homingbeacon #128: The Voice Of Grievous Is Matt Wood

[darthpsychotic]

HOMING BEACON #128:

"The Voice of Grievous"

When General Grievous barks his orders, his minions scurry to carry out their tasks. His is a commanding presence, and his fearsome demeanor leaves no room for questions. His implacable metallic skeleton gives him the aspect of a droid, but hidden inside the armored carapace is an unwholesome, living being. To remind viewers of this inner Grievous, his words are occasionally punctuated with a hard, wet hacking cough -- suggesting that Grievous is literally rotten to the core.

Providing the voice of Grievous is Matthew Wood, whose history with <i>Star Wars</i> has been mostly behind-the-scenes. Though Wood is an actor, his contribution to the prequel trilogy has been primarily as Supervising Sound Editor. His access to the Episode III production process may have given him a head's up that casting was underway for the part, but the use of a pseudonym ensured that insider status didn't factor into the selection process.

On set, Duncan Young read Grievous' lines for the benefit of the actors. His voice was never intended to make it into the final film, and it was edited out of the mix early on along with much of the production audio. Ben Burtt and others supplied temporary voices on the track, all heavily modulated to be appropriate for a cyborg general.

"We put out a casting package of those modulated voices, looking for voice actors," says Wood. "Chris Scarabosio processed each one, and we would play these for George for him to evaluate. We went through a lot of different people, and on the last package we sent out, I put my own voice on there, though I didn't put my name on it."

With the pseudonym "Alan Smithee," Wood's reading of Grievous was played for Lucas without introduction, and he selected it. "It was great, but then I thought, 'should I tell him that it's me?'" recounts Wood. "When George found out, he said 'Great, let's record him tomorrow.'"

In a three-hour recording session, Wood laid down all of Grievous lines. "He's definitely an evil character. He's the leader of the droid army, but not a droid. He feels things; he feels things extremely, I would say. It's a lot of yelling, and shouting out orders, so it had a lot of drill sergeant to it."

While studying acting at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, Wood came across a website that offered samples of various accents to help actors hear and mimic patterns of speech from around the world. "You could hear the same line of dialogue read in different accents," he says. "I liked the sound of the Eastern European and Romanian accents. Also, I had just come back from Prague, so I had that in mind for Grievous."

In the finished film, Grievous' voice will undergo some sort of processing. Currently, it is lowered in pitch and has a ring modulation to it. That may change as the audio mix is still being put together. Wood offers the caveat that everything may still change, having witnessed all the prequels being made. "But I did also record Grievous for the Episode III videogame. I did 125 lines of dialogue for that."

Matt Wood @ OS:
http://www.starwars.com/bio/matthewwood.html

Matt Wood @ IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003214/

Homing Beacon Archive:
http://www.starwars.com/site/homingbeacon/

[foxbatkllr]

I knew it'd be someone nobody had heard of. I frankly don't care who does it as long as it sounds good, I'm just glad they chose a voice.

[BobTheGoon]

Thank god that's finished. I suppose he's as good a choice as any.

[Thundercracker]

If he sounds cool that's all that matters. Everything is falling into place. Grievous has a voice, the trailer is finished, the score is being recorded this week. Excellent!

[foxbatkllr]

You can hear him talk a bit in this video: http://starwars.com/episode-ii/bts/me2/7.html

Not bad, I'm sure its great if GL liked it and didn't even know who it was doing the voice. It'll be heavily modified anyways.

[Vanda]

I knew it'd be someone nobody had heard of.

I wouldn't exactly say that. Unless you're talking about the masses.

It's pretty neat how he did it. He possibly had insider knowledge as to what kind of voice Lucas was looking for, did it himself, and played it for George. "Is that what you're looking for? Yeah? I thought so."


"Oh, by the way, that's me."

[darthpsychotic]

It's sorta nice methinks they are keeping Grievous's voice inhouse although I sorta wanted them to use one of the old school Transformers voices. Megatron or Soundwave's would have been fucking cool.

On an unrelated note, I just came back from the Official Site, where they have a new splashpage. When one goes to starwars.com, this is shown:

http://www.starwars.com/shop/inter4ad/

[foxbatkllr]

I knew it'd be someone nobody had heard of.

I wouldn't exactly say that. Unless you're talking about the masses.

It's pretty neat how he did it. He possibly had insider knowledge as to what kind of voice Lucas was looking for, did it himself, and played it for George. "Is that what you're looking for? Yeah? I thought so."


"Oh, by the way, that's me."

Yeah I meant like someone that most people go "who?" or have to do a search for him.

[Vanda]

So you've got Vader's weezing, now Grevious' coughing... do I sense a theme?

You sure do. Palpatine hiccuping, coming your way in May.

[taku]

So you've got Vader's weezing, now Grevious' coughing... do I sense a theme?

You sure do. Palpatine hiccuping, coming your way in May.

Anyway, good to hear they decided. Personally I liked his voice in the Clone Wars microseries; hopefully this guy is better.

[Insert Username]

"You could hear the same line of dialogue read in different accents," he says. "I liked the sound of the Eastern European and Romanian accents. Also, I had just come back from Prague, so I had that in mind for Grievous."

I'm loving the sound of that.

[CoGro]

I always imagined either a harsh American or British accent for Grievous, I'm curious to see how it turns out.

Question is, will the coughing be comedic? I hope not.

[CoGro]

Just so long as it sounds better than Nute Gunray and Rune Haako.. I won't go any further..

exactly...

That was the worst decision on part of GL to make that species a joke, especially when they are supposed to be among the prequel's evil ensemble.

[vanillazinger]

I'll cheer when Gunray gets dissected.

Every last piece of evidence points to Grievous being way over-the-top. I'm on board - I love cheese! But I wonder how many fans who've drooled over his uber-cool portrayal thus far will be horrified when he cackles and coughs and ties Obi-Wan to the train tracks, or whatever.

[Vanda]

Question is, will the coughing be comedic? I hope not.

It didn't sound like it was intended to be. The main reason for it was to remind the audience that he's living and not actually a droid, and it sounded as if it was supposed to be rather menacing.

[Jason@Star-Wars.net]

Does the guy even have lungs?

Iron ones it seems.

[PTGrievous]

Groovy, no John Rhys Davies

[CoGro]

Question is, will the coughing be comedic? I hope not.

It didn't sound like it was intended to be. The main reason for it was to remind the audience that he's living and not actually a droid, and it sounded as if it was supposed to be rather menacing.

I know, but you never know how it'll come out on screen:

"I've got you right where I want you, Jedi! ...pardon a second....COUGH COUGH COUGH...ah...now where were we...ah yes, prepare to die!"

[Wrath Mania]

Here's a bet that he gives a long, grueling cough as he dies and his eyes pop out.

[Ethril]

I'll cheer when Gunray gets dissected.

Every last piece of evidence points to Grievous being way over-the-top. I'm on board - I love cheese! But I wonder how many fans who've drooled over his uber-cool portrayal thus far will be horrified when he cackles and coughs and ties Obi-Wan to the train tracks, or whatever.

See, that's exactly thetype of villian I'm hoping for!

[dylan]

Does the guy even have lungs?

No, but she does: