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Salon
Roquet
The Library
Rachel Lillis Interview
An in-depth interview with the voice actor of 'Jesse'
Courtesy of AnimeFan Online
Conducted by Shidoshi (Anime Editor, GameFan Magazine)
AnimeFan: How did
you originally get into voice acting?
Rachel Lillis: I saw an ad in a trade magazine
looking for voice actors for Japanese animation - I used to
always enjoy the show star blazers back in the 70's, I thought
the art was incredibly beautiful, and was really into a lot of
the other American cartoons of the time. I knew that I always
wanted to do voices, be a voice actor, but never knew that I'd do
something when the two art forms met.
When I was 13, I wanted to be a voice actor, and my parents were sort of like, "What's a voice actor?" It's a tough market to break into, and I have been into it for a little under two years, but it's very cool to be able to participate in it, and voice acting for Japanese anime is something I love doing. It's a fun process, we get in the studio, joke around, order lunch, get a little creative. We look at a line, and skew it a bit differently depending on how we've been going for the past few weeks. The words are there, but you have to take them in a direction thatıs real to you.
AF: How do you
prepare to do the voice acting for an anime title?
RL: You just show up at the studio
every day, do it for a couple of hours, and you make notes to
remember where you are at. For preparation, you look at the
character, the story, maybe get the script ahead of time - but I
actually prefer the cold-read format. Sometimes itıs better to
not know the story ahead of time, so that you aren't trying for a
specific idea. Sometimes the best read is the one that you
haven't prepared for at all, but it doesn't hurt to have a bit of
preparation. It's best to just experiment with things, get the
person's age, who you think they are, a few other details, then
figure out who they really are depending on what they say - like
when you're reading a character in a novel.
AF: Do you watch
the anime you are doing a voice for beforehand, to get an idea of
what the original Japanese voice was like, or do you do the voice
and attitude the way you think the character should be done?
RL: Typically we don't get the tape
beforehand, so usually it's a visual thing when you first see the
character. You just sort of experiment. Sometimes you'll listen
to the Japanese version, listen to their take on it, but usually
that's rare. You just visualize the character in your mind and
work from there. They give you a lot of freedom in how you act
the character, they wanted Utena to have a higher pitch, talk a
bit slower, but as the series went on, she got a lower pitch, and
her lines were changed a little to flow a bit better. It's a very
dramatic series, not a lot of comedy, so you couldn't go off into
a lot of comedic lines. When you have a lot of serious characters
acting, you say to yourself that the better way to do it is to
hav e the characters talk more naturally with each other. Utena
is pretty laid back, because she knows that something strange is
going on with the student council, but she doesn't give it a lot
of importance. That's really the motivation behind everything she
does, don't mess with me, don't mess with my pals, and everyone
will get along fine. Thereıs a little monkey-mouse names Chu-chu
(I do his voice as well), who goes around saying nothing but
"Chu chu", and sometimes Utena and Chu-chu will have a
conversation together, and I end up talking to myself. [laugh]
The show ends up being rather dramatic, the characters confront each other, center around their destiny.
AF: How were you
brought into this project?
RL: I auditioned for CPM, I've worked
with them before. I had read for the smaller roles, and they kind
of put them out of order, so that you don't know whose who. They
don't really tell you anything, they just want to see if your
voice matches the idea of the character. I was really thrilled,
as this is the first time I've been involved in a long series
from the very beginning. It's far different than when you have a
small part in an anime title. When you're doing an incidental,
you go in the studio and you have no idea whatıs going on - it's
just kind of like "You're this evil sorceress, youıre going
to lob this fireball, just scream a lot and stuff."
AF: Who is your
favorite character in Utena?
RL: Miki Kaoru, I think. He is one of
the younger boys, he's in the student council, plays the piano,
he's very advanced, the older girls like him because he's so
adorable. He takes a shine to Anthy, and Utena encourages this,
because sheıs kind of taken in upon herself to get Anthy's
social life up. He's not really into what the student council is
doing, he's pretty sympathetic to Utena and Anthy, he's generally
a sweet guy.
AF: What kind of
person is Utena?
RL: I think she's a
tomboy, she's kind of naive, she cares a lot about the people
close to her, so much so, and I can understand this totally
because I'm like this with my friends and they are with me, if
someone is bothering them, you protect them. She's really down to
earth, and I think that's all she wants to be is a good person,
and she really doesn't understand all the things around her on
her campus, and she's going along with it.
AF: Now let's turn it around. What about you?
What kind of person is Rachel Lillis?
RL: I'm a pretty boring person! I like
the behind the scenes stuff, putting together jingles, working on
the voice acting stuff, seeing what all going into the
production. I've been the person running out getting bagels and
donuts for the staff. [laugh] When you're in front of the camera,
you know what itıs like on the other side, so you're much more
into everything that's going on. Iıve done some nature narration
for Tom Snyder productions, stuff like CD-ROMs on how cottons
grows, how cows are milked, underwater sea life, things like
that. "This is scuba gear, if you look closely, you can see
all of the gadgets and switches, blah blah..." [laughs]
Narration is something different entirely, you get used to that
kind of thing, counting the beats, you just keep going and learn
the art of turning the page without making a sound. Then maybe
you go into voice over for a commercial, and most commercial
reads are this big ball of energy which you have to dredge up,
then you do maybe like five takes and it's over. You have to
learn how to use your voice to sell something or tell a story
without being boring. In Utena, you get to grunt, have a sword
fight, put in subtle little things that really add the spice.
AF: What do you
think of the increase of shoujo in the US?
RL: I think it's kind of disturbing ...
er, not the increase of shoujo in the US, but that a lot of the
movies you see in theaters haven't really been targeting a young
female audience. I read this article in the NY times that that's
who we're targeting, the young boys, and the girls will follow. I
don't know if the Utena audience will be all girls, but I do
think itıs a good thing, it's a void that certainly needs to be
filled.
AF: Okay, so let me
ask you the big question - what's your opinion on Sailor Moon?
RL: I've never seen it! [laughs] The
guy who did Utena worked on Sailor Moon, and almost everybody who
has talked about anime, fan or not, has seen it. I have NO clue
what it's about, all I know is that a cat with a moon on itıs
head, and a girl with the wachamadealy - the girl with pigtails
on her head. I know that because I went to the con and saw all of
these guys dressed as Sailor Moon.
AF: How did you get
involved in Pokemon?
RL: TAJ (dub house) and CPM have worked
together on various products, and they just called me in for a
read. I had worked with them on Slayers, I did an evil sorceress
and her daughter, and I guess because I didnıt suck too much
they called me back ... or maybe I just hadn't given them too
much lip. [laugh] We did auditions earlier this years, they give
you all of the female characters and some lines for each. I was
in another room watching the first episode of Pokemon, just in
time to see Pikachu and Ash (Pikachu is adorable!), and then they
called me in. I read for Misty and Jessie and Ash, they had me do
a fe w Pikachu lines in case they were going to do an English
voice for him. I just auditioned, and Jim (Malone, who is also
working on Utena) just had me try it, not really go out all our
anything, and he basically helped me through. Jim has also worked
with the people involved in casting, so he knows what theyıre
looking for, what they want in a character.
AF: How familiar are you with the Pokemon
phenomenon?
RL: Not really. I had heard about the
seizures problem, but I didn't know it was Pokemon. [laughs]
AF: What's your
opinion on the Sub vs. Dub debate?
RL: As an anime fan, I wasn't really
familiar with dubbed tapes, because subtitles was most of what
was available. I lived in a small town, and there wasn't much
around. There seems to be a strong anti-dubbed feeling among a
lot of fans. But I've seen Slay ers, thought that they did a
fantastic job, and I've seen a lot of other things that they've
released. Itıs not just a case of them putting the stuff out,
they want to get voice actors who really fit the characters, work
well on the timing, and try to bring some of the humor over from
the original Japanese to English (since some jokes don't
translate well). Most of the time it's fine, but there are some
points that you really have to change things around. I know with
Utena they wanted to keep the Japanese names, but in Pokemon they
changed them all around. If they keep the Japanese names, you
really have to get the names down and know how to say them
correctly.
AF: Do you ever
feel weird when you tell people what you do for a living?
RL: Well, my parents are like that,
they're like, "Okay, right, when are you going to medical
school?" But the people I work with are mostly actors, so
they understand. I haven't told a lot of people, but those I did
tell thought it was really cool, even if they didn't know what
anime is. We don't talk a lot about what we do for work, but yet
they want to know what parts I've done, what the anime titles I
work for are about.
AF: If you could be
the voice actress for any character or in any series, what would
you want to do most?
RL: I've always liked Akane from Ranma
1/2. Or Nausicaa - when I first saw her, I thought that that
would be very cool.
AF: What kind of anime do you like?
RL: Miyazaki is probably my favorite.
The first anime I ever saw was Warriors of the Wind. I saw the
English version after the US, a friend send my Nausicaa of the
Valley of Wind with a typed out plot, she said that I was going
to need it. I thought she was going to send me the English
version, but she was like, "No no no!" I really didn't
need the English version, the Japanese was so well done. She sent
me Laputa, and the whole first season of Ranma, including
Japanese commercials. I got more into it, then kinda really
watched all of the Miyazaki that I could, the Macross movies,
those were really good. I even have a Nausicaa poster at home.
Nausicaa came with so many interesting ideas. Miyazaki always throws in a zillion time periods in his movies, like Kiki's Delivery Service, with it's wood burning stoves, yet it also has automobiles and flying machines. He's always straddling the past and the future, yet you never know what time period you are in. That's true in Nausicaa as well. Nausicaa herself is a very inspiring character, she doesn't know much beyond the sheltered life that she's lived, but her spirit is strong, and everyone who comes into her life is influenced by her. Nausicaa really did have an effect on me.
AF: What what you
say your five favorite specific anime titles are?
RL: Fire Tripper, Akira, Ranma 1/2,
Nausicaa, and Tenchi Muyo, I've only seen one episode of Tenchi,
but I liked it. Oh, and I know it's more than five, but Laputa :
Castle in the Sky as well.
AF: How can fans
contact you?
RL: Through Central Park Media - send
anything you would like their way, and they'll get it to me.
AF: Anything you
would like to say to our readers?
RL: [laughs] I don't know! I'm really
psyched about the fact that anime seems to be coming along in the
US, and I hope that more incredible titles will be coming out,
because the more dubbed titles that get released, the more people
will be exposed to it, since I've heard that dubbed titles are
usually what people are first introduced to. I hope everyone
likes Utena, we worked really hard on it! I think it's amazing
that people are pulling for anime, and I hope that it continues
to grow.
Contact
Info:
Rachel Lillis
c/o Central Park Media
250 West 57th Street
New York, NY
10107
**Note from Salon Roquet: To see a picture of Rachel, please visit our Database, and click on 'Voice Actors'**
Interview released December 1999 by AnimeFan Online, I'm unsure exactly when it was conducted.
Huge thanks go to Shidoshi Naga of AnimeFan Online and Anime Editor of GameFan Magazine! ^_^
'Salon Roquet' has the consent of AnimeFan to use this interview. Please do not take this interview, in part or in whole, to use on your own website. It does not belong to us, therefore if you do and you do not have permission, you will be the one who is held responsible, not us. Please do not bother emailing us to ask if you can use it, the answer will have to be 'no'. Your best bet is to contact AnimeFan Online.
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