Sound Bites - Ellen Kennedy

David Kaye got his start in voice-acting from radio, on a morning show in Vancouver. "I used to think it was the be-all and end-all to do a morning show, and it made your mark," he says. Once he had his foot in the door of radio, he began to do cartoon-character voices, such as Cowboy Dick, and began to write spoofs and skits for the show. All of this grew into a real interest in voice-over work, which led to an audition for G.I. Joe. The audition didn't go too well- or so he thought. "I thought I sucked and was really awful," Kaye remembers. "And I forgot about it, literally. Six weeks later, I was skiing at a local ski hill and I lost my keys- and that was the day I had to go for the callback. If I didn't make it to the callback, then I wouldn't have gotten the show. But somehow someone found the keys with their yellow tag on the mountain. As I was phoning trying to get a cab or trying to get someone to pick me up, sure enough, they were coming down in the gondola with one of the workers from the hill. I got the keys, got in the car, and made it just in time, and I ended up getting the role of General Hawk. So I don't know if fate intervened or what it was, but I finally realized that this was what I wanted to do for a living. It was a defining moment."

Since G.I. Joe, Kaye continued to work in animation, including anime, and began to do theater as well. "The more theater I did, the more cartoon parts I got, and the more movie parts I got, and it all grew in the last ten years," he says. "It's been a cool ride." But Kaye's most prominent voice on TV right now is probably Megatron, the bad-guy leader of Transformers: Beast Wars and the new Beast Machines series. "It was the most fun I've ever had. It was strange circumstances for the audition; I was double-booked that day and I was literally on a commercial shoot. Then I got the callback, and I had to beg and plead."

"I read for Optimus Prime and Megatron," he continues. "I had the most fun with Megatron. It's a combination between sort of Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins and a kind of lizard or something like that... He's just, uh... (LAUGHS) A badass is what he is. He's bad."

What were your impressions of anime when you first started working on it, versus how you view Japanese animation now?

Well the whole Pokemon thing amazes me. I'm involved in Gundam Wing as well, as Treize, the bad, soft-spoken guy. It seems to be quite popular. The animation I grew up with was Bugs Bunny- y'know Mel Blanc and Warner Brothers and that whole deal, and I wasn't exposed to anime until I started working with (Viz Video Producer) Toshi (Yoshida) on Ranma 1/2, playing Soun. ^[1] Then all these series started coming up, and I as auditioning for them and getting roles here and there. The new Speed Racer was one of them. There was a number I'd worked on and hadn't realized it was such a huge business. Then Toshi sent me some magazines, and I thought, 'Wow this reminds me of when I was a kid collecting Mavel comics.' There's a whole massive group of people who are big fans of it, and it's fascinating.
It's sort of a cult-type thing. I don't know if that's what you'd want to call it, I don't know if that's the word. It's very much like Star Trek. We went to a Beast Wars convention and there were a whole bunch of people who were really interested in it. Those people who were at the Beast Wars convention- or Transformers convention, I should say- the couple of years I went, there were a lot of people who had been to the one in San Diego and they dressed up.

Any anecdotes form the convention that you can think of?

Anecdotes? The whole time, I kept thinking of Star Trek. (LAUGHS) I don't know why. I kept thinking of William Shatner- "Get a life!" -but they were so nice. We hung out with them a lot. A lot of the fans were so into it, and we made some good friendships. There's a couple of fans that I still e-mail back and forth. Ones in Indianapolis and another guy is in Rochester and the people who put it on, we've all just become good friends. There's been friendships that developed out of being at the conventions.

What do you see as the difference or the similarities between American animation and Japanese animation?

The similarities are that each particular show has a fan base. People have different reasons for watching it and enjoying it. The other difference is the animation. I don't know how many frames per second they use, but you can tell automatically when it's anime. It's a different style.

As far as live-action work goes, what are you doing right now?

I wrapped up a movie for Showtime called Mermaid. It's based on a true story that was in Readers Digest, and the national media is sort of picking up on it. It was a family in Yuba City, California. This little girl, her father died, and she sent up a balloon with a mermaid on it and a little note saying "I missed you" and "It's your first birthday away from us." It ended upgoing all the way to an island on the East coast of Canada, which is unheard of. I play the father of a family who ends up finding the balloon while I'm out hunting, and we all get together. In the end, the two families get together, and it turns out that, yes, basically her message did get to her father in the way the story is told. The little girl who played the lead, you'll look at her and start to cry. I was rehearsing for a shot and just rehearsing and she says "Is this heaven?" And I say, (CRYING). The director says "Dave you gotta save that!" And I say "I'm sorry, I'm just looking at her and..." It's certainly a whole different deal from doing animation.

What can you say about the differences and the similarities of voice-acting versus live-action work?

Well, everything has to be truthful, whatever you do, whether it's animation, or telling a story, or doing a movie. Everything has to come from a place of truth, and it can't be put-on- it's got to be you. On camera, the makeup, the craft services, the energy of being on-set, the camera's role- there's a whole technical side to it. Make sure the cameras hit their mark here, say the line here, lift up your hand there- and don't forget about the lights and looking at the camera. So it's a very technical art, and at the same time you've got to bring your truth to it and your acting skills.
For animation, the same skills and acting apply, and it's got to come from a place of truth- it can't sound put on. But you can throw spitballs at people in the session, and you can wear sweats, and you don't have to wear makeup. When the mikes are off, you can tell a lot of jokes. It's very much like being in a kindergarten class (LAUGHS) where 20-, 30-, 40-year-olds, men and women, act like children, and it's really cathartic. It's great.

And as far as research for animation roles...?

They do a lot of it for you. For example, in the auditions, you'll get a complete description of the character. For Beast Wars, they had the most I've ever seen, relationships with each of the characters, they had who this guy is, what he does, and there's a picture of him. So you read that and say, okay, and have a good idea of who the character is. Other time,s you have to basically come in with your own stuff and make it up. As far as going from Japanese to English, there's already an established character, so there's a limit to where you can take it, because the animation is already drawn. You have to be able to work within the parameters and still be able to bring a little bit of yourself to it as well.

Do you have any anecdotes from the chaotic dubbing room?

(LAUGHS) Yeah, Optimus Prime keeps wanting Cheetor to pull his finger. "C'mon pull my finger." (LAUGHS)

What's your favorite voice-role of any kind whatsoever?

Well, you know, Megs is up there. There's one I'm going to really enjoy doing coming up shortly. It's a spinoff that goes direct to video. You know the Casper movie with Christina Ricci? Well, they're doing a Casper Christmas special. I don't remember the title of it, but I'm playing a Boris Karloff-type narrator. That's gonna be awesome, because Karloff has been one of my all-time favorites. You know- legend people. They literally said at the last moment, "Oh can you read for this," and I was like, "uhhhhh... it's kind of a Karloff take-off" and I went "Bing!!" I've been waiting to use this voice forever. That's going to be cool. But Megatron's up there, and G.I. Joe- playing General Hawk- was my first hero. I hear it now and I cringe, because I know I could have done so much better. But that's what started it all off.

Now this was the original G.I. Joe from the early '80s, correct?

Yeah.

It's interesting that our'e doing the narration for Casper when in the past you were the narrator for Ronin Warriors.

Oh yeah! I forgot about that one. That was the first narration-type role I did for an anime series. I've seen it on television, and again, I'm never satisfied with what I do. I hear it and I go, "Oh, you know, I should have done that.," but there's time constraints when you're going from Japanese to English. Sometimes it takes a very short period of time to say something in Japanese where it would take a long time in English. A lot of the time I would have to rush to get to the next cue and I couldn't really do a lot with it. I liked it, the character I played was kinda cool.

The Ancient?

Yeah, the Ancient. I thought he was really neat. There's one battle scene that I have on my animation demo rell that I've always liked. I liked the way the animation was edited.

As far as the strangest, most bizarre, far out voice-acting job you've ever had, what would it be?

Let me think about this one. I know there was one... (LAUGHS) There's an episode of Street Fighter- not the anime, but an English series that ran a few years ago. I had to come in and grunt, and my father was with me. I literally came in, and when voice-actors get together, it's like (IN CARTOONY VOICES) "Hey, how ya doing?" "Hey, what's going on?" "Hey, hey, hey." So I had to grunt, and I did it once and twice just to make sure they had it, and I was able to leave. I got paid for that and my dad said, "What the hell? You grunt? I had to work two weeks to..." That was probably the most bizarre thing that's happened.

Any words of advice or words of extreme caution for aspiring voice-actors?

Well, people always say, "How do I get into it?" If you really, really want to do it for a living, if this is what you want to do, then the universe kind of opens up and listens and goes, okay, and starts throwing things at you. You may come across someone who is a voice-actor someplace or a producer- follow your instincts. If you really, really want to do it, then you'll somehow find the necessary people or find the necessary ways to find yourself an agent and end up doing it. It's really scary when you put your mind to something- what begins to happen if you go, "Y'know, I really want to do this."

Send fan mail to:
www.davidkaye.com
or
David Kaye, c/o Viz Video
PO Box 77010
San Francisco, CA 94107

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Footnotes

• [1]As this interview takes place before the beginning of the Inuyasha anime in Japan, David Kaye had not yet been cast as perhaps his most popular and well known role, Sesshomaru, and instead was best known for his years long role in Ranma 1/2 as Soun Tendo.

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