DVJ 2.0

In Bed With the Voice Actors

Interview With: Richard Epcar, Luci Christian, Monica Rial, Chris Sabat, Chuck Huber, and Chris Patton

As part of our effort to bring you the most complete features in the anime community, DVD Vision Japan has just unearthed 20 minutes of additional recording material with the voice actors.  To help you know where the changes are, just look for any underlined questions.

Some of the major changes include VA Chuck Huber's encouraging words about Anime fans, what it's like to work in the industry, and if Monica Rial can pee in the bathroom, or the corner!

Welcome to the interview extravaganza with DVD Vision Japan! Our fearless leader (Matthew Anderson) was fortunate (and insane enough) to be able to schedule an up close and (sometimes a little too personal) interview with the American VAs that attended Otakon 2004 in the comfort of Chris Sabat's hotel room (woo woo). Along with reporters Lisa Z, Eric Martinez from Anime Web Turnpike and Kevin Lilard from A Fans View, we got to spend a hour with these talented actors.

The interview was conducted on Saturday, 31 Aug 2004 with (l to r):

• Chris Sabat (Vegeta from "DBZ")
• Luci Christian (Kaname from "Full Metal Panic")
• Chris Patton (Sousuke from "Full Metal Panic")
• Monica Rial (Lumiere from "Kiddy Grade)
• Chuck Huber (Android 17 from "DBZ")
• Richard Epcar (Batou from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex).

(We would like to thank Kevin Lilard from A Fans View and Lisa Z along with Eric Martinez from Anime Web Turnpike for the use of pictures for this feature and for helping to make this a great feature.)

So, without further ado DVJ is proud to present, to you the American Voice Actors- In bed, together.

---

Press -What is the difference between doing Robotech and the stuff you do today?

VAs-Richard-When we started doing Robotech in the "back in the good ol' Days" we didn't have beeps, we didn’t have Pro Tools, we didn’t have or any of that stuff so basically we had to go by the time code, the strike that’s on film and have to grab a number off the script and you’d basically have to grab it..it’s kinda like "combat dubbing" You know, you have to go in and do that and we did that and we had to do as many takes as it took to get it in the mouth and we couldn’t move it around like you can today. Today we can move stuff around we can pull it up, push it back, expand, and contract it, all kinds of stuff. We can split the line in half, we can move words around- its fantastic what we can do now with ProTools. So from that standpoint it’s a much better, much easier way to work today. It was a little tougher back then. When we did Robotech we did it at like 2:00 in the morning @ Intersound on Sunset and basically we would come in and actors would be sleeping in the halls and on the stairs. It was pretty exciting. It was crazy. I think we made, I dunno, like $3.50 or something ridiculous in those days.  It wasn't actually quite that bad.

Laughter

Richard-We had a picture of the character, but we had no beeps, we had no ProTools. And we had to walk to the studio in the snow. Uphill.

Luci – both ways?

Press – barefoot in gravel?

Laughter

Richard – Yeah. These kids (points to other VA’s) have it EASY!!

Press-How about acting styles?

Richard- I think some of the stuff- depends on the show, some shows are really over the top. Some are much more natural I think. I think in the robotech days it was much more over the top. I think it really depends on what the director wants and what the show is calling for. That’s why I like working with myself as director. To tell the truth you just try to go in and give the director what they want. A good director will generally hire an actor and will let em do their stuff and know they are going to do a good job. The way I approach the stuff with the other actors is I bring in certain people. I know they're good. I know they know what they're doing so I let them do what they do and if I don’t feel they are going down the right road I direct them and get them to go where I want them to go.

Monica-That’s good.

Richard-That is good because a lot of directors will just take a line reading before they even start. They'll tell you everything about the guy and that’s just not fun for me as an actor.

Press-  I've got a question for Monica. I've seen you on the Najica Audio commentary...

Chris P – Oh Jesus.

Monica – Yeah!

Press-You rank on this poor man  (gesturing towards Chris) all the way through it.

Monica-I rank on him in every commentary!

Press-there ya go.

Monica-yes, but its out of love…kind of.

Press- One of the things you were mentioning was that now everybody was going to ask you about the panty question. Did you ever get an answer to the white panties question?

Monica-Uh, I've gotten like....weird answers. I would like to hear your answer to the panties question.

Press- I go with John Oppliger from over at Anime Nation would say. its just easier.

Monica-yeah, its a lot harder to put designs on. We ask basically why Najica, I mean its a good show, but  like all the people die with their butts in the air. Its like every shot is a panty shot. It could be like a five year old.

Laughter

Monica - Its like every shot is a panty shot. It could be like a five year old and they’ll be like PANTIES! Whoot – hot!!!

(A brief interruption when we were asked if we wanted to go elsewhere, but as Chris Patton said "No, I think we are all comfortable, yes")

Monica-So basically we were like "Why is it that every anime has white panties? And we were like "Somebody answer the white panty question for us" and I've gotten some very interesting answers.

Press-What was the most interesting answer?

Monica- the most interesting answer I ever got was from this really awkward guy in Virginia and he said it was because he likes skid marks. And I was like "Wow, did you really tell me that?"

Chris P-Did he have a poo poo fetish?

Monica- Girls are very careful not to leave skid marks. We're very careful not to do that. Cause we see it and we don't like that. So, yeah.

Press-Well I’ll fire off the next question, because Chris (Sabat) this happened yesterday and I was traumatized by it. I don’t know how many times this has happened to anybody else but, do you guys often get attacked?

Press-Yeah, like that weird girl Chris (Sabat) that was sucking on your neck?

Chris P – Whoa!

Monica-She sucked on your neck???

Chris S -Yes she did. It was right after the panel yesterday.  It was easily the most violent it had ever gotten. It was a big hug that could have easily killed a small person. When I was saying “this hurts” I wasn't joking around. I know I cry wolf a lot but that was a case where it really hurt. That leads to a bigger question. There are a lot of fans, the ones that truly want to like touch you or say “I love you” in that voice and the ones in particular that want you to say "I LOVE YOU" in the voice or kiss you or whatever it is they want you to do that’s actually when it does borderline on creepy.

Chris P- I actually got group groped countless times yesterday. I'm sure you did too (to Luci)

Luci – yeah…

Chris P - like groups of girls trying to hug me. Like all on me, it was weird. I never got hurt, Jesus Christ! That’s weird that sucking thing.

Richard - Did you get her room number?

Chris S- Yeah, we're in it. (Laughter) Yeah, but its creepy. I mean it’s flattering when someone would maybe say...

Chris P- I want to crush your spine.

Chris S-maybe they've drawn 8,000 pictures of your character and give it to you or give you a large framed picture of a character you've done, but sometimes it does worry me that some extreme fans cannot make that distinction between the character and the actor.

Luci-I had my first fan cry when they met me. And that maybe would not have been so weird if it was a young girl, but it was a young boy. That was kind of interesting because I am looking at him and trying not to draw attention to the fact that he had freaked out. Because whatever it was he thought I was in his head its so not who I am. I don’t know him and he doesn't know me.

Chris P – Give it a couple years. He’ll be following you around, stalking you…

(laughter)

Press- Is it mostly younger fans?

Chris S- There isn't really any specific age.

Press- Any age?!?

Chris S – It doesn’t seem to hit any specific age.

Chris P – Yeah, there’s no borders.

Press- I would have thought older people could make that mental distinction, but it’s scary.

All – yeah.

Richard-As anime fans we have some unfortunate members among us.

Monica-I think that if you grope them first they don’t do it so much.

Chris P- There's gonna be a new panel- get groped by Monica.

Press- As a kind of follow up: Based on the cons you’ve been to is there a way that you can kind of tell that fan that’s gonna like cross that line?

Chris P – I can’t tell anymore.

Richard – The one with the smoking gun.

Laughter

Monica- I think the perfect example that I had that just blew my mind and was creepy was when I went to Sakura con, right. Well we think that what we do is here in the United States and that doesn’t go beyond. I went to Sakura con and I did Girl Power. Well, we went to Sakura con and (he the director) was there in Seattle and he had brought a young up and coming voice actress with him that had done like minor parts in Girl Power and she's in Jubei chan too. And she was this cute, cute little girl and I was like "Wow, she's so precious! I wanna go talk to her.” Mark was there with me- Mark and David were standing there and the girl comes up to me and she was like "AHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHH" and she starts hugging me and I was like "Oh my god! What did I do to her? What did I do?"

Laughter

Monica - and she was like "Monica? Monica Rial? Monica Rial? " And I was like "yeah" and she goes "AHHHHHHHHH" and she’s like hugging me. And she knew my work! She knew who I was, and I was like “That’s  crazy!” And David was like, "I think that’s the most fanatical fan I have ever seen" and she was Japanese. So you can never tell whose gonna be fanatical. Unless obviously you get some people who are like you can tell right away.

Chris P – Yeah, you can tell they’re gonna be troubbie.

Monica – Yeah, they’re kind of lurking in the shadows.

Richard – Skid marks are a warning sign, yes.

Laughter

Chris P-Chris, I think your insane girl is a perfect example

Monica-Most people are really cool. I get weirder emails.

Chris P- The emails I have started to get over the past year got really trippy

Monica-I used to get emails like "What is it like to pilot a TA?" 

Press – No way!

Richard – Yeah. I’ve always meant to ask you what’s it like.

Monica-Well, first they drug us up and then they put us in there. I'm like looking at Lumiere there and no one ever asks me what its like to be 10. 

Chris P – That would be unreasonable. But asking about how to pilot TA is a totally reasonable request.

Monica-I mean, lets go down to the local Honda and test pilot this big old TA."

Chris P – Kinda expensive but…

Monica – Yeah.

Press – Would it be all right to ask about acting techniques again?

(laughter)

Monica – yeah!

Press- (To Luci) I’d been asking you a little earlier, I’ve already asked Monica and Chris (Patton) this as well, about making up roles and small changes in voices that end up to be major changes in characters. You were about to tell me this great story in the hall about how you had a show in which you had to have a conversation with yourself.

Luci- Yeah right - Yeah. I was cast in Kaleido Star and I got 2 roles and Sandra never thought the two would ever meet. In fact, we didn't know Kate was a recurring role at all and there were like FOUR times during the whole thing that Kate and Sarah have a scene and its not them in a room with a bunch of people - its just them! You know, on a random sidewalk or doing something and that’s really interesting to hear yourself talking with yourself and I bought it, which is kind of cool. I think a big part of it for me is just voice patterns. Everybody has a really distinct voice pattern and that is the easiest way to make a change. If its not pitch, you know, you can monkey around with pitch as much as you’re able to in your range, but really voice patterns can really set your voices apart.

Press-How often do you end up in a role in which you don’t know what’s going to happen later and see it unfold?

All- Most of the time.

Press-Do you guys like that? Or do you like it when the director spoils it for you?

Chris P-It’s weird, coming from the theater, you’re used to knowing the entire arc of the story

All – yeah.

Chris P- Once you go into it, and in doing this you always have the element of surprise, which is cool if you get into that whole Mesiner argument about staying in the moment all the time, and it cuts both ways. Yeah.

Chuck- First time I saw Android Seventeen I went "Gosh, she's HOT" and they were like “ No, that’s your character."

(laughter)

Chuck - and I was all freaked out cause I thought I was hot.

(laughter)

Press – Well then doesn’t that lead to you get a part and you start working and it’s like “Oh by the way, you die today, hmm. sorry. Good luck with that next paycheck..”?

All – Yes!

Luci- What’s really upsetting is when you get a part and start working and they're like "Oh by the way? You die today"

Monica-I started reading ahead and David was like (makes a strange noise as if he were scolding her) and when Sasame (from Pretear) does what he does I was literally like for the first time in an anime that I was like "GASP! CHRIS PATTON!" 

Chris P – That was shocking.

Monica-And the next time I saw him I was like “You’re really bad!”

Press-What about in a show like Eva- You know, a show where there's a big conspiracy and everyone has a secret how do you portray that?

Chris P-I know in doing RahXephon Matt kept us in the dark constantly.

Monica-NO, he didn't keep ME in the dark

Chris P-SO he told us lies. He would pit our characters against each other and would tell us conspiracy theory lies about each other's characters.

Monica-I think it has a lot to do with it.

Chris P-Maby he's with the Illuminati?

Monica- Whether or not the character knows. I mean, if your doing a show where the character knows what’s gonna happen like in Kiddy Grade. If Justin told me really what’s gonna happen because Lumiere knows everything. It’s Éclair that doesn’t know. Like in Noir I didn’t want to know anything cause she didn’t know so I guess it all kinda depends as an actor, I hate to get all method.

Richard-I also think the director will tell the actor what the actor needs to be comfortable with the part and if the actor needs to know the information then its covered by the director.

Press-In RahXephon what did you think of the end of the TV series after the credits?

Monica – Which?

Press – the end of the TV series.

Monica – Which one?

Press – after the credits?

Monica & Chris P – Oh!

Chris P- That was my favorite part of the show

Monica- It made me want to cry. I mean, right now it’s giving me goose bumps

Press – ‘Cos that twist was one of the more unique ones I had seen.

Monica – I think we (points to Chris P) watched the movie not too long ago and we were both like -

Chris P- The movie was good but I just prefer the series

Monica- I think someone said "Hey. This isn’t weird enough. Lets do an Eva version!"

Chris P- The amazing thing was in interviews the director said "we just want to make it easier to understand and we wanted to make it simpler" and I wanted to be like "sorry that didn't happen"

Monica-I think the original story was so beautiful. Why would you want to mess with something that was so beautiful?

Chris P – Yeah, I agree.

Richard-Sometimes the Japanese version just doesn’t make sense to us. Some people are sticklers for that. They want us to stick even though it doesn’t make any sense, but allot of times I like to make it for an English audience so they can understand it. If stuff doesn’t translate; jokes don’t work and things like that then I try to make it easier to understand.

Press-Speaking of Milk Chan!

All-WOAH

laughter

Press-Yeah, you kind of have to, we’ve all seen it. My favorite part is the in between scenes.

 Monica – oh cool!

Press-We watched the Japanese one and it’s pretty much the same all along although some of the voices are different and of course you've got the whole thing with Chrissie Auton and she’s like picking fights with everyone.

Monica – Right.

Chris P. Oh my god. It was a confusing as hell release. But I liked it once I figured out what the hell was going on.

Press - So, how do they get you guys to participate?

Monica-They paid us!

Chris P- You know, I thought it was a really fun idea. Let’s do some live action to slap on the DVD.

Monica – They said it was kinda like “Curb your Enthusiasm” so I was like “OKAY!”

Chris P- and they were like “Patton, you’re gonna play a psycho fan boy.” And I was like “Rock on!”

(laughter)

Monica- I want you to know that in volume 2 I dressed myself thank god because in volume one I can’t believe they put me in that.

Press-The lifesaver shirt?

Monica-They tried to make me look like Marta and they put me in pigtails with this shirt that was like from the 60's that was all retarded and made me look like a cow. I was like “oh my god!” (to Patton) That was what a year ago that that was filmed?

Chris P- huh?

Monica – wasn’t that like a year ago?

Chris P – God – that was like a year ago.

Luci – we just finished up wrapping up the second one.

Monica – I think the second one is probably the best.

Chris P – But really, think about how long we’ve been working on Milk Chan, since 2001!

Press – People have been waiting.

Chris P – We have been working on that since 2001…

Press – Wasn’t there transfer and legal problems?

Chris P – Ugh. God yeah.

Monica – Yeah, there was all sorts of stuff about, you know

Chris P- Bullshit.

(laughter)

Monica – Originally they say “Here’s the show you can do whatever you want with it” and then they came back and said

Chris P- “You can’t do THAT!”

Monica – So that’s why they released two different, you know the by the book.

Press- I have a question for everybody- You guys do panels all the time so of course you’re all over the place. What is the one question you get asked over and over again that drives you absolutely batty?

Chris P- “How did you get into voice acting” or “how can I get into voice acting?” 

Chris S – Yeah.

Chris P - I hate to be rude or mean about it, but

Richard – Stop asking.

laughter

Chris P - I wish I was never asked that question again in my life.

Chris S-That’s probably the most awkward question you can ask someone because there really is no answer for it. You have to move to the market.

Chris P – There really isn’t.

Luci – Everyone gets in a different way.

Chris S – You know, you go to a convention in Indiana and you’re asking how to get into it. You’re like ”Well, you have no chance”

Chris P – No "expletive deleted" chance.

Chris S – of getting into it. Unless you move to the market – yesterday.

Monica – You know it’s really awkward to tell a 12 year old “Well, guess what? You can move to Canada or you can move to New York, kid, in seven years or whatever.”

Chris P- Right. I was with Brett Weaver actually, and I had never seen a voice actor do this. (looks at Chris S) I don’t know if you were on the panel with me –I don’t know if it was Vic, Brett, or someone but someone asked that question and Vic was already so tired and put out from the whole day and he goes “ Uh, I’m not answering that question – move on.”

Chris S – Wow!

(laughter)

Luci- A large portion of it is just like anything in acting. It’s being lucky.

Chris P - Right place.  Right time.

Luci-And you feel bad but a large portion of it is just like anything in acting. It’s being lucky. I didn’t know about anime. Crispin Freeman told me about it and I was like Ani-what? I don’t think any of us searched it out. It was something that we all kind of fell into. The doors open and you just walk thru them."

Chris P- The audition list at ADV is 2 years long just to get an audition

Richard – That’s insane.

Chris P- And I guarantee you its 99% filled with fans. Because at every audition, out of every open call we have, we have like 1 person we can use, maybe.

Richard – Well, do these guys have any credentials?

Chris P – No!

Richard – So why do you even bother auditioning them?

Chris P- Well, I've heard rumors that we’re going start having actor referral auditions where we say “hey, we'll get these guys we know".

Richard – Yeah that makes more sense otherwise it’s just a waste of time.

Press – It’s a waste of time for getting actors. It’s not a waste of time for making the fans love you.

Luci – Well, yeah. And that’s exactly why they do it. That have found some people

Press – With Anime Idol.

Luci- Well, they have had people like Mandy Clark and Lauren come out of fan work.

Chris P – Yeah.

Monica – But they were fan dubbers way before.

Chris P – Yeah, I love fan dubbers

Luci – I think it’s a good thing.

Chris P – They’ve got raw natural talent.

Monica – I think that if people want to be a voice actor and they’re not

(Chris Sabat flips through a magazine and finds something)

Monica – Yeah, Chris (Patton) put his gum in there

Chris S – Eugh.

Monica- I always tell people if they are not in the market do fan dubs.

Richard-I gotta tell you it takes a very specific talent to be able to do this. Its not just having a good voice its not being a good actor it’s a combination of all those things to be able to do the synch. We had one of the studios I was reading for they had a huge thing in the trades. We wanted to get some new blood in there and we auditioned like 3 days and we had hundreds of people come in I swear to god maybe 2 of the people out of 3 hundred we could possibly use and even those people took so bloody long. When your burning that clock you gotta crank it out you gotta do a job and you cant just sit there and take up time. Unfortunately its tough and I don’t know of any school that teaches this kind of stuff. But you kinda have to jump in and be good and do it otherwise they can't waste time with you.

Chuck – People forget how much communication is a visual thing.

Luci – Right.

Chuck – You don’t have on stage or live action acting – everything has to be done with voice.

Chris P – It’s a totally different discipline, yeah.

Richard – A perfect example is Steve Blum, who has absolutely NO theatrical background at all.

Chris P – Right.

Richard – And he just jumped in there and he just had – he’s has a great voice and he’s a good actor. But he just kinda fell into it.

Monica – There is a lot of people that aren’t actors, but are musicians. like Cathy Martinez and Kira

Press- Because the musicians have rhythm?

Monica- Yeah I think it plays a big part.

Chris P – Because of the vocal training.

Richard- A lot of the Japanese actors are also pop stars.

Chris P- And they sing those songs that pump out their merchandise.

Press- I think its cool when they do that. When they can sing.

Richard-Most of us who do this work have some sort of musical background or intrinsic ability and because of that we can get into the rhythm of it. Especially if its well written, If the script is well-written then you can just get into it and do that character because if its well written you know where the pauses and everything are and you just go with it.

Press-Do you ever see the lines as kind of notes in a measure of music, seeing the lines as doubles and triplets?

Richard- No I don’t because I approach it as an actor. I don’t want to get technical. I want to be more organic about my performance.

Luci- In Kaleido Star I have an English accent. And what’s interesting is actually when you’re doing an accent its kinda difficult because the flaps can make an obstacle and different accents can sometimes force you to elongate or something. Yeah that’s an interesting discovery to make where you’re like “Ooh! I might have to sorta compromise a little bit here.”

Richard – Yeah.

Monica- Well Chris (Sabat) you said something the other day when we were talking about Case Closed about when he was casting and stuff there’s the 3 kids and he was saying he wanted more of a bass, tenor, soprano.

Chris S- Yeah. Oh definitely. I wanted to play with it  - when it was first cast Funimation spent a while tweaking that show to try to get it right. And ultimately it ended up in my hands for a little bit and my biggest problem was one of the characters and Conan sounded almost identical. When they were off camera you couldn’t tell who was talking one way or the other.  So, to me I felt like the four kids together, Conan and the three kids had to be an ensemble, more like a choir. They all spoke in different pitches. They have to be dissonant.

Luci-It’s weird that you said it like that. Because, like, I never thought about it, but it is.  When you listen to all 4 of the voices it’s like they fall right into a pitch pattern.

Chris S – She (press) had a follow up question…

Press-When you do a panel are there any questions you’re never asked that you wished you were?

Silence

Chris S – Whoa.

Richard – That’s a good question…

Chris P – Hmm.

Monica – Wow.

Chris S-That one (right there).

 laughter

Chris P-I do like when, maybe some actors get annoyed by this, I don’t know. I do like when they ask deeper questions about acting or technique or theory or anything like that.  I find that much more interesting to talk about than just generic "whose your favorite character?"

Richard “Who’s your least favourite character?”

Chris P – I know, Jesus! At every panel, invariably, there’s a couple of people that want to ask like tough acting questions. And I think that’s cool. Like tonight how we just came up with the musicality of acting. I like questions like that. You don’t always get those.

Chuck – I like it when they ask about like your real life. What you do.

Chris S-I like it when they ask what are your hobbies? What do you do?

Chuck – you know personal life, yeah.

Chris S – Definitely. Definitely.

Luci- - I like talking about, I say it on commentaries a lot because it’s what comes to mind, it’s always in my head. I feel lucky to be doing this not only cause I am doing anime, but if your an actor you have very little job security and you show up you have a booking, you show up at your booking and you try to be good enough and nice enough and then ask if there is anything else. They may call you and what I love is being at ADV so often that these people are not just my peers. You know I feel a part of them - we're pals.

Chris P- It’s totally like an acting company at ADV.

Luci- Yeah. I feel as much a part of the company as there is. Its why we know all the directors, I know about their families we chit chat its nice. That’s not something all actors get.

Press- Is it almost like being a contract worker back in the 30's?

All-That’s exactly what its like.

Luci – Yeah, it’s nice – I’m a contract worker outside of ADV.

Monica- I like when people ask me about….when they pay real close attention to a performance because I like to do really subtle things in my performances and see if anybody catches it. I like it when people come up to me and they’re like “wow that impression of Kirako was really cool when you did – this. I like that because I KNOW that they’re getting’ it. You know they’re getting what I’m trying to do. And that’s really cool.

Chris P – Yeah, it’s always nice to see when someone connects to your work.

Chris S – Yeah when you’re talking about like the fans and how affectionate they have become, when we were walking back (to the hotel) and Chuck goes ‘What’s the deal with like hugs in anime the community?’. And I said ‘Well you know, the fact is, is better than like, punch me’.

Luci – yeah.

Chris P – so true.

Chuck – You may find this scary but from my perspective, looking at kids all my life, ‘cos I’m a teacher and a principal, I work in a school. And the kids here, you can tell the sort of quality of kid right off the bat and the kids at anime conventions are some of THE best kids America has to offer.

Chris P – Yeah.

Chuck – You know you got 25,000 kids filling hotels in one city I haven’t stepped in vomit once. I haven’t seen any fighting.

Chris P – Yeah, no fighting.

Chuck – No screwing in the laundry room. You know the doors are open late and they’re playing games or something and laughing. You know everyone’s laughing and having a good time. And there’s this great respect.

Richard – I want to know what laundry rooms you go to.

(laughter)

Chris P – Sometimes I think, you’re right, there is a great purity in when they want to hug you. I think it does come from a very pure place, you know, it’s very endearing, sometimes.

Monica – I would much rather a kid at an anime convention come and than like a kid in a goth bar

Luci – Yeah.

Chris P – Yeah.

Monica – At least I know the kid at the anime convention.

Chris P – Yeah.

Luci – I don’t know if we all have, how you guys feel about this, but I look at these kids and I identify because when I was young, I wasn’t into cartoons, but I loved to read. I was a huge reader and I identified with magical people in books. I find that really endearing.

Chris P – And a lot of these kids are obviously very left of center, you know. I think probably most of us, as actors and artists were probably very left of center as kids.

Chris S – oh yeah.

Monica – Gee, ya think?

Chris P – Right? I think there’s a connection on that level.

Chuck – Yeah. I had an experience at the convention I just went to. There was a guy who was obviously had, you know, developmental issues. You know, he was developmentally delayed. But it was a Karaoke contest and he got up there to sing and he couldn’t do ANY of it. None of it. And in a normal situation, if had been one of those horrendously embarrassing experiences to watch, but the crowd, didn’t bug ‘em at all.

Chris P – Awww.

Chuck – They clapped a long. Nobody got freaked out by it. They all helped him sing it. And when it was done they all clapped.

Chris P – That’s so great.

Chuck – You know how like Special Olympics is like “we’re all normal people. You’re the weird ones” and they clap.

Richard – Yeah.

Chuck – And we hug you and cheer you. But this was like, one of their own.

Chris P – yup.

Chris S. – That’s great. 

Chuck – it wasn’t even question in their minds.

Press – I have another question, I don’t know if we have to get going or not.

The MAN – You’ve got a couple more minutes.

Monica – Can I pee?

Chris S – in the bathroom right?

Richard – no, in the corner!

(laughter)

Chris P – Follow her in!

Monica – No!

Richard – Yes!

LAUGHTER

Press – the question I had was you know, you’re in the booth you’re trying to record your lines or a director and you’re trying to get things right and maybe at the time it doesn’t feel like it’s all coming together is there any time in the studio when you hit that moment where it goes from like trying to get lipflap to a sublime moment of “Art” or once everything’s edited together and you view it you’re like “oh my God! I had no idea how like insanely awesome this is”..

Luci – I can tell you I’m probably the newest out of everybody. When we were recording Super Gals! it was the first show that I came and it wasn’t working and it was really organic, too. We were creating a new language, gal slang and we were having a really good time and we spent more time laughing during that then we did anything. And there would be times where we’d actually be falling out because of something the three of us had sort of come up with together. Yeah, you live for that. I live for that. That was great!

Chris P – I can tell you, I don’t know if you ever felt this way,(to Chris S) but there were times when I had some Full Metal Panic sessions that were so arduous and trying that I thought the show was going to be a disaster. And it turns out it was a fuckin’ huge hit.

I sit there and watch it I was like “This show ROCKS!” There were some times in the studio where I had a LOT of questions about how it was gonna come out.  I think everyone has those moments.

Luci – Abenobashi.

Chris P – Yes.

Luci – laughs .Oh my god, I knew that everybody was looking forward to it and I thought nobody would buy me as a little boy and my voice was going and it was just really really hard. Many many hours.

Chris P – you had it really rough on that show.

Luci – it was unreal. But that’s a brilliant show. I look at it now and it’s great it sounds great.

Chris S – On a show like Dragonball Z or on a show that has hundreds of episodes, you gradually become so attached to the characters that you play that when something amazing happens to them it truly is a moving moment for yourself. Like Vegeta finally became a super saiyan at one point and yet the struggle to get these voices done sometimes and when something miraculous happens to a character you’re playing you’re like “yeah.”

Luci – yeah!

Richard – yeah!

Chris S – Especially to those of us who worked on the Z series because it was ALL we were doing, The state of their characters kind of dictated the state of your life. The voice of Goku, Sean Schemmel, would call and go “Um, how’s Goku’s health because seriously I’ve got bills to pay next month” I’ve got sad news, he’s going back to Other World, he’s gonna be in a recuperation tank.

All – oh!

Chris S – so you might want to get a part time job for a while. So the state of his, you know, bank account was directly related to the state of Goku’s health.

Luci – oh!

Laughter

Chris S – Unfortunately it’s really tough, because the nature of dubbing, it’s not a high dollar industry, per se. The length of time it physically takes you to dub a show as opposed to prelay a show, it’s natural that the scale is lower. So you have to work a lot harder for the same thing.

Monica – Yeah, I think we work our asses off. 

Chris S – oh dubbing is some of the most difficult work. You just don’t have that flexibility that you have when recording a video game or doing anything that you prelay the audio. You can say everything you want to say exactly the way you want to say it.

Richard – Conversely, it’s like you said it’s one of the least paid jobs in the industry. Things like looping, which is infinitely much easier, is paid like six times

All – Oh WOW.

Chris S – yeah.

Richard – And it’s much tougher work, dubbing.  

Monica -  I remember talking to Bob Bergen. He was talking about how he goes in and records one line for Porky Pig and makes like 3 times what I make in one year for fifteen minutes. And I’m like ‘wow, dude.’

Richard – It all depends.

Monica – You mean you don’t have to look at it and try to get it in the mouth? You mean they draw around it?

Richard-Its like the guy at Anheiser Busch makes like $250 grand a year

Chuck-When I was in Chicago I started off doing commercial Voice Over and TV voice over and I had years where I did two gigs that were maybe like a half hour each and paid nothing. So when I got this and this kicked I was like Alright then I was like Awwww man.

Richard- So anime is basically a sweatshop.

Chuck- So you have to love doing it.

Luci- Cause its not going to pay the bills.

Press- If you guys don’t mind could we get a picture.

Chris P- Of us naked?

Press- Lets save that one for the 12:30 panel, but could we get a quick picture of everybody?

All- sure!

There you have it, straight from the actor's mouths! A big, hearty "Domo Arigato" (in no particular order) to Richard Epcar, Luci Christian, Monica Rial, Chris Sabat, Chuck Huber, and Chris Patton for taking time out of their busy schedule to help us.  We would also like to thank Jonathan Brands for making the arrangements to get us this interview. 

We would also like to offer very special thanks to Kevin Lilard from A Fans View and Lisa Z, Eric Martinez from Anime Web Turnpike for the use of pictures for this feature.

©All information protected by DVD Vision Japan copyright unless otherwise noted.  All pictures used with permission.  We would like to thank Kevin Lilard from A Fans View and Lisa Z, Eric Martinez from Anime Web Turnpike for the use of pictures for this feature.  These pictures can not be used or reproduced without express permission of DVD Vision Japan or the copyright holder.

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