Vincent Martella expresses desire to write on PHINEAS AND FERB

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Vincent Martella is a multi-talented actor, voice actor, comedian, singer and writer but it’s fair to say that he’s probably known best for the role of Phineas Flynn in the beloved Disney animated series, Phineas and Ferb. After airing for four seasons on Disney Channel between 2007-2015, the series returned for an all-new season of episodes with the vast majority of the original cast returning to reprise their characters including Martella.

During San Diego Comic-Con, The Beat had a chance to sit down with the prolific performer to discuss returning to the beloved animated series. In addition, Martella teased not only his desire to branch out into writing for the show but what fans can look forward to.

Taimur Dar: It goes without saying Phineas and Ferb was always huge when it first aired. But I think it’s exaggeration to say that it’s even bigger now best epitomized by the fact that it’s featured on Comic-Con bags. What are your thoughts?

Vincent Martella: It’s amazing seeing the reception at Comic-Con specifically because we haven’t been here in almost ten years. Back in day we were never on the bags and that’s really, really cool. I had to go and get myself one of the Phineas and Ferb bags. I thought that was so awesome. It’s wonderful that a show that we worked on for so long and put so much love and care into has resonated so much with audiences that we get to come back and continue these stories. We would love to work on this show forever if they let us. It’s the best job.

Taimur Dar: “Kindness is punk rock” is a phrase that’s been popularized in the last month thanks to the new Superman film. It dawned on me that it’s a similar ethos that the Phineas and Ferb animated show promotes.

Vincent Martella: Absolutely. Something that creators Dan Povenmire and Swampy Marsh really wanted in the show was none of the humor to feel mean or nasty or sarcastic. They wanted it to feel positive and uplifting. I think a lot of the humor in our show comes from that which you could say is similar to Superman.

Taimur Dar: I’ve noticed you’ve been doing the convention circuit for a number of years alongside David Errigo Jr., the voice of Ferb. In animation voiceover, it’s rare that you record together, but it seems like you have a genuine friendship with each other.

Vincent Martella: Absolutely. We never record together. No one ever records together on Phineas and Ferb. It’s actually pretty rare in general for people to record together. Me and David are like best friends. I see David every day. I feel very lucky and fortunate to work on this show that has meant so much to me and have my brother on the show be someone who is incredibly close to me. That’s not always the case when you work anywhere that you end up having a best friend. I feel super lucky and he’s a really talented actor. I look up to him for his voice acting talent. We had a fun time walking the floor earlier today.

Taimur Dar: This new batch of episodes had some amazing guest stars I didn’t expect like John Stamos voicing Meep. Do you have any particular favorite guest stars in this new season?

Vincent Martella: I like that we had Michael Bublé sing a song for us about Tropey McTropeFace. No shade to any of the other guest stars but Michael Bublé has been my favorite so far. He’s awesome. I’m just a fan of him in general and he’s a very nice man. He’s one of my favorites in the new season. I have a lot of people that I want to get in the future if we get new seasons of the show. Hopefully we do and I get some of my secret wishes in the show.

Taimur Dar: Often when kids are voiced by young boys, they eventually have to recast them simply due to their voice changing. Did you ever think that you would still be voicing Phineas even as an adult?

Vincent Martella: I do a lot of work to make sure I’m able to keep doing the voice work that I do. I’ve taken a lot of workshops. I still constantly take voice acting workshops. I’ve studied with opera coaches before and done vocal lessons. I try really hard to get better at what I do. There’ still plenty of things that I’m learning. What’s nice is [Phineas voice], “Phineas is such an ingrained part of who I am now that it’s so normal for me to just talk like him.” I’ll be able to talk like Phineas forever if they need me to be.

Taimur Dar: I think it’s safe to say you’ve developed a close working relationship with creators Swampy Marsha and Dan Povenmire especially since they’ve cast you in other projects over the years.

Vincent Martella: It’s really spectacular. We’ve all grown together with one show which is Phineas and Ferb and we’ve gotten this second nature about the way we communicate direction to one another and communicate what these characters are and what every scene calls for. I voice a lot of other characters on Phineas and Ferb. I play a huge variety of random people on the show which is really fun and cool. That’s only made me a better voice actor. I’ve really learned on the job with them so much so that I’m shadowing in the writers’ room every single week for season six because I’m a very experienced comedy writer. I write a lot of sketch comedy. I’ve learned a lot from them about performing, writing, and creating.

Taimur Dar: Now I have to ask if you have any aspirations to write an episode of Phineas and Ferb?

Vincent Martella: Absolutely. I would love to if the opportunity comes along. They know that I want to write on the show. Olivia Olson who plays Vanessa Doofenshmirtz, writes many episodes of the show and writes pretty much every single song on the show. She’s unbelievably hardworking and talented. She’s so good. If I can do half the amount of work that she’s doing I would be happy.

Taimur Dar: Way back in 2020, I participated in a virtual press junket for the Batman: Death in the Family animated movie where you voiced Jason Todd.

Vincent Martella: I love working in DC and the fact that I’ve gotten to play both Jason Todd and Red Hood is really special to me. I find that so cool and so fun and so interesting. It is completely different to what I’m used to playing. But that’s what I like to do as an actor. I like to be challenged. I want to be a Swiss Army knife. That’s the goal.

Taimur Dar: Finally, anything you can tease for Phineas and Ferb fans?

Vincent Martella: I think the only thing I’m allowed to tease is that we have Meghan Trainor as a guest star in one of our episodes. We’ll also be doing these interstitial episodes called Cartoonified! With Phineas and Ferb where we’ll have guest stars from other Disney properties to come in and join Phineas and Ferb. I’ve recorded a lot of those and played a lot of characters in those little interstitials. I can’t tell you who’s going to be on them but I can tease them.