I'm Jason Griffith. I voiced, thank you very much, Sonic the Hedgehog, from 2003 to 2010 i my very
first video game I ever worked on was Shadow the Hedgehog, and that was such a
magical experience that they gave us the script and it was the size of the
Manhattan phone book because there's so many cutscenes, so many endings, so many
variations in that game and I loved every minute. And I was terrified every minute because I thought they're going to fire me at any
point because I was so young and and Sonic was the very first thing I'd the
very first big thing I'd done. And I thought there's there's it just
seems like they made a mistake, you know, How did they, They chose me for this
iconic role. At any point they're going to realize and
they're going to, you know, have me escorted out with security. But that never happened. Well it did in like 2010 but I got to
voice Sonic, Shadow Jet and a slew of other video game characters and animation
base. Starting with Sonic, Sonic started
everything for me. Previous to that I've been working in Car
in. Commercials i was the voice of JetBlue
for about 3 years i said JetBlue it's not the only way to fly, but it should be. And I did a bunch of zit commercials for zit cream i We weren't selling zits we
were trying to get rid of them. And yeah, and so for for me, Sonic sort
of evolved. Because when I started, it was it was
sort of like this it was a little more nerdy it was more like Ryan Drummond's
Sonic. No, no disrespect they did play a clip of
Ryan Drummond to me when I auditioned originally and said sort of emulate this,
don't copy it. But by the time I was done with Sonic, he
sounded like this. And that was all based on the producers
and directors asking me to make him cooler because they wanted him to be a
little less nerdy, more cool. So that was sort of my arc. I don't remember if Shadow sounded different from the beginning of when I
started voicing Shadow to the time that I was canned, but he was based on a
roommate that I had named. Carl and Carl would always, he'd always
want to talk about the book he was writing, and he'd smoke cigarettes at
eight in the morning. And Carl worked the 3rd shift so as soon
as I was waking up, he was coming home. Hey man. And so I based Shadow on him when they asked me to audition for Shadow, I
immediately knew I'm like, oh, he's this is Carl.
And then Jet. He sort of came after I was voicing Usopp
on One Piece and. Usop was a little crazy like this, but
then Jets, you know, just put a little bit of like Grid into his voice. And then you got jet. And that was based on, if anybody cares,
that was based on, I remember my friends and I and my former girlfriend at the
time, ex-girlfriend we were, we had a Memorial Day spectacular and we were
taking pictures this is back when you had to get film developed. And so one of the pictures I was sitting there, it was a picnic in the park and I
was sort of like. Hunched over next to. A Like a brown paper bag like that. So I was like that. And my friend saw that and said, oh look, it's Eddie the troll. And so we started giving Eddie the troll a voice and I. Know, Maybe he sounds like this i've got a bag a brown paper bag. And then just as Fay would have it two weeks later I went in and auditioned for
Usopp and immediately again, serendipitous i knew exactly the the the
voice I was going to use for him as as we never do i I didn't know if I was going
to get the job or or whatnot but I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple
weeks later that I they'd cast me in that and I love. I love when things come together like that when you're having fun and you don't
have to push for something and just and I call it divine inspiration. Just seeing the picture of Usopp and saying oh, I know exactly the voice I'm
going to use for that or seeing the picture of Shadow and saying that's Carl,
a funny story when I auditioned for Sonic, XI got a call back and they said
we love the voice you're doing, but I was also auditioning for Chris Thorndike at
the same time, who was the Chris in Sonic X?
And the producer Michelle asked me to swap those two voices she said, can you
do the voice you're doing for Chris for Sonic?
So I don't know exactly what I was doing for Sonic that was different, but I
switched them. I put the Chris voice for Sonic and then
I thought, oh, of course there's no way they're going to hire me. And then three weeks later I was working in my agent's office and answering phones
because my agent was out of town when 4 kids called to book me and they had no
idea they were talking to me. So I I answer the phone Frontier booking
and they say yes. Jason Griffith came in last week to
audition for Sonic and I went, oh great, I get to hear the the rejection first
hand. And I was like, Oh yes, yes, I'm
familiar. And they said great, we'd like to hire
him next Wednesday for the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog. And I just about fell out of my agent's chair and I wanted to say it's me, it's
me. But of course I couldn't because the, you
know, that would have freaked everyone out and they would never have understood. And the funniest part is then I my agent was in Florida at the time checking in
with me and I told him, John. I booked Sonic the Hedgehog and his
reaction was? Jay no, you didn't. And I said no, I swear John, I booked. Sonic Jay, stop lying. It took me getting one of the other agents on the phone to tell him, no,
Jason really booked Sonic the Hedgehog, so that was fun. You know, my whole career has been filled with I never knew that could happen over
and over to this day. There are even even coming out and doing
these conventions, I never knew this was a thing that I could do or or you know,
that people would be interested in even seeing me.
The thing I forgot. Because when I was voicing Sonic, it
seemed like everybody wanted Ryan Drummond back so I would get lots of hate
mail, quasi death threats, like give him, give him his job back and I'm like, I'm
just an actor like all I did was audition for the part, but I forgot that so many
people that were five, six seven years old when the show came out or the video
games came out would grow up to be you. So I I forgot not i didn't forget i
didn't never even realize i figured you guys were still all eight years old, that
this would be a, you know, a a like an actual thing and so it's really cool, but
it's it's just been a whole ride of like, I never knew this would happen. I never thought this could happen and this is so cool that it is happening. So yeah, that's. I mean, that's the long and short of it i
could talk for hours and hours ask my wife. She knows. But do you guys have any questions
because I'd love to. Yes noah, I remember you, man yeah thank
you oK. I OK, I'm still OK. Oh yes, quick question now remember. My own way oh, OK. I'll come back to you, man i'll come, Yeah. Yes, Sir, Yes the only thing that kind of confused me about the Sonic X voice
actors is that how come the guy, what's the name of the guy who voiced doctor
robotnik? That's Mike Pollack. How come my colleague got the voice Doctor Robotnik for 15 straight years,
but everybody else was dropped? Let me call him real quick and ask No, I
don't think any of us know. So the unofficial official word was we
were recording in New York City and they wanted to move the production out West
and so this is back during when it wasn't so easy to do a patch where you could
just record remotely so they just got a whole new team out on the West Coast. I don't know why Mike got to continue, but maybe because nobody is better than
Mike and you know, nobody could beat him. But I, you know, it's like Spider Man or
just any a lot of characters you can think of man i think it's cool that Sonic
has an evolution and he does have different voice actors in different
phases so you know, it never well it it did bother me in the beginning to not be
voicing him anymore, but now you know, I just realized how much that opened up and
started my whole career so I'm totally cool with other people voicing Sonic
aside from me so I wish I knew the official story, but they don't, you know,
as actors we're sort of in the dark about all of it. You know, they just, they call us when they they need us. We get the lines and then that's it. You know, it's not like I've never played
one of the games I was I voiced. No, it's a lie mario and Sonic at the
Olympics, I I voiced or I played. I haven't played anything else though so
but great question i wish I had a better answer for you. Yes. Mario, at the Olympics game, which
character did you play and? They can win. Who that was a long time ago i played it. I played it when it first came out. I must have played a Sonic and I'm probably did not win. My my video gaming years were 1986 to 1994 ish.
And then I played so many video games I decided to stop playing video games. But I'm really good at Galaga. So just so you know thank you thank you
Give it up for Galaga. Yes noah how did?
You get the voice of Jetta Hawk and what did you think of playing him?
I I don't remember auditioning for him, I feel, and I could be completely wrong
here, but many years have passed and I've had many children since, so my brain is
fried. I want to say They just asked me to do
that voice and they said, do you have an idea for it?
And as happens many times, you'll be in the booth and a director will say, let's
try several things and then we'll decide on what we like and see what sticks so
you give them several different options and they say, oh, voice number two so
that could have been for Jet, but I'd, you know, I had already known. Just like if I tweaked my Usopp voice a little bit and gave him more gravel, then
oh, that was that was, yeah, that and it felt right.
That's, you know, you, you, you can always tell inside yourself if it feels
right, you know, if it, like, kind of sits in the cut, as they say. And that's a great feeling and that's, that's where I felt I got with Sonic by
the time they fired me, Like, I felt like I really nailed it at this point, you
know, I'm like, oh, I know. Let's start a petition. Thank you no, I appreciate you, man. Yes, ma'am. 4 Shadow You said you got inspired by your roommate Carl yeah, so was it they
gave you the description of Shadow's overall character, or you just saw a
picture and you're like, he's edgy i know exactly what. Both so I remember i don't remember exactly what I was recording, but I was
at 4 kids when an engineer, John Dixon came in and they must have been holding
auditions and I wasn't included in them. And so he came in with a little picture
of shadow and a little paragraph probably just described who he was, what he, what
he was. And so do you want to audition for this
and I said sure. And I want to say there was a call back
after that, although I can't again, this is it's so long ago, I can't I can't be
sure. But what was the question though, if they
gave? You like?
A oh, yeah so they get, yeah, they always give you like a little paragraph, which
sometimes helps sometimes it's more confusing i I always find it's better to
just look at the picture and kind of get a voice from that. And at the time, I thought, lightning can't strike twice you know, I I thought
there's no, I'll audition for it, but there's no way I'm going to get this
because I'm already Sonic, you know? But when I was cast, I felt like, of
course, of course this was meant to happen. So, yeah, you know, as as happens in all auditions, you get a little little
character bio, little picture and then the name of the game is nobody knows what
they want until they hear it, you know, including me, you know, including the
actors, any anyone else? Yes, Sir. To the origin story that you brought up about the voice that you were recording
for Sonic at the first time. They gave you an audio clip and they said
we want something similar but distinct. Are you sure that it wasn't Jaleel White
that you were given? Are you familiar with him he voiced. I am very familiar with I am when I. Listened to the first episode, the song,
you know, it sounded like a teen he sounds more like he's 12. He's like the stars in the sky look, the sand. Yeah, I swear I hear Jaleel White. Sure that that's a are. You absolutely certain with Ryan? Drummond, you're the YouTube. Video for the. Interview yeah oh. Yeah, here's a picture of the last voice factor. I'm like. No interesting interesting. You're the very first person to bring that up and now I'm questioning my entire
history because it could have been, but I want to say they said this was the
current voice or I heard his name mentioned when they played the clip. And again, it was an instance where they didn't want me to copy it they just
wanted something in the ballpark of which I think they kind of threw that all out
with Roger because Roger's more of his own voice.
I feel like, and I always say I'm I was the last cartoony sounding Sonic 'cause I
wasn't like, hey kids, you know, it's like, hey, this is, this is me right
here. But I I don't know, I think that's that. That's a question left to the ages now. It's been so long since I couldn't even
ask anybody who would remember i'm sure I will ask someone i'll get back to you on
that, Sir oK. So did you African to be the Japanese
voice actor first? Time no, no the only only other Sonic
I've ever met is Ryan Drummond, and we will Duke it out later today for for
supremacy. You know, Sir, you. Did voice word for assigned to the Werehog correct?
Yes. Do you remember how you came up with that voice?
Right so yeah, this this would have been a great example of let's just hear what
you got and then we'll tweak it from there. I feel like the Werehog, as soon as I had like as soon as I tried something, they
liked it i do remember that, which was the easiest part of recording that game
because as we went on I I thought I had strep throat recording that game because
my vocal cords felt like they were just closing up on me and I was sick. So that especially if you've heard the the screams, the werehog screams for that
game, man, I tasted blood on every take. And The thing is, here's the two things
with recording games is when when the team is in from Japan, you do it, then
you don't do it oh, I'll do it next week when I feel better it's like, no, you're
booked now and they're here, so you do it now. And the other thing is they wanted a a 5 second scream, an 8 second scream, a 10
second scream, a 12 second scream. And I don't know if this is is so
primitive that they just couldn't cut it off, like, but I remember I think we did
three or four screams when the director, Chris Cole turned to the team and said,
all right, that's enough. And you can see he's suffering in there. But I also feel like being sick helped me tremendously with that game because I
didn't want to sound sick. And you know, I'd i think I'd gotten
enough hate mail at this point where I'm like this.
God, I got to do great. I want people to love me and I think
that's where the Werehog came from they're like I could do this. So, yeah, so it was that that was a hard game to to record, but I I think it was
my favorite experience because of how it came out and it seems to be, you know, at
least from everybody I've met, that seems to be the number one favorite game that
people bring up to me you know, I still can't believe when people like, oh, I
love Sonic O6 i'm like, where were you in O6 anyone else anyone who didn't have a
question yes, Sir what was the most what's your favorite Sonic project you
ever? Worked.
On Sonic Unleashed, Yeah, for sure that yeah, just because you know aside from
really having to push myself and I felt like I got like i felt like I really
landed on on Sonic's voice at that point and it had come full circle from or not
full circle but the whole arc, because I don't know if you're here in the
beginning when I was mentioning like. You know, in the beginning, Sonic was
like a little more nasal and a little more nerdy.
But by the time we were doing Unleashed. He was like this. You know, so I felt like the the producer producers had really pushed me in the
right direction to to be cooler and I don't know something just took hold when
I, you know when I finally got that voice in my body, which is I became him yes,
exactly. That's that's how that's a great way to
put it because it feels like you can do no wrong once you get that feeling in and
everyone is on the same page as you saying oh, that's the voice that's the
that's the mannerism, that's the coolness it's like man, you could just put me in
front of the phone book and I'll, you know read it and have the same effect,
Sir. So when you're doing the. Voice acting are. You so.
The game first or are you just? For the video games. So we're if there's any any video, well this is again, this is back in 2007
eight. I don't know if it's different now i mean
I've probably not everything's prelay for video games. I just did the most recent Call of Duty game and that was all prelay and then
they would if they had video it's always sort of a rough like like it'll be like
stop animation almost like claymation at points and then all of a sudden it'll be
like sketches on a piece of paper just like. So that's always on in its rudimentary form if there's any sort of video
involved with with recording but for the most part the difference between the
video games and the TV show. For the video games, everything's pre lay
they just have the script, give us 3 versions of each, each line, each reacts
give us a bunch of reacts and then later on they'll drop them in and if there's
pickups then you get to see like the next session you get to kind of see it, it
being put together. Now for the TV show, obviously it was in
Japan first, so we were recording to the picture for Sonic X and you know we're
usually watching i can't remember if we watched the scenes in Japanese. I want to say we did. I can't be sure though but yeah, we for
for Sonic X that was all to picture. Yes, yes. I'm not trying to be a question on everybody, but believe it or not, did you
know that Sonic X season three, It wasn't even supposed to exist the only reason
season three, the meta Rex aren't even exist is because the show was so popular
in America for kids entertainment had to call Japan quick and ask them for more
episodes. So the third season is an American
exclusive. It came out in Japan 13 years later. I had no idea. Mind blown i had no idea. I love that, though, man. Yes, Sir. Hi, I just wanted on behalf of all of this, I want to say thank you so much for
coming out to Sacramento. Thank you for having me. Yeah my first time to Sacramento, by the way. I was as I was land, as the plane was landing yesterday I was playing the full
house theme in my head and I went Oh no way, wrong city, wrong city, but close i
do have a. Question yeah, And that's Were you like,
at all familiar with Sonic before you started?
Recording Oh. Gosh, yes.
So The funny thing is, growing up, I always had a Nintendo. So Mario was my thing my sister was always jealous she wanted to play, you
know, And I was like, no, no, no, no, no you stay away from my Nintendo. And then in 1993 she got a Genesis so she had Sonic and she's playing Sonic. But then I one upped her and became Sonic, you know, So it's been like this
sibling rivalry for all this time. But I remember playing my cousin and I
would play video games all the time my cousin and I actually moved to New York
and became actors together. So we have a long history, but we he had
a Sega CD and so we played a lot of Sonic CD, among other great, great nostalgic
games that you know, and it's so funny, it's so great to have those experiences
because when I started recording when I was doing, say, Shadow the Hedgehog, the
video game, I was 22 might have been, might have been 23 I could remember all
those times sitting on my cousin's like bedroom floor playing these games with
him and I just the entire time I was recording those games, I thought there's
a 12 year old out there who's going to be hearing my voice come through their
television and they're going to feel the same way that I felt. So I always try to keep that in mind when I was recording and kind of keep that
magic alive as opposed to all this is just a job or just want to do good i'm
like, no, I get to do this magical thing that I didn't even think was possible for
me to be able to do when I was 1213 years old, you know?
And all of a sudden here I am in the booth and I get to be Shadow, I get to be
Sonic and it's this, it's like a huge responsibility, but it's also like a huge
responsibility to have fun and keep that spark of just that magic alive, you know,
And and I think that it's far too often is overlooked in this profession, people
just career focused and driven and everything and I just always, you know,
found myself so grateful and and lucky to be able to do what I do and I never take
it for granted, you know, Never. Yes, ma'am what?
Did you always know that? You wanted to be a voice actor and. If so, what exactly LED you to be the voice of the character so no, I sort of
fell into voice over. I feel like I have to stand on here to be
seen. Thank you no, I feel like I I never
wanted to be a voice actor per southeast i never knew that it was even a career
option. But funny enough, when I was from the
time I was 5 to the time I was 13 asked for a video camera every Christmas, every
birthday if I had a list, it was like number one through 8 was video camera,
then a bunch of video games, and then like 2526 would be video camera again. But I never got it because we were, we were poor growing up and you know and and
video cameras back in the eighties and early nineties were like a billion
dollars. So instead what I would get is a voice
recorder every year with a microphone that sort of looked like this. And so all that creativity I wanted to pour into that video camera, I had to I
had to channel it into the the voice recordings and I again like going back to
what I was saying about having fun and and then nostalgic factor and whatnot i
feel like just having that that sort of like training ground was invaluable to
becoming a voice over actor so quickly. I when I first started acting, I was just
going out for TV commercials on camera, film TV, all that stuff, never voice
over. And then I had a an answering machine so
this really dates me with a little cassette tape and I did an outgoing
message on my answering machine that said you've reached the Jason Griffith Show. You know, my guests include you leave your message after the Veep, you know. And so my agent was calling me to for for an on camera audition he heard that and
at the same time Serendipitous never knew this could happen. They were casting a BMW or a Lexus commercial for a radio and they needed a
cheesy game show host sound so he went, huh, maybe I'll send Jason on this. So he did and I booked it, hence my very first voice over booking. And like agents do, they'll continue when they see where you hit, they'll continue
sending you on those kind of projects so I started booking more and more voice
over. So again, this, it was my whole career is
like, I never knew I was going to be a voice actor i thought I was going to be
on, you know, Fuller House. I know and then here I am in Sacramento
going, whatever happened to you? Where's the Golden Gate Bridge?
Someone who didn't have a question first? Yes, Sir when?
You guys were doing the voice over work for the video games. Did you guys like Voice saw the lines together or did you guys do it
separately? For different projects, we would go
together. When I was working on Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles, we would be, you're familiar. It's underground i know. Very It would be. It would be all the Turtles except for Sam Regal who was on the other coast in a
room together with me when I was Usagi. For Sonic, though we never recorded
together that was always separate and and and and and they were, they were very
merciful in the sense that they didn't have me do Sonic and Shadow at the same
time they would ask who do you want to do first?
Although I can do it really well. No you can't. Yes, I can i've been doing it for years. I've been doing it for years as well. I've been doing it longer than you so I can do it now, but back then I think that
would have blown my head apart any. Fun interactions with Mike. Pollock every day. Mike's awesome we were just in Trenton,
new jersey last weekend together and he's he. Have you guys met Mike Pollock yet? Ok, so you know, he wears the shiniest
shirts. Oh, he's, he's awesome. But he's such a cool guy and I just, I have so much fun with Mike he's he 'cause
he always wants to joke around and he's he's just, he's an awesome guy so but as
far as, like fun interactions. No, never that that no, usually, no. Like we're not just doing voices because, you know, because we do so much like, my
entire day is filled with doing voice overs and his is too. So when we are together, we're just normal people trying to make each other
laugh, you know? Yeah yeah anybody else?
Yes so I. Have a question?
And I'm trying to figure out how a word is so is it easy to record voices for
video games versus TV shows? Or is it the other way around?
It's for me it's equal. What What gets complicated is when not
complicated, but when there's a lot of, like, all right, we want five different
deaths from you for a video game, like when I was doing Call of Duty, it's like,
you know, like a bullet. Yeah, exactly yeah. So it goes from like everything like to, like, you know, But I, you know, aside
from just having to work long hours, it's it's what's the best job in the world i
mean, I have nothing to complain about even when I'm tired at the end and I
can't speak, I'm like bring it, I'd like, give me more like I'm ready for it. Trying to think if there's anything recently that you know, the the hardest
thing to do as a voice over actor in my opinion is books on tape. That's audiobooks because you're in a booth for.
Hours. Just listening to yourself read and then
you'll get into a patch where you just keep messing up every sentence, just a
little like and it's for me, if I feel like I'm going crazy at at a certain
point of doing books on tape, that's the that's the hardest thing everything else
is like, it's like fun time, you know, it's like just playing, you know, anybody
didn't have a question. I don't think you had one, Sir. Yeah, so when realizing you got called off. For not being Sonic anymore. Ok.
How do you feel when you realized like your last session recording for a game
was that was your last one? I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know until after I was done
recording everything. I don't remember when I heard that there
was a new Sonic. My heart was broken. But I didn't find out until like everyone else in the world find found out, you
know, but recording Sonic Unleashed, and I want to say Unleashed was the last game
we recorded like 2 games at once i think it was Unleashed and Secret Rings or
Black Knight at the same time. And but Black Knight was called something
else. I think they're going to call it Sonic
and the Knights of the Round Table or something. I know. And so when Black Knight came out, I
didn't even realize I was like I don't think I'm in that game. I'm like, I'm in this round Table game though, so yeah, I I I'm glad I didn't
know, you know, because it's better to be ignorant about those sort of things and
just do what you do as opposed to thinking like.
Is there anything I can do to? Make them like, like me again, you know,
or whatever it is you know. So yeah, I just blissfully, blissfully
ignorant, you know about that, Sir. So first of all, thank you very much for
coming here. I've been following your work for like
ever since you started Sonic Eggs like 2 day kids ago. I watched the first episode back when I lived in Israel and I just. Wow, thank you of course of course I would make Sonic fan and. I know you're going to get a lot of like Sonic questions today, but my question is
you've been also part of the Pokémon. Franchise yeah i want to know, what was
it like to voice silent so silent when they show again when I auditioned for
him, I got to see a little picture of silent, little little blurb about him. Oh, see you, Noah thank you for coming, man. All right. Love you, dude. So son, Silent was so close to Sonic. Because Sonic. Was up here. But then silent has to be a little more
like flowy, so this is. Sort of the what I was doing the whole
time I was recording. It's evaluation time. You know, it has to be bright and everything, but it can't get up here, do
you know what I mean so it's just like a little notch on the focus dial on the
focus wheel. But as a voice actor, I mean that's
that's all you're kind of channeling all day long it's like, how do I and then
your director's like, no, you're you're a little too this way you got to go a
little more this way. It was great i mean it was great. Voicing him, I again, that was another project where I was like, I don't think
I'm going to get this because I sound too much like Sonic. So when I got the call, it was like amazing because I was, I forget which
season I was supposed to be the lead on i don't even know if I could talk about
this. I was supposed to be the lead on a very
popular show i got the part, very popular yeah. And then at the last minute someone said he sounds too much like Sonic was it
chaotic no, I was in Chaotic i was the lead in Chaotic. Now I don't know if I can say maybe if you come to my booth, I'll say, you know,
off the record, yeah, yeah, with the combo you'll get the information have. You already paid for the combo. That's right oh, well, Linda, come on
back, Sir so. From 2003 to 2010 especially with the
four kids, it seemed like you were in Everything. So you were like Atticus Rhodes in Yu GI O, Me, and Moto, you soggy and teenaging
Ninja Turtles you're even the monkey mascot in Danimals. Thank you oh my gosh like. After 2010 at least for me, it kind of
seems like you fell off the face of the earth. So I was wondering, what has Jason Griffith been up to?
The. Last 13 years besides Call of Duty. So a lot, honestly, I do i'm the voice of Navy Federal Credit Union right now i say
Navy Federal Credit Union our members are the mission. I also do a lot of ADR looping stuff where we're filling in voices and sounds
and whatnot for TV shows, films, you know, working at Warner Brothers,
Paramount, Sony, Disney, like all the time in addition. One of the. Coolest gigs that I get to do all the
time now is dubbing foreign TV shows and films from like Italian, Spanish, French
into English for Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus. I've got quite a few out where I'm like the lead character, just my voice coming
out of like this Frenchman. And it's it's such a cool thing because,
you know, my whole career for, like, you know, 15 years is like, you know, like
Sean Schimmel and I used to do all the incidentals for Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles where it's like Goon 3, you know, this guy getting it, you know, thrown off
a garbage truck because they knew we would just like rip our voices apart. Sean and I would do, would do that. But this new gig where I get to, it's
almost like acting, you know, 'cause you're watching an actual live action
television show and and then you're putting your voice in there and it's like
it's normal talking. So I really like that, you know, 'cause
I've gotten to experience the full spectrum, you know, in that sense, yes
you remember that one episode? No. None it was the one episode where he
had to takedown this one thug named Janko you know, the black oh, Jake no i'm
sorry, dude i I wish I Did I I don't. Yeah, how come they couldn't get a real
black actor to voice Janko? But Sean Shamble voiced a black kid. But his impersonation was really bad. I'm going to give you Sean's number. You should call and ask him i don't know, man i don't know he didn't put no real
emphasis in the sounding black. He just sound like a white kid trying to
pretend he's from the gang. But he sucked. I'm going to bring this up with Sean, Dude, what's your name because I'm going
to say I'm going to say, Jameson asked me why didn't you have any soul in this
freaking part? I don't know, man that was back in the i
was back in the aughts, man. I don't. I wish I knew. All I was doing was screaming, Sir, I get
to swear, awesome it was. I mean, look, everything everything about
that recording process was just a dream come true for me, so. To be able to swear as well. And I'm like, and people like kids are
going to be playing this and I'm going to hear swear words. F Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, here's The funny thing. When we were recording it, they didn't know what the rating was going to be at
so somewhere on a DAT tape out there is me as Shadow saying a lot worse than what
made it into the game. They did they they. I know, I know, I know. I could do it all for you right now so so
we did the what, what they like to call the just in case recordings. Let's get that just in case let's let's have you say this just in case i even
think I swore as Sonic but it just didn't make it into the game. But when they're when they're recording, they just want to get everything possible
so they don't have to pay you to come back when they're like, oh, why didn't we
get this we need that you know it from from my very vague recollection at this
point, I I remember there there being a lot in the in the recording that just
didn't make it into the game because again, they didn't know what the the
rating was and once they had that, they had to edit out other stuff, you know?
Exactly yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't know, is five more minutes is
that OK great. Anybody else burning questions yes, Sir. What's your name? Nathan nathan i'm sorry I haven't been
asking all your names i just. Got here like. A while. Ago, I'm going to be quiet because I had
enough questions i keep going to say something, but I'm not going to take it
from these people unless they don't want to talk more than welcome, man oK And you
remember the F0 animated series that used to come yeah, Yeah, I was in that yeah. The one who voiced the assassin, Hitman Pico. That sounds very familiar and I haven't thought about that in 20 years, so you
could be right i think so. I think so he sound like Shadow, but
don't remember when they had this his gun in American version, no Japanese version. It was a distant sniper that carry iron piercers but when they brought it to
America, they made the gun look more like a toy. Dude, if the Internet ever goes down, I'm going to come to your house, 'cause I'm
like, Jameson has the info here, I don't. So again, when I'm when I'm recording
this stuff, man, it's like 30 minutes in out done and I'm going to get a falafel
and I've completely forgotten everything I've done so like, little like details
like that don't stick with me unless it's about something I recorded last week,
just because there's so much going on plus, I have three kids, so my mind is,
is like in a frying pan. Yes, so you. Said you have like 3 kids. When you were doing the like, your first
Sonic voice and first shadow voice, would they ever tell like do you know if they
would ever tell? Just like, Oh my dad. 's Sonic no, no, I have a six year old, a 2 year old and a one year old, and if
they did that I'd be like, all right, will you Mensa?
No, they they don't. My, my 6 year old sort of knows what I do
for a living 'cause I have a studio at home. So every once in a while, he'll say. I'm going to work. I'm going I'm. Like what are you doing for work?
Auditions. I think it's the cutest thing. But you know, I I think I only recently did my Sonic voice for my for my oldest
son and like, he laughed. But one of my favorite is my one of my
favorite stories is I did a show called oh, what was it called robo Carpoli. And I played, it's for preschoolers. And I played a fire truck, Roy. And Roy was a little like, oh, you were going to put on a fire this is great. And so I said to my son, I'm like, oh, do you want to watch?
You want to watch a show the daddy's in he said, I want to watch. And so I, I start playing it for him in like 5 minutes and he goes, want to not
watch. So we put on paw patrol and you know, the
rest is history. I think we have time for one more, one or
two more. I see you waving, Sir. Yes, I'll always respond to a good beard you know what I mean do. You know, Emmy Jones? I I do. I mean, I've, I've know like, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that was it well. I watched the work, seen her music. I watched the other things that she done. Recently oh yeah, Yeah she's very talented. Yeah no, yeah. Emmy's great and she's, you know, she's
really doing. She's working really hard to, to build
herself up, you know? Oh, yeah, for sure yeah by the way, do
real quick, Do we have any aspiring voice actors are you guys aspiring to be voice
actors or? That's great. You're like quasi. Let's see i see. You have a great voice, dude. Don't ever let it oh. My gosh, don't ever let anybody tell you. I remember I was 14 years old and I was
like little, you know, fat nerd boy. And I just remember someone at one point
looking at me and I was laughing he was telling me a joke. He's an older guy and he looks at me and he goes, I don't like your smile. And so for the next. Five years, I was like. I'm just going to be really mad looking you should you should see my, like,
senior portrait. But dude, you can never listen to
anybody, anybody about any even if you think it's a voice of authority. Even if I said no, you have no, no business voice acting. Don't listen to me dude. If you want to do it, you you can
absolutely do it but you have to work at it. And as a voice actor, 99 % of your job is here's the copyright now go. It's not, oh take it home, look it over, come up with some ideas it's like even
when we're doing these auditions, man, it's like we're going to do 5 auditions. Maybe if you're in the waiting room and you're lucky you get to leaf through
them, but I've gone into the studio before where you don't see anything until
you're recording it. So my biggest advice to you is just read
out loud all the time, everything you can if you see billboards, just say them out
loud as soon as you see them. Because as a voice actor, it's always
going to be or or they're going to want to change something on you at the last
minute and you have to know how to adapt to that that's the biggest thing. And also three in a row casting director's always going to ask for three
in a row so if you can, if you can exercise that muscle, that you make them
different every time i'll give you an example, New Maple brown sugar flavored
instant Quaker oatmeal it almost takes longer to say than it does to make. Hey dude, new Maple brown sugar flavored instant Quaker oatmeal it almost takes
longer to say than it does to make. Hey, did you know this new Maple brown
sugar flavored instant Quaker only it almost takes longer to say than it does
to make. So always have in the back pocket three
different versions that you could pull out at any time without even thinking
about it don't overthink. As soon as you start overthinking, they
go, they go to the next guy. So as soon as the faster you can work,
you will be a casting director's wet dream sorry OK, one more question. Ok, one more question who? Yes, Sir i haven't heard from you. For Netflix movies and things. Of that nature what's the last most
recent thing that you oh, I'm so glad you. Asked for Amazon there's a there's a a French series love it called Alphonse
ALPHONSEI voice Alphonse in the English dub of that. What's the most recent I did another one for i think it's Amazon called Everybody
Loves Diamonds i'm the lead in that and we just started on a couple that I can't
talk about right now but there's the list goes on i've done, I've done so many,
like just random Turkish shows. Say again. Oh, yeah, No, exactly yeah. No, I can't even mention it then I think
is that is that our time oK well, thank you guys.
Thank you for. I really appreciate you coming out and
listening to me ramble. Thank you guys do you guys know?
What time give me a second. I can actually check tomorrow. Actually, he probably. Is, I think, yeah. Let me check.
