HBO Max’s Looney Tunes: Behind the Scenes with Bugs and Porky Image

HBO Max’s Looney Tunes: Behind the Scenes with Bugs and Porky

By Alex Saveliev | May 26, 2020

Who is your personal favorite Looney Tunes character?

BB: That’s [Porky]. Porky’s my favorite. Porky’s the reason why I got into this business.

EB: Marvin the Martian is so funny, because he is one of the most marketable, recognized characters, yet if you count the episodes that he’s ever been in, in the original run, he’s only been in three or four shorts. But he’s just visually so interesting. I also loved the Dodo bird, the Last Dodo [switches to Dodo voice], “Do-do-do-do-do-wooo-hooo!” I like that one. Pete Puma was always funny to me. Again, these are all characters that were only seen for a very quick glimpse, and they were gone. I think Pete Puma only had two shorts, originally voiced by the great Stan Freberg. But yeah, take your pick, spin the wheel, there are so many characters to choose from in this universe.

What is one of your favorite Looney Tunes episodes and/or moments?

BB: I can remember as a kid watching Robin Hood Daffy. Porky’s friar is looking for Robin Hood, and Daffy Duck says, “I’m Robin Hood.” And Porky’s like [in Porky Pig’s voice]: “Eh-eh-come on, now, I’m serious, if you don’t know where Robin Hood is, eh-eh-just say so.” There’s something about his personality and the dryness of that character, and the innocence from the earlier days…I just found his personality, and the comedy that came from his ad-lib, when he couldn’t get the word out, it just resonated with me.

“I’ve done theme park rides in Abu Dhabi that I’ll never ride, I’ll never get to see.”

Tell me about a memorable or funny thing that happened to you while working on this show.

BB: Oh my goodness… You know, nothing unusual that I can think of, isn’t that terrible? What I will tell you is, just working off of Eric. We’re very fortunate that our voice director Jack Fletcher and Pete Browngardt, our showrunner, will stick to the script, but then they will allow us to do more takes where we’re a little bit more free, and we play off of each other. It’s collaborative, but for those of us who have an improv background, we’re able to infuse just a little bit of something extra. I can’t think of anything very specific. I wish I could. You know, acting is reacting, and right now, we’re recording from our home studios [due to the COVID-19 pandemic], so I don’t have my fellow actors to play with, and you definitely miss that dynamic.

EB: This probably [received] the most press and the most attention than anything I’ve ever worked on thus far. People are very interested to see what’s happening with this project. It’s very much highly anticipated. And I feel like, because we were waiting on the streaming service to form, we were making the shorts long before we knew where it was going. When we finally figured out, okay, it’s going to go to HBO Max, there were still so many things happening with mergers and all that stuff. But yeah, having to do multiple interviews, I’ve done commercials now in these characters, I’ve done theme park rides in Abu Dhabi that I’ll never ride, I’ll never get to see. It’s very strange, but at the same time super exciting.

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  1. helen says:

    Great interview! 5⭐️!

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