When
Ani-Magic put ten dub voice actors on one small stage at the
convention's midpoint, the result was a collection of odd combinations.
Seated next to each other were veteran, strait-laced Maine actor Daniel
Kevin Harrison (left) and young, moderately uninhibited Vancouver
performer Michael Coleman (right). When fans asked the actors the roles
of which they were the most proud, Harrison said he was the most
pleased in his movie and television work, while Coleman said he liked
most the X-Men: Evolution series in which he played Sunspot. "I thought
that was very well done," Coleman said. The young Canadian actor spent
a lot of time talking about his work in the Hamtaro dub where he plays
Stan (Coleman's description of his character as the "sexy hamster"
became a running gag during the discussion). Coleman recalled the time
that he spotted a 14-year-old kid buying a Hamtaro book at a convention
and mentioned that he was one of the voices in that series, and the kid
didn't believe him. Harrison did admit to his own running joke in a
series, an inside gag based on the line "She looks like she needs a ham
sandwich."
Angora
Deb (left), who sat next to Fullmetal Alchemist actor Travis
Willingham, said one of the proudest parts of her dubbing and improv
career came when she was hired to work on a game for the Sega
Dreamcast. She auditioned for the role in her home base of New York,
but the recording sessions were held in Japan. "They ended up flying me
to Japan first class to do this," which probably cost the game company
thousands of dollars for the plane ticket alone. "This was the best job
I've ever had. I thought they must have heard something that they
really wanted." Deb's oddest acting experience came when she had one of
those dreaded one-word roles in the Boogie Pop Phantom dub, the part of
a deranged young woman who says "Brother? Brother?" over and over
again, each time with a different inflection and meaning.
Dub
actors are expected to stick to the scripts they're given, but Debra
Sale Butler (left) said they're constantly changing lines to match
their characters' on-screen mouth movements. "You get the script and
you'll say no way, that doesn't work at all. You start improvising and
one of those lines is going to fit. You have three words to say and
there are six lip flaps - it happens so often." Sometimes anime's odd
sexual situations catch actors by surprise, as Butler learned when she
found out that one of her characters had to react to being felt up by
another female. But what's going on when that sort of thing happens to
Porky Pig? Bob Bergen (right) said it was interesting when that
character had to say "My nipples are cold" in a Duck Dodgers series
episode. It's all part of the work for dub actors, who Bergen said need
to get lines right the first time, no matter what the emotions. And
often the biggest challenge isn't an original performance, but matching
the voices of other actors when it's time to replace curse words for
airline or TV versions of movies, or to replace inaudible dialogue,
Bergen said.
Samantha
Inoue-Harte (right), an artist and animator who was drafted as an actor
when her exceptionally high-pitched voice was discovered, was the only
person on the panel who had played both sides of the fence - voicing
lines in a script and animating those lines. And Harte said the link
between the two worlds was Bergen; she animated lines he had delivered
as Porky Pig for the Space Jam movie. "It took a week to animate one
sentence," she said. Harte's voice has gotten her roles as cute and
sweet girls, but they aren't always innocent girls. In Cosplay Complex,
"I was supposed to be this little fairy, and out of the blue there was
this character named Jenny who is trying to get into the other girls'
pants," Harte said. "Everyone's so horny." Convention newcomer Jason
Palmer (left), Ichiro in the Fighting Spirit anime, said he was
constantly amazed at the shifting relationships between characters in
that show.
Tiffany
Grant (left), who made the line "What are you, stupid," famous from her
Asuka role in Evangelion, noted that actors in long series such as that
will often tell a director that a line in a dub doesn't suit their
character. But when happens when the character doesn't stay "in
character," as happened in Blue Seed when her Khomei character ended up
hooking up with another character that seemed to be an enemy at first?
Hillary Haag (right), celebrated by Excel Saga fans when she barked out
the dub role of Menchi the dog, gets to speak actual lines next when
she plays the role of Rosette in the Chrono Crusade dub. That will be
far different than the dub role where Haag played a "lesbian bimbo
werewolf" who had to feel up another female character. It took Haag
plenty of takes to get those lines right because she kept laughing.
When
Ani-Magic put ten dub voice actors on one small stage at the
convention's midpoint, the result was a collection of odd combinations.
Seated next to each other were veteran, strait-laced Maine actor Daniel
Kevin Harrison (left) and young, moderately uninhibited Vancouver
performer Michael Coleman (right). When fans asked the actors the roles
of which they were the most proud, Harrison said he was the most
pleased in his movie and television work, while Coleman said he liked
most the X-Men: Evolution series in which he played Sunspot. "I thought
that was very well done," Coleman said. The young Canadian actor spent
a lot of time talking about his work in the Hamtaro dub where he plays
Stan (Coleman's description of his character as the "sexy hamster"
became a running gag during the discussion). Coleman recalled the time
that he spotted a 14-year-old kid buying a Hamtaro book at a convention
and mentioned that he was one of the voices in that series, and the kid
didn't believe him. Harrison did admit to his own running joke in a
series, an inside gag based on the line "She looks like she needs a ham
sandwich."
Angora
Deb (left), who sat next to Fullmetal Alchemist actor Travis
Willingham, said one of the proudest parts of her dubbing and improv
career came when she was hired to work on a game for the Sega
Dreamcast. She auditioned for the role in her home base of New York,
but the recording sessions were held in Japan. "They ended up flying me
to Japan first class to do this," which probably cost the game company
thousands of dollars for the plane ticket alone. "This was the best job
I've ever had. I thought they must have heard something that they
really wanted." Deb's oddest acting experience came when she had one of
those dreaded one-word roles in the Boogie Pop Phantom dub, the part of
a deranged young woman who says "Brother? Brother?" over and over
again, each time with a different inflection and meaning.
Dub
actors are expected to stick to the scripts they're given, but Debra
Sale Butler (left) said they're constantly changing lines to match
their characters' on-screen mouth movements. "You get the script and
you'll say no way, that doesn't work at all. You start improvising and
one of those lines is going to fit. You have three words to say and
there are six lip flaps - it happens so often." Sometimes anime's odd
sexual situations catch actors by surprise, as Butler learned when she
found out that one of her characters had to react to being felt up by
another female. But what's going on when that sort of thing happens to
Porky Pig? Bob Bergen (right) said it was interesting when that
character had to say "My nipples are cold" in a Duck Dodgers series
episode. It's all part of the work for dub actors, who Bergen said need
to get lines right the first time, no matter what the emotions. And
often the biggest challenge isn't an original performance, but matching
the voices of other actors when it's time to replace curse words for
airline or TV versions of movies, or to replace inaudible dialogue,
Bergen said.
Samantha
Inoue-Harte (right), an artist and animator who was drafted as an actor
when her exceptionally high-pitched voice was discovered, was the only
person on the panel who had played both sides of the fence - voicing
lines in a script and animating those lines. And Harte said the link
between the two worlds was Bergen; she animated lines he had delivered
as Porky Pig for the Space Jam movie. "It took a week to animate one
sentence," she said. Harte's voice has gotten her roles as cute and
sweet girls, but they aren't always innocent girls. In Cosplay Complex,
"I was supposed to be this little fairy, and out of the blue there was
this character named Jenny who is trying to get into the other girls'
pants," Harte said. "Everyone's so horny." Convention newcomer Jason
Palmer (left), Ichiro in the Fighting Spirit anime, said he was
constantly amazed at the shifting relationships between characters in
that show.
Tiffany
Grant (left), who made the line "What are you, stupid," famous from her
Asuka role in Evangelion, noted that actors in long series such as that
will often tell a director that a line in a dub doesn't suit their
character. But when happens when the character doesn't stay "in
character," as happened in Blue Seed when her Khomei character ended up
hooking up with another character that seemed to be an enemy at first?
Hillary Haag (right), celebrated by Excel Saga fans when she barked out
the dub role of Menchi the dog, gets to speak actual lines next when
she plays the role of Rosette in the Chrono Crusade dub. That will be
far different than the dub role where Haag played a "lesbian bimbo
werewolf" who had to feel up another female character. It took Haag
plenty of takes to get those lines right because she kept laughing.
