Earlier
in 2004, actor Carrie Savage spoke about how she addressed the role of
Rakka in the gentle Haibane-Renmei series. At that time, Savage was
taking on an even more challenging part, that of Hakufu in the bizarre
Ikki Tousen, a series that is as violent as Haibane is pacifist.
Playing the role of Ikki Tousen's battling high school required Savage
to dive into parts of her personality that she never had to deal with
as Rakka. "The ditzy part was easy, but there was some adjustment for
the energy and the tomboy part," said Savage. "The director got me
through that." Savage prefers to research a character and work out
their motivations, based on her own experiences. Sometimes she'll make
up a backstory and write a diary of that character's feelings as she
would imagine them. But what did Savage do when she was given the
Hakufu role that was so radically different from her personality, which
saw her nearly become a doctor and travel to Africa to help poor
children? "Hakufu loves to fight," Savage reasoned, "but I have no
athletic background at all. So I realized she loves fighting as much as
as I love acting, and I used that."
Also
on the same Anime USA acting panel was Canadian Janyse Jaud, who has
dubbed the role of fan favorite Felicia in Darkstalkers, and has
performed roles in Vancouver-based productions such as Ed Edd and Eddy,
My Little Pony, and Baby Looney Tunes (where she was the voice of
Melissa Duck). Jaud is one of the actors who feels that villains are
more fun to portray than heroes. Those characters are deeper and more
complex, Jaud said, which makes them more interesting to play. "If I'm
playing an evil character, I don't `go around killing people,' I think
about what would happen if someone came into my home and tried to
killed me - how would I react? I use that kind of substitution to get
that kind of strength and power behind me to portray that character,
but I try to add a little loveability in my evil characters." When you
hear actors say how their work doesn't always pay enough, Jaud can
testify that it's true, even in Vancouver. At one point her acting
career wasn't paying the bills so she had to work as a secretary. So of
course, when Jaud answered the phone, people would compliment her on
her voice and say she should become an actor.
When
late-arriving Monica Rial was asked about her work, she gave out the
secret to how she manages to pronounce all of the Japanese names and
titles in her anime dubs, along with all of the technobabble in series
such as Kiddy Grade. Rial's theatrical training and experience gives
her a leg up on being able to handle all of those words. A few years
performing Shakespeare and its centuries-old syntax, along with
figuring out the words in classical Greek plays, makes dub dialogue
seem easy by comparison. But even with Rial's stage background, she
said voice acting classes are a good thing to take - and the rest of
the actors on the panel agreed.
Also
on the same Anime USA acting panel was Canadian Janyse Jaud, who has
dubbed the role of fan favorite Felicia in Darkstalkers, and has
performed roles in Vancouver-based productions such as Ed Edd and Eddy,
My Little Pony, and Baby Looney Tunes (where she was the voice of
Melissa Duck). Jaud is one of the actors who feels that villains are
more fun to portray than heroes. Those characters are deeper and more
complex, Jaud said, which makes them more interesting to play. "If I'm
playing an evil character, I don't `go around killing people,' I think
about what would happen if someone came into my home and tried to
killed me - how would I react? I use that kind of substitution to get
that kind of strength and power behind me to portray that character,
but I try to add a little loveability in my evil characters." When you
hear actors say how their work doesn't always pay enough, Jaud can
testify that it's true, even in Vancouver. At one point her acting
career wasn't paying the bills so she had to work as a secretary. So of
course, when Jaud answered the phone, people would compliment her on
her voice and say she should become an actor.
When
late-arriving Monica Rial was asked about her work, she gave out the
secret to how she manages to pronounce all of the Japanese names and
titles in her anime dubs, along with all of the technobabble in series
such as Kiddy Grade. Rial's theatrical training and experience gives
her a leg up on being able to handle all of those words. A few years
performing Shakespeare and its centuries-old syntax, along with
figuring out the words in classical Greek plays, makes dub dialogue
seem easy by comparison. But even with Rial's stage background, she
said voice acting classes are a good thing to take - and the rest of
the actors on the panel agreed.
