“Shrek Forever After’s” Walt Dohrn is like a veteran big league utility infielder thrust into the starting line up. For a decade plus Dohrn racked up an array of credits, most notably writing and directing Spongebob Squarepants episodes. After contributing everything from dialog to music on the second and third Shrek movies Mr. Dohrn’s resume has been punched up with the release of the final Shrek flick. Not only was the 30 something Dohrn working as the film’s Story Editor, he was cast as the voice of Rumpelstilskin. The story has Dohrn’s silvery-tongued character drawing the happily married ogre into a devil’s bargain. Dohrn recently chatted with The DePaulia about his turn in “Shrek Forever After.”
The DePaulia: Was there any particular inspiration for the way you did this voice for Rumpelstiltskin?
Walt Dohrn: Yes. We had … a little stew of characters we like from older films. One was this little girl in this B movie from the 50s, this [horror] movie called “The Bad Seed.” And she was this murderer little girl. And she was this – she had this innocence and she would turn and be really evil … And then also Betty Davis in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.” Again, she kind of played this kind of innocent character that had this really evil underside. Those two characters really gave us this, you know, youthfulness that could be evil.
TD: What was the process like in terms of acting in an animated film? Did you see a lot of the other actors when you were recording your voice, or when you were working on the movie?
WD: Yes. Actually, you know even before I was cast as the role, one of my jobs there was to be the reader with the actors … So I was reading with Mike Meyers, I would play Fiona. Or I would be Donkey to his Shrek. So I really got to learn a lot from all those actors. And how intense and how serious, you know, they took the role and how I would look over at them and I felt like when Mike Meyers was doing it, I am looking at Shrek. Or Fiona would be – you know, Cameron [Diaz] would be – so intense that she would look me directly in the eye and make me feel like crying because I really believed her.
TD: Is there a particular animated film that you would say is your favorite, or that’s really influenced you, or that you think helped really get you into animation?
WD: Yes. You know there is so many. I am such an incredible fan of animation. There’s an old Disney one that’s called “The Three Caballeros.” And it’s strange because it’s not really, it’s not really story-oriented. But it’s this mad insane kind of, you know, like psychedelic 1930s version of just pure expressionism … It’s “The Three Caballeros.”
TD: In the last few Shrek movies you were very much behind the scenes. What was the jump like going to being one of the people in the forefront? Obviously, you were very involved in the last couple, but now you’re acting in the film for everybody to see, or hear rather.
WD: You know it was – there was part of it that was really fun of course and just doing that voice … really cathartic to go ahead and behave evil, you know, loudly. So that part was fun … But the hard part was doing these interviews. That’s a joke (laughs). But it is – it’s been hard being in the – to have to get out of my room and be in front of the camera for the press, or be on the green carpet answering questions. I think that’s been the difficult part. But doing the voice was fun.