I’m here from GamePress, and we cover games such as Fire Emblem Heroes, which you’ve voiced for, and also Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia. What are your thoughts on Fire Emblem in general, or the characters you voiced?
I was very excited just to work on a Fire Emblem project. I’m very familiar with the series, and it timed out in a very unique way, that as soon as Warriors came out, we were going to New York for a Comic Con, so we got to go to the Nintendo Store and walk in, and be like, “I’m in this! I’m in this cool store! There’s the stuff that I’ve worked on!”
It’s a huge honor, they’re a great team, and anytime I get to work on any sort of Fire Emblem project they’re very involved; they know how much these characters mean to the fans, and I love working with a team that cares.
So they know what they want, they know what they need to get, they’re also very open to me being goofy and weird, and when I did Echoes playing Mae, there was a lot of me being goofy and weird, and they embraced that, which was nice.
You had some very interesting lines. Do you have any particular favorites that you can remember?
She has one line where she talks about being really hyper, and I would record that first thing in the morning. While everybody else was dragging, as soon as I jumped in and started reading some of the Mae lines, I feel like she is my form of caffeine. I was just so excited to play her, while everyone is like, “Oh, man. This is 9 AM, this is rough.” And I’m like, “You know, once I jump in I’ll be ok!” I’d just start saying some of her lines, and she’s just so much fun! I haven’t voiced Mae in like, probably 2 years, but luckily with Heroes, sometimes they’ll have some updated lines that we’ll get to do for the app, and so whenever they call me in to do something I’m like, “Do we get to do more Mae? Do I get to be silly and crazy?” “Not today. Today you’re serious. Today you’re focused - you’re a princess.”
Do you have any thoughts on alternate characters, like Caeda?
That one I was very nervous about, obviously, because she’s showed up in previous games, and there’s a lot of pressure to make everybody happy with that performance. Everybody’s been so supportive, which is why it’s so great to work with that team. I just really had to trust in them and say, “If you guys are happy, I’m happy.” I’m going into this, I’m going to do the best I can based on the direction, but if this is what you want, cool. And then when the fans say, “No, this is great!” It’s like, “OK! I will trust them with my life!”
Transitioning to that, how do you feel when you’re voicing really famous characters? Like voicing Asuna for Sword Art Online?
It’s very exciting, first of all, but any time an audition comes through, with Sword Art I didn’t know that it was going to be Sword Art when I auditioned. I’d seen a couple of episodes and thought it was a really cool series, but I didn’t know that it was going to be as big of a show a it is, and the fans would enjoy it as much as they do. But when you’re working for bigger franchises, like I know I auditioned for the DLC of Horizon Zero Dawn, and I was terrified, because it’s *Horizon Zero Dawn*, and I auditioned for Call of Duty last year, and was like, “This is crazy to be able to work on this franchise because it’s so iconic.”
And so I had been training for a marathon, and I fractured and sprained my ankle right before both of those auditions came up, and they said “We want to call you back. And it’s motion capture.” And I was like, “Ohh no!!”
So I went in, on crutches, for Horizon Zero Dawn, and they said, “How quickly do you think this can heal?” And I said, “I think this is just a sprain.” 3 weeks later, I say, “I think it’s not just a sprain.” I go in to the doctor, and he says, “You fractured it, this is rough.” So he put me in a boot, and in that time they had cast me as Ikrie, and they said, “We got a lot of time to play with. We got time to rehearse, and so I had a month to heal. In that interim, I also got cast in Call of Duty, and they said, “It’s only going to be from the waist up! So you can just sit in a chair the whole time while you record, it’ll be ok!” So it all worked out. But all of those things, it’s so intimidating because so many people know the franchises, know the shows, with Fairy Tail it was the same situation.
It’s so exciting because while it’s great to be a part of things people know, and people are excited about, and at the same time you’re like, “They’re excited, they can either be this passionately excited, or this passionately angry.” I know when we got cast in Boruto, that was our concern. It was like, “Man, those Boruto fans, they’re either going to love you, or they’re going to take you out to the playground and lock you up in a corner.” And so the very first time that Robbie and Amanda and I went out, the Boruto fans were like, “Whoa! Welcome to the family!” And we started crying. We’re like, “OK! We have friends!”
That sounds very relieving.
Yes! Absolutely.
Are there any feelings you have on dubbing something compared to original voice acting?
They’re different, just in the sense that for dubbing we already have the material available to us, and a lot of that is going to inform our performance. And I’ve talked to some people and they find that very stifling. I think it’s a very fun challenge - you have different challenges with the job. When you’re doing original animation, usually they’ll give you a rough sketch, maybe an animatic, sometimes you don’t even get that; they’ll just describe a character to you.
Sometimes you get to work with other actors, and your performance gets to involve based on what they’re giving, but sometimes you’re just by yourself, so it’s a lot of imagining, creating a world because you’re going in blind, but with dubbing, we always record by ourselves. We have a director who has recorded other actors, or knows what they’re going to want to get. We’ve talked to the Japanese team in knowing what they want to get from the dub, or Korean team, whatever the original language is.
I love getting to see the animation, and sometimes I’m working on a project now where I love, love working on, it’s one of my favorite things to work on, they wanted it to feel like a film. And because my background is on film and on-camera acting, it’s kind of bringing the two worlds together. And we’re trying to make this animated movie feel as real as possible. And that’s kind of cool - to be able to do the movement with them, and have everything happening. And it’s a little frustrating, because sometimes you’re like “That’s not how I would run, or jump, and I don’t know how to make that sound, or how they make it sound realistic. But that’s the fun, and that’s the challenge. And when it fits, the whole team is like, “We did that! That looks really cool!” So it’s really exciting. I love working on *all* of the above.
It sounds like there’s a lot of collaboration between all the different parties you need to talk to. So what is the process like behind that? Like what are some of the difficulties, etc.?
Well I think one of the difficulties in collaboration is when I worked on-camera for some projects, the director needs to talk with the DP, and the Producer, and my husband and I created and produced a webseries called “Confessionals,” and I was acting in it, he was acting in it, he was also directing, and he wrote it, we’re all producing. So that was like so much collaboration happening, and that can be tricky because you love the project, you want it to do well, and you’re sort of spread super thin, so I know there’s a lot of directors I will work with, that are also writing, and also acting in the project, and that can be kind of tricky when they’re so involved. Some of them are fantastic, and they’re just made for that. And being able to wear all of those hats, is the reason the project turns out as great as it does. But some people just get so overwhelmed, or in it, they don’t have that wide view of how the project’s going to turn out. So that can be tricky.
Definitely when we’re working on a dubbing project we have to talk with the original team, and making sure on the choices we’re making. I know we were working on a dub a couple of years ago, called Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, and Scanty and Kneesocks are all about the rules. So in the Japanese, in the original, they would roll the r’s, so it would be like, “Rrrrules!” We did not do that in the English dub, and a lot of fans were upset, and so I asked why we didn’t do it, and they said, “The Japanese team specifically said that we not, because that’s a cultural thing and part of a joke for us, and the joke would not translate with the changes we’re making just to dub it.” And so she said, it’s kind of frustrating, because we have fans that are like, “That’s what I remember! Why wouldn’t it translate?” But you know, you gotta do what the boss wants.
Localization sounds like there’s a lot of compromises.
Yes. And little things that you don’t think about, like alliterations. So if somebody is like “Princess Pirate Penelope”, and then when you translate those words, they do not have the same alliteration, but some of the jokes evolve about people stumbling over how many p’s are in her name. So we gotta figure out how do we localize this so it still makes sense, even though the words we’re changing it to don’t allow for that. So there’s a lot of tricks to that, which is why I really love the writers and the translators and the directors for working so hard to make that happen. And sometimes they’ll just say, “I do not know how to make this line work, or how to make this line funny, what do you think?” And then we’ll all work together, which is great.
Do you have any recent projects you’re working on that you’re allowed to talk about?
Yes. As soon as you said that I was like, “Yes I do,” and I thought of all the ones I’m not allowed to talk about. I worked on Digimon. I’ve been doing that for a couple of years. We just did a new movie. Doing more Sailor Moon. I just started recording Steins; Gate, (Steins; Gate 0). So I’m back as Suzuha, and I’m also playing Suzuha’s mom, Yuki, as well. As soon as I said that, I’m like, “Oh, am I allowed to say that?” Yes, they announced it.
We all get very paranoid when we’re announcing things, because we’re like, “Is someone going to come down from the ceiling and chop my head off after I say this?” And then I also got announced to be in My Hero Academia, which was very fun. I’m Pixie Bob in that, so I get to be a cat girl, and be loud and obnoxious and crazy, which is *so fun*. And I worked on Twin Star Exorcists, And… what other things am I allowed to talk about… I don’t know… I’ll think of some other things, after I’m less scared. I almost let 5 things slip just now, which would’ve resulted in my immediate death. But I’m really excited for when those do come out.
So are there any anime or games that you would like to see dubbed, or come over to the US?
Yeah! I would love to get back and just do more Fairy Tail. They say there’s one more season, and they say we’re more than likely going to dub it, but nobody has said “This is when it’s happening,” and I never trust it until I’m in the booth, and it’s happening. So that would be great to get back into, just cause I’ve voiced her for seven years, and I miss her. I would love to get back and do more Sword Art, that would be fun.
As far as things I haven’t been a part of that I’d like to work on, I always thought it would be fun to be in My Little Pony, just as a random rock with a hair bow or something, I just think it would be fun. I think it would be really fun to be in a Mario game, just as like a random creature. Just because I love Mario Party. Maybe I can be a talking star. Maybe at one point there’s a level where you get a talking star.
Next Mario game?
YES PLEASE! I should just start telling the people, when I work on Fire Emblem, be like, “So about the stars… have you guys ever thought about if one talked?” We’ll see. They probably will not take me seriously.
What kind of characters do you enjoy voicing the most? Like of all your different voices, all your different characters?
Well, I used to say that I never got to play lower-voiced characters, but I started working on RWBY and I voiced Ilia, and that led to doing A2 in Nier, and then I was doing all low voiced characters. So I think those are very fun to play, because I am very clearly not someone that is a “Take-no-Prisoners” kind of person, and really rough and tumble, but it’s nice to be able to show that side of myself, and feel like I could maybe take down the bad guys, because I know in reality I would not do that well. But, it’s fun to play.
I also think it’s really fun to play the quirky weird characters, like Mae, like Gaige, in Borderlands, who are just so off the wall, so weird, and ramble all the time, that’s a blast. Another character that I would like to play that I haven’t gotten to do yet is sort of like a hacker. I’ve always loved those hackers in those procedural shows, that always save the day from the safety of their office. No danger of being shot at, but they’re super intense, cool people.
I think you played Makoto in Persona 5?
That’s true! Makoto was like that. But she was like in the action. But she was super wise, and super smart. I loved getting to voice her. She got to have both sides: the sweet, intelligent, straight-laced side, and the “You don’t mess with her,” the spikes are coming out!
Do you have any thoughts on the increasing growth of the Anime industry, and how so many more people are getting involved?
I love it! When I was in high school, the anime club was something like Fight Club, you didn’t talk about it. You met after school, in like the back hallway, and maybe watched anime and talked about a couple things, and there were like seven people there, and it’s always the same seven people. And now, I feel everybody is more loud and proud about their fandom, and you can buy t-shirts everywhere, and it’s sort of like this cool thing. I felt like before there was anime, and there was like western animation, and now it’s like, “No, why can’t we love both? They’re both great.”
I had a really cool moment where I went to Comic Con, San Diego Comic Con for the first time, and my dad is a huge Green Bay Packers fan, and so I became a huge Green Bay Packers fan, and we were at the convention, and VizMedia said, “Yeah, we’re working with Mike Daniels,” “The defensive tackle from the Packers Mike Daniels?” And they were like, “Yeah, he’s here with us this week again. He’s been cosplaying with us.” “I’m sorry, what?” “Do you want to meet him?” “Yes!” He came to the Sailor Moon panel, and he’s a huge DBZ, huge Naruto, huge Sailor Moon fan, and it was a very cool moment to be like, “This is an NFL Football player that loves anime,” and I ended up getting to go take my family to Lambeau Field, and he’s wonderful, and his family is great. Met some of the other players, and they were like, “Yeah, I’m a huge gamer, and I love anime!” And I’m like, “This is so cool!” So it was like a really cool thing - you would never associate football players, athletes, and jocks, with anime. And now those worlds are merging. It’s a very exciting time to be in the business.
And there’s so much anime available. I feel like it used to be you would wait for years and years and years, or months and months for your favorite show to come over, and now with the simul-dubs it’s almost instantaneous, which is cool.
What is your most interesting voice acting experience?
Most interesting…
Most fun, or most ridiculous?
I have experiences which are super, super fun, and moments where I feel so lucky that this is my job, and the next moment I’m doing something so absurd and ridiculous that I can’t believe this is an actual job, and that happens in the span of every 15 minutes.
There was one day where I recorded-- it was actually a day where I recorded dubbing in the morning, and it was like a really cool, strong character, and then I did a children’s animation show prelay, where I was a goat, and I had to sing, and he kinda had anger issues so he headbutted people a lot, and then in the afternoon I was doing Call of Duty. At 6 o'clock I was done, and my husband was like, “So how was your day?” And I said, “Well, I was a superhero, and then I was a singing goat, and then I was in Call of Duty. This is a weird, cool day!”
And I felt so accomplished at the end of the day. But sometimes when you think back, there are moments when I’ll play a character when they’re really emotional, or terrible things happen, and they’ll watch their family get killed, or they’ll be running or hiding from some crazy thing that’s after them, and I will wonder why I’m so exhausted, and I’ll replay the day and be, “Well, you did watch eighteen people die, and then you were responsible in another show for killing four people, and then you were hiding from that crazy monster.” And then you go, “OK, I was going through all those emotions, I guess I have had a trying day. Been locked in a box, making a lot of weird noises. So it is kind of a ridiculous job, but I love it so much.
