The Howard Stern Show
I typically have a knack for identifying voice actors when watching animated movies/shows and it’s a skill that has annoyed my better half on more than one occasion. I’m definitely guilty of being that guy who recognizes a voice and goes straight to IMDB to confirm I was right then look up everything else they’ve been in and voiced recently.
But with Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy, I simply cannot picture Bradley Cooper when I hear Rocket’s voice. Even when watching this clip below from the Howard Stern Show where Bradley Cooper shows off his Rocket Raccoon voice it does not compute in my head.
I can’t explain why but my brain just refuses to forge the connection between Bradley Cooper’s voice and Rocket Raccoon’s character. Apparently, I’m not alone… Howard Stern asks Bradley here about modifications to his voice and Cooper clears the air on how he voices Rocket Raccoon.
Howard Stern tells Bradley Cooper that he was “100% convinced they deepen” his voice for Rocket Raccoon. Bradley tells Howard people ask him about that with Rocket and he “took major offense” to that line of questioning.
As for how the actual voice work goes, it’s pretty fascinating. Bradley says there’s “no prep” before recording, in terms of warming his voice up, but he’s obviously memorized his lines prior. Director James Gunn reads the other parts for him almost as if they were rehearsing a play. That’s the ‘first round’ of recording. He says after that they keep honing in his lines and a ton of Rocket Raccoon’s dialogue from Bradley Cooper is improvised in later rounds of recording.
And the entire process takes about a year and as the only major voice actor in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, Bradley is able to swoop in last and record his lines after everyone else has shot their scenes.
It’s also rare to see a voice actor discuss how tragedy they’ve gone through in real life translated to emotion on the screen. Cooper’s story about the loss of his dad and what his voice sounded like in that moment is something that’s tragically relatable to anyone that has lost someone closest to them.