English-language voice actors remain among the most popular and notable
guests of honor at anime conventions. Fans either love or hate their performances,
and a surprising number of fans want to be voice actors. So when (left
to right) actors Jason Douglas, Brett Weaver and Jessica Calvello appeared
at Ushicon on Friday, they were asked how to develop acting skills. "Do
more plays," answered Weaver. "The best way to be an actor is to act. Taking
the classes is great, but you need to be on the stage." Added Calvello,
"Voice acting can't be taught. You either have it or you don't being an
actor doesn't mean that you can be a voice actor," adding that she didn't
like Billy Bob Thornton's dub performance in Princess Mononoke,
even though she's enjoyed Thornton's acting in live-action films.
Douglas had some cogent comments on acting as a job and as an art.
"People have to decide if they want to be an actor as a career or as an
avocation. You have to be able to develop that improvisational skill, to
be able to turn on a dime and develop characters quickly." To Douglas,
acting goes beyond the performance of literature to the skill of literacy
and language. "It goes to how well you learned language and how well you
read. If you love to read things, that could lead to acting as an avocation.
I probably buy five or ten times as many book as I could possibly read.
Acting is to some degree an intellectual exercise. In order to be able
to do it well, you have to be quick and smart."
Attending his second anime convention (he had been a guest of honor
at Anime Weekend Atlanta in 2001), Douglas was impressed with fandom. "I
hold them in the highest regard. I was surprised - people were coming up
to me and asking questions about obscure characters," such as the small
part he had in Dirty Pair. "The fans knew the characters I played
better than I did, which increased my appreciation of them." Weaver said
he enjoyed the chances that conventions gave him to see cities and people
he would not otherwise get to see. The free plane tickets made Weaver feel
even better about conventions.
