KZ: Hi Tom Kenny (AKA SpongeBob), Roger Bumpass (AKA Squidward), Bill Fagerbakke (AKA Patrick Star), Carolyn Lawrence (AKA Sandy Cheeks) and Clancy Brown (AKA Mr. Krabs)! You're the awesome cast of this new show, and the original voices from SpongeBob SquarePants! Do you think you share any similarities with your character?

T: I definitely identify with SpongeBob. I think his enthusiasm, trying to do your best at your job and trying to see the best side of people is not the worse life philosophy in the world. I think SpongeBob has made me a more hopeful person, which we all definitely need right now.

R: Squidward has made me a much more sarcastic person. He has enabled me to be this kind of a jerk in a playful way and get away with it. I can be sarcastic to people and not really get called on it.

T: That’s like a super power. You can be sarcastic and people don’t get mad. They just go ‘Oh that’s Squidward, I love it!’

B: I identify with Patrick’s sense of fun and wanting to engage with his friends.

CL: I can identify with Sandy having big ideas and not always knowing how to bring them into fruition.

CB: I identify with the adultness of my character, and the Scoogey-ness. I actually pinch my pennies a little bit.

KZ: What’s something that you’ve learned about your characters in this new series? 

CL: It’s fun watching Sandy finding her way being younger, trying to find her way as a scientist and getting those early ideas about what she wants to do and how she wants to do it. It’s cool watching all of the characters to be able to grow or go back and watch them grow.

KZ: When you are recording lines for the show, do you follow the script or is there space to be spontaneous?

CL: We have so much space. We do two passes generally as written and then do one as a wild pass where we get to do anything creatively that we think might be funny.

B: Yeah, that never happens on every show. It never happens!

CL: Usually writers are like, ‘No, you say my words’.

B: Yeah, ‘We work for months on this, do it’ and understandably I get that.  It took us years to get that liberty too.

CB: You’re supposed to do what the script is. They don’t want you to do something else, but we’ve been at it forever with this series. It’s what makes it so much fun, right? We all get on with each other. Now that Tom’s directing – Tom comes from comedy, so he’s always trying to tighten it up and make it funnier. His instincts are right on and I think everybody appreciates that. It sharpens our own instincts, it sharpens our own deliveries too. We have a lot of fun doing this. Sometimes we might cheat and go two crazy passes.

CL: Sometimes we have too much fun on occasion.

KZ: What are some challenges you have faced while creating this new TV series?

CB: Our biggest challenge in this is that we’re all isolated now. We’re used to recording together. Maybe we started out together and now we haven’t been able to do it. when everybody is in the same room then we’re all pretty much on the same page and we can get on the same page a lot quicker. Now that we’re all isolated in our homes and we’re recording that way, that’s our biggest challenge.

KZ: SpongeBob is 10 years old in this series – what advice would you give to yourself at 10 years old?

CL: I would say to not be afraid to be you. It’s so hard when you’re young and you feel these pressures from other kids about what you should wear or what you should sound like or what you should be doing, just all the pressure or peer pressure. I would say just be who you are. It’s okay and you’re awesome!

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