In one of his final interviews, voice actor Eric Bauza reflected on his love of animation, the characters who shaped his childhood and the extraordinary career that allowed him to bring them to life.
When I spoke with Eric Bauza on July 22, 2026, ahead of the release of Coyote vs. Acme, there was no mistaking his enthusiasm for the film, the state of animation and his lifelong affection for the Looney Tunes. Now, following his death at the age of 46, I find myself thinking back on that conversation and, more than anything, how much joy he seemed to take in his work. There was an infectious quality to his excitement, coupled with a genuine appreciation for the opportunities he’d been given, that I hope comes through in this exclusive interview.
“I’ve been so lucky just in life and just with work,” Eric told me. “And all throughout the strikes and COVID and all of the setbacks that we’ve had in entertainment, I think animation has always just been secretly trudging forward. It’s funny how animation has somehow in history survived as long as it has and continues to make box office records every year, even though the people in charge up top don’t think it’s important.”
He was particularly excited about Coyote vs. Acme, which had famously been shelved by Warner Bros. before finding a new home with Ketchup Entertainment. Having attended multiple test screenings, Eric believed audiences were in for something special, but he was equally passionate about the future of the Looney Tunes themselves and how the characters could continue connecting with new generations.
“I think it just needs to be done the right way,” he explained. “And I think if you really, really want to bring it back and have it connect with audiences, it’s better to keep them as seven-minute shorts. It’s better to have them in theaters and there’s a way to maybe repackage the old shorts with new animation and new bumpers and then make fully theatrical animated shorts in theaters. Hand-drawn, by the way, not CG, but hand-drawn. They have to be hand-drawn and just do maybe either five to 10 shorts a year. Don’t do more than that.”
When I wondered whether Bugs Bunny and the other characters might be regarded as belonging to another generation, Eric disagreed, offering an explanation that reflected both his understanding of entertainment and his experience as a father.
“What’s funny is funny. I feel like a knock-knock joke is a knock-knock joke. It’ll be funny the first time it was told, it’ll be funny the 400th time it was told. Or for the same reason you go to a Beyoncé concert or a Taylor Swift concert or a Rolling Stones concert. You’ve heard these songs before, you’ve heard them over and over again, but you still go and you sing along and you dance in your seat and you go, ‘That was a good show.’ And you will continue to do that. And then you bring your next generation along and go, ‘This is how it was done back in the day.’ And then they get into it.”
That connection between generations was something Eric understood firsthand, having introduced his own son to the characters he was now performing. But when I asked him about the power of animation itself, his response revealed just how deeply it had shaped his life.
“It’s just magical, and you could do suspension of disbelief. You could do anything in a cartoon. I used to think that these were real people. There was something about the voices, just the overall look and design. I was so obsessed. Before the internet, I used to mail away for the Chuck Jones Art Gallery catalog, which was about the size of a TV Guide. I wish I still had it.”
What made that childhood fascination particularly meaningful was the fact that Eric had eventually become part of the very world he’d spent so many years admiring. And even after achieving considerable success, he spoke about each new opportunity with the excitement of a fan who couldn’t quite believe his good fortune.
“I’ve had a chance to voice almost every one of my favorite cartoons as a kid. What pure luck. I think about it even today talking with you because I just had a session with another franchise that I can’t say what it is, but I just walked out of the session and I immediately called my brother. He’s always the first person I call. He was always the one next to me with a big bowl of cereal watching cartoons. To know in my lifetime, I got to not only witness it as a fan first, but to be a part of it later on in life to carry on whatever legacy it has, is incredible.”
Toward the end of our conversation, Eric enthusiastically agreed to perform a rapid-fire collection of Looney Tunes voices and then participate in a short interview as Bugs Bunny (both of which can be found at the edgrosswrites substack). It was a wonderful reminder of both his extraordinary talent and the sheer pleasure he seemed to derive from entertaining people. We eventually returned to discussing the voice actors who had inspired him, including Mel Blanc and June Foray, and the respect he had for their achievements.
“These are the godfathers and mothers on that Mount Rushmore for me,” he reflected. “But they did it first, they did it well, and I can only hope to be in the shadow of the skills that they had back in the day.”
I told him that I thought he held up pretty well alongside those legends, and I meant it. What strikes me now is that Eric Bauza never seemed to lose the wonder of being that kid watching cartoons with his brother, dreaming about the characters on the screen. He had the extraordinary opportunity to grow up and become their voice and their legacies, and judging from our conversation, he appreciated every minute of it.