Eric Bauza is proud to be a role model for the Filipino community.
The prolific voice actor recently won an Emmy for his work voicing Bugs Bunny, which was the first time the character has ever received the honour.
Reflecting on the moment, Bauza admitted he was as surprised as anyone to ET Canada’s Carlos Bustamante.
“It’s strange to know that in 83 years of Bugs Bunny’s existence, this is the first time anyone has ever received an individual achievement award for performing the character. Not even Mel Blanc who created the character,” he shared. “Obviously, I’m pretty sure at that time maybe the Emmys weren’t around, but he never even received a post-mortem Emmy in memory of.”
READ MORE: Canadian Voice Actor Eric Bauza Wins First Emmy For Bugs Bunny
The star made sure to give credit where credit was due during his speech, hoping to honour the work of those before him.
“So when I got that award, I definitely dedicated, you know, I said ‘if the first two words out of my mouth aren’t thank you or Mel Blanc, then I do not deserve this award’. Yeah. So I definitely paid homage to Mel because he created these characters who 80 plus years later, we’re still talking about,” he continued.
“But to know that I’m like the sixth person to voice this character in like 83 years and, you know, just just to be just to be up there with those great names is amazing.”
The fact that Bauza was the first person of colour to voice the character wasn’t lost on him either.
“To represent our culture in a way to kind of put a stamp on such an iconic character is such a great honor. And I hope to to do all Filipino folk around the world proud,” he said, later adding, “And I feel like, you know, if we’re talking specifically in our field of entertainment, it is so nice to see representation not just in front of the camera, but behind the camera, people telling the stories, people writing the stories. And if you’re a voiceover artist like me, it’s interesting to to be in this era of authentic casting.”
It wasn’t always the case, but the voice actor explained how the industry has shifted towards casting talent from backgrounds matching the characters’, which added a strong sense of “authenticity”.
READ MORE: ‘If I Can Do It, You Can’: Scarborough, Ont. Actor Becomes Star In ‘Looney Tunes Cartoons’
“There are certain characters like, for instance, I’m doing voices in ‘Transformers Earth Spark’ for Nickelodeon, and I know some of the main characters are Filipino there, but ‘Believe’ is another Disney Junior show where I was reading the pilot, and it’s a story about a firefighting family,” he recalled.
“And I was reading the part of the dad and I started reading the script, normal script. Halfway through the script, the father calls his son a ‘knock’, you know, like a term of endearment for a family. ‘Hold on a second. I was like, Are these characters Filipino?’ Like, I didn’t even know until that page 15 of a 30 page script and I got choked up. I was like, wow. Like, really like, like what a great surprise. It’s just nice to see variety and definitely, you know, representation across the board authentically.”
Aside from Bugs, the voice artist has also given life to Marvin the Martian, Daffy Duck and Tweety in HBO Max’s “Looney Tunes Cartoons” series.
