VAM 172 | Interview with Lisa Ortiz, Part 1
Welcome to episode 172 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 voice actress and voice director, Lisa Ortiz! It’s a real honor to have Lisa on the podcast since she played the lead character, Lina Inverse, in the first anime series I ever worked on as a voice actor, The Slayers! You may also know Lisa as the voice of Deedlit in the anime series Record of Lodoss War, Amy Rose in the Sonic X Animated Series, and numerous characters in both the Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh anime franchises! Lisa has also voice directed many animated series and games including over 150 episodes of Pokemon!
Lisa and I both got our start as voice actors in the late 1990s in New York City, but it wasn’t long before our paths ended up diverging! In November of 2001 I moved to Los Angeles while Lisa stayed in New York in order to pursue voice over opportunities there. For the next 18 years, we both worked as voice actors on opposite coasts of the country, until late 2019 when Lisa decided to make the move to Los Angeles herself. I’ve been eager to chat with her about what the voice over industry has been like in New York while I was gone, and what insights she can share for those of my listeners who may live closer to The Big Apple than Southern California!
We begin our discussion by reminiscing about our time working on the Slayers. Back then, the anime dubbing industry in New York City was just getting started and the two of us got in on the “ground floor” so to speak. While we both had theatrical acting training, learning how to perform in a small recording booth without a scene partner and matching the lip flap of a character on a video screen was a new challenge for us. We were often figuring out our dubbing technique on the fly and learning from each other as we went! Both of us relied on our theater training to help us find a physicality for our characters which helped our performances sound more authentic and believable. It also helped us avoid stiff or awkward line readings.
Strangely enough, pursuing a career as a voice actor might never have happened for Lisa if she hadn’t woken up one morning and found that her car had gone missing! Her efforts to track down her car, and the serendipitous adventures that followed, eventually led to her being able to audition for her first anime dubbing job. In fact, the more you learn about Lisa’s journey as a voice actor, the more you’ll hear how much serendipity has played an important role in the development of her career! Her success hasn’t all been due to mere luck, however. As the saying goes, luck is when preparation meets opportunity and Lisa has always been very committed to being as prepared as possible! Even with all her experience, she’s still eager to learn more and develop her acting skills even further. I really admire her commitment to the craft of acting. It’s a pleasure to have her on the podcast and I’m so happy that I get to share her story with you!
Also, it turns out that the 10th anniversary of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast is rapidly approaching! I released my first episode way back on July 1st, 2011, and it has always been my goal to provide the most concise and useful content when it comes to this topic that we all love.
In honor of the podcast’s 10th anniversary, I would so appreciate it if any of my listeners would be willing to call in and leave a message about how Voice Acting Mastery has influenced your own acting journey or any other part of your life. I’d like to feature some of these messages and respond to them in the 10th anniversary episode in July.
You can leave a voicemail by calling 323-696-2655. Please remember to state your first name and what city in the world you’re calling from before leaving your message. Thanks again for listening and as always, I wish you all the best in your voice acting endeavors. Take care!
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