Disney Behind the Scenes: My (slow) Interview with Flash (and Raymond Persi)

Disney provided me with a trip to Los Angeles in exchange for my coverage of this and other movie releases. No other compensation is given. All opinions, experiences, memories and character crushes are 100% my own.

Raymond Persi – Photo Courtesy of Zootopia InHome Global Press Event

I recently had the exciting opportunity to visit Disneytoon Studios and interview Raymond Persi who is a Story Artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios. It just so happens that Persi also voices the character “Flash” in Disney’s hit movie Zootopia. Persi is highly talented and has a pretty impressive resume which includes working on several popular movies like Wreck It Ralph, The Simpson’s Movie and Frozen.

Interviewing Persi was much easier (and quicker!) than interviewing Flash. Raymond wears many hats at Disney and shared with us that he came to voice Flash after Co-director Rich Moore and Head of Story, Jim Reardon, brought him in to do scratch voice work for Flash. The session went so well that Persi ended up getting the gig!

He shared with us that it wasn’t really about Flash talking slowly, but more about long pauses and sloth like responses, and I have to say, I think Persi nailed this part!

Persi has a very fun and upbeat personality. Quite the opposite of Flash, but I do have to say, they have a similar humor. Persi talked to us about how with voice acting you need to interject all parts of the character into your voice, since you don’t have the use of your hands or facial expressions. “You need to focus on putting all of the characterization in the voice to make it work.”

Here’s a portion of my interview with Flash. As you can see, it was almost as painful as a long wait at the DMV:

ZOOTOPIA will be available on Blu-ray and DVD on June 7th!

The modern mammal metropolis of Zootopia is a city like no other. Comprised of habitat neighborhoods like ritzy Sahara Square and frigid Tundratown, it’s a melting pot where animals from every environment live together—a place where no matter what you are, from the biggest elephant to the smallest shrew, you can be anything. But when optimistic Officer Judy Hopps (voice of Ginnifer Goodwin) arrives, she discovers that being the first bunny on a police force of big, tough animals isn’t so easy. Determined to prove herself, she jumps at the opportunity to crack a case, even if it means partnering with a fast-talking, scam-artist fox, Nick Wilde (voice of Jason Bateman), to solve the mystery.