As a struggling young actor in San Francisco, Spencer Aste is thrilled to be able to put his first feature film on his resume. But when he went into the studio a year ago for a single day's work, he had no idea he would be part of a Christmas blockbuster.
The Salt Lake native provides the voice of a little green man in "Toy Story" - and if you've seen the film, you know this isn't a creature from outer space. He's one of the "Green Army Men" who climb out of a red-and-white striped "Bucket O Soldiers," waddling instead of walking because their feet are stuck to plastic stands.Specifically, Aste is the G.I. who gets stepped on during a reconnaissance mission and then bravely tells his fellow soldiers, "Go on without me."
"I got a call from my agent to go into an audition for this animated feature, and I didn't know who was producing it at the time," Aste said during a telephone interview from his San Francisco apartment. "I didn't even know Disney was doing it when I got hired - I had no idea of the magnitude of what they were working on."
The 30-year-old actor grew up in the Holladay area, graduating from Olympus High School and getting his bachelor's degree in theater from the University of Utah. He then went to graduate school at the National Theater Conservatory in Denver, followed by a move to Los Angeles in search of acting work.
"I was only in L.A. for a couple of months," he explained, pointing out that due to intense competition, acting gigs there are not easy to come by. "I spent most of my time teaching tennis and working in a bookstore."
Employment opportunities led to Aste's relocation to San Francisco, where he has been for about four years now, performing on stage and doing sporadic voice work. But he has earned his living by fulfilling the actor's cliche - yes, he's a waiter.
His "Toy Story" performance began a year ago as just another audition. Aste read some lines for an audio tape that would be passed around to the film's producers. "A lot of times they don't even know what they want. They have a general idea, but it's so specific they can't really explain it to you.
"So you just kind of wing it, and they know what they want when they hear it. And sometimes it has to do with matching voices - if there are several different voices, your voice will have to be much different from the others, distinct in some way."
A month after the audition, Aste got another call from his agent. He got the job as "Toy Story's" ill-fated green soldier. So he went into the studio, recorded the lines and was finished in an hour. "I was all by myself. I never even met any of the other voices that were in it." Those other voices, of course, include stars Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, as well as Don Rickles, Jim Varney and Annie Potts, among others.
"They showed me the character and some of the animation they had done, and what I was playing, and told me what they wanted it to sound and look like. I watched the animation as I did the voice.
"They have you read the lines all kinds of ways, and you have no idea which ones they're going to select."
When Aste learned "Toy Story" was a Disney movie, he became excited but still didn't know it was a major theatrical film. "I thought it was just one of these things that would maybe be released on video. I knew it was the first computer-animated thing, but I didn't know if it was going to be more experimental - so when I started seeing ads for it, I was pretty surprised."
He was even more impressed with the film itself. "I enjoyed it very much, I thought it was really clever and unique and interesting - I had a great time."
As for his own work, he modestly added, "It's so hard to be objective when you hear yourself - you always sort of shy away and get embarrassed. But it was fun to see my name up there." And there's his name, at the top of a double column of supporting voice actors as the credits roll.
It would, of course, be nice if "Toy Story" led to more work, but Aste is trying to keep his expectations at a realistic level. "You always hope that someone (involved in the making of the film) will remember the voice you did, they they might like to use you in something else. Or that you might be referred (to another filmmaker) by the producer or director. But you just never know. I try not to think about it too much. I'll just move on and pursue what I pursue, and if something happens, that's a bonus."
His goal at the moment is simply to be able to make his living as an actor. "I would love to do film and television, that's definitely where the money is. But that's not really where my heart lies. So much is based on what you look like and the image they're trying to sell and portray - so it's sort of a crap shoot, and the art and craft of it is somewhat lost, I think."
And between waitering jobs, Aste has managed to gain a fair amount of acting experience in the San Francisco area. "I've probably done 40 plays, from walk-ons to leads. I was Romeo in `Romeo and Juliet' - I tend to play younger characters, and I do a lot of character stuff. I'm not really cast as a leading man very often."
And next month, Aste is making another physical move - this time to New York City, for a leap at the Great White Way. "I have a lot of friends to hook up with - a lot of them are doing stuff on Broadway right now. I'll try to get an agent, that's the key to getting inside."