Full transcript of “Digimon Adventure Tri Anime Expo 2017 Panel”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 well they got a 35 minutes so I'm gonna go ahead and introduce our very special guests you know him and love him as time mr. Joshua said attorney as Sora call me o shaughnessy get some inside everything with Digimon he's ridden he's voice directed he is of course your voice come on mr. chairman oh yeah thanks for coming guys look at you guys it's great to see you again a lot of
0:48 screenings a lot of audiences you guys might be my favorites and most recent I'm down I'm down there making little comments to Colleen all time you guys are screaming out funnier things than I am you said was funnier with my heezy so I'm wondering we're in our third film of Digimon Adventure tribe let's go back to the beginning of this were you guys surprised at all when you were given the call to come back and reprise these characters I wasn't given the cover story about that yeah I was very surprised to get the call and I went in and I recorded I was also surprised not to get the call to write or direct or I was when my last state
1:37 was Digimon I was also supervising producers so but you know I still wanted to play gentlemen so I said yes and I went in there and I did it and I'm like who's playing warrant blah blah blah you know and they didn't say Joshua's playing ty and I was like that's that's surprising you know he's the star and so so I went home and I immediately like you know announced a gentleman again and I pretty much broke the internet because toy the toy animation did not announce it yet and but but you know a lot of people yelled at me from Studio poulos and toy and then Joshua wrote me and said hey how come they didn't ask me to be in Digimon and I gave Josh the information you can take it from there
2:23 yeah so it's all his fault it's not their fault I mean I kind of quit voiceovers about ten years ago to go tour with my live shows and but this is special I mean special to all of us and Digimon was unique in my career and you know did you minds its own thing so when I heard from you guys basically hey Jeff Nimoy spill the beans already recording yeah then then motion well you did turn
3:08 down a reprisal of ty in Revenge of Boreham on yeah there's a small role that's right right and I think they start that's right yeah right and also you know there were some things that I missed about Los Angeles want to come back and have some zank out chicken it's like enough time had gone by we did it again just like old times yeah surprised I am just I was happy that you know G bone was coming back and I had heard about it at a convention in New Zealand a couple years ago and they're like are you gonna be Sora and I had no I'm like if they asked me sure but I had no idea that it was even a
3:54 thing so yeah it was kinda it's weird it's not I wasn't surprised because I had heard that you know the convention that it was coming but it's strange to come back after all this time and then you start remembering stuff and there were some that were misspelled in the script boom on in the script said human with a P you can go read up but I promise you it's beer mom I said it a billion times and when I when I when it came to my part where it said ten come on digivolve to the director said I'm not sure how they do this they might do it like tantrum on pause digivolve to or tenth Aman
4:40 digivolve pause - or maybe they I'm like I got this jr. I know how it and tell the other actors this is how it's done - no remembering no remember anyway but this is how it's done I want to talk a little bit of inside baseball because I think I've known a lot of voice actors I loved voice work something that a lot of people don't necessarily appreciate is the amount of work that goes into voicing for original animation versus voicing for dubbing anime mm-hmm you guys have it tough in in many ways talk a little bit about the difference between the two well look already in voice acting you're attempting to do what an actor uses all five senses to
5:27 convey with just one so already you're limiting your ability to communicate in a way that an actor does just because you can't turn to the side and lift an eyebrow and convey an emotion so with restrictions though I think come more the opportunity to innovate and to be more creative right if we if we didn't have any restrictions at all we wouldn't even know where to begin so what I'm saying is dubbing restricts us as voice actors voice acting restricts us as actors and dubbing restricts us even more and within that structure I think there's a lot of opportunity to bring your unique voice
6:13 and your unique interpretation but it's it's so locked down in terms of tempo and in terms the timing and the interpretation the fact that we're having to match something that came before that you you really have to be on your toes and understand the technical aspect of the game as well as the creative aspect in order to bring those together so personally I find that challenge to be very rewarding the difference for me when you when you're doing original animation you can do those things like you can the the animation hasn't been it hasn't been created yet there's no drawing to go by so you can add in different you know you can pause or you can have different applications you can
6:59 have little extra things where as an anime like Josh was saying it is a little more restricting because it's already there so you have to fit whatever they've given you into the animation that's already been created the other thing is you're by yourself a lot of most of the time with original animation you've got the whole cast so you're acting off of your other actors which is a very different experience than having to come up with all of the emotion and everything that's happening by yourself you don't get any you know you don't get to hear the line before you I mean it's on the script so you read it but it's a it's a lot different to have to just find that on your own as opposed to getting feedback from or you know bouncing off of other actors yeah and to follow up on that when you're doing it one at a time if you're playing
7:45 a scene of two like for instance I was in Trigon I used to play this character named wolf wouldn't try gun thanks for remembering America and so Johnny Bachchan I used to do these scenes together and who like if you wait first you had nothing to play off of if you went second it was a lot easier because you can just react off of yes my directives come in handy though and all those restrictions there's
8:31 something big you have a range you can play a multitude of characters that you would never be able to play because [Music] [Applause] billion so that's that was my initial love for animation to begin with like I
9:16 always every time I saw an animal or baby I would give it a voice come out it was just kind of crazy but that's for me I like the silliest and weirdness and the you can be anybody else that you would not normally get to play as an actor probably on camera I mean when I was kid I used to watch Bugs Bunny it was my favorite and like I was amazed that one man did all those voices no black I just like wanted to be versatile like that you do a lot of voices and and I used to sit in front of the TV on Sunday morning and watch boys just come at me and now I sit here watch my voice it's been remarkable for me I kind of had hippie parents and we didn't have any
10:04 well it was weird cuz you know it existed but what I watch like you guys you know watch stuff like this for me I would have these cassette I mostly read but I had cassette tapes of old-time radio hours the Benny stuff like something like my grandparents would have known that's what I grew up listening to and I was already very auditory you could do some noises like you guys but my my references were really old like that so I actually didn't watch any TV till I got to film so actually Jeff and I went to the same school we went to NYU at the same time
10:59 that was the first time writing in comedy writing class there that I was assigned to watch television and I started to see it and and one of the things that I went to see what popular culture is because I grew up doing theater and and I there was a screening of Akira at an art house in a village and I went and saw that Niki not thinking wow like this is kind of everything clicked together like in terms of being able to do voices and and being very auditory and having that background and then Vicky this is gonna be something very new and groundbreaking and and I kind of decided at that point that I wanted to go in into that direction because you you we all have talents but they're not always fulfilled
11:48 like we have to find a way to put them out into the world and that confluence of events is being in New York being a dish I had a radio show a radio program at the time and then seeing it here I was like oh like I could actually put one two three four five things together and people do this there's literally I was an adult when I figured this stuff out and so that the path unfolded in there okay mom stories would you mind [Music] [Applause] that's enough no when when I first we all auditioned for Digimon Wendy Lee was the director and played the original TK and there were like 200 characters and I
12:36 auditioned for Matt and a few did none of which will take them on and I need an anchor the rules but Josh got like a hundred roles anteye of course and you know if they called me in to do like three lines of Izzy's dad in Madison and they're like hey can you uh can you listen to what Josh did protect them on because we're going to replace it and why sounds right and if they were like because every the whole shows and because ty is such a big part of the show we don't want the whole
13:23 show to something like ties and they took away the monomer and Josh what you did the first time was like come on like this and so I started doing it and if you see my first episode I'm just doing the judge and then after a while all of us the character saw something inside
14:13 baseball nothing about that it's what I was doing was a reference to show called the new smoo show wish yes my sure of a multiband when I originated it was with the characters hi Sora come on talk about finding the right voice for those characters what was the moment that you realize I have nailed be terrible figure out how to do dummy you're so late about lips that was
15:02 my first experience you know I go in I just Holly you got this purple the blonde you go in okay here we go and I was like does that mean like I'm hearing beeps like is there something wrong with no that means when you record the the animation is already done so in order for you to know when to start speaking when the characters mouths gonna move they they play you three beats and so here the fourth beep in your head and then start talking I didn't know that I've never done that and in the audition when they gave you the script like they would give you for any audition and I read the script and I got the part and then I went in and there were all these beeps and I didn't know what I was doing it was the screen and then all behind
15:47 [Music] there's solar wings so for me that was really that was really stressful and and especially to do a lot of efforts and things that I was not comfortable doing yet and I was like just please don't watch me the window cuz I don't I don't know what my face is doing I don't know my hands are doing um so that for me that was really stressful and so I was like character what I got a bit of wine in this beats what are you calling those those are flaps like what and then there's little codes and the script that I didn't know what those Mentors Garrett and there's dots and there's you know so it was a big learning curve for me I was like exhausted after two hours cuz I didn't know what I was doing
16:33 I that was a one role that I didn't really kind of put any affectation on I just looked at him hit the pose kind of thing and I thought you know like I don't want to make this silly I'm just gonna just be me and just pitch it up a little bit like that so and then in the movie did you mind the movie you pitched way to play like eight years old well yeah he directed me to do the little the little time what kid tie yeah it was like it was just again I all I did was I guess fix it up a little bit khari so here's another little lost digimon story
17:18 I'm sorry my jack in your panic go please but I was the original Digimon movie was three movies that we put together in one cohesive movie but I did not want to use that third movie it didn't make sense to me to use it in a big theatrical release to introduce Pete new characters sixteen new characters in the last 20 minutes of the movie I just wanted to do the first two movies together and end it at the end of you know the bomb Falls of the bay and everyone's happy is the bomb itself with the side of Israel everything soon but so I originally had ty narrating the whole thing but when the powers-that-be
18:05 told me I have to use that last movie in the theatrical release Ty's not in that third part so how can he say and then we did this when he's not there so I have to go back and make re the narrator another thing and I my favorite which no one will ever see unfortunately was the first script I wrote with had nothing that last thing was it was just high rating and it was really I thought it really tight script it was nice 88 minute thing and you know first movie you get vetoed a lot so it doesn't happen but that's like I'm wondering when you approached did you want to try obviously these characters are not they are the same old characters we know and love but they're a little older maybe a
18:50 little wiser how did you approach these characters when you came back to the series or was it just like stepping right back in I kind of have to I asked them to play me what I had done before a little bit just so I could figure out age wise where she would go but um like what I didn't say before when I was you know learning curve like Joshua said Sora's voice pretty much sits in my voice she's pitched up a little more to so then I had to figure out how to make her still sound like her but older without just sounding like me so that was you know but she still has the same character she's still the mothering you know take care of everybody good friend
19:36 gal so for me I think more of the you know what's happening in the scene and all of your little acting tricks that you do you know who are you talking to what's happening to see who you know what are you doing what's your purpose and all those kinds of things and then the voice kind of finds itself once you know what's happening perfect I wanted to hear the music because the music is different to me that always carries the tone and I'm we did have some discussions like should we keep Thai sounding like Thai or because they've all aged this is all right to pitch him down a little and which of course we did but you know we want to want to keep that balance of the nostalgia of the original characters but also bring it forward into current time which I think the music helped a lot with the fact
20:23 that it's been updated and so edgier and yeah we clicked well I have a lot of problems [Music] people first of all I had the worst cold of my life which Colleen and I did a convention together and I could barely talk so a lot of times you can hear my throat in most of this and I had to actually redo my first session of lines because they were just unusable my voice is so hoarse and and I could hear while I'm listening I'm like wow that really bad gold matte line this line and so so I couldn't even do that you know I was
21:08 like done so so just from a physical aspect but I didn't need any help gentlemen is not my own voice as you know so but it is but I also had a hard time disconnecting the writer/director of Digimon as just an actor this time and like I kept you know like I said I was like you know that's not how we do it do we do it this way you know and it's not gonna be consistent and the fans will know immediately if you're doing that wrong you know things like that like for
21:54 instance I saw young Jedi at the end there who can turned into you know it wasn't canon obviously it was young Jedi at the end and I just saw him I'm like Oh am I gonna do these lines - he's like why I'm like cuz I'm young generally you're like you are a lot of teachable moments while recording you know that's why that's me at the end going whatever I said but what my young general I sort of like sort of like Harrison Ford is my voice the Harrises before like you know Marian get to the boat you know I wanna get some folks an opportunity to ask your questions because I know you've got them
22:39 yes ma'am saw your hand go up first [Music] well I always remember when we did the premiere for the original movie yeah yeah it was pretty cool experience and doing it on the back lot of box and they sent memos for us and there's legit red carpet nevermind
23:32 I mean just no but you know just to get the opportunity to write and direct a movie that was big releases eighteen hundred screens at the time you know it's pretty big and it was just like you know that's why we all came out yeah right one for me was this was my my second show but my very first anime and because you're dubbing it airs so much faster than original animation we should they do the recording and then they have to do all the animating and all that so it takes a lot longer for that to start airing somewhere and so it was like just like a few weeks later and I could see it on TV and it was a very first time I actually heard my voice coming out of one of my characters and I
24:18 was really excited to my mom you know oh my god this is what I came out here to do and oh my god I still get a kick out of it sometimes I say that they didn't send you a memo that's wrong the fans in the backers much better [Laughter]
25:14 yes yes all together large you know large oh right yeah I had lunch with her when I came to record the first of these three movies and she wanted to be a part of it but there's some contractual complications and things that kept it from doing it but yeah she like she should have been a part of it and she liked it not should have she wanted to be let's say that but it but wasn't wasn't able to Doug our whole display TK in season 2 did not get to play chicken in this he did play another character in this yeah and also I don't think Michael Wednesday was Joe very soon Joe is my
26:02 favorite to write for I loved Joe and Michael life directed many many times you know something missing for me for Joe because of that but he was still fun very funny this I was not you know I'm not in the know for this this I'm on the outside looking in like all the other actors you know I just I showed up and saw the lines for the first time didn't
26:48 immediately forgot them yeah don't matter for you Jeff knows asking in this cell when craft services show you know but remember nothing you'll
27:38 make new memories but all your old memories on VHS exist for me I got to play a new character Hercules commentary model so so that was nice and I didn't have to whisper a quick little story about how I came up
28:23 with the voice or you know just like and then they're like [Music] [Applause]
29:19 [Laughter] I'm sorry I'm very emotional when they're late with the Paycheck that's for all of us with painful in the sense
30:12 of like heartbreaking and like it's really hard to break into the acting world is this thing the voice-over world is this fake for me that's all I wanted to do like I came out I can't move to LA from Michigan and I had done musical theater and I just decided you know why I don't want to go to New York I don't want to go to Chicago and somebody heard me doing something and they're like oh you should do voiceover and I was like wait a minute somebody's jobs so that was that was it for me did a bunch of research and LA was a place to go so I I came to LA and I started picking people's brains and it was it was really hard and I was taking acting classes and trying to do on camera at the same time and I was like I can't split my focus like this and at the end of the day
30:58 that's all I wanted to do was that's all I wanted to do so I you know I got it you know just it was it is it's hard I'm like well I I put it together and I got an agent but it wasn't that easy you know it was it was making phone calls and sending postcards and recently yeah yeah I mean I remember I had 17 cents in my bank account literally these guys voices so it was only a matter of time yeah they really like Al but you know there's a thing on camera where they said the camera loves you the camera loves the microphone to love
31:43 these guys things we have faces make her radiant thanks man absolutely right like I I wanted to do voiceovers more than on-camera a lot more at but it took seven years how and and yeah there was a 17 since that like there was time right like three grand I was driving around I was I was driving it well who's driving a limo I was my own limo cuz I had to let the chauffeur go and those are dark days dark days I had to I didn't have Grey Poupon I had to just use the regular mustard
32:29 No so it was like that's how that's how might the two paths diverged in that I was making a living doing magic do you know performing up at the Magic Castle and doing mentalism and stuff like that so over those seven years I you know that career started to take off and then eventually the voice of a career started to take off my catering career was like yeah you do other stuff like he's a directing but then eventually you had to kind of choose exactly what I would have phrased exactly the same you you can't split your focus because it's like it's like if you like trying to grow bonsai you never prune it you know just like or a grapevine like you just have this the Spurs go off in every direction and
33:16 you're sacrificing growth for diversity of opportunity you can't just grab every opportunity and expect to achieve you know to grow any any which any life I had to do I have to give up my voice acting career because I wanted to be a writer or producer director and I was I was doing a comedy show and someone saw me at the comedy show and I was doing a lot of voices in the show I made okay man we're doing a cartoon called the mutant League which was a game at the time and and they cast me out of that to do like a bunch of voices and but I really wanted to you know I was doing voiceover for a while but it wasn't where my passion why but but then I started writing producing directing animation and I was like well I'm gonna
34:01 hire myself as an actor so so my acting career really took off when I started hiring yeah okay we have time for just one more quick question yes we're gonna say no I'm gonna say Olga my you know [Applause] [Music]
34:47 [Applause] [Music] perfect last question you guys do want to thank everyone from Joey [Applause]
