Adult Swim's most popular series right now is arguably Rick and Morty, the sci-fi animation from Dan Harmon (Community) and Justin Roiland (Solar Opposites). The fanbase has been clamoring for new episodes, with Season 4 having premiered nearly two years ago.
Lovers of the show will be celebrating Rick and Morty Day tomorrow, June 20th. Those demanding new content from the series will finally get a taste of what new episodes have to offer with the premiere of Season 5.
To promote the new season and Rick and Morty day itself, we set up exclusive interviews with the voice actors of the Smith family. We will be sharing chats with Beth's Sarah Chalke (Scrubs) and Jerry's Chris Parnell (SNL), but first, we have a video interview with Spencer Grammer (Greek), daughter of Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) and the voice behind Summer Smith.
For those who prefer audio, we've included the podcast version of our chat with Spencer below, along with a transcripted excerpt from our conversation. Those looking for a fully immersive experience will find our full video interview at the bottom.
Literary Joe: When you initially joined this project years ago, had you seen the YouTube video that it was based on?
Spencer Grammer: The Channel 101 video? I have seen it since, but no, I had been given a script with different photos of the different characters. And Summer looked the way Summer looks now. And I was like, yeah, I could play that up. That looks like me. I guess that's just Jerry with a ponytail, right? Like everybody says. So that's kind of how it started.
I hadn't seen that little clip until I think one of the Comic Cons we did, but I obviously knew who Dan Harmon was at the time, and I loved the pilot idea itself. I've always been somebody who has Ioved playing older sisters and shows about family dynamics, even dysfunctional ones. I love SciFi. I love Fantasy. So it encompassed a lot of things that I personally enjoy.
And then it's continued to grow on that, creating these characters and building on that. Especially the female characters have become much, much more three-dimensional. So it's been a pleasure to grow with society in this space because it definitely represents more of the kind of woman I am; independent, free-thinking, making my own decisions, competitive, all those things.
What do you guys think of these comments from Spencer Grammer? Be sure to check out the full video interview below, and stay tuned for more exciting excerpts from our chat!
Spencer Grammer is in the house! The actress and voice performer behind Rick & Morty's Summer Smith stops by the show to talk about the character now that she's voiced her for a decade!
We dig deep into Summer's character arc and how a mixture of her own personality and the writing helped lend to that growth. Discussing which characters she'd like to see re-visit the show, we shared plenty of laughs about Bucket Head, Snowball, Summer's ex, and more.
We joke about a potential crossover where she finds her ex-boyfriend in the Solar Opposites wall and what dimension Summer would choose to visit with Rick's portal gun - The Neverending Story.
Talk turns to her father, Frasier and X-Men star Kelsey Grammer, and we discuss why he doesn't watch Rick and Morty, and we even cook up a jestful scheme that would see the actor play Summer's father from a different dimension, as Frasier.
Spencer shares tidbits about her decade of experience with the show and makes it clear that she has no plans to leave the character of Summer behind, as well as talking to us about a few of her other projects.
It was a ton of fun, and make sure to tune in next week when we chat with Beth and Jerry voices Sarah Chalke and Chris Parnell!
Rick and Morty Season 5 premieres tomorrow, Sunday, June 20th, at midnight.