With his recent appearance in The Mandalorian season 3, the rough and rugged Lasat Garazeb “Zeb” Orrelios has finally gripped the imagination of the Star Wars mainstream. Introduced in 2014 in Star War Rebels, Zeb has been voiced by the same man since his first appearance in the Star Wars: Rebels shorts.
Who is Steve Blum?
Voice actor Steve Blum has been in the business since 1992. Fans may not know the actor by name, but his gravely voice has graced the screen multiple times through the years. His husky tones have voiced characters in media ranging from anime and video games to live-action films and American animation. Long before he was a part of the Star Wars universe, Blum was breathing life into rugged manly men like Wolverine in Wolverine and the X-men and Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop. The actor’s film credits are easily in the triple digits after more than three decades.
How long has Blum worked on Star Wars?
Long before Blum came to work on Rebels the actor was slogging his way through the minutia of being an “additional voices” voice actor. He has more than 20 Star Wars video game titles under his belt, but being cast as Zeb in Star Wars: Rebels, gave him the role he could really sink his teeth into.
In an interview with the podcast Force Material, Blum positively gushed about his work on Star Wars: Rebels. “When I found out I’d been cast in Rebels, I squealed like an eight-year-old fanboy.” It’s impossible to blame him, and the anecdotes about how the 4-season long series came to be would spark joy in any fan.
The actor says one of the best parts of working for Filoni in the Star Wars universe is the showrunners’ willingness — excitement even — to let the actors know how their characters fit into the wider world of Star Wars.
“Dave Filoni and the team wanted us to understand the full scope of each situation we were about to experience. How it tied into the Star Wars universe and how it related to George Lucas’ initial vision. I have never felt so completely included in the process of making a show before.”
He says that more than anything, the crew wanted to make sure that Star Wars fans were at the heart of every conversation.
“Sometimes we’d all discuss something as simple as the pronunciation of a new fruit (like the Meloorun) for an hour, simply because it was being introduced into the canon and we needed to have consensus. They considered the fans’ experience at every turn. That level of respect is amazing to me.”
The passion is really there from the writing down to the character design, the joy that everyone involved felt for the project is palpable. Blum revealed that the cast performed as an ensemble— when all of the actors come together in the same place to record their lines — as regularly as possible. The effect is a much more believable build on relationships, the cast’s real-life friendships bleeding through into the animation.
The snub-nosed, ethereal-eyed, big brute of a Lasat that the studio settled on was directly inspired by the original idea for Chewbacca. While the studio had an idea of what Zeb should sound like, Blum says the final product was a group effort. He says he started with an unintelligible Cockney accent which was then refined by “everybody in the room.” As the first incarnation of the race, the team got to decide exactly what Zeb should sound like, and allowed Blum to flex his creative (and vocal) muscles.
It isn’t just his voice that Blum lends to Zeb. The actor was surprised to say the least when he found that the ending he had suggested for Zeb was the one Filoni decided to go with. If it hadn’t been for Blum’s input, Zeb may never have taken the final step in forgiving Kallus and successfully tying up the emotional arc between the two characters. Beyond story input, Blum has also recorded movement for his characters. His son confirmed via his Instagram account that the actor did the facial capture movement for Zeb’s appearance in The Mandalorian.
Blum’s enthusiasm for his craft is contagious, and with his base ideology around his work, its not hard to understand why, “If I’m not excited about it, I shouldn’t be in the business; that’s my philosophy.”