OR: In a lot of your prior interviews, you’ve referenced your theatre background. You studied at UNLV [University of Nevada, Las Vegas] and you performed at the [Nevada] Conservatory Theatre. When you first began performing on stage, did you see yourself wanting to do voice acting at this point or was that a path you decided to pursue later on?
RD: I had an interest in it from a pretty young age because I was always a gamer and into comic books and all that stuff. But, you know, I also play sports and had outside interests. I had been doing theatre since I was a really small kid. So when I saw theatre dying in America – regional theatre’s kind of fallen apart across the country – I said ‘Uh oh, I better look for other options of how to work.’ So it just seemed like a natural fit. I just took what I loved and worked really hard toward making myself viable in geek-land, and that part was important to me.
OR: You also did summer stock theatre for a number of years in addition to the Nevada Conservatory Theatre and teaching at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles. What familiar character parts have you played on stage and what influence had those better known, well-established roles had on your voice acting?
RD: Oh, that’s a great question. Theatre’s great training for film and voice acting because the nature of theatre is a little more broad. So I feel like a lot of the really great American voice actors have had a theatre background. It’s not necessary, but I’d say – one of the longest-running roles I’ve done was Ali Hakim in Oklahoma!, and I did that hundreds of times with five different productions. It was my bread-and-butter role for five years.
That kind of goofy, big comedy was great training for the stuff that I’d eventually do in American cartoons. The freedom to be big in a musical is just about the same level that you’re able to be big behind the mic in a cartoon.
OR: Do you employ any acting techniques such as method acting, Stanislavski’s method, or any other methods in the studio?
RD: Well, I taught Meisner [technique] when I was in grad school – when I got out of grad school. But I taught mostly voice and speech, I don’t know. When you have a lot of acting training, it all sort of melds together and becomes whatever it is you do. Definitely not method, though. No one would want a method anime actor, it’d be a really awkward place to go to work.
*laughs*
OR: Do you ever want to go back to theatre?
RD: Uh…no. ‘Ever’ is a big question. If the right role came along, would I consider it? Yeah. But right now, my home is in cartoons and video games and anime. I don’t know what the rest of my career would hold – ‘never say never’, but right now I’m pretty locked into what I’m doing.
OR: Now you’ve voiced a role in Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. How did you wind up getting into that?
RD: It was an open audition. I don’t think there was a callback involved, and that was my first – I love Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy was the game that made me realize that there’s going to be more work in voice over. So I was super great to get it. It’s really outside my normal range. So it was very deep and militaristic, which is something I don’t do all that much. So getting to do it was really, really fun. Plus, I had a few epic video game moments in there, including you know – shooting energy into the sky and beating up on the main protagonist.
OR: You mentioned before that your favorite Final Fantasy game is Final Fantasy X. Why is that?
RD: Nostalgia is part of that, I think. A lot of video games are big for me like – like they matter to me for when in my life when I’m playing them. This would have been my freshman year of college. It was [the] first fully acted Final Fantasy. I’ve been playing it since the original NES when it was really supposed to be the FINAL Final Fantasy. And [Final Fantasy] just transported me in a way that no game ever has. I think it was such a unique world, a great story, and still to this day – my favorite Final Fantasy above and beyond even [Final Fantasy] VII for me.
OR: You [stated] earlier at the top of the interview that you play the new Tuxedo Mask.
RD: I do! And the old Tuxedo Mask. We’re doing the original series and Sailor Moon Crystal.
OR: How do you approach the character for the two different [series]?
RD: The original show is a little more broad. [Tuxedo Mask] is a little bit sillier and cheesier when he’s in Tuxedo Mask mode in the original series. It seems like [Sailor Moon] Crystal follows the manga much closer, so it’s a lot more serious. There’s a lot more romance involved, he has a lot more backstory.
It’s the same character, the same voice. But you have to play him differently. Which isn’t as hard as it sounds when your director and the creator has done such a good [job] of putting the world together for you. Because if I went in and did ‘classic’ Tuxedo Mask in a Sailor Moon Crystal session, it’d be immediately apparent that it doesn’t fit. So that’s the nice part of having a fully-fleshed out world to act within.
“[Voice acting is] a hard business to get into, it’s a hard business to maintain, and it’s a hard business to find who you are in it.”
OR: Another anime you did was God Eater and the video game came out before the anime. You played Lenka Utsugi.
RD: That’s right, he’s the lead good guy. He’s my first real shōnen. So, though he’s a bit of a deeper-voiced shōnen – which is funny. In anime, I do these deep-voiced characters, and in cartoons, I’m always like the ‘kid’ or the ‘goofy,’ so it’s really weird. So the games are a much different process. It was a lot more generic – it was just callouts and all that stuff. And I’m actually the player voice in both the games – God Eater 2 and then God Eater Resurrection. And then we started doing the anime. So, fortunate for me, they decided to keep the casting the same and they ended up coming with a really great cast that’s a mix of people from the game and from other union anime folks. And we’re still in the recording process, but, boy, we’re going to do a dub premiere at Otakon in Charlotte and it’s really – this show is really coming along, it’s a lot of fun.
OR: How do you prepare for a role when you accept it?
RD: It depends on the show. You know, if it’s anime, there sometimes isn’t a lot of time to prepare and you put a lot of trust into your director. When it’s a cartoon, you get a script usually a lot more ahead of time. If it’s a known character, that helps. But if it’s a new character in say, a cartoon, at least you have your audition to go off of. So you know that you have a jumping off point. And typically, you would go in and ‘find the voice.’ Which is you and the director and the producers going off of your audition and making sure that you’re within the world like we talked about earlier.
So a lot of it’s on the fly. A lot of it – you have to have a lot of trust in yourself. And the same thing when you do a cartoon. They might – when you’re contracted, you’re good for up to three supporting characters. So they might go ‘OK, you’re playing this main character, but you’re gonna be the hotdog vendor, this scared kid, and this speeding guy from Texas.’ And that’s how you fill up the shows. So you gotta be on your feet on the fly. So there is some preparation, especially if you’re starting a big role in a new show, but once you get into the groove of it, a lot of it is in the moment.
OR: If you could work on any video game or anime series, what would it be?
RD: I’m a huge Legend of Zelda fan. But no one that I know has seen any casting for the new one – Breath of the Wild. So I don’t know. That would be one – I have a half sleeve [tattoo] that’s entirely Zelda, so that’s the answer. I would want to be at least some sort of significant character in that world, that would be awesome.
OR: Now to wrap it up: Do you have any advice for any aspiring voice actors or voice actresses?
RD: Sure! You know, it sounds a little hokey, but you have to follow your own path. So, whether you’re in small-town in the middle of Missouri where I was when I grew up, not knowing how to chase your dreams or express yourself – you gotta use whatever path’s in front of you and take it. And make choices. And if it’s something you really want, you have to pursue it hard. Because it’s a hard business to get into, it’s a hard business to maintain, and it’s a hard business to find who you are in it.
So I guess the final thing would be: Be confident in who you are and go after it hard, because it’s not going to come to you.
A special thank you to METROCON for arranging the interview. Tickets go on sale for METROCON 2017 on January 1, 2017.
What is your favorite role of Robbie Daymond’s? Is Final Fantasy X your favorite title, as well? Let us know in the comments below!
