Brad Swaile, an aspiring actor in Vancouver, B.C., was advancing through
the voice acting world. After a role in My Little Pony Tales, he got a
part in an odd Japanese animated cartoon called Ranma 1/2. After winning
the role of Mousse, "We were going through the scripts and I was having
a good time. Then I was told that my character, when splashed with water,
turned into a duck. You didn't know that? You'll be quacking for
the next three pages,'" he said. That was Swaile's introduction to the
world of Ranma and of Japanese animation. It moved him into roles in the
English-language dub of Gundam Wing and Video Girl Ai, but no role lasted
longer than Mousse - and no dubbed series lasted longer than Ranma, on
which production wrapped late in 2001.
Few roles would seem to be as radically different than Mousse in Ranma
and Nightcrawler in the most recent animated X-Men series, but Swaile does
them both. "It doesn't really take much," said Swaile about the back and
forth role switching, "especially if you get into a series. All you need
is to get thrown into the story and you can play the character. With anime
it's really simple...all you have to do is to watch it on the screen, especially
for Mousse. That character is so animated - you look and see Mousse theowing
stuff around and you instally get caught up. All you have to do is to see
it and something clicks."
Swaile is a college-trained graphics designer who also plays drums,
and he's not a full-time actor. That job doesn't pay well enough, but he
wishes it did. "I really love doing this, and if I could do this full time,
obviously I'd throw everything out and do this. But since it's a job to
job thing, it's not realiable enough or good enough. I've been able to
do this but it's not my only job." Some of Swaile's new rules include projects
for Viz Video and Bandai Entertainment on titles that are so secret he
couldn't mention them at Anime Central.
