An Interview with Voice Actor David Kaye
A conversation with a voice acting veteran (Originally published for GoBoiano)
David Kaye is a Canadian voice actor working in the great land of Los Angeles. He has provided his voice for many television shows, video games, and films for over 20 years and is always on the move for new roles.
In anime, he is notable for such English dub roles such as Sesshomaru (Inuyasha), Shinichi Okazaki (Nana), Master of Cha-Cha Maru (Maison Ikkoku), Soun Tendo (Ranma ½), and Treize Khushrenada (Mobile Suit Gundam Wing).
Aside from that, he has also voiced Captain Hawk in the 89’ version of G.I Joe, Clank from the Ratchet and Clank series, and both Megatron and Optimus Prime in the animated Transformers series. He is also an in-house announcer for The John Oliver Show.
You’ve done voice work for many anime that had been dubbed from Ocean Productions. How did you first get involved with that production company? How was the overall experience?
David: I think Ranma ½ was the first big series I was cast in for them. One of the agents sent me in and said they wanted me to help dub this new series in English. I knew some of the players at the studio already and it was a really fun place to be. I didn’t really know too much of the show’s history, but went in wide-eyed and came up with some voices for a couple of characters. I ultimately ended up getting cast and that started the ball rolling at Ocean Productions. So every time a new series came through, I’d go read some lines and a lot of times I got the part.
Sesshomaru from Inuyasha was a huge role and I ended being on the show for like 700 episodes. I got comfortable there and knew everyone and every time you went in, it was just lots of laughs and lots of fun. I didn’t really make a lot of money from those shows, but I didn’t care. I was building a resume and just having a good time. Anime work was paid differently, but I did it because it was fun.
What was it like dubbing anime for the very first time?
David: I started doing American cartoons at the time and it involved pre-lay, where everyone’s in the same room with the director, and we were given the script ahead of time to read and prepare. I really enjoyed that because we were all goofing around together and feeding off each other’s energy.
With anime, however, you’re brought in one at a time to do your own lines. I remember having a 700 page script while dubbing for Inuyasha and everyone’s lines were in there. I would start on line 50, then flip 500 pages over and read my line there. I didn’t get a lot of chances to get the context of the story and rarely was I given the script early, so I would just go in and start. While dubbing for Inuyasha, I remembered dubbing some episodes but I didn’t really understand the whole story until later on.
Describe your process for choosing a voice for a character. Are there any challenges?
David: I would usually have a visual of the character that’s already there. The staff would then play the original Japanese audio, which wouldn’t be at all close to what we did because there was a different musicality to the voice and the Japanese language.
In Inuyasha, the director and Toshi (Toshifumi Yoshida), from Viz Video at the time, decided that the voice of Sesshomaru should be this very calm, collected, and cool person who doesn’t yell or scream.
Sometimes you just find the character and usually when you come up with something, it’s decided by a group of people. As a voice actor, you’ll have to be able to maneuver and give them what they want by fixing what you’re doing and sounding another way.
How did you land the role of Sesshomaru?
David: I recall being brought in for it. Toshi had me in mind and both of us experimented in the booth with the direction of the character and how we wanted him to sound like. He liked this one particular voice and that’s how it started. It was one of those roles that were handed to me and we found the right voice based on what they wanted and the character designs.
How many times does it take for you to get the right voice for the right character?
David: It depends. I’m given three beeps and then I’m watching a video and seeing the lip flaps. You try and match the dialogue with the lip flaps. Sometimes it’s very easy and I used to love the sessions where narration or dialogue were present, but they wouldn’t show the character who was speaking.
Other times, there were speeches that went on forever like when Treize Khushrenada had one in Gundam Wing. I had to hit a certain number of beats and I would get to a point where they would stop, and they would pick it up in the middle of the sentence if you missed it. Also with the technology, they can move your voice left or right and make it fit in somewhere. If it was just ridiculous, they would just use technology and squeeze it in and elongate the word. It’s like riding a bike — once you get the rhythm going, you kinda get it.
What brought about your departure from Vancouver and Ocean Productions to move to Los Angeles?
David: There was this ceiling in my career if I stayed in Vancouver and things I wouldn’t have had access to. I was doing a cartoon series in L.A and was commuting between there and Vancouver every week. My wife and I have been there for a while and, early on, it became apparent that I was going to have to make a move. Ultimately, I brought the subject to my wife and we made the move down to L.A. I’ve got great agents here now and the best agents will get you access to the best material.
Got any favorite anime or anime films?
David: One of my favorite ones is Ghost in the Shell. I got a chance to play a role in that one around mid 2004–2005 and after watching it, I really liked it. I voiced Batou in Individual Eleven and The Laughing Man and enjoyed dubbing [the anime]. It was just really well done and I got a set of all of them. Out of everything, Ghost in the Shell is definitely one of my all time favorites.
I saw the recent Ghibli film [The Wind Rises] and they’re also really amazing to watch. Their animation flows and is crazy good. I sometimes lose the story and get distracted by the animation. That style of animating is a dying art and in relation to everything art and film, it’s really phenomenal.
Special thanks to David Kaye for doing this great interview. You can follow David Kaye on twitter @dkayevo and check out his website.
My name is William Moo. I write about anime, manga, and whatever I feel passionate about. You can find me on Twitter @thewriterSITB and on YouTube. I’m also a contributor at Yatta-Tachi.
