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David Kaye has a body, too
David Kaye has carved out a career using his voice, now he wants his face to get in on the act.
The 42-year-old Peterborough, Ontario, native was blessed with a deep, resonant voice that can be heard in countless cartoons, videogames, audio books and radio- and TV-station promos. Kaye’s pipes attract so much work that he formed his own production company, David Kaye Productions, to help keep up with demand.
And while that kind of success might keep some actors happy, the Vancouver-based Kaye is not satisfied. Getting to use the voice and visage together is his goal, and you’ll experience both when the quirky drama Martian Child hits theatres later this year.
The film stars John Cusack as a grieving writer who adopts a strange boy named Dennis, who thinks he’s from Mars. Cusack’s real-life sister, Joan, plays his sister in the film, and Kaye is her husband.
“It really is a brother/sister story,” says Kaye on the line from his Vancouver production studio. He’s taking a quick breather from taping TV promos and welcomes the break. “I’m the husband of Joan, John’s brother- in-law, and I have to put up with all these discussions between them and I’m trying to stay out of it as much as I can, but I always interject with my two cents.”
Kaye has had small roles in such TV fare as Dead Like Me and Battlestar Galactica, but he’s never had the opportunity to work with the likes of John and Joan Cusack.
“Things can change with the two of them, between John and Joan,” says Kaye. “When you’re in a scene with them you really have to be paying attention ’cause they’ll switch things, they’ll tweak, and that’s what I like, it’s fun. They’re pros. I learned a very simple thing with them, something I finally got after all these years, people say ‘Be in the moment,’ now I get it.”
Kaye seems to have an affinity for outer space-themed projects, as one of his most recognizable voice roles is that of Megatron, the leader of the villainous Decepticons in the animated Beast Wars: Transformers TV series. There were some upset Transformers fans who thought Kaye should have been cast as Megatron in this month’s big-screen, big-budget extravaganza.
“Yeah, Megatron, he’s my favourite,” says Kaye with a hint of pride. “My voice career was doing very well and then this Transformers thing...I didn’t realize how huge that was when I started it, it’s massive.
“But I’m not an L.A. name and I know there’s only one member of the voiceover cast from the original Transformers TV series, Peter Cullen who voices Optimus Prime, who’s in it. They don’t know who David Kaye is. I told my agent, ‘Look, just find out if I can just be an extra.’ All I wanted to do is scream ‘Aaah.’”
— Ingrid Randoja