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Jaleel White almost turned down Sonic the Hedgehog
Did you know Steve Urkel was the voice of Sonic?
While he was at the height of his success playing the adorkable Steve Urkel, Jaleel White took on a new role as the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog in the animated series. But White has acknowledged that at the beginning, he was not sold on playing Sonic.
In an interview with Kristian Harloff, White acknowledged his hesitation about voicing Sonic: "I barely even wanted that job. I was so headstrong about wanting to do an Urkel cartoon, which just felt more organic, and I'm so happy I did not get what I wanted."
"I always wanted my own cartoon, and the opportunity for Sonic came along, and the people they were trying to sell Sonic to were ABC. I was an ABC personality," White recalled. He was an organic choice to play the voice of Sonic; his popularity as Urkel on Friday nights would hopefully carry over to Sonic on Saturday mornings.
Part of White's hesitation was his very busy schedule; he was a full-time high school student, and he was already the breakout star of Family Matters. That's already a busy schedule for anybody, especially a teenager. But production worked around White's schedule to make sure he could voice Sonic.
In a DVD featurette for the boxed series of Sonic the Hedgehog, White recalled, "Working around my schedule was a big deal. Normally when you voice all these characters, everybody would be in the room at the same time, and you do it kind of like a table reading...I couldn't be a part of those sessions a lot of the time for my schedule. So I would be in the room by myself."
Solo recording was where White really got to experiment with the character and bring Sonic to life. In the same featurette interview, he said "There's an advantage you have as an actor being in a room by yourself...all the time is for you. And so, you know, you're not getting just one and two shots at things, you're getting three and four and five shots at things. So, I could literally aim for perfection."
White was able to settle into voicing Sonic and truly embodying the character with his voice, and went on to voice Sonic in three cartoon series and Sonic Christmas Blast.
Generations of fans have enjoyed White's work as Sonic, and he even acknowledged that when he visits conventions, there are just as many fans there to talk to him about Sonic as there are fans from Family Matters, saying, "Sonic was put in my path to help save my future."
