Where To Watch
Before he was Uncle Phil, James Avery was the voice of Shredder
If you listen to Uncle Phil's outbursts, you can hear an echo of Shredder's voice.
Many '80s and '90s kids fondly remember James Avery from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but before he was Uncle Phil, he was the original voice of the main villain in the TMNT universe: Shredder. For Avery, watching fans realize he was the voice of Shredder was a delight.
In a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles DVD special feature interview, Avery discussed the reaction of the fans, "I did Fresh Prince for a long time, and whenever I would go somewhere and someone had done the research and found out I was the voice of Shredder...or if there were kids in the audience, I would throw that voice on, (they'd respond) 'Oh, yeah!' Of course, these kids were 19, 20 now."
For Avery, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a joyous experience, saying, "Everyone was just so smart and witty, I can't explain to you what fun it was. It was like the old days. It was like old radio theater. It was just a joy." The rest of the cast felt the same way about working with Avery. In a convention panel interview, Rob Paulsen (the voice of Raphael) said, "(We were) really appreciative. He was a very highly trained actor...trained in Shakespearean and very highbrow stuff, and never once ever did I ever feel that James felt he was better than the material. He was a big blast to play with. Really just delightful."
In the DVD interview, Avery also discussed in this same interview how serious the role of Shredder was, saying, "Shredder was basically a straight-ahead villain, but within that, there were levels that were found between the interactions of Krang and myself. And there were levels that I found as an actor to play him."
Avery also voice acted in other animated works including The Prince of Egypt, The Real Ghostbusters, Aladdin (the series), The Wild Thornberrys, and The Proud Family.
