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THE STAR SCOOP:
Tell us how you got into voiceover work.

CAROLYN LAWRENCE:
Sure. I took an atypical route. I was actually dancing with a jazz company in Chicago. There was a gentleman who used to take our company dance class and one day he says to me, You know you have an interesting sound, and would you be interested in auditioning for me. I work at Universal Recording. And I said yes, even though I had no idea what he meant [laughs]. So I went down and I auditioned to be the voice of a line of stuffed animals. They were stuffed animals that little kids would sleep with and if they squeezed them, they would say nice things. I got the job. I started working after that. I had no idea that you could make a living being a voice actor. I didn’t even know that that was a career.

THE STAR SCOOP:
How would you advise someone who wants to get into voiceover work?

CAROLYN LAWRENCE:
I would suggest that they first and foremost take acting classes or if they’re already a performer, that’s perfectly valid, too. But if they’re not, they should be in an acting class. After that, they should look around in their particular area to see if there’s a voiceover specific class. If there isn’t they could call whatever their local talent agency is and talk to the person there in the voiceover department and ask them the best way to get started in their particular city. Each city is different in what they offer.

THE STAR SCOOP:
Tell us how you got involved with Spongebob?

CAROLYN LAWRENCE:
You’re going to probably notice that my life has been a series of random events [laughs]. I got on Spongebob because I was actually standing on the sidewalk here in L.A. with a friend of mine, when another friend of his walked up and we started chatting. And she said, Oh are you an actress and I said, Yes, and she said, Oh you have an interesting sound. I’m doing a project right now, maybe you’d like to audition for it. I said of course, and she called my agent, and that was Spongebob. And that’s how I got Spongebob [laughs]. I don’t even try anymore to go a standard route at anything. I just figure I’m going to run into somebody at Starbucks [laughs] and something wonderful is going to happen!

THE STAR SCOOP:
You have a lot of fans, especially kids, but they probably don’t know your face. So as a person in Hollywood, has that had an impact on you, that you get to have this really great role and have this fan base. Do you get to have a more normal life?

CAROLYN LAWRENCE:
You’re totally right. It’s the best of both worlds. I get to do what I love, which is performing, but I don’t have the stresses and pressures that people who are recognizable have. Every once in a while, somebody will recognize me, which s amazing. I’m like, Wow, you are such a true fan because you’ve watched the behind the scenes DVD like five thousand times or else you’d have no idea who I was [laughs]. It’s really fun. I feel incognito. I feel like I can eavesdrop. Like if I’m at Target, and there’s kids there and they’re talking about a Spongebob toy. I can just sit there and enjoy their excitement, and they have no idea who I am [laughs]!

THE STAR SCOOP:
Spongebob has been on now for quite a while! It is one of those shows that kids love it but also older viewers watch, too. Why do you think that is?

CAROLYN LAWRENCE:
I think the reason that it crosses over in age groups is that it does have a sophisticated adult humor behind it. Our writers and animators, when they laugh out loud, they know it’s funny because they thought it was funny, and they know it’s going to translate to a kid. Our humor is very, I think, innocent in a way. It’s about little slices of life and things that we can all relate to. I think that’s why it’s done well. I don’t know. I think that sometimes you can’t pinpoint why something takes off. There’s always kind of a magical component that’s hard to explain.

THE STAR SCOOP:
Anytime you talk to screen actors, you get that question about how much of the person is in that character. With a cartoon, how much do you really feel is yourself in the character? Is it more removed because it’s a cartoon? What is the experience like to have your alternate persona as a cartoon character?

CAROLYN LAWRENCE:
I think that’s a great question! First and foremost, yes, I think our personalities and our experiences still come through, maybe even more so when it’s an animated character because it isn’t reliant on what you look like. I like that you can use different parts of yourself more in animation. And what’s funny about our show…I actually think that they cast us incredibly well. A lot of us are a lot like our characters [laughs]. I don’t know if we started that way or if we’ve just morphed over the ten years. But we really are!

THE STAR SCOOP:
How would you describe Sandy Cheeks as a character and your experience playing her?

CAROLYN LAWRENCE:
I think the neatest thing about Sandy is in animation, I think she’s atypical. I think she’s an atypical female character because she is somewhat of a tomboy. She’s very bright, being a scientist. She’s a very high achiever with her karate and everything else. She’s certainly not someone who needs to be saved. I think that’s why she’s so fun to play. She’s exceptionally capable. I love that about her. I think that’s why the girls like her too. They like seeing a female character who can do anything and takes great pride in her friendships and taking care of other people. If anybody’s in peril, she’s always going to be able to go and handle it.

THE STAR SCOOP:
Now we have to ask you, do you ever go to work and kind of just think to yourself, it’s a show about a sponge. What were they thinking?!

CAROLYN LAWRENCE:
[Laughs]. Other people say that all the time. I never have! I auditioned for it. I loved [Sandy]. I immediately just fell into the world and accepted that was what it was and just have enjoyed it. The one thing I do think, is, oh my gosh, I can’t believe that we’ve lasted this long and I can’t believe how well it has done. That blows my mind. It’s a phenomenal thing. This is our tenth year. I can’t believe the time has gone by so fast. It’s really weird when somebody walks up to me and says, Oh I grew up on your show, and I think, that can’t be possible! I’m not that old [laughs]!

THE STAR SCOOP:
As far as cartoons go, in the animation industry, is this ten years a really big deal?

CAROLYN LAWRENCE:
Yes. I think it’s a huge deal. I don’t know all the stats, but even a show that does really well only goes three seasons or three years. It’s just mind blowing that we’ve gone ten years and that we’re still as popular as ever. And, it doesn’t seem like it’s slowing. There’s new countries all the time that start airing it. And that’s really fun, too. I love getting fan mail [from them]. I wish I could travel and meet everybody who is watching from all the different countries. It would be so neat just to see what they think.

THE STAR SCOOP:
What determines how long you guys get to go on?

CAROLYN LAWRENCE:
That’s probably a really complicated thing that the network thinks about. As a cast and a crew, we just want it to go forever, We don’t ever want it to end because we’re having too much fun. The day it ends, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I know it will have to happen someday, hopefully not until I’m 80, but…you know.

THE STAR SCOOP:
It will probably exist in reruns!

CAROLYN LAWRENCE:
[Laughs]. Hopefully. That’s a hard thing to fathom, too, that it could wind up to be a classic like that, that’s just on all the time. We’ve just been so fortunate.

THE STAR SCOOP:
What other projects do you have going on?

CAROLYN LAWRENCE:
Right now I’m actually spreading my wings a little. I’m coproducing an animated feature. It’s called “Monsterville.” That would be my biggest goal is to try to get that off the ground. I’m really excited. I play one of the lead characters, but it’s also really fun, being creative in a whole different way. We’re blogging about it. That’s really the biggest one right now. I’m auditioning constantly. I would love to do more games. I haven’t done a video game in a while.

THE STAR SCOOP:
To those who are reading this, what do you want to say?

CAROLYN LAWRENCE:
Wow. A lot. I guess the big thing I really want people to know is, you’re never stuck in life. It might look like it, but you’re really not, and there’s always options out there that you just haven’t thought of. I like to go and talk at career day at school. I think it expands what they think about that they can do to make a living. There’s so many different ways to be creative and make a living. And, to say thank you to everybody because they’ve given me an amazing life by watching, and I really appreciate it.