SpongeBob SquarePants has a new movie, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, that focuses on the titular character wanting to be a big guy. What is a big guy? Is it someone who isn’t afraid to ride on a roller coaster? Is it someone fearless when on an adventure? The film follows SpongeBob, Patrick, and the gang as they discover what it truly means to be a big guy.

The actor who voices SpongeBob SquarePants is Tom Kenny, whose voice is recognized by millions worldwide. The entertainer shares the moment when he felt like a big guy.

“Well, I think being a big guy in this movie is just learning to be your authentic self and be comfortable with that, right?” Kenny tells Nerd Reactor. “But I think this business can knock you around so hard. Even now, we’re on a show that’s popular, but we still audition for stuff all the time that we don’t get. And so, I think when I really felt like a big guy was when I was doing stand-up. I was a stand-up comedian, and my parents got to come down and see me on the David Letterman show.”

Voicing SpongeBob’s friend, Patrick, is Bill Fagerbakke, who shared with us his big guy moments.

“For me, it’s two things,” Fagerbakke said. “One is in ’83. I moved to New York, and I had two months’ worth of money before I had to start working somewhere. And after six weeks, I got in an off-Broadway show, and I went, ‘Wow!’

“And the other one was I got to do a commercial that ran quite a bit. So my father, who passed away when I was in my 20s, got to see that commercial, and he was very proud of it. And he would tell people, ‘Hey, have you seen that Sprite commercial?!’ And he would like to repeat that, and so that made me very happy.”

One legendary comedian helped Kenny realize that his career as a performer was going somewhere.

“Before I had done anything, even before that Letterman thing, which was long before I was doing voiceovers, my folks came out to visit me in San Francisco,” Kenny recalled. “Robin Williams came into a comedy club that I was doing, and he told them I was funny. And that’s when they stopped worrying about me. ‘Oh, you’re so funny. He’s got very original material and a good voice. He’s going to be fine.’ And they were like, ‘Wow! Mork just told us that our kid’s going to be okay.’ We were like, ‘Alright, maybe I’m on the right track.'”

About The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants

Synopsis: SpongeBob and his Bikini Bottom friends set sail in their biggest, all-new, can’t miss cinematic event ever…The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants. Desperate to be a big guy, SpongeBob sets out to prove his bravery to Mr. Krabs by following The Flying Dutchman – a mysterious swashbuckling ghost pirate – on a seafaring comedy-adventure that takes him to the deepest depths of the deep sea, where no Sponge has gone before.

The film is directed by Derek Drymon and written by Pam Brady and Matt Lieberman from a story by Marc Ceccarelli & Kaz and Pam Brady.

The cast includes Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown, Rodger Bumpass, Bill Fagerbakke, Carolyn Lawrence, Mr. Lawrence, George Lopez, Isis “Ice Spice” Gaston, Arturo Castro, Sherry Cola with Regina Hall and Mark Hamill.

The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants releases in theaters on December 19, 2025.