Debra Stephenson interview
Debra Stephenson voices lots of characters in Scream Street, including Bella Negative, Eefa, Carla Black and Mrs Sneer Senior.
How would you describe Scream Street to someone that's not seen it before?
In the normal world the residents of Scream Street would not be welcome - they would be seen as freaks and ghouls, so it wouldn't be ok for them to be there. Scream Street is a haven for them; it's their own little place where they can be safe.
You voice a variety of weird and wonderful characters in Scream Street, do you relate to any of them and is there any of your personality in there?
I probably relate most to Mrs Negative (that's Bella) because she's a mother and I'm a mother, and the way she thinks about her son is how I think about my son.
Tell us more about Bella and Alston Negative...
Bella and Alston have a different kind of relationship because they have been married for about 200 years. They're a very strong couple but they do tend to argue a little bit, especially when it comes to Resus, because Alston is a little bit disappointed in him. But of course Bella is very protective and she won't have a bad word said against him.
What is your favourite moment in the series?
One of my favourites is where there's a love potion, and as usual it's turned to chaos and the potion has fallen into the wrong hands. Bella falls in love with Otto who is the most horrible, vile character in the whole of Scream Street, she chases after him, sings this mad song around him and then just completely turns into jelly.
I also love the episode where the Negative family are taking down all the mirrors from all the walls so people don't see that Resus does actually have a reflection. There's a lovely moment in one episode when you see Eefa in the mirror - of course she's very beautiful, but when we see her in the mirror we see her true self as this 300 year old crow!
How does it differ voicing an animated character to playing a character in vision?
It's quite different to do a vocal performance, opposed to a performance where you are seen, because in some ways you don't need to worry about what you look like - you don't have to sit in a makeup chair for a long time! But you have to put all of your performance into your voice, meaning that every single thing you might rely on your face to do is all made with your voice.
What's the process you use to come up with the voices?
It's a lot of fun! The creators of the programme - the writers and the producer - all have an idea of what they want these voices to sound like, in order to match the look of the character. You start with that as a template and then you build on it and play with lots of different voices, different pitches, different accents until you come up with something that you are all happy with.
How long would you spend recording in the sound booth, and is it harder than it looks?
We go through eight episodes in a day. We don't necessarily do all of the scenes in order, or the episodes in full, but because John and I tend to record as a pair we'll go through all our scenes together. Then there are all the other people who are doing their parts on different days, which makes it quite complicated. Somebody has to put it all together like a big puzzle at the end!
There are lots of spooky goings on in Scream Street but can you do an impression?
I had to do some spooky impressions of poltergeists and they sound completely crazy. The most fun thing about it is when you have to do what's called 'walla' in the trade, and you have to make all these noises which don't mean anything. It can involve laughing really mischievously, which you can be doing for minutes on end.
What advice would you give to anyone that wants to be a voice actor?
The best thing to do is to experiment with your voice all the time, get as many different types of voices, accents, range of tone as you possibly can and just have fun with it.
What is going to get everybody excited about Scream Street?
It's a very exciting show about ghouls and ghosts and mummies and vampires and werewolves, and all that kind of horror stuff. It's quite meaty but also very funny and it has a heart. The puppets and the set look so fantastically colourful and the type of animation looks so different and stylish.