If you are a star wars fan, talking to legendary comedian Corey Burton can be a bit scary. After all, on The Clone WarsBurton was the voice of evil sith lord Count Dooku, as well as vicious Cad Bane bounty hunter. Neither character is someone you would like to meet in a dark alley. (Or bright street for that matter.) This year, Burton reprized both roles to great effect: Scourge for Boba Fett’s Book, and now Dooku in Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi. io9 told him about it.
In Dooku’s three-episode arcwe first see a whole new version of the character: a young and heroic Jedi Master with a young apprentice named Qui-Gon Jinn, years before the story we already know. In the second episode, Dooku begins to see cracks in his old-beloved Jedi Order, and at the end, he is seen turning completely to the Dark Side, setting up the Dooku of attack of the clones and more important, The Clone Warswhere Burton provided the voice.
Speaking to Burton last week, io9 was surprised to learn that when the actor got the call about Tales of the Jedi, his first instinct was to change his Dooku. “My thought was, let’s do it like a young Michael York guy, a young Shakespearean guy,” he said. “Forward-looking, ambitious, but, you know, positive-minded. And so I had thought about doing a young, bright version. Kind of about a new kind of version of him.
Little did Burton know that once recording began, his choice for young Dooku was not what writer and series creator Dave Filoni had in mind. “I started and said, ‘Oh, well, how about playing him young like that? ‘” Burton said. “And I demonstrated. He was like, ‘Oh, no, no, no, just do Dooku. Our voices don’t change all that much from adulthood, if at all. Just play the character.
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This direction was good for Burton, a veteran of the medium who, unlike his Tales of the Jedi co-star Ashley Ecksteindon’t like to be too wrapped up in star wars traditions. “When I play, and especially with something like this which is very special, everything is secret. There are no spoilers [and] I don’t like to be spoiled either,” Burton said. “I like to be in the moment where the character is there. So I don’t like knowing anything other than what the character knows within those particular scenes. I don’t want it to influence me if I know that Obi-Wan and Anakin and are plotting something.
What he does is rely heavily on Filoni and the team around him. “I’m very isolated,” Burton said. “I really get into this character when I play him. I don’t think about much else. And again, with Dave in my ear and in my head, I try, through him, to to be tied as closely as possible to what was in the writer’s head. And I think together we accomplished that.
Although Burton prefers not to delve into Dooku’s backstory or think of links to attack of the clones, he’s excited about the show and relishing the chance to develop a character he’s been voicing for so many years. “I am proud to be an artisan, an artisan. And every character and every production is that team effort,” he said. “Dave is the master storyteller. And, in serving that, I hope I bring that to the microphone. And everything fits together and forms something really special. Something greater than the sum of its parts.
Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi is now onDisney+
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