Adult Swim's smash animated series "Rick and Morty" recently unleashed its ninth season, and it's already shaping up to be one of the best seasons so far, with plenty of interdimensional shenanigans, existential excursions, evolutionary entanglements, hostile living room furniture, a potential trip to Boob World, and Pool Time!
We chatted to the creators Dan Harmon and Scott Marder earlier this month, but now we're catching up with the main cast to hear from Ian Cardoni (Rick), Sarah Chalke (Beth), Harry Belden (Morty), and Spencer Grammer (Summer) on the rigors of voice acting, playing in the multiverse, and watching all your plosives.
"We've got what we would consider classic adventures, balanced by a lot of fresh and new directions for these characters and for these stories," Cardoni tells Space.
"I can honestly say that some of my favorite moments of episodes of the whole series run are coming in season 9, and I'm excited for fans to see that. Sci-fi in its best form is human stories. It may be our future, and I think we get glimpses of that by tapping into the human elements. With all the wacky hijinks that take place, we're in for a really amazing season and some real good science fiction."
Those hijinks call for some suitably animated vocal performances from the vast though. "These are voices that take a toll, even when it’s not a session, when it requires the intense gravel or yelling of Rick," explains Cardoni.
"It requires your full instrument. I like to prep with a full cardio workout because oxygen support is what you need. Then I go on vocal rest before and after sessions. I have all kinds of warm, hot, viscous liquids to soothe. I use a vocal steamer. Harry [Belden] is really religious about his regimen, but I’ve got my own way to get myself into the voice, but not burn out. Voice acting is acting. And the show doesn’t pull any punches emotionally."
Chalke relishes her time playing Beth and Space Beth and adamantly declares season 9 as her favorite season they’ve ever done.
"There's a couple of specific episodes, 'Salute Your Morts' and 'Jer Bud' where you really get to go deeper into the relationships," she notes. "The fun part of 'Rick and Morty' as an actor is all the unique challenges because there's no limits and because it's a multiverse and because the show can go anywhere, you’re always doing things with your voice you've never done before.
"None of us have to do the voice intensity Ian does with Rick. You're working those vocal chords so hard with the burping and all of that," Chalke remarks to Cardoni. "For me, Space Beth is more in that direction than Beth. So I always record all of that first and Space Beth second because she has more of a gravelly, raspy quality to it. It's whatever you need to do to make it grounded and as real as you can."
For Belden, it was gratifying for Morty to experience a great deal of personal growth this season.
"There are a lot of intense situations that he finds himself in, and I’m excited for fans to see him go through that and come out the other side," he adds. "For me, my favorite episode is going to be the finale ["Field of Dreams"] for sure, and the journey that Morty goes on. There's so much good stuff in there."
Regarding his own regimen of keeping his vocal health tip-top, Belden explains:
"I like to run a couple of miles before I start, stretch out the entire body, do the actual vocal warmups. Morty being such a particular voice, I need a lot of breath support, so I have a wide stance and create a powerful base. I’m expanding my ribcage to support myself. And that’s not without even getting into tongue placement, spreading your lips wide to get the sound out, watching your plosives on the letter 'p.' It's all this stuff you would never ever think about."
Grammer is thrilled to see some fan favorite characters make return cameos in season 9, as we get to watch Summer and Morty just being terrible teenagers, and loves the fact that the Smith family gets a swimming pool.
"I kind of learned on the job about 14 years ago," she reveals. "I was trained as an actor though, so I have a pretty good vocal ability. But it's very demanding, especially as you get older. There’s these tiny muscles and tiny folds. The last few years, I’ve really devoted to vocal health and got to a place where I can comfortably do the Summer role really well."
Grammer has really embraced the role of Summer, but it's also led to some major lifestyle changes for her. "You have to choose where you want to live. I don’t see a lot of people now. I just work a lot", explains Grammer.
"I can’t go to a party that’s going to be loud and talk to people. And that's fine. Alcohol is really bad for hydration, so I don’t really drink anymore. I’m constantly drinking water or something really slimy all the time. I have a whole kit of just things for your voice that I always take with me."
Executive produced by Dan Harmon and showrunner Scott Marder, "Rick and Morty season 9" airs Sundays at 11 p.m. on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, and will also begin streaming weekly on Hulu and HBO Max starting June 15, 2026.
