Interviews Conducted by Robert J. Beck

You voice Angel and Nightcrawler, can you relate to them at all?

 
Yeah, to both I think. Most of the X-men in fact, who all in one way or another have been shunned in their lives, as mutants. Who of us, when we were teenagers, couldn't relate to that? And I've always liked Kurt's disposition. Quiet heroism.
 
Your characters on ‘Wolverine and the X-Men’ have the powers to fly and teleport but if you could have any power then what would it be?
 
Even if I could pick from the whole mutant canon, I'd probably still go with Nightcrawler's skill set. Between the teleportation, and the gymnast level manoeuvrability, I'd be pretty happy. Plus, prehensile tail. PREHENSILE TAIL!!!
 
You are probably best known as the voice of Gaara in Naruto,
have you enjoyed the fans reaction to the character?
 
Absolutely. I love the whole series really, and became a total
drooling fan of the show once I started adapting for the English
version. The show has so much heart and depth, and such a
wealth of unique characters. I am very fortunate to spend so much
of my time in that universe. And it's rewarding to know that there
are fans out there who dig watching as much as we dig
working on it. I particularly liked going down to New Zealand,
and seeing/hearing the Kiwis in cosplay as Gaara and the rest!
 
You are one of the English adapters for the show ‘Bleach’. When
you are adapting it how much stays the same and how much do
you add?
 
Well, this a misconception spread by Wikipedia, I'm afraid. I DID adapt for Bleach, through about episode 16. But I got switched over to Naruto after that.
 The spirit and sense always stay the same. How I get there is what's a toss up. I love adapting. It's like solving a Rubix Cube. I have to find the perfect way to say a line of dialogue so that it captures the spirit of the line in Japanese, but make sure that it doesn't sound like lame, cookie cutter translation gibberish- which is what leads to very stilted, bizarro dubs like you'll hear on old Godzilla movies (or some recent anime, eek!).
 All that would be hard enough, but then, for truly seamless looking/sounding dubs, I have to choose words, and word sequences that match the length, pauses, and often mouth shape of the flapping mouth. It can be monumentally frustrating, and incredibly rewarding fun at the same all at once. The job is virtually identical to the work down on the Spaghetti Western movies.
 
Are you fluent in Japanese?
 
No. I have been studying for a year now, and can read katakana and hiragana, but I'm not able to keep up in a casual conversation. I do however know enough to understand and respond to things when working with Japanese producers! It always takes folks by surprise. But then they try to fire up a full-fledged conversation with me in Nihongo, and I am totally lost.
 Truth is, though, you don't need to speak Japanese to be a good script adaptor. You just have to be good with language and timing. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that knowing Japanese would be a great help, and it's part of why I am studying it, but a love of the story, and a knack for dialogue is all you really need.

You also worked as an ADR Director on Resident Evil 5, what is an ADR director?
 
I was an overall Voice Director for the game, not ADR Director. ADR stands for Audio Dialogue Replacement, and it is what you do when recording a new audio track for a pre existing show. When you talk about recording English dubs for anime, you are talking about ADR.
 I've directed a lot of dubs before, all for anime series, so I have tons of experience with ADR. As a director, you hopefully have the whole show and cast in your head, almost like a radio play. Then you bring in one actor at a time, and record one line at a time. The actor is shown a preview of the picture with the original language, to get a feel for the emotion and the timing of the moment. Then, with a 3 beep lead in from their earphones, they jump in and just start acting on mic, following along to picture. A good ADR director will jump in with performance tweaks guidance, to make the actor's performance fit in better with the scene as a whole, as well as the other actors' performances.
With Resident Evil 5, however, none of it was ADR. We either recorded stuff wild with no picture, for the in-game sections, or did voice over simultaneously with facial capture. It was a very painstaking process, but it lead to some of the most organic character performances I've ever witnessed in a game.
 Let’s hear it for zombies..