Time & Perspective Quote by David Ogden Stiers

There is a bracing honesty in Stiers admitting that the hardest part of recording isn’t the work, it’s keeping a straight face at the sheer spectacle of it. Voice acting asks an adult to do something society codes as childish: make strange sounds on command, repeat them, refine them, and treat the whole business with professional seriousness. His line punctures the romantic myth of the actor as dignified artisan and replaces it with a more accurate image: a skilled grown man doing gloriously undignified play.

The intent is partly comic self-deprecation, but it’s also protective. By calling it “genuinely funny” and “absolutely ridiculous,” Stiers gets ahead of the judgment that might otherwise attach to the job. He frames the embarrassment as a feature, not a flaw, and in doing so signals confidence: he can laugh because he’s secure in the craft. The “60-year-old” detail isn’t incidental; it sets up the cultural tension between aging and permission. We’re supposed to grow out of silliness, yet entertainment depends on performers who refuse that script.

Context matters here: Stiers was known for precise, often urbane roles on screen, which makes the image of him making “noises” even funnier. The subtext is a small defense of the unseen labor behind animated characters and ADR sessions: the magic is made in rooms full of adults doing objectively weird things, taking them seriously, then laughing because they know how odd the alchemy looks from the outside.