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

Between SpongeBob, The Shawshank Redemption, Starship Troopers, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and dozens of other credits, it is safe to say Clancy Brown has a very impressive resume.

Leading up to the 25th anniversary special "SpongeBob & Sandy's Country Christmas," I had the chance to hop on a call with the iconic actor to discuss 25 years of everyone's penny-pinching crustacean, Mr. Krabs. When we both showed up to the Zoom call with Krusty Krab backgrounds, I knew it was going to be a fun chat!

"SpongeBob & Sandy's Country Christmas" premieres December 2nd, on Nickelodeon and Paramount+.

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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."

"That smell... A kind of smelly smell... A smelly smell that smells... smelly."

I heard later that as they were trying to pick the voices, Steve was hesitant to cast me. I think I've heard that I was intimidating, but I don't see how I would be intimidating. I was just trying to surrender to his artistic authority, you know, to his vision, and not impose anything I knew. Plus, I had no clue, by the way. I mean, I was just kind of making it up as I went along. I didn't have the same facility that somebody like Tom [SpongeBob] or Bill [Patrick] or Rodger [Squidward] had to improvise and stuff like that. I was coming right out of TV and film, and that's pretty prescribed stuff. But he took a flyer on me, and I'm so grateful that he did. You know, it's been so much fun. It's been the one thing I love doing more than anything.Mr. Krabs has very distinct sounds to his character. My personal favorite is his iconic laugh. How did you come up with that?I really wish I could claim some invention. But it was spelled out that way; it was spelled out (imitates Mr. Krabs's laugh). I was just kind of going by the script, and that's sort of my MO, and they liked it. Every now and then, I'll change it up; he'll do a little giggle or something like that. But it always comes back to that laugh.

As a big SpongeBob fan, getting to hear that laugh put such a smile on my face! You've been playing this character for 25 years. What is your favorite thing about Mr. Krabs's character?I love that he's so misunderstood. He's really not complicated. I mean, he does love money, and he loves his daughter [Pearl] and everything like that. He won't always make great choices, but, you know, he's not a jerk. He's just kind of who he is. We all know people like him, but he's not Mr. Potter from It's a Wonderful Life—he's not that guy. He does love his employees, and he loves his town, and we see that every now and then. He does the right thing, but he's basically misunderstood.He's also misunderstood sometimes by the writing staff. Mr. Lawrence [voice of Plankton] writes him very well. He writes him really comically, but then some writers sometimes write him as kind of a jerk, which I kind of push back against.

"Have a coral day, honey!"

I did a little research and read that your favorite line is "You're a mystery, Spongebob" from the episode "My Pretty Seahorse." Do you also have a favorite Mr. Krabs episode?I think everybody loves "Band Geeks." I love "Band Geeks" too; it's great! It's everybody's favorite episode.

"When do we get the free food?"

I think one of the episodes that is underrated is "Hooky." It's such a great metaphor and serves so many warnings about behaviors and getting hooked on something. It's kind of obvious, but it's also not obvious—it's really smart.

"Yo-ho, yo-ho, near the hooks I'll never go!"

I also like "One Krabs Trash" and the episode where he says, "It's me millionth dollar!" I love the ending where Mr. Krabs is just a head.

Also, "Arrgh!" is great. I love "Arrgh!" where he's got the treasure map, and that's just sort of emblematic of Mr. Krabs. I think that episode is pretty much Mr. Krabs, through and through. He's just kind of obsessed with something. Even if it's obviously not true, he'll follow the treasure map of the game board, and it winds up being true!

All great choices! One of my favorite Mr. Krabs moments is when he sings "This Grill Is Not A Home" with Spongebob.Yeah, that's a good one!Is it difficult to sing as Mr. Krabs?No, it's not difficult to sing as Mr. Krabs; I mean, everybody sings to some extent on the show. And you know, I don't think of myself as a singer at all. Tom [voice of SpongeBob] is definitely a singer. But that one was fun because it was the first time Mr. Krabs sang, and I just kind of went full Joe Cocker on it. So that was a really fun thing, and I've sung a little bit since. But, you know, nothing is quite as fun as that one. That was a good one.

"It's just a greasy spoon, without you!"

There is another song, "The Very First Christmas," in the Christmas special, and there's a part where Mr. Krabs sings, "The very first Christmas to me." He's singing like three octaves above, and I find it so hilarious. I've always wondered, was it you doing that line?I don't know if it was me. I think what happened is I was off doing something, and I remember we were recording it remotely. They might have had that soprano in there, and I recall saying to Steve [Stephen Hillenburg], "That's way more funny than Mr. Krabs singing it. That's way more funny to see that coming out of his mouth." So I'm not sure whether that was me, if I might have tried it, or whether that was already in there. I do remember having that discussion with him, saying, "Boy, it's really funny if it's just kind of that high voice, and it's much funnier than just Mr. Krabs singing that line."

"The very first Christmas to me!"

At the New York Comic Con panel, you and the cast discussed how much fun it is to record together in the booth. What is your favorite part about recording with the cast?The best thing about it is we came up with this technique, this sort of protocol, where we would do two takes as scripted, and then we would do a third take where we got to indulge whatever inspiration or whatever thing popped into our head. We've refined it down to doing only one take as scripted, and then we'll fix the script as much as we want to. And Tom [Kenny] really takes the lead on all that. The third take, it doesn't really exist anywhere. We kind of do a "crazy pass," where it's more what pops into our head.We're not always recording together anymore since COVID, and Tom is on the road a lot, and he's directing, so it's a lot over Zoom. But when we were in the room together, man, we just played off each other all the time. I mean, it was just so much fun. Our mics wouldn't be open all the time, and then somebody would hear something and say, "Well, go back. Let's grab that." Little gems would pop up like Doug [voice of Plankton] screaming, "My leg!" It doesn't happen so much anymore because we're not all together anymore, as much as we would like to be.

That's super cool insight to hear! Pivoting a bit, I can't be chatting with you and not bring up another important milestone, the 30th anniversary of The Shawshank Redemption [Clancy played Captain Hadley]. Is there anything from your live-action roles that assisted you with the transition into voice acting?That's a good question. That's a really good question. You know, I've never even considered that. I think they do inform me and inform each other. Certainly not Shawshank because that was kind of before [my voice acting] all started. Other roles probably do, but it's probably more subconscious than I would realize. That's a really good question I'm gonna have to think about—like, really sit down and go through my acting process and try to figure out how to get more of Mr. Krabs's technique into, like, Sal Maroni [Clancy's character on The Penguin] or whatever.

You've portrayed protagonists like Mr. Krabs, but you've also voiced one of my favorite Nickelodeon villains, Long Feng from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I was shocked when I found out it was you because his voice sounded nothing like Mr. Krabs. Do you find it easier playing a hero or a villain?The easiest thing to do is with a good script, and Avatar was written so great. It still is great fun to watch—I go back and revisit that one a lot. So if the script is good, it doesn't matter what I'm playing. In Avatar, I would have also loved to play the Earth King.Ah, yes, King Bumi!Yep, King Bumi, but [André Sogliuzzo portrayed the voice], he was terrific. But I loved playing Long Feng, too. I wish I could have played him more! I thought the spin-off The Legend of Korra was just as good, in a different way, right? It was like a more evolved world—what the world became after Avatar.

It's been 25 years of SpongeBob. What is your reaction to how popular the show still is today?I'm so grateful it's popular. I like that it still maintains its innocence and its joy and its humor and its sweetness. It had a little flirtation with cynicism and darkness, but we didn't like that as a cast. We sort of pushed against it and brought it back. I think it gets smarter, but you have to be careful. When you get smarter, you have to really work harder to maintain the purity of it. It's a great mixture.It's a great challenge for writers and a great challenge for us as performers. I am just so glad the audience still likes it and still likes the characters and the world. The world is so much fun, and I hope it goes on for another 25 years!

Thank you to Clancy for taking the time to share his memories of the iconic Mr. Krabs! You can catch Clancy in 'Batman' spin-off The Penguin, which is available on Max.Catch “SpongeBob & Sandy's Country Christmas” on December 2nd on Nickelodeon and Paramount+. Check out a sneak preview!