Reddit AMA Recap: Tom Kenny

Famed voice actor Tom Kenny recently stopped by Reddit to do an AMA where he talked about his role as “Hue” on Final Space and we took some of the highlights where the actor talked up the show’s first season, how he became part of the show, and even dropping hints about the show’s second season.

On how the actor injects emotion into a monotone AI

Hue starts out the series telling Gary how imminent Gary’s demise is and counting it down. He also is the voice of reality telling Gary what is actually possible and impossible, since Gary has a tendency to be extremely unrealistic at times. But Hue has a character arc starting as the series first season progresses, and more surprises coming in season 2.

On how the show is recorded

Generally they recorded the actors separately on that one, but it varies series to series. Unlike most of the other cartoons I do, Final Space does have a table read with all the actors so we do read it together as an ensemble before the recording day.

On how he’s enjoying his role and Final Space in general

I am really enjoying Final Space and I was really happy when I heard I had landed the part of Hue. I auditioned for it along with a bunch of other actors. I still audition for stuff all the time, which people don’t expect. But even if you are a movie star, an actor’s life is auditioning, hopefully working, and then auditioning for the next thing you hope you get. It’s a weird way to live and not for the faint of heart.

This will sound strange, but the hardest thing for me regarding Hue is bringing my energy level down to that Hal-9000 from 2001 A Space Odyssey. The majority of the characters I play are really energetic and since episodes are always running long I am always being asked to compress/quicken my read, so I am used to spitting out a lot of words in a very short amount of screen time. The whole point of Hue is that he is very methodical, measured and never ever in a hurry. So that goes against my conditioning. It’s fun to be able to layback and really savor every word, but I really have to work at it. It’s like going from 20 cups of coffee to being on Quaaludes.

On how Tom became attached to Final Space

My agent sent me a stack of VO auditions for that day… cartoons, commercials, videos games. The usual mix. I actually read for a bunch of the characters on Final Space including Lord Commander. The audition sides had a link to Olan’s youtube version, I watched it in order to get the vibe of the audition and was fascinated with it’s mixture of social satire, knockabout comedy, and true melancholy.

Read our review of Final Space Season One here and read the rest of the Reddit AMA here.