I was like couldn't he use some other
move you know he would always say
Pikachu use Thunderbolt Thunderbolt
Pikachu Pikachu use Thunderbolt
oh it was amazing but I guess we don't
get tired of hearing that it was pretty
awesome actually
is there any one memorable moment those
times I never forget that caused by that
so um one girl made a bra paper-mache
pokeballs I thought was pretty amazing
but but worse was her wanting me to sign
them and then then we were very close
for that signing um not awkward just
hilarious because I don't know that she
fully thought that out but I'd have to
be that close to her but um but you know
what I love is that so many people
couples come as Ash and Misty or Ash in
May and and they cross so the girl is
Ash and the boy is Misty and it's been
extraordinary to see that I mean one of
the most amazing things for me about
conventions and cosplay specifically is
that people can do anything they want
and to have that sense of humor about it
and it's just incredible and that you
can work on it at home together and then
come or a bunch of friends have come as
many different Pokemon characters or
different Pokemon all this group of them
or the Sailor Moon is great for that a
lot of people come as a big group and
that's really neat and the energy that
those people come with that's what I
remember more than like this costume was
gorgeous and handmade which I've seen an
amazing amount of things that I can't
believe people have made in their houses
but but it's the energy and the
joyfulness that's what I really remember
the most
please for you to be going
well TBD did you like as a as a young
girl my parents are actors so I did my
first play when I was five and during
that performance I decided I wanted to
be an actor actually and I never rethought that until I
graduated from grad school and thought
should I've tried something else and now
I think it's too late
but I I don't know that it was I saw a
lot of theatre when I was growing up and
my parents did a lot of theater so I was
always around that and that's just part
of my life so I don't think it wasn't
necessarily TV although I was a big
speed racer fan but we didn't watch a
lot of TV when I was especially when I
was really small later you know in the
good old days when we all watched TV as
a family you had one TV and you're all
in the same room that's certainly that I
still think that's really important and
it was watching stuff with my family or
Saturday morning cartoons with my
brother you know that kind of stuff it's
the community aspect of it not
necessarily I mean I did do interviews
in my room where I interviewed myself so
I did okay so it all had some some
effect but but that was just me acting
out like doing stuff trying to figure
out things and doing a play at school or
you know it's more theater I think that
that got me wanting to be an actor and
kept me wanting to be an actor my
background is theater and I happen to
get recommended for an audition through
an acting coach I booked that job and
they said Oh could you audition for this
and you know then things just kind of
went on from there so I would say the
very short answer is training and
networking ultimately and you lend your
voice to lots of characters can you talk
a little bit about the process of that
and how that differs from performing on
stage for instance yeah sure um so I do
a lot of cartoons and audiobooks and
language programs that teach you a
different language I do all kinds of
voice related work and so I would say
that every single thing is
it's a the approach is always the same
who is the character and who is the
audience so even when I'm working on
something that's going to eventually be
like a phone answering machine I'm
thinking about the person who's
listening and what they need to get from
it as a character I think about where
they carry their energy how old they are
what kind of a person they are where
they're how much confidence they have
you know all of those things and then
that filters into how the voice comes
out normally when you audition for a
cartoon you get a tiny blurb about how
old they are what they're I don't know
tiny tiny things like ten bossy very
very smart girl you know whatever and
then you just have to come up with
something a sheep a pig you know
whatever when you do an audiobook I mark
through all the characters and figure
out what who they are and then I I kind
of map it out to make sure like if
there's five main girls someone's gonna
be high or if someone's gonna be low or
someone's you know so you kind of figure
it out that way
technically that's the whole the whole
thing so you very much dance your
imagination because you haven't got your
environment so much yourself and yeah
it's you're really all in here all the
time because you also ask your like for
an audiobook as you're reading it you're
imagining the characters just as you do
when you actually read a book but but
you're doing it and speaking as they
would so and switching around so I would
say it's it's very much all in your head
and you're alone most of the time no
Stephanie well so relation should be the
director for instance yeah usually
there's four cartoons you usually have a
director whether it's on the phone
because I'm in LA and I'm working with
someone in New York or or someone
somewhere else and then or you're in
person you usually you have an engineer
and you have a director and then it's
it's all collaborative definitely
because you're all working to get the
best possible
outcome the best representation and when
you're providing the voice for something
it's not just like oh I've just come up
with this idea you have to say how what
do you want how can I be what you want
me to be and then a little bit of
yourself comes in reacting as well so
totally is that difficult because you
don't miss yeah so in most of the time
you get a script for a cartoon and you
are imagining what the other characters
have said so you have to skim through
and then imagine what they've just asked
you so that you can respond and a lot of
times you you have to be very quick on
that because you can't repeat you know
if someone says should we go should we
go get a cup of coffee you would say I'd
like to get a cup of coffee at this
place you have to say oh we could get
coffee there you notice so you have to
figure out how you really talk and
listen and you're doing that all in your
head - and you're on imagine as well
you're having to give because you don't
know what the end product is necessarily
you're having to give the director
different options right you know in tone
to work with an X form of expression
exactly as well so that must be quite
difficult the repetition yeah and for
video games too because you don't know
how that one line is gonna pop out in
the story
sometimes you're you're in a scene and
sometimes you're just doing reactions
and so you have to give like three
different takes and so you're varying it
and then they're thinking about it and
then you do a couple more and then so
it's it's all trying to think of just
yeah options really no I dress up for
Halloween like that kind of thing but I
don't ever go to a convention in a
costume this is it man I take a shower
okay the one particular character or
game or animation that you would really
love to voice that you have not the
opportunity to do every single thing I
auditioned for and don't get cast I do
so many auditions and then so you you
get cast in so few things comparatively
when I audition for something I I think
about it and commit to it as if I'm
already playing the part but I really
love working
I love playing characters that are very
different from myself so I would always
say superhero or something like that
because also people identify with that
I've been lucky to work on Pokemon and
then which nobody knew of really when I
started Ninja Turtles we all kind of
knew about it those kind of things those
are big shoes to fill when when you know
that people have preconceived notions
about it like it playing Wonder Woman or
spider-man or something people already
have an idea of what that should be
and as an actor you you have to remove
yourself and just do what they the
director the producers want you to do so
you can't really think about your hopes
and dreams you just have to kind of
accept the job so really I just like
working on I just want variety for sure
do you have a favorite character oh yeah
I would definitely say Ash I played him
for eight years and it's extraordinary
to be able to play a character that long
when I've been on tour with theatre for
a year doing a show it's really
fantastic because you're you're in that
character for so long night after night
in different spaces and different
audiences and you really it's great to
be able to think as someone else in
terms of that so with Ash I was able to
do that April for Ninja Turtles that was
a couple years I had that and it's
somewhat similar but not as intense
because Ash got to do a lot more than
April so he never much more action um so
I think that's probably fine with
fighting character
years was the only soft point throughout
them them years you you found a little
struggle or was it very fluent so I just
enjoyed the whole process I totally
enjoyed the whole thing which sounds
like I'm making it up but I really liked
I loved going to work to play that
character
um and then I also played other
characters at the same time for that and
when I went to work I would work on that
show for two hours and then go do
another show and another show and so my
day could be a few shows all at once
because they were all in the same
building but no it wasn't hard and I
never I never thought oh god this is
just I wish I had something else or I
hope this ends I never had that ever
plus my daughter was born at the end of
the first season so as a mom who has
kind of a normal mom life in terms of
like getting my kid up and getting to
school they're kidding and then getting
to go and be a ten year old kid for a
while it was quite a nice release so I
think that helped my mom skills for sure
you can ask her about that later
she's quite high yeah so he kind of is
in a year and other I don't normally
play in an audio book a lot of the guys
are down here you know very swarthy um
some of them are really low I made a
mistake in one book where the guy he was
like really gravelly and then I'm on the
eighth book now but the I didn't know it
would go on so long um but yeah it's not
so hard I think if I'm not taking care
of my voice um then it's harder for I
lose bits of my range
like after traveling a lot sometimes I
lose the high or the low so that's where
I have a problem with it but otherwise
not really yeah I'm gonna say never know
I am a baby Mario  let's go yuppeepee well he
says the little bastard finally killed
me
