Voice actor Dee Bradley Baker has been working in Hollywood for decades, and his filmography is voluminous, but some of his best-known roles include Klaus the goldfish in the long-running animated sitcom American Dad!, Daffy Duck and the Tasmanian Devil in Space Jam, and numerous parts in Phineas and Ferb and the SpongeBob SquarePants universe. But Baker has also been a big contributor to the Star Wars galaxy, having provided voices for a number of video games set in A Galaxy Far, Far Away, plus all the clone troopers in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
Now Dee Bradley Baker is set to return to his role as the diminutive Jedi Youngling Nubs in the Disney+ / Disney Jr. animated series Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, and this week I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with him over Zoom about the series’ second season.
In the embedded video below, you can watch my chat with Dee Bradley Baker, and under that I’ve transcribed the interview in case you would like to read it as well.
Dee Bradley Baker interview – voice of Nubs on "Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures":
Mike Celestino, Laughing Place: Thank you so much for doing this.
Dee Bradley Baker: My pleasure.
LP: Before we get into Young Jedi Adventures, I want to congratulate you on wrapping up The Bad Batch.
Baker: Thank you. I’m very proud of it.
LP: Was it challenging creating and maintaining so many unique roles for that show or has that process become a breeze for you as a performer?
Baker: Well, because we had already gone through setting up those characters and nailing down who they were at the end of The Clone Wars, the Bad Batch felt like old friends by the time that we started the series. I felt they clarified and locked in even further after a few episodes, in terms of their individual performance and the specificity of each character. But yeah, by the time that spaceship launched we were pretty confident, and just burned right through it. It was wonderful fun– it was the ride of a lifetime.
LP: Obviously you’ve been part of the Star Wars family for a while, but how did you get involved with Young Jedi Adventures specifically?
Baker: At the start, I can’t remember if I auditioned or not, but [Lucasfilm knows] that I do the weird stuff, as I say. They know I’m good with Star Wars and I’m good to work with, and that creatures and non-English-speaking utterances are my wheelhouse. [laughs] So they threw this little guy to me and said, ‘What do you think? What’s this gonna sound like?’ And I start throwing out some ideas, and they very quickly start saying, ‘Yeah, yeah. That’s it! We like that.’ Then we’re off to the races. So it’s rather quick– I’m a ready-to-go specialist with an orchestra of possibilities that I bring vocally, and we can massage that very quickly into something that feels right and that works efficiently, and we can integrate it right into the story effortlessly and invisibly. And the spaceship has launched, as they say.
LP: How does a role like Nubs compare to what you had to do with the clone troopers as a voice actor?
Baker: Nubs as well as the clone troopers, they exist within a moral universe. Star Wars has always been a very moral universe– it’s about what’s right, what’s wrong, dealing with personal [challenges], overcoming obstacles, and redemption… and all of these are in play really no matter whether you’re a grown-up or a parent or a child. So it feels very much of the same galaxy as the more grown-up versions of Star Wars, if you will, of what is playing out in Young Jedi, which is a safer little oasis of an arena where these questions of ‘What do I do with my super powers? How do I find my way in the universe? How do I overcome my own obstacles that I have, or the challenges that I have, or the growth that I’m still waiting to meet?’ These are all things that feel a part of the same universe that’s always been Star Wars, for me.
LP: We’re getting into season two of Young Jedi Adventures next week. What's going on for Nubs and his friends this time around?
Baker: The gang continues to expand their powers and expand their collaborative dynamic in the universe. There’s going to be new characters coming your way, there’s new alien creatures, which I’m very excited about. And the adventure continues. Star Wars has a wonderful way of just getting better and better, because you’re not confined to a single planet. You can move around to different planets, you can bring in all these different characters, with all of these different species that have already been established, and you can also come up with new ones. So there’s great opportunity– which they take advantage of with this show beautifully– to bring in fresh characters, fresh ideas, fresh aliens, and fresh fun.
LP: With a whole new generation of Star Wars fans coming into this show, what do you think the morals and lessons are that they’re learning from Young Jedi Adventures in general?
Baker: I think Young Jedi teaches kids to be confident, to have fun, to rely upon each other. These are all things that everybody wants a kid to be considering and looking at– that you view the universe as an adventure and not as a threatening thing, and that you can rely upon yourself and rely upon your own powers and your own thoughtfulness, and the collaborative assistance of family and friends to get you through what’s coming at you. It’s an optimistic project that is fun and offers a lot of variety as you learn and grow.
LP: The Young Jedi characters have visited Black Spire Outpost from Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge a few times. I'm curious if you've spent any time in those lands at Disney Parks and what your thoughts were on the experience.
Baker: Oh, I love being at Galaxy’s Edge… I mean, it feels like you’re in Star Wars. It’s awesome! [laughs] Yeah, I built a lightsaber, I’ve done those rides a number of times– it’s quite impressive. I wish it were twice as big. I wish it had more cantinas… I just want more of it. I loved it. I think it’s great.
LP: I’ve seen you do some live script-readings at conventions like Star Wars Celebration in the past. What do you enjoy about appearing at events like that?
Baker: The most wonderful thing about a Star Wars convention for me is not what I get to do, but what the fans get to express to me. It’s wonderful to see everybody from little kids, but also up into teenagers, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond– you get all flavors of fans come by and express how much they love the characters and the stories that I help to tell. That’s my favorite part of it. It’s fun to get up on stage and show off a little bit, and to do the magic trick of reading the different characters one after the other and all of that, but the greatest joy is to be present for a fan’s enthusiasm. Just to get a quick moment of a “hello” and the appreciation for what we make and to hear what it meant to them. Sometimes they’ll bring me a little tribute, or they make a work of art or a painting or a sculpture or something that they bring to me, and all of that’s wonderful– to be part of their connection to these stories.
They’re not just entertainment… I think they are entertainment, definitely, but they’re more than that. These are stories and characters that connect to people, and it’s wonderful as a voice actor to be able to see that at a convention firsthand, and to experience that. I started my journey in acting doing stagework– musicals and plays and then later standup and improv, sketch comedy, children’s theater, shows at Disney World, even. I worked at [Walt] Disney World doing shows. But with [all of those], you have a live audience to connect with. And as a voice actor, especially now, you don’t have that other than with the people that you’re working with– mostly on Zoom– to direct you into your isolated performance, which is usually not an ensemble record. Those are rarely done… occasionally, but not very often. So it’s wonderful to have that connection to the audience when you go to a convention.
The second season of Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures debuts next Wednesday, August 14th via Disney+ and Disney Jr. The complete series of both Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: The Bad Batch are also available to stream via Disney+.
