Seth Green is no robot chicken
Published Friday July 25th, 2008
On the edge | Nothing is too sacred for this creator, producer, director, writer and performer
NEW YORK - Turns out Seth Green has the job you always wanted.
He has free rein to play with toys for a living. He makes silly voices. He mocks celebrities, world leaders, even Biblical figures while tapping his seemingly bottomless reservoir of pop-culture knowledge.
And he earns good money and fans' adoration.
Robot Chicken isn't the only item on busy Green's to-do list but it is top of mind these days.
His list also includes TV and movie appearances, as well as other film projects he's developing, plus the couple of hours per month he spends voicing Chris Griffin, the deranged teen on Fox's animated hit Family Guy.
Since childhood, 34-year-old Green has travelled a roundabout career path, leading to lots of different cool jobs. But Robot Chicken - a kookie stop-motion-animated sketch-comedy cast with dolls and action figures - has blossomed from a sort of side venture to a big part of Green's life as a showcase for his myriad skills.
"It all began as just this crazy experiment," he says, "and it's become something I love."
Robot Chicken premiered early in 2005 on Cartoon Network's late-night Adult Swim (where its 15-minute segments continue to air), with Green juggling several balls as a creator, producer, director, writer and performer.
On and off the job, Green also makes it his business to keep his eyes open.
"I'm an actor, so I pay close attention to human behaviour, which allows me to replicate it. And I pay very close attention to the trends of pop culture. When the apocalypse happens," he quips, "I want an escape route."
Filming has just begun on the 20-episode fourth season.
"We've been writing, recording and doing the animatics, a preliminary rough-draft film," says Green, crunching on his English muffin toasted to order (supercrazycrispy) during a recent breakfast interview.
A year ago, its half-hour Star Wars spoof aired. Now this twisted yet startlingly faithful homage is out on DVD, just days after being nominated for an Emmy.
Lampooning pop culture as Robot Chicken always does, the special "takes something that you know about, and explains why it's silly," says Green, "or points out what could have happened, just off-screen.
"We love to emphasize the mundane in the extraordinary," he says, "and Star Wars was perfect for that. You have something that's intergalactic, and yet there's got to be some textural machinations of day-to-day business: How can you run an industry that large without paperwork? And where are the bathrooms?"
His mastery of Star Wars lore (which will help inspire another batch of sketches for a second Star Wars special, airing in November) is based more on the films' product line than the films, Green says.
"I've only seen Empire maybe 10 times, the original Star Wars maybe four or five times. But I was crazy about those toys. That's why I know the names of even the super-obscure characters. I know their names and can describe their outfits."
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