R. Lee Ermey - Most Bad-ass Drill Sergeant Of All Time!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Hey guys!

Scout here. We were very fortunate to get R. Lee Ermey to play "Sergeant Cereal" in An Okay Place To Eat. 

 As a low budget production, we weren't sure if we could get name talent. For R. Lee, his foray into the world of animation was largely through the Toy Story franchise, which as you know, is very...well...G-rated. Okay Place is definitely not. Long story short, R. Lee loved the script and came aboard. We recorded him back in January.


Here's some Q&A from a recent interview about working with him:


Who's doing the voices for Okay Place?
Racho:  Scott Adsit from 30 Rock and Moral Orel,  voice over legend Jim Cummings, the ubiquitous and hilarious Jason Marsden…and of course R. Lee Ermey from Full Metal Jacket!
R. Lee Ermey, the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket?
Dannemiller:  Yeah, it was a real treat.  We wrote a character named Sergeant Cereal, a mascot for an Army-based cereal.  He's in-your-face and always yelling.  We wrote it with R. Lee's voice in mind, never expecting to get him to do it.  Scout talked to his agent, sent him the script and to our surprise, he loved it.  He came to the records and said, "you guys have some balls to write this."
What was it like working with him?
Dannemiller:  Awesome like a hot-wheels commercial!
Racho:  I was nervous to direct him at first.  I mean, he's worked with Kubrick and Pixar.  During the records, I had actors ad-lib a lot to help them get into character faster and R. Lee had fun with that.  In his big scene with the health inspector, most of his takes are ad-libbed riffs of the original script.  It was so much fun and we're lucky to have him on board.
Getting to work with R. Lee was one of the best days of my life, hands down. He's an all around great guy! Personable, talented, and warm. Can't wait to work with him again! 
We also want to congratulate him on Toy Story 3. So far it's made over $300 Million worldwide! Also, he's in a new Geico commercial, so check it out: 




 

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