Clancy Brown Revealed His Favorite Mr. Krabs Moments Over 25 Years Of “SpongeBob,” And His Choices Took Me On A Stroll Down Memory Lane

BuzzFeed: Let’s start at the very beginning! What was the audition for Mr. Krabs like, and did you know what his voice would sound like going into it?

Clancy Brown: I was very new to voice acting at that point. The casting director was so great and got in touch with my agent. I was just kind of auditioning for everything, and they said, “Here’s a show. He’s the crab. He runs the diner. He’s kind of a skinflint.” I’m listening to this, not getting it at all. I asked, “Well, what’s the voice? What are the voice references?” There’s no voice reference—just go in and kind of make it up as you go along.

So I read the sides [script excerpts], and the sides sounded to me a little bit like, you know, the Treasure Island pirate. So I just kind of did that voice, and it was with Steve [Stephen Hillenburg, the show’s creator], and it was in a conference room. He had his little tape recorder, and that was the first time I’d been in there. I usually go into a studio and get directed, and this is the first time I’m sitting across from somebody at a conference table, and he’s recording me. I just kind of did it, and he liked it, and then he said to me, “Okay, just go ahead and riff off of the script.” I kind of threw my hands up in the air. I said, “You know, I don’t really know how to do that. You’re the director.”