VAM 195 | Interview with Yuri Lowenthal, Part 2
Welcome to episode 195 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
This is the second and final part of my interview with the incredible Yuri Lowenthal! You may know his voice acting work in animated shows like Legion of Superheroes, Ben 10, and the 2021 version of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. In games, he’s worked on Prince of Persia, Sunset Overdrive, and Marvel’s Spider-man series. In anime, he’s very well known for playing Sasuke in Naruto. Yuri and his wife, Tara Platt, also have their own production company called Monkey Kingdom Productions where they develop and produce their own original shows and projects. They’ve also written the well known book Voice Over Voice Actor, What It’s Like Behind the Mic.
In this episode, Yuri shares with me what inspired him to become a performer in the first place. This may come as a surprise to my listeners, but he’s not really sure! This uncertainty is actually not uncommon among artists. Often what inspires someone to pursue a career in the arts is not an intellectual or rational motivation, but rather a gut feeling that they need to explore a field of expression, like acting, in order to fulfill some need for psychological or spiritual satisfaction that can be difficult to articulate. Yuri does admit that he loved storytelling on a deep level and that drove him to explore it first as a writer, and later as a performer.
One huge influence on him when he was young, was when his father gave him the Dungeons and Dragons basic game set and then sat down and taught Yuri and his friends how to play. Yuri credits playing D&D for contributing to most of the things he likes about himself today. D&D inspired him to read more, to learn about mythology and history, to develop his critical thinking skills, and most importantly, to practice storytelling improvisationally, in real time! While playing D&D, not only did Yuri have to use his imagination to visualize the entire world of the game in his mind, but he also had to play as a character in that world as believably as possible. He found that the skills he developed while world-building and playing characters in D&D were directly applicable to the challenges he faced as an actor.
Yuri is a huge fan of genre storytelling such as Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, etc. His appreciation for these genres also helped contribute to his desire to try pursuing a career in the arts. However, he knew that simply loving storytelling was not enough, and that he also had to develop professionally competitive acting skills in order to have something to contribute artistically to the stories he so admired. In this segment, he and I talk about how he balances his fandom for the projects he’s working on with the need to approach each project as a consummate professional. Since so many of my listeners are often avid fans of the games and animated projects they want to work on, it’s an important topic to explore!
After that, we end our discussion with Yuri’s advice to the aspiring voice actor and how vital he feels it is for someone just starting out to get as much practice acting as they can, even if it’s just reading out loud every day to develop your cold reading skills. He also stresses how important it is to actually finish projects that you may be working on. Bringing a project to completion and moving on to the next one will teach you far more than tinkering with the same project endlessly. It’s a very practical approach to pursuing a career as a voice actor, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with all my listeners!
VAM 194 | Interview with Yuri Lowenthal, Part 1
Welcome to episode 194 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Welcome to the first part of my interview with the incredibly prolific Yuri Lowenthal! Yuri’s voice acting work is definitely wide ranging! In animation, some of his most famous roles include Superman in Legion of Superheroes, Ben Tennyson in Ben 10: Alien Force and Omniverse, as well as He-Man in the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe 2021 Animated series. In Games he’s played the Prince in numerous Prince of Persia games, the Male Player Character in Sunset Overdrive, and probably most famously, Peter Parker a.k.a. Spider-Man in Marvel’s Spider-Man series of games. In Anime he’s well known for playing Sasuke in the long running anime series Naruto, where I play his older brother Itachi. There are even multiple news articles about how Yuri has played so many characters in games, that chances are you’ve probably fought and defeated one of his characters if you’ve played any games involving fighting. Yuri and his wife, Tara Platt, have their own production company called Monkey Kingdom Productions where they’ve developed and produced their own original shows including the web series Shelf Life, and Topsy McGee vs. The Sky Pirates! Yuri and Tara have also written a popular book on voice acting, Voice Over Voice Actor: What It’s Like Behind the Mic.
Yuri and I have some interesting parallels in our acting journeys. We both spent time in New York City doing theater before we came to LA. We both arrived in Los Angeles within months of each other, and we both started working in anime around the same time. On the surface, Yuri’s journey seems very simple: he and Tara moved out to Los Angeles back in 2002 to become movie stars. When they arrived, Tara suggested they explore voice acting as another means of generating income. They took a class and made friends with the teacher, who later had the opportunity to direct the dub of an anime. Yuri auditioned for the show, got hired, and the rest is history, right? Well, it’s not that simple. What that story doesn’t illuminate is how much time, effort, and focus Yuri had spent developing his acting skills before he took that voice over class in LA. In this episode, we dive deep into what Yuri did to build a solid foundation in acting so that when he took that LA voice over class, he was able to fully capitalize on the opportunity.
Yuri’s path wasn’t completely linear either. He’s always had a passion for Japanese culture and language. He majored in East Asian studies in college and he even spent a couple of years after college working in Japan as an interpreter for the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (also known as the JET program) helping place native English speaking teachers into Japanese schools. Yuri’s Japanese language and cultural skills gave him the opportunity to apply for a job with a Japanese Bhuto dance company in New York City, at the same time when he was looking to move there to pursue an acting career. Yuri’s acting journey demonstrates how there is no single recipe for becoming a voice actor, but rather each actor must discover their own alchemical formula for success. Yuri’s formula is wonderfully eclectic and I’m so glad that I get to share it with you! Let’s get started.
VAM 193 | Interview with Greg Chun, Part 2
Welcome to episode 193 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Welcome to the second part of my interview with voice actor and voice director, Greg Chun! You may be familiar with his acting work in games like the Judgement series, World of Warcraft, Mists of Pandaria, Ghost of Tsushima, and Overwatch. In anime he’s worked on shows like Demon Slayer and Neon Genesis Evangelion. In American animation, he’s played Barbie’s father, George Roberts, and he played the main character in the highly acclaimed English dub of the hit Netflix show, Squid Game.
As we continue our discussion, Greg shares with me what inspired him to become an actor in the first place. Unlike many voice actors I’ve interviewed, Greg was not initially passionate about being an actor. He confesses that he’s only truly fallen in love with acting in the past few years. Regular podcast listeners will know that many of my guests discovered that they had a passion for acting, before they decided to dedicate a significant amount of time and effort to pursuing it professionally. Greg’s process was very different. For him, voice acting began simply as a fun activity that held a certain fascination for him. The more he pursued voice acting, the more his fascination grew. Instead of committing to achieving a voice acting career and then doing whatever it took to achieve that goal, Greg instead did his best to follow what he felt was fun to do. Those enjoyable experiences compounded over time until his fascination with voice acting became a true passion for the art form. It’s a very different approach to pursuing a voice acting career and he and I dive deep into the psychology of his approach in this episode!
After that, Greg also shares with me his advice for the aspiring voice actor. He’s started teaching voice acting classes himself, especially classes on dubbing live action TV shows. He admits that he’s learned a lot by having to articulate to his students his own process for approaching voice acting, and he takes great joy in helping them succeed. He loves striving for greatness with all of his students and I share that passion for helping aspiring voice actors become the best that they can be. I love Greg’s uplifting and positive approach to creating authentic performances and I’m so glad I get to share it with you!
In this episode, I mention that I will be compiling a list of Recommended Media that I think exemplifies nuanced, believable acting. You can find that list in the Recommended Media section of this website.
VAM 192 | Interview with Greg Chun, Part 1
Welcome to episode 192 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
I’m so happy to share with you the first part of my interview with the talented and supremely affable, Greg Chun! You may be familiar with Greg’s voice acting work in games, where he plays the lead character Takayuki Yagami in the Judgement series, Emperor Shaohao and numerous other characters in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Ujimasa and Takeshi in Ghost of Tsushima, and a personal favorite of mine, Dr. Harold Winston in Overwatch. In anime he’s played Muzan Kibutsuji in Demon Slayer and Ryoji Kaiji in Evangelion. In American animation, he’s played Barbie’s father, George Roberts in numerous projects, and in live action dubbing he’s received great acclaim for his portrayal of the lead character Seong Gi-hun in the hit Netflix show, Squid Game.
Greg and I begin by discussing how he first got started as a voice actor. It turns out it was a very circuitous path! Greg’s original dream was to move to Hollywood to become a film composer. He had taken piano lessons as a child, and had eventually learned to play by ear. His college friends also wanted to become involved in film making as directors and actors and were eager to work with him on their projects. However, when Greg moved to LA to pursue his dreams, things didn’t go quite as he had planned. He had gotten a computer science degree in order to reassure his parents that he would have a stable job, and he initially found work at a newly formed studio at the time called Dreamworks. He was hired to help maintain their computer systems while they were producing one of their early animated films, the Prince of Egypt. In addition to his computer work in LA, Greg was also able to land some jobs composing music, but for commercials, not films.
He admits that during the next few years, he probably got a little complacent and lost some of his focus towards becoming a film composer. He also became disenchanted with the LA lifestyle and realized that he needed a change. So he decided to go back to graduate school for computer science in order to get his Master’s degree and eventually pursue a Ph.D. During his time in grad school, Greg’s friends kept asking if he was still interested in composing music for their projects. Eventually, the lure of the entertainment industry became too strong, and rather than continue his computer science research, Greg decided to try one more time to find his way in Hollywood.
He returned to LA and found work on an original musical adaptation of the story of the 10 Commandments. He started as a rehearsal pianist, but eventually got promoted to musical director for the show. During that time, he met an actress in the production who just happened to be married to the famous movie trailer voice over legend, Don LaFontaine. Greg was able to befriend Don and the rest of Don’s social circle, and they often played cards together. After watching Don work in the studio, Greg realized that he was becoming fascinated with the idea of becoming a voice actor himself. His time spent composing music for commercials had exposed him to the voice over world, and watching Don go through his workday made Greg realize that voice acting could actually be a viable career path for him as well.
Greg decided to apply himself diligently to the pursuit of voice acting. He worked with a voice over coach on a weekly basis for 8 months. He studied the voice over industry and learned as much as he could about voice actors and the studios that hired them. He went to classes and conventions for voice over. And even with all this commitment to learning his craft, it still took Greg 3 years before he turned a profit as a voice actor, and another 4 years before it became a fully viable source of income for him.
I love Greg’s story because it shows just how unique everyone’s journey towards becoming a professionally successful voice actor can be. Even though he decided to pursue voice acting slightly later in his adult life, he did it with a sense of fun and playfulness. His ability to be both relaxed and focused served him very well as he navigated the voice over world. There are so many empowering things my listeners can learn from Greg’s positive mindset and I’m very glad that I get to share his journey with you!
VAM 191 | Interview with Courtenay Taylor, Part 2
Welcome to episode 191 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
This is the second and final part of my interview with the extraordinary Courtenay Taylor! You may have heard her performances in games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Resident Evil, Fallout Legacy, and the Mass Effect series. In animation she’s starred in the Regular Show and OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes. In addition to her voice acting work, she’s also helps run NerdsVote, a non-partisan organization that encourages nerds of any fandom to register to vote and participate in American democracy! You can find out more about it at NerdsVote.com.
In the previous episode, Courtenay shared with us how she got started as a voice actor. We talked about the rather unconventional path she took which included her getting her start in a high school play, not as an actor, but rather as a make-up artist. Her experiences backstage piqued her interest in performing so she tried taking acting classes in both high school and college. She developed a sincere interest in acting which was put to the test when she decided to audition for a graduate level acting program. The man she was auditioning for told her that her voice sounded so damaged and raspy that she would never work in the theater. Courtenay relayed that feedback to her acting teacher at the time who encouraged Courtenay to pursue voice acting. That led to Courtenay falling in love with being behind the microphone and deciding to devote her attention to building a voice over career.
In this episode, we dive deeper, not only into what inspired Courtenay to become a performer, but how any negative feedback she received would often energize her rather than discourage her. I find this aspect of her psyche fascinating because it differs so greatly from my own! When I was criticized during my acting journey, it would often sap my enthusiasm, but for Courtenay it spurred her to prove the naysayers wrong! She and I also discuss how unlike some of her colleagues that studied extensively at acting schools from a young age, Courtenay had to rely instead on the wisdom of her life experience and her ability to share her raw emotionality when she was performing. After that, we end our conversation with Courtenay’s advice to the aspiring voice actor and how she uses the metaphor of emotional fish hooks in order to help her identify more deeply with a character and find the places where her emotional life and the character’s emotional life overlap. I love hearing about an actor’s unique journey and personal process, and Courtney has a lot of insight to share!
VAM 190 | Interview with Courtenay Taylor, Part 1
Welcome to episode 190 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Welcome to the first part of my interview with the extraordinary Courtenay Taylor! Courtenay has a signature sound to her voice that she’s been using to great effect in both commercials and character work since the early 2000’s! You may have heard her performances in games where she’s played Juhani in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Ada Wong in numerous Resident Evil titles, the Female Player Character in Fallout Legacy, and Jack in the Mass Effect series of games. In animation she’s famous for playing Starla in The Regular Show and K.O. in OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes. In addition to her voice acting work, she’s also helps run NerdsVote, a non-partisan organization that encourages nerds of any fandom to register to vote and participate in American democracy! You can find out more information about it at NerdsVote.com.
In this episode, we begin our conversation by discussing how Courtenay got started as a voice actor. Her acting background is a little unconventional. She initially got involved in theater in high school as a makeup artist. She was a fan of the punk band, Siouxsie and the Banshees and would often do her own makeup in the style of the lead singer. A theater teacher at her high school admired her look and asked if she would help do the makeup for a show that he was directing. She agreed. Working on the production made her curious about acting, so she tried an acting class in High School, but she did not find it rewarding.
In college, she decided to try again and enrolled in another acting class, thinking that it would be an easy way for her to get a good grade. She was surprised at how hard the class turned out to be and at how demanding her teacher was. Fortunately, Courtenay tends to excel when she is challenged, or when people think she won’t be able to achieve something. That sort of criticism motivates her to prove the naysayers wrong, so she redoubled her efforts to improve her acting abilities. She was certainly put to the test when she later auditioned for a graduate level acting program. She was told by the man auditioning her that she would never work because her voice sounded too damaged and that the audience in a large theater would never be able to hear her clearly.
When she told her acting teacher about this negative feedback, the teacher suggested that she try taking a voice over class. As soon as Courtenay got behind the microphone, she felt like she was home. Voice over allowed her to explore her emotional life without needing to project her voice to the back of a large theater. She also didn’t have to memorize her lines, a skill she had always struggled with when working on stage.
Once she realized that voice over was her niche, Courtenay had a clear focus to her career. She eventually moved to Los Angeles, where she faced many other challenges while breaking into the business. But I’ll let her tell you that story in her own words!