base, like Scott Adsit who plays the voice of Baymax in Big Hero 6. It’s no surprise he doesn’t look like a white, giant marshmallow, but it was really awesome to see Baymax’s voice come to life before my eyes. We had a chance to sit down with Scott and find out about his experiences voicing Baymax in Big Hero 6 and how he came to the voice we have all come to know and love.
On Finding The Voice
Finding the voice of Baymax was an ongoing process. Since Baymax was a robot, Scott wasn’t sure at first if they wanted a quintessential robotic voice or something more from him to bring Baymax to life. Scott shared,
When I saw the picture, because they already had the character design, I just saw soft, huggable, so I found a very benign bedside manner voice.
Once Scott found the voice, there were some other goodies in studio that the Disney Studios did to the voice. During the recording process, they added filters to Scott’s voice so it wasn’t only Scott. It was really interesting to hear about the filtering process, and how they altered the filters a little bit at a time during the course of the movie. (Watch the movie again, and you will even be able to pick up on it yourself) Scott told us,
The studio wanted there to be a processing on my voice, but also wanted my voice to come through. They would bring the producer examples of a filter that they wanted to use in the sound department, and he would say no, dial it back a bit, dial it back a little bit. They kept dialing it back, dialing it back, until eventually, it was just my voice no filter.
On Leaving Funny Voice Messages
One thing most actors fall into is going home and forgetting to leave their character at the studio. Sometimes this is unintentional, but Scott had a fun time sharing with us how he would actually leave voice messages for his friends in the voice of Baymax. His friend’s kids really seemed to get a kick out of it. How would you like this on your answering machine in the best Baymax voice ever?
Hello, I am Baymax, your personal health care companion. Thank you for visiting Hiro and me in San Fransokyo. We hope to come visit you in Schenectady soon, but we have to stay here and protect San Fransokyo my friends from danger. Currently, I as saving Fred from jalapeno and–and peanut butter pizza.
On Meeting Young Fans
One thing that is different for voice actors is that most of their fans have no clue what they look like. We are all familiar with Baymax, and have come to love him very quickly. It’s a little bit different when young fans meet Scott. He joked that most of them don’t think of Baymax being “this kind of dangly, bald, bearded adult,” but the power of Baymax is so strong that as soon as they hear the voice they don’t care what Scott looks like.
On the “Fist Bump Noise”
When you think of Baymax, the first thing you might think is his classic line “Hi, I’m Baymax, your personal health care companion.” The second thing is the “fist bump noise” aka bahlalalala. It’s a funny bit where Hiro tries to teach Baymax how to fist bump after something awesome happens in the film. It quickly becomes a comical bit because it shows Baymax trying to adapt to the real world despite his programming.
A fun little bit that Scott shared with us was that “bahlalala” was his creation. During a recording session it was in the script that they would fist bump, and Scott drew back on his improv background to coin that gem. Who knew it would be something so many people clung to?
On The Success of Baymax
Scott was really humble when talking about the success of Baymax and Big Hero 6. Actually he credits the success of Baymax more to the audience saying that “the audience does most of the work” when it comes to bringing the lovable character to life. He really believed that Big Hero 6 was such a collaborative effort. From the animators to the sound engineers and the writers, the whole Disney team helped bring Baymax to life in. Scott felt he was just a piece of the puzzle to giving a heart to this newly beloved Disney/Marvel character.
This was my first interview with a voice actor, and honestly I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was really fun to learn more about the process of voicing a character that so many hold dear. Scott was a great guy, and I really look forward to seeing more work from him in the future. Until then, we’ll just have to listen to Baymax on loop.
Big Hero 6 is coming out on Blu-Ray and DVD! There are some special features like Academy Award Winning Short “Feast” (you read the post on that here) so make sure to grab a copy for your family. If you haven’t seen Big Hero 6 yet, you have to get a copy. It’s THAT good!
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