Steve Burns is reflecting on his time as the beloved host of Blue’s Clues, revealing in a recent interview that, despite the show’s massive success, he was struggling as a voiceover actor behind the scenes. In an episode of Rainn Wilson’s Soul Boom podcast on May 1, Burns, now 51, opened up about how he stumbled into the role and his life as an aspiring actor before achieving fame.
Burns shared that his journey to Blue’s Clues began unexpectedly. While attending a small theater school in Pennsylvania, Burns won an award at a regional competition, which ultimately led him to earn recognition at the prestigious Kennedy Center. “I was in college in a very small theater school in Pennsylvania, and I had won an award in my little regional thing,” Burns recalled. “And then that advanced, and eventually, I won an award at the Kennedy Center for being a swell actor.”
What Exactly Did Steve Burns Say?
In the early 1990s, Burns moved to New York City, dreaming of making it big. “I moved to New York City in the early ’90s with dreams of being an unknown actor who did Off-Broadway stuff, or to be Al Pacino — one or the other,” he said. But life in New York proved to be challenging. Burns lived in a cramped hallway apartment in Times Square, stating, “I lived in a hallway. I built like a little shelf in a hallway between two tiny bedrooms across the street from a parking lot above the Army-Navy on 42nd Street.”
Despite the early struggles, Burns’s role on Blue’s Clues came at a time when his acting career was still taking off, and he was barely making ends meet. “I got Blue’s Clues early, but every waiter I ever knew made more money than I did for the first many seasons of that show,” he admitted. “But I was really fortunate, because Blue’s Clues was my side hustle forever. My real gig was, I was a voiceover guy. I fell into that early.”
Though voiceover work in commercials helped keep him afloat, Burns described the experience as “grim.” He was surviving, but not thriving. Then, one day, an audition came along for what he thought was a simple cartoon voiceover job. Little did he know, this would lead to his role as the host of Blue’s Clues. “And one day I had an audition for what I thought was to be the voice of a cartoon on a children’s television show,” Burns explained. “And if I had known that it was to be the guy on the show, on camera, I wouldn’t have gone.”
At the time, Burns was a “pretentious young man,” and children’s television wasn’t even on his radar. “I thought it was a voice thing, I went to the audition. And when I got there, there was a camera in the room. And I thought, ‘Oh, s—. I better do something,'” he recalled. Burns said he improvised and gave it his all, despite thinking he was unqualified for the job. “I looked at the script, and, you know, I figured … I’m gonna act the s— out of this.”
Burns, with his long hair and cigarettes in his pocket, didn’t think he had much of a chance. “I thought for sure that I wasn’t gonna get that part.” But against all odds, he landed the role and became the host of Blue’s Clues from 1996 to 2002, a gig that made him a household name.
Beyond his television career, Burns also shared personal struggles, including his battles with mental health. He spoke candidly about the rumors of his death that plagued the Internet for a decade. “My continued existence was an inconvenient truth, apparently… That was something I would hear from people. ‘Oh, I thought you were dead. Didn’t you die?'” Burns said. He noted that the rumors persisted for ten years, making him feel like it was almost culturally accepted that he was no longer alive. “When it persists for 10 years, it feels like a cultural preference… you start to feel like you’re supposed to be.”
Burns eventually sought professional help to deal with the toll the rumors and his mental health struggles took on him. He began working with a therapist and adopted some of the same practices he had once taught on Blue’s Clues. “And it wasn’t until I did that in my life, in my real life, that things changed,” he explained. Burns, channeling the advice of his former character, often asked viewers, “Will you help me?” He realized that reaching out for help was the key to his healing.
Steve Burns’ reflections provide a glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of his career, offering fans a deeper understanding of the man behind the iconic blue-shirted host. From humble beginnings in a hallway apartment to navigating the pressures of fame and mental health, Burns’s journey is a testament to resilience and growth.
