Stephen Colbert may be getting ready to say goodbye to being in front of the camera, at least for a while, but the man is certainly not having any issues finding work, even if you can’t see him.
The long-time late-night host certainly has a distinctive voice, and so when you hear him, you tend to notice. Fans of Star Trek heard him recently as the voice of the Digital Dean of Students on Starfleet Academy. However, that's not his only heard but not seen role on streaming these days. He also appeared in the first episode of The Testaments.
The series is a follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale. In the first episode, one of the characters turns on a hidden radio in order to listen to Radio Free Boston, and the DJ is very recognizable. Showrunner Bruce Miller tells EW he was very thankful Colbert was willing to be involved, saying…
He very kindly did that for us, and I couldn't think of anybody more appropriate to have on Radio Free Boston as the announcer.
Miller is open that the reason he felt Colbert was an appropriate choice was that The Late Show host is known as somebody willing to speak truth to power. This made him a fitting voice of the resistance to an authoritarian government as seen in The Testaments.
Of course, Colbert’s speaking out about those in power has arguably gotten him in some trouble. It’s been suggested that Colbert’s criticism of Paramount’s lawsuit settlement with President Trump contributed to the decision to cancel The Late Show. Of course, as Miller joked, the fact that the show was ending meant that Colbert might have been more open to the voice cameo…
You know, I knew that he'd be available, and he probably needed work.
Colbert’s cameo isn’t without precedent. The Handmaid’s Tale had an iconic, and equally fitting, voice cameo as well when Oprah Winfrey appeared in the series. Bruce Miller thinks the two cameos fit very well together because of what they mean to people, which is something that the audience watching the show will certainly understand. He continued…
I thought he'd be great for the job. He was wonderful to do it. I feel like he's been a voice, you know. He's a voice of America I was putting out on the airways. It's just like Oprah. Knowing who Oprah was, knowing Stephen Colbert, his voice, even The Colbert Report that he used to do, all of that put together into a free speech context, and what America should stand for was fascinating. And look, it only took 16 words!
The incredibly short length of the appearance may have actually had quite a lot to do with why Colbert agreed to appear. The host recently admitted that he hasn’t been able to consider his post-Late Show career much because hosting the show is still a full-time job. So he likely won’t be able to think about the future until the show wraps its run next month.
Once the show does finish its run, however, Colbert may certainly appear in more places. We know he’s working on the screenplay for an upcoming Lord of the Rings movie, and knowing that Starfleet Academy has another season on the way, I hope he returns as the Digital Dean of Students. If anybody else wants to hire him as a voice actor, it seems like he'll take the call.
