"SpongeBob's" Mr. Lawrence, Writer And Voice Of Plankton, Revealed The Surprising Inspiration Behind "Rock Bottom"

Mr. Lawrence has played a pivotal role in bringing the world of SpongeBob SquarePants to life for over 25 years. Not only is Mr. Lawrence the voice of Plankton and Larry the Lobster (among others), but he's also part of the writing team.

Continuing to celebrate 25 years of the iconic show, I sat down with Mr. Lawrence to learn about the production and performance sides of SpongeBob SquarePants.

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

BuzzFeed: One thing I love about Plankton is he has such a big voice in such a little body. Can you tell me about the origin of his voice?

Mr. Lawrence: The voice itself was something that I was doing every so often on Rocko's Modern Life. I would do it in the background, and I remember particularly that Tom Kenny [voice of SpongeBob] would always laugh. Then, when the pilot happened for SpongeBob, Steve [Stephen Hillenburg, the creator] knew he wanted me to be in the cast.I auditioned for all the characters, and I actually read for SpongeBob with the Plankton voice—and I knew that wasn't going to be SpongeBob's voice. But Steve heard it, and we were laughing, and Steve said, "If I had any guts at all, I would push to make that the voice of SpongeBob. That would be so silly and funny and a really over-the-top choice."Tom, Steve, and I were already on Rocko's Modern Life together, and we were already friends, so we got a little more intimate knowledge of what the show was going to be. We got a chance to sort of refine what we wanted to do. And after I did that voice, Steve was like, "You know, I think that might be Plankton." Plankton's voice is kind of like a combination of Tony the Tiger and the actor Gregory Peck. I was also imitating a friend of mine, a lifelong friend who I've known since I was in grade school. He had a really deep voice, but he didn't look like that. That's sort of the fun of Plankton, that he doesn't look like his voice at all.So initially, I think it was always me imitating my friend and then fine-tuning it. I started playing around with the idea that it's kind of like Thurl Ravenscroft, who was the voice of Tony the Tiger, and a little Gregory Peck. It's always a combination of things. It's never one thing, but that's the real origin of it.

"I went to college!"

One of my favorite Plankton moments is the "F.U.N." song. Is it difficult to sing as Plankton?Mr. Lawrence: I love the "F.U.N." song too. It's actually fun. People always ask me, "Does it hurt to do his voice?" The only time I get sort of irritated in my throat is when I'm screaming as Plankton because of the gravel of the screams. Mel Blanc [voice of the Looney Tunes characters] used to talk about how he had no problem with any of the characters except Yosemite Sam. He would have to save Yosemite Sam for the end of the week because he needed to recover after that. When I yell and scream as Plankton, especially the kinds of screams I do that are just sort of blood-curdling—those I have to recover from.But singing is actually easier than some of the stuff I have to do with him vocally on the show. I've always been singing since school, so it's sort of a natural fit to move over to doing voices. You would think it would be tougher to do that, but I think it's actually fun. We've done it live, too—I've sung as Plankton live. And it's kind of delightful. I really like singing as him.

One of the most complicated relationships is between Mr. Krabs and Plankton, especially after the "Friend or Foe" episode. What is your take on their 'frenemy' relationship?Mr. Lawrence: Well, they're similar in their goals; it's just that Plankton wants way more. Mr. Krabs got what he wanted in life—he got the restaurant, he got the right fry cook, he got the right ingredients for his big selling burger, and Plankton's the opposite in that way. We've kind of hinted that they knew each other before this whole thing, and we play with that all the time in the show and in the movies. There are times when they've been forced to have to deal with one another. I think that they could be friends if it wasn't for Plankton's trying to steal from him. If it wasn't for that, I think they might actually get along.Likewise, Clancy [voice of Mr. Krabs] and I get along really well. Clancy and I have actually tried to sell shows together and have taken a few road trips together. He's a good buddy, and so that's fun, too. The fact that we are rivals on the show maybe even pushed us to be more friendly. We don't see each other all the time, but we got to spend some time together this year with the 25th anniversary. It's always nice to take a long walk with Clancy, and especially people seeing us at Comic Con was so funny. They're like, "Hey, it's those two guys. You guys are friends!"If you're friends, it's almost easier to be more confrontational because you trust each other that way. Clancy is a movie star, one of my favorite actors, and one of everybody's favorite actors—but he's also my friend.

My favorite quality of Plankton is his unfiltered sass—he's hilarious! What are some of your favorite aspects of Plankton's character?One is that he's married, and I'm married, so I relate to a married guy. He's got his wife right there to kind of cut him down to size and go, "You're not that big a deal." There's something about it that's just perfect for comedy.I always thought that there's a lot of backstory between those two characters [Plankton and Karen] that you feel, and Jill Talley [voice of Karen] is fantastic. She's one of my favorite comedy performers and writers. I connect with her a lot when we're doing the characters, and it's great to have a friend that you can do that with. That's probably my favorite aspect of playing him, is that Jill's usually there.But then it's also great to play the guy who's just dumbfounded. I mean, he's kind of an idiot because he's short-sighted. He's trying so hard, he's reaching so far—he's a smart guy, but he's too smart for his own good, in a way. He's always gobsmacked by how stupid everybody else is around him. In a way, he's dumber than them because he's over-shooting. He's trying to be an overlord; he's trying to usurp, and he's trying to take over. He'd probably have a better time if he would just lower his expectations in life and do something else.

You've voiced a lot of fun background characters on SpongeBob, my favorite being "CHOCOLATE!" What was the inspiration behind such an iconic moment?What's really funny is I can just go on my phone and type 'chocolate' into the memes, and that will come up. That's just so wild to me that it's part of the lexicon in that way.At the time, I was not writing on the show, but I remember seeing the script and just going, "Wow, this guy's just screaming his head off. What is that? What am I supposed to do?" I don't know if there was any particular inspiration other than me having to get ready for that one and say, "Okay, here I go. I'm gonna do this now." People at the Comic Cons ask me to yell "Chocolate!!" alongside the other things I yell, like "My leg!" Yelling things is kind of what I'm known for. It's very silly, and I enjoy it. It's quite fun.

"CHOCOLATEEEE!!!"

"My Leg!" has also had a similar cultural impact. I read that it was an improvised moment in the recording booth?Fred started out as a "no-name" character and a character that was not even on camera. We started using him more often as time went on. There's always some horrible accident or some tragedy that's happened to the citizens of Bikini Bottom, and everybody's yelling stuff. I was the last one to yell something, and I yelled, "My legs!" I think it started as "My legs"—it was plural. It sort of evolved past that, where all of a sudden he's on camera.It took off with fans where I think there was a contest to name him, and they came up with Fred, which is funny because that's one of my grandfather's names. We listened to the fans on that one, and we're like, "If you want more of him, we'll do it!" I did an episode called "My Leg!," which is one of my favorite I've ever written. I think we've been successful in keeping him alive without doing the same old thing again and again. I just want to make sure we're not overplaying it or wearing out his welcome.

"My Leg!"

The final character I wanted to mention before we chat about your writing is Larry the Lobster. Did you know you'd be voicing so many characters when you started the show?I already knew the drill working on SpongeBob, which is, once you're a main player on the show, you're gonna get asked to do other characters. It's part of your contract, and also so they don't have to get a brand-new actor for every single character. When Larry came up, I initially didn't want to play him. He's kind of antithetical to my experience in my life, with me being more on the art side of things and less on the sports side. But then I saw it as a challenge—I wanted to bring something to that character so he isn't one-note.Larry's become a fun character to play over the years, and we've used him more often now, even on the other shows. He's got a certain personality that he brings to the table, and he's got a good outlook on life. And then, of course, he was in the Super Bowl this year, and that was super fun. I never thought I'd be doing that. I see him as a positive kind of role model, so I do enjoy playing him now.

At the New York Comic Con, you mentioned Plankton's "I went to college!" line was based on a real-life experience. Off the top of your head, can you think of an episode that was based on one of your real-life experiences?Particularly in the "Rock Bottom" episode, [writer] Derek Drymon, Steve Hillenburg, and I were in the room, trying to mine our childhoods. Stories would come up, like the "Ripped Pants" episode, came from an embarrassing thing that happened to Steve when he was a kid.With "Rock Bottom," I think this must have been first grade, and I got on the wrong bus coming back from school. I was not paying attention because I was little, and I was late for the bus. I assumed it was my bus because another kid from my neighborhood got on it, so I just followed him. We're talking, we're sitting on the bus, and then all of a sudden, I look around and notice I don't recognize anybody from my neighborhood on this bus. It became a panic. I mean, I was six years old, and it was absolutely terrifying.

"This isn't your average everyday darkness. This is...advanced darkness."

We're freaking out, and I'm about to burst into tears, but the kid I was with just had a massive meltdown. He just freaked out. And I went, "It's okay, man, you know, we'll find our way." I went up to the bus driver, and I told her where we were supposed to go, and she said, "It's okay. When I'm done, I'll drop you off."Of course, our mothers were waiting at the bus stop, wondering what happened, and luckily, they stuck around. It probably wasn't even that long. It was probably 20 minutes later, a half hour later, by the time she brought us home, and my friend was just a mess by the time we got there. It was super traumatic, but it was one of those life lessons at a young age where you learn you don't have to freak out. It's not like we're alone here, stranded in the middle of nowhere, though SpongeBob is really stranded in that episode.That became the basis for "Rock Bottom," and that's how a lot of episodes came out. It's stuff that kids could relate to right away and go, "Yes, that happened to me," and then see the way SpongeBob deals with it. He's scared, and he's a little terrified, but he learns to cope with the fact. Like it or not, traumatic things that happen are perfect for comedy.It's the old cliché to write what you know. Write about your experiences, as small as they are, as little as they are, especially on a comedy show where a lot of visual craziness happens. For example, SpongeBob not being able to tie his shoelace—that's such a little thing, but you can blow that up into comedy, really big. You can just take that and expand, and that's what we're looking for all the time on the show, even to this day. That's the comedy gold. Often, it's the simplest stuff, and that's the best stuff.

To wrap up, I wanted to ask about my personal favorite episode, "Band Geeks." What do you remember working on that episode?That was one where we had already established a lot of the characters at that point. "Band Geeks" was one of the first episodes where we said, "Oh boy, let's get all the characters together and give them all little juicy parts so that you can see them all existing together!" When it's a Plankton episode, you kind of just see Plankton and Mr. Krabs and SpongeBob, and you don't necessarily see Patrick; you don't necessarily see all the characters at once.I do remember, particularly in that one, playing the harmonica and running back and forth. I remember doing that scene in the records, and I'm thinking just how silly this is. It was fun to suspend [my] own disbelief. When you're sitting in a room with people in a booth, and you're just at a microphone, you have to really pretend. That's part of the fun of the voices, really kind of just putting yourself in there and sort of blocking out everything and saying, "I'm giving myself up for this performance. I have to pretend I'm really there."Our group is extremely talented in every aspect, from the storyboarders to the animators, the people who voice the show and write the show. There are so many aspects that come together with just super talented people.

Thank you to Mr. Lawrence for sharing so many fun memories! Don't miss SpongeBob & Sandy's Country Christmas, now streaming on Paramount+.

Have any favorite Plankton moments? Let me know in the comments below!