Ohayocon Panels - Stephanie Nadolny,
Tiffany Grant and Jonathan Osborne
One of the
odd practices of voice acting is that boys' voices often are performed
by women. You'll find that in Japan, where the voice of teen boy Shinji
Ikari in Evangelion was provided by a woman, and in the U.S., where the
Dragon Ball voices of Goku and teen Gokan were played by Stephanie Nadolny.
"My main characters have been boys," Nadolny said. "Having a female's voice
doing the voice of a small child makes sense." The reasons are that boys'
voices will turn lower as they grow up, a disadvantage in a long-running
series, and experienced female actors usually are better performers than
boys. "It's standard now. Even in Fruits Basket, for a boy's character
they started auditioning female actors. I don't know any boy characters
at our studio (Funimation in Texas) that are voiced by males." That doesn't
make it easy for the female actor when the boy has to sound rough and tough.
For the Dragon Ball rendition of one boy's voice, "When I was speaking
they had me reference Clint Eastwood. I was in so much pain afterwards...when
you have to sound like a young boy you don't want to sound like a cutesy
little boy."
Even veteran
actor Tiffany Grant has "done boys" in AD Vision dubs. "A lot of times
people don't recognize it's me," she said. The exceptions from ADV came
when the studio redubbed the Nadia of the Mysterious Seas series three
years ago and used child actors in the lead roles, and in the Spriggan
movie where a 12-year-old boy was cast in the difficult role of the demonic
Col. McDougal - after the producers auditioned several females for the
role. Those child actors were unusually talented, Grant noted. One place
where adult female actors can have an advantage over boys is in handling
the demands of the dubbing studio, where lines have to be delivered convincingly
and with the precise timing needed to match the original animation's lip
flaps. And not every role is cheerful. "If you're working on something
more serious like Noir or Evangelion the mood is more serious," said Grant.
"It's more unsettling if you're doing a scene where there's death or suffering."
Speaking
of death and suffering: Jonathan Osborne, the master of dying grunts and
groans, had some wild recording studio stories about what it's like to
make those vital, yet undistinguished "walla" noises. Once Osborne was
in a studio one fight sounds, and as other actors left he was the only
one left. So Osborne ended up making most of the fight noises and playing
the role of a dog. (Yes, dub studios usually choose to recreate that background
noise, regardless of the sound tracks they get from Japan.) In a dub session
for The Big O, there was a scene at a masked party where the guests' masks
caught on fire. Strapped for motivation, Osborne said "I was thinking `My
head is on fire, what life experience can I compare this to?" Listen very,
very closely to an anime dubbed by certain California studios where there's
a fight scene and you may be able to hear Osborne shouting, "Yarrgh, my
eyes! My eyes!"
One of the
odd practices of voice acting is that boys' voices often are performed
by women. You'll find that in Japan, where the voice of teen boy Shinji
Ikari in Evangelion was provided by a woman, and in the U.S., where the
Dragon Ball voices of Goku and teen Gokan were played by Stephanie Nadolny.
"My main characters have been boys," Nadolny said. "Having a female's voice
doing the voice of a small child makes sense." The reasons are that boys'
voices will turn lower as they grow up, a disadvantage in a long-running
series, and experienced female actors usually are better performers than
boys. "It's standard now. Even in Fruits Basket, for a boy's character
they started auditioning female actors. I don't know any boy characters
at our studio (Funimation in Texas) that are voiced by males." That doesn't
make it easy for the female actor when the boy has to sound rough and tough.
For the Dragon Ball rendition of one boy's voice, "When I was speaking
they had me reference Clint Eastwood. I was in so much pain afterwards...when
you have to sound like a young boy you don't want to sound like a cutesy
little boy."
Even veteran
actor Tiffany Grant has "done boys" in AD Vision dubs. "A lot of times
people don't recognize it's me," she said. The exceptions from ADV came
when the studio redubbed the Nadia of the Mysterious Seas series three
years ago and used child actors in the lead roles, and in the Spriggan
movie where a 12-year-old boy was cast in the difficult role of the demonic
Col. McDougal - after the producers auditioned several females for the
role. Those child actors were unusually talented, Grant noted. One place
where adult female actors can have an advantage over boys is in handling
the demands of the dubbing studio, where lines have to be delivered convincingly
and with the precise timing needed to match the original animation's lip
flaps. And not every role is cheerful. "If you're working on something
more serious like Noir or Evangelion the mood is more serious," said Grant.
"It's more unsettling if you're doing a scene where there's death or suffering."
Speaking
of death and suffering: Jonathan Osborne, the master of dying grunts and
groans, had some wild recording studio stories about what it's like to
make those vital, yet undistinguished "walla" noises. Once Osborne was
in a studio one fight sounds, and as other actors left he was the only
one left. So Osborne ended up making most of the fight noises and playing
the role of a dog. (Yes, dub studios usually choose to recreate that background
noise, regardless of the sound tracks they get from Japan.) In a dub session
for The Big O, there was a scene at a masked party where the guests' masks
caught on fire. Strapped for motivation, Osborne said "I was thinking `My
head is on fire, what life experience can I compare this to?" Listen very,
very closely to an anime dubbed by certain California studios where there's
a fight scene and you may be able to hear Osborne shouting, "Yarrgh, my
eyes! My eyes!"
