Being in the oft-derided entertainment industry and singing his punk rock music, one might think Iggy Pop had some strong political views. He's doing the voice of Lil' Rummy (Donald Rumsfeld) on Comedy Central's Lil' Bush, but he's not trying to say anything about politics.
Iggy Pop Jams Out Lil' Bush
"I don’t even think that way," said Pop. "I’m kind of a weird bird so my interest in Rumsfeld is, I noticed just independently I was interested in when he started becoming a visible figure at the news conferences. And I thought he was really good with a crowd. I thought he was good at public presentation. And I used to watch him just to see how he did it. Then at some point maybe what he wasn’t good at was disagreement. And I noticed that. So when all I was really trying to express was hopefully my little bit of the insight as an actor trying to do the guy and that was basically that he should be very insistent and firm about whatever he thinks when he says it. And then he should be the kind of person that’s easily ignited so that if anybody questions him or he should get hyper urgent very quickly. So that was what I was trying to do. That’s about it. No politics in there for me I’m afraid."
Pop really just wanted another voiceover gig. "Basically I’m a musical vocalist but I do voiceover stuff as a sideline like plumbing or something. When I got the call for the gig I took a look at the pre-existing cartoon that was on the cell phone and I thought it was funny. And what I liked was there was something really human about reducing all these powerful figures to little people. And it was just real entertaining. So there you go. It’s a gig."
Still, the cartoon portrays Lil' Rummy like a lot of Rumsfeld's critics would. "He’s the kind of guy that has put a lot of thought and preparation into deciding that he’s going to put over. He’s a put over, sell it to you, this is the way we’re doing it guy. And he’s going to get rattled really easily if anyone disagrees so the can go from definite to urgent to strident to edge of hysterical."
Despite all his studying of Rumsfeld, Lil' Rummy still kinda sounds like Iggy Pop. "I don’t know well I’ve done. I hope I blend in and do all right in the show but Donick [Cary, creator and producer] had me pick it up from my natural speaking voice. I think that would be fair to say. So it’s a little more like this, everything’s kind of pitched like this. [Higher and faster] Like 'Okay you guys this is serious and we’ve got to take care of this now and don’t disagree with me,' you know."
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