David Gallagher: So, hi guys. My name's David Gallagher. I'm an actor. I'm from New York; I live in L.A. now, for a long time, and I happen to be a part of the video game franchise and I've very lucky to be a part of it ― Kingdom Hearts. There have been many games now; I'm sure you guys know much more about the games than I do, so I'm a little nervous about this because honestly, I don't know what to expect from you guys and what you guys are going to ask. But I'm a pretty easy-going guy, so whatever you guys want to know, you can go ahead and ask me. We'll talk for an hour and hang out.

I play "Riku" which I'm sure you guys can tell because I'm talking into a microphone. It's a pretty awesome experience. I'm sure you guys have heard these kinds of panels from voice actors before, so I don't know if I have anything unique as far as what it's like. We record the game in a little independent studio in L.A., in Burbank. It's my favorite place to do any kind of recording, honestly. I tell them every time I go. It's a really beautiful place ― a nice second floor recording studio, a small team, and they have a great big recording booth for the actors, and probably the nicest Apple-laden setup in the technical room on the other side of the window. Sometimes we have to, well, each game is a little different, and who we're dealing with as the voice actors are a little different; sometimes we're dealing with Disney people and sometimes we're dealing with Square people. There's almost always the directors from overseas will be on the phone if they can make it. When that happens, sometimes things will slow down quite a bit because we have to go through the dialogue and they have to listen to it through our phone connection, and make sure that they approve of it as well because at the end of the day, it's really their game.

On some games, we have to voice-match where we record to picture, to the cutscenes in the game, which I get to see a little bit of earlier, and we have to match the voice movements that are already recorded for the images, that won't change. That's really the interesting challenge that's unique to any sort of other voice recording that I do, or ADR (Additional Dialogue Recording) for TV shows or for film, which works a little differently. When we have to match, that's sort of where the fun comes in. That's where an interesting little presence comes out of it, on its own, unexpectedly in some. It's very cool where we're able to challenge to change the dynamic of the way the line was said in that language into English, and to change the intonations with stuff that's supposed to match with the physicality of the character. They're very nice to me when I record, and they always say I'm very good at it. And I think of it; I just keep trying until I make them happy really, because that's my job. But I think the reason that they say I'm good at it is because I love video games; I'm a gamer. I've always been a gamer. And so, I feel like I have a one-up in a way on understanding what they're looking for before they ask me first of all, and because I grew up with Nintendo; it's like my best friend, and all my other systems. I have an understanding of the culture that's already come from the games that come from Japan and from overseas.

So sometimes, we have to record over the existing recordings in other languages and figure that out. Other times, usually for the bigger games, particularly the first game and Kingdom Hearts II ― they had a larger budget for the game, and so they were able to tell us that we could interpret the scenes, actually, in our own way. When that happens, it becomes a slightly different kind of challenge, and we get to "act" in a way, which is my job so it separates the games into two categories in that way from my perspective as a voice actor. And that's sort of my initial thoughts on the experience; I know that's sort of "standard", I would guess from you guys' perspective. If you guys have any questions about what it's like and maybe help me out and direct where this conversation could go, that'd be pretty cool. If you guys have any other questions related to my other work or anything else that I do, that's also cool; I'm not rigid about following anything or anything for this one.

Question: How long does it take for you guys to voice act and get the stuff ready?

David: Again, my experience comes from being an actor in television and film, so in a way; I was approached for this and that's an interesting story too. When I was still on 7th Heaven; I'm trying to think of how long ago it was for the first game; I had to be like 17 or 18 when I did it, I'm not sure. I was approached by one of the directors of the game on the Disney side, and he was putting together just the main cast. You know, the three ― Sora, Riku and Kairi. He had just come to me basically, and he had said that he had seen a particular episode of 7th Heaven, that he heard in my voice a darker quality than expected from something like 7th Heaven. Clearly I had the family, friendly or brotherly type of quality and he also heard this darker thing that was cool, and that's what he was looking for in this game.

And so, I was offered the first game which is awesome in my business. It doesn't happen a lot; it's hard to get to a point where things are given to you like that, especially quality things like a franchise like this. I think it takes a gamer sort of actor to really go, "Oh shit, Square and Disney in one game? Let's do this game with them! It's so cool!" You know, I was really excited about it right off the bat. I didn't have to struggle with the voice acting career and bring it to a point where I would really deserve to book a franchise like this. I cheated, and my other work did it for me, so I was lucky. I was really lucky.

I do do voice acting auditions, I guess? It is an audition; I audition for everything I work in. That is handled through my agency. My agency is "Innovative Artists", and they handle my film and television stuff that I go out on and that I work on, and they also have a voiceover department, and so their department will email me occasionally; cartoon stuff, other games. I wish they'd do more interactive games, and I tell the Disney and Square team all the time if they ever need anything, I'm more than willing to work on another game or come in and help out if they need an extra voice. And their last game they just did that is still not out, I actually voiced an extra small piece for them that they needed, and I was so excited to be able to do it. "Xehanort". I did a young Xehanort voice, and I'm sure when you play the game that it'll sound just like me because I haven't got my voice acting down, being multiple people. I'm working on it. But that's how Kingdom Hearts came to me. It was just sort of given to me like a beautiful gift, and I try to make the most of it and make Riku an interesting and likeable character but still have a cool edginess to him where you know you can, when you get a hold of him with that control, you can kick some ass.

Question: Have you ever done mocap (motion capture) for video games?

David: Oh man, we have talked about this a lot. I bring it up as often as I can to them. "It's got to be mocap. Kingdom Hearts III; you've got to give us more power over the character!" Because it's so interesting, the things that they do with mocap in film, and it gets me really excited obviously. I'm a nerd for this stuff, all of it, and I'd love to get my hands, my body in a mocap suit. I would love it. The opportunity to be in a franchise like Kingdom Hearts where it's a considerable franchise in the video game world and you would think for a major title release like KHIII, hopefully, maybe they get down that road. I think eventually we have to go down that road, don't you? All the big games are going to, and films will too, and that's really really happy, you guys. It's awesome. It's awesome is people like Andy Circus; you know, people pick up the example with actors like Andy Circus who do amazing work with it. But you know, one day. One day, mocap.

Yeah. I brought it up a lot recording the last game. The 3D one, which I am very excited about. I'm sure you all got your hands on a 3DS, right? Commercials do it no justice. My friend, I don't have my own, talking like I have three of them, but I did think it was really cool when I played with it. I'm kind of stoked to see and hear, to hear myself and to play a game with me in it. You know, on a game, I get a kick out of it.

Question: Have you and other voice actors started on [Dream Drop Distance]?

David: Yeah, we're finished. I'm finished anyway. I don't know if we're finished. They wouldn't tell me. But I'm finished with the game. I recorded it in six or seven days. It's quite a bit of time to record for all the cutscenes. And then the best day ever, is "Fight Day". And that's a day. It's a good four hours of just attack noises, defense noises, getting hurt, your death scream, all of these. And it's all individual; you do everything one at a time, and sometimes they like to save the death scream for last because they don't want you to hurt yourself, either your voice or something. I get all rambunctious so when I start doing loud stuff, I go, "Come on, let's do the death scream! Let's do it! I'm ready!" All that stuff is broken up, and again, I think that when you play as Riku, maybe you can hear some of my influences, because I certainly did.

I know where I come from obviously, so like, I play a ton of Zelda. I'm a Zelda kid. Zelda was like my first game, the original on the NES was my first, like, "I have to beat this game. I have to own it, and finish it." And I did when I was little. I've played all the Zelda games since then; I haven't finished them all, which is shameful. But I'm still a Zelda kid so when we do the fight stuff, I get really excited and I have to hold myself back from sounding too much like Zelda games, because that's what instantly comes to mind. And so I get a little "Eahhhhh!" You know, "Don't do that!" I have to do my own thing; create my own sound. But I probably don't perfectly so I'm sure you guys can hear some Zelda influence in my fight stuff, which I'm not mad at myself for. You guys might be mad at me.

Question: What's the hardest part of doing voice acting?

David: The hardest part? I would think that the hardest part would really have to be getting involved in the coolest project. To me, it's all fun and games, and that's why I love my job. It's so much fun, and I have so much fun doing it, so I always feel lucky. I mean, the hardest part is figuring out how to make the people that hired you happy and give them something that they can be proud of and hire you again for. That's what I worry about the most. I really do care about performance and character, even though it is  a game, maybe some people might  say, well, it's some sort of a lesser performance, and it's not.

So I mean, that's the hardest part ― doing the best job you can and really making it count. I've really been surprised by the overwhelming positive reaction I've gotten from Riku. I've been recognized as Riku on the street. And you know, it is a video game, it wasn't new though, or anything. It's a really cool thing when there's a whole section of your fanbase that really appreciates that side of your work. You really want it to be as quality as the rest of your work, right? When they're looking at you, someone's hearing you. So that's sort of the hardest part, but really I have a blast doing it, and I look forward to it. I always try to give as much time as I can.

Question: I've been a fan of Smallville and I saw you in the show, so I'm curious as to how that came to you?

David: That came to me the old fashioned way. I went in and they were looking for their Wonder Twins, and they were casting it. I went in for the audition and did my thing, and they thought it was cool. In my position in the acting world, I'm in an interesting and really kind of fun place for me actually because I have 7th Heaven behind me, which is a huge project that I'm well known for, that I'm most known for. It helps me and it hurts me. When I say it hurts me, I don't mean that it's a bad thing, right? It's just that it sets up what people think about you. Sometimes that works for you and sometimes it works against you. There's really nothing you can do about that. It  sort of counts as count does. 

I say I'm in a fun place right now because I have the task of changing people's minds about that, and so that was one of those cool times where I went into casting and I was a superhero, and they loved it. And I wasn't the person that they were instantly thinking as a superhero, and I got to go in and knock superhero off my list of cool things that I want to do with my acting career. That's a serious thing, it's funny, but that's real you guys, that's my job; I'm an actor, so I want to be an alien, I want to play that part. I want to be play a superhero; these are all things I want to seriously do with my life, right? It's kind of strange, but I love it. It's my job.

Question: Is the ending to the new Kingdom Hearts cool?

David: Well, if I say no, I'd be lying. But if I said, I mean, it's such a weighted question; you have no idea. But yeah, it is; it's super cool.

Question: When you're voice acting, do you use any props for your action scenes or your death scream or anything like that?

David: No, but I will confess to pretending. To acting, I guess. It's mostly on Fight Day, when that needs to happen. Because the conversational stuff, you can stand there and you can act with yourself , and it's fun. But Fight Day's really fun because you've got to do better than that. You've got to really throw yourself into stuff, and especially when it comes to... you've be surprised how difficult it is to differentiate from yourself a hit from an effort, right? These are the kind of words you have to get down to when you start recording Fight Day, because it gets really really specific when you're just grunting or going "Ugh!" "Eugh!" You know what I mean? It's like one is a push and one is a hit; an impact versus the effort has to be clear even if you don't see what's going on, right? So you have to be able to close your eyes and play, and tell if I'm being hit or attacking.

Also, you have your attacks, your power attacks, and your special attacks. All games are sort of built like this where there's different intensities. We usually start at the bottom and work your way up to the most intense hit or the most intense attack or effort, whichever one you're doing. As it gets more intense, you have to throw yourself into it a little bit physically because it really affects the way that you sound. When you're doing an intense impact, sometimes you really need to compress your stomach and give yourself that feeling of getting punched in the gut. Sometimes we get cool little sounds like a cool little breath at the end of it like (breathes in); a little bit of a pain, or some extra piece of pain from the impact. Things like that, you may not notice it when you play the game, but at the end of the day, it affects how real it feels, and that's what's important and fun to really get out. So yes, I do sort of act out my action stuff.  

Audience: (Pretending that you have a Keyblade?)

David: Yeah. You, you have the coolest Keyblade. I've seen a few of them, but I've got to admit, being at a con, you guys have the coolest props that are around. I mean, you guys put a lot of love and care into them.

So like, if you guys want to have any sort of general gamer discussions, I'm a console gamer, but I've recently jumped into Minecraft obviously. I don't know if you love Minecraft,  but it blew my mind. I love it.

Minecraft's a pretty fantastic computer game; independent game that blew up, I mean, you could argue about when it blew up, it's still blowing up, doing extremely well, winning a lot of awards. It's probably the most open game I've ever seen. It's an environment made entirely of blocks and you can mine, harvest all kinds of different blocks, craft them together into all sorts of more and more complex materials and use it to build whatever you want. People build cities, zeppelins in the sky and crazy stuff.

Question: Digital legos.

David: Yeah, a lot of people relate it that way. They're actually, I don't know if you guys have heard they officially have a lego set coming out. Isn't that ridiculous? I know this! Don't think I'm not up on my stuff! Dude, I wanted to go to MineCon, and I didn't go. I couldn't go, but I really actually wanted to go to MineCon.

Question: How long has it been around? The game?

David: The game's been around for a few years. It just came out of beta in November, I guess? But you guys have questions and I'm talking about Minecraft.

Question: We know that you got cast on 7th Heaven at a really young age. The training, the actor training you got; was that off of the set while filming 7th Heaven, while you were growing up? Or did you study under anybody, go to school...?

David: A lot of that, all of that. I've been acting my whole life. My mom, like all mothers, thought that she had an amazingly cute baby. Right? It's a mom thing. You can't blame her. And the way she dealt with that was, she answered an ad in the newspaper which was about taking your baby to a print thing for pictures in the newspaper I'm assuming. I don't even remember so I'm just thinking. This was the story that I hear, and I ended up booking them as a baby and taking pictures, and my mom was introduced to a manager. She continued taking me out to baby stuff until I was older and I started doing commercial stuff until I was older, and I told her, "Commercials make me act stupid. I don't like it. I want to do something that's more serious." When I was a kid, I really thought it was cool that I could go do this really complicated game-for-10-people, and professionally.

At a very young age, I latched on to the film and television side of it, and so my whole life has been this sort of training mission of acting and being on set. I would say that all of my training experience comes from hands-on; being on set, not knowing what I'm doing and just doing it. Learning by trial and error and teaching myself how to take control of emotions, and that's really what acting is; just trying to be and harness control of your emotional state so that you can command it. You can turn yourself from angry to sad and back again.

When I got 7th Heaven, I was already in an accelerated point in my career because I was very young and not entirely aware of it all, but very focused on the jobs and the auditions because that's what I was good at. I didn't worry about much else. My parents handled the rest of it, and I went to the rest of my auditions and knew what I had to do; I was good with my lines and I made it happen. Being on set is really where you soak up the surroundings, and I've been very lucky enough to have worked at a young age with amazing people who are very talented. I worked with John Travolta when I was 8, worked with him again when I was 10. I got to watch him and he became instantly a role model for me. I wanted to see myself in my 40s as a dashing celebrity actor star man with many films, television and wonderful performances that the world knows. I really admired him and how nice and awesome he was, and how when he got on set, everyone just had upmost respect for him. He really commanded the room; he was always amazing to work with. And so, okay, I want to be like that. I want to be the guy on set that everyone just can't wait to work with. And so, I've been working on that my whole life.

7th Heaven, the experience that that gives you is hard to explain. I mean, 10 years, a decade on one set. It never happens. Never. It happens so rarely and there's so few people. You become like a family very quickly because you spend enormous amounts of time with each other, and because we're on a dramatic show. The quality of the time spent together is heightened because everything is crying and anger and emotions and stuff, and you do all of this together for years and years and years, and become really good friends and a really tight family. But through all that, I think depending on the type of actor you are, you take it differently. I know I certainly, my journey through that show was up and down, you know, personal?

I know when it started, everyone was really really into it and there was a middle section where it waned especially for me, I guess I can only talk for me, and there was this section coming into my own, I was like 17 or 18, and I really had a talk with myself. "You know what? I need to make awesome work no matter where I can do it." I started carrying more than I ever carried. It was like decision-making. It didn't just  happen sort of naturally. It can sort of get away from you guys, even a cool job like mine where you forget to really appreciate it. That happened to me and I came around, and now I love my job more than I could ever love it. I work way harder than I think I ever did. As a result of that, I think I'm better than I ever was. Especially now where I'm always really proud of my work that I do. But a lot of people go to training, and acting coaches, and all that stuff. My training was set, my training was being the lucky kid who got lucky and got into that set, and made it happen while I was there and really figured it out.

The coolest part about my job and the reason I would do that even as a young kid is that my job is all about interpretation. The video game world is no different, and I said that earlier, but just to sort of bring that back; it's all about interpreting someone else's life, the existence of something else. It's cool because it's one of those "no wrong answer" situations, but because there isn't a wrong answer, that doesn't mean there isn't an awesome answer, and I'm just a decent one. You try to find that really awesome way to bring to life different people.

I think Riku's pretty cool because in the set of 3(D), he really has that sort of darker quality to him which is why they brought me in, so that's what I've grown to embrace about the character. I was really excited when every game progressively, as we make the different games, I felt like they really branched out with the Riku character, possibly even more than the others. They really gave him a journey with deciding with his goodness and his darkness; his friends and that inner darkness that they developed in his character that is quite a literal thing. And so I like to treat Riku like I like to treat all the other characters that I play, and really treat him like a real person and give him the respect he deserves. I'm trying to make him cool and unique.

Question: Do you ever connect to your personal experiences or memories to Riku when you voice act him?

David: Connecting to personal experiences is a technique that a lot of actors use in acting situations. I don't think I'm at that kind of actor. I think that that technique serves actors better who have not always been actors. What I mean by that is, my whole life has been in and around this business and acting, so calling on my experiences is like calling on the business. You know what I mean? It's like calling on this life, and it doesn't really apply to me. Not that I don't have my own personal life or childhood or something like that, but I mean that in a way, it's tainted. The business is too big in my life to really call on personal stuff and use it.

What I like to do or what I say that I do, or think I do, is rigid for me. What I think I do is that I try to create emotional states fresh; freshly, uniquely. I try to take, and I do this with all of my work, is just sort of what I do. I just take the scene, whatever it is I guess if it's an angry scene, I take it and I'll get made about it. I let things bother me. If it's a scene that is incredibly sad, I let it bother me. I let it make me incredibly sad; I let it break my heart. That sort of vulnerability for emotions is where I start. I try to let it build on its own, like if it happened to me. In a way, I like to use the word 'organic' because it feels like I try to grow it from its own place, but that sounds pretentious as hell. You know what I mean? I really don't; I'm sitting at this table and I feel like a goofball, but you know I don't mean anything pretentious when I talk about this stuff. I just really love it, and I try to care about it because people pay me to care about it, really. I'm just trying not to sound like a jerk about it, you know what I mean? It's hard to really talk about something like this in an artsy sort of way, and I'm also trying to watch my mouth.

Question: The last few seasons of 7th Heaven, your character did kind of a big change. How was that for you as far as...?

David: It was a crazy time for me. There was a whole underpinning of stuff happening when that was going on, and that's why Simon had left and then he came back. I did this dance of "oh I'm here/ I'm not here / I'm away / I'm out of town / I've got a wife / I've got a kid / I'm back". You know what I mean?

Audience: A couple of the characters did that.

David: But all for different reasons. My reason, so that everyone's clear on my stuff, was that I had gotten accepted to my number #1 university college. I'm the first person in my family to go to college at all, which is extremely important to my family. I got a lot of pressure growing up to finish university, to go to school, to finish my education from both of my parents. It was always my top priority even during the 7th Heaven years; especially during the 7th Heaven years. My parents always said education and then work. Education first and then work, and I really bought into that. I listen to my parents; I was a good kid. I really wanted to make my family proud and go to university, study something and get a degree, and call myself a bachelor.

I really wanted to study film, and I always wanted to go to USC (University of Southern California) because that's the spot if you want to study film. That's the spot. Maybe I'm being biased but I don't care. USC is a fantastic, amazing, incredible film school where you get this incredibly unique opportunity, if you're a nerd about movies, to watch the movies in a movie theater for class in its original print! It's exactly as if you were there when it came out in the theater, exactly. I've seen so many amazing films in their original print in the theater and got that theater experience that you don't get if you weren't there. For those movies that you weren't alive for, too bad; it's not in theaters anymore. I got to see that in the theaters and really have that first experience with classic films. And so anyway, I went to USC and I informed them that, when I was no longer contracted for the show, that I was going to be going to USC. There was some disagreement for a while as there always is for this kind of stuff. I had to be serious about it, and I was, and I went to USC and I started my freshman year. That's sort of where I disappeared to.

And so they sent me to college on the show, which was not far from the truth obviously. I had tried to offer them a limited schedule of my time because most of my time was taken by USC. It was no big deal about that; I had to do my classes; I was a full-time student. But I still had a day or two a week and throw them some time; they didn't want to do it. I came back for the end of that season, the finale thing, and I worked with them for a few days and it went over well. After that, they said, "Well you know? We'll work with the school." So I came back. No hard feelings, right? That's not what it's about; it's just about the education; that's a part of it. That's sort of why my character did this "I'm gone / I'm back" dance for a few years-

Audience: A couple seasons.

David: Yeah, and it was all very political, which was very silly. But it is an industry and a business like everything else. That's a huge part of it. It sucks.

Question: Was one of the movies they showed you "Citizen Kane" by any chance?

David: No. Citizen Kane; I know  that they showed Citizen Kane; I didn't have that film in any of my classes, I would have to say. But I couldn't imagine that they didn't have Citizen Kane to show. I certainly wouldn't be quick to say that. They have an incredible and thorough library of original films of everything. And if they don't have it, they can get it. The instructors would talk of a film they didn't have that they were shipping from wherever-it-was, in Europe, you know, they would get it, wherever it was, and that itself was a pretty awesome experience to be able to appreciate. You guys know, our generation is really savvy with things like resolution and quality, and technology in general. You guys know that a DVD of an old movie is not doing is justice to its print, and so it was that sort of special experience that USC gave me that other schools I think couldn't. In this department, we have much more.

Question: How much do you work with other actors when you're recording a video game. How does that affect it?

David: Hardly. None, as a matter of fact. You really don't get to work with the other actors. In fact, you don't really get to even see them. For a while, the only time that I would ever see Haley would be on launch. We would do a Launch for the bigger games and have an event; you know, the press line and cocktails, and stuff like that. We'd have a party and I'd see them there, and we'd be like "Hey!", take a picture, be cool. Of course we've all been in the business so young so everyone kind of knows each other in a way. We all sort of know each other. We don't go hang out on Sunday, you know what I mean? Watch the game or anything, but like, we all know each other and everybody's cool.

This last game, Kingdom Hearts 3D, as a matter of fact ― and this is just another funny thing you guys get to learn about me ― I'm a hard worker and I love what I do, you know, but things get past me. They emailed me my schedule, and my schedule for the game is always consecutive days, and I live outside of town so I get late hours so I can drive into town. I have my 2-6, 2-6, through this day, this day, this day, this day,  and I didn't even look at my schedule! I just got my schedule, I started on Monday, I got the whole week, I'm doing the game, alright! I was there every day at 2, even if I wasn't supposed to be! Because one day in the middle of the week was Haley's day! It was on the schedule; I just didn't look. "2-6, 2-6, it's all me, 2-6, alright." So I was just going, being a good, punctual actor. On time, on time, baby, I'm here. 2 o' clock. Not even supposed to be there. Haley's recording. "Oh, hey! What's up, man?" So I hung out for a minute and I got to see him record this last game, but it doesn't happen like that usually. It takes an actor to not pay attention to his schedule, which happens all the time.

Question: Will you be voicing Riku in the next Kingdom Hearts game?

David: I better. Right? I better. I'd be pretty mad if they cut me out.

Question: With the new Kingdom Hearts game, can you give us any spoilers, please?

David: I'd love to; I'd love to, first of all. But I know I can't. I can't for a lot of reasons; one because I want to be in the next Kingdom Hearts. I don't want them to be mad at me; they certainly would be mad at me. I will tell you that I did ask them; I told them that I would be here today when we were recording the game. I knew that I would possibly be here that far in advance even though it wasn't announced. Again, that's actor stuff, because I don't know where I'm going to be very far in advance. That's not my fault, but jobs come quick, and so that happens like that. But they said that the game was going to be announced and I could say that I was doing the game, and that it was on the 3DS. Everything that they said I could tell you is online. Like the one-liner online is basically what they said I could tell you.

But I will say that, as a spoiler, that I'd love to give you a spoiler. It's a cool game for Riku. I love that they give me more stuff to do. I really feel like, as the games come out, they really do give me some more time in each game. I know it's not my game; I'm not confused. It's Sora's game. I want to play my part. I want to be the cool other guy that's like the dark, that has the problems with being good and bad. I like all that, and I really love when they say "Oh, in this game, you can play as Riku also." You know what I mean? It's the way I like. I was so stoked when they did the game where you can unlock me and play the whole game again as me! I never got to the point where I could play as me, so I could appreciate all the hard work that I did! But when they do stuff like that, it really makes you feel special and makes you really want to give them extra quality; it makes you want to do stuff like that. So this next game does involve Riku heavily, and I was really excited. I'm really excited about the next game. It's cool.

 Question: I have three questions. One; we already know that the new Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] came out (in Japan), and that the appearance of Sora and the guest appearance of Neku from The World Ends With You, and you would be appearing. Is there any possible chance in the next game, you three would be either working together? All three of you. And by any chance, I don't mean just guest appearance. Literally, each of you in your own story in the game.

David: That sounds cool. It's great. Because if my credit on the game is actor/producer, I would be lying to you right now. You know what I mean? "I don't know what you're talking about." I totally know what you're talking about. But I don't. Because I just do the voice, and that means that the week before they need me, they go "Hey, we're doing another game." That's not even a diss to me. It's just how it goes down, you guys. That's just how it works. They make the whole game and release it; they don't tell me they're making another one overseas. That comes out, and I find out about it when you guys do; I'm like "Wow, they did another one! I didn't know! I can't wait for them to bring it over!" I get a call a few months later, or whenever they bring it over.

Question: Do they give a copy to you?

David: Yes! I do get a copy of the games! I do get to! It's pretty cool. And I think it's pretty awesome; one of my personal checks about it is that they always make it for a new system! I love that! Because then I'm like "Did some Playstation, and I did some on the Gameboy Advance, now we're doing the 3DS..." I get to knock all these systems off my list of things I got to work on!

Question: I read somewhere that you are a big fans of the Neptunes. What other hip-hop or music or rap do you like?

David: I listen to a lot of hip-hop! I listen to a ton of hip-hop; lot of hip-hop. It is my music choice. I change what I listen to all the time, but I go absolutely ape-crazy for Broad Future, if you guys know Broad Future, Tyler the Creator, and all of them. They're awesome. They just really bring me back to the good days of Eminem and all that crazy rap that made everyone go "Ahhh!" I love it. I love everyone in that crew, but all their individual projects are so cool. Hodgy Beats' new mixtape "Untitled" is awesome,  but too short. I was a huge Wiz Khalifa fan; I am a huge Wiz Khalifa fan. Shouldn't say 'was', at least. He's still keeping up. I say 'was' because I was like The Wiz Khalifa fan two years ago. I loved, loved, loved; I told everybody about Wiz Khalifa two years ago. Everyone I could, because his Flight School mixtape; if you guys, I don't know who loves hip-hop, it doesn't apply to everybody, but mixtapes are awesome. The best hip-hop is for free. You didn't know? Go online, you guys can all see; you get it for free. But you're not stealing it. You're not stealing it. Nobody's stealing it. Mixtapes are free. They're supposed to be free. Free music rocks.

Wiz Khalifa's Flight School mixtape was my favorite CD for over a year. I have a good memory of that: I booked a pilot too years ago; this pilot that didn't go, it was a CW pilot that never was. It was a supernatural fantasy action pilot sort of like "Vampire Diaries-esque". It's actually a lot like "Secret Circle", which did go the next unit, it's called "Betwixt", and I was the bad guy. Really cool. Very Riku-voice-esque evil dark stuff. Magic. All sorts of cool stuff. When I booked that, I told everyone on that side to listen to Wiz Khalifa. But I remember in a first-class lounge of LAX airport waiting for my flight to fly out to shoot the pilot in Vancouver. I'm sitting in the first-class lounge watching the planes come in, wait and fly out, shoot the show, listening to the Flight School album. I was like "Ah man, this is so good." It's a really happy, hip-hop related memory. So yeah, I love all the new kids in hip-hop. I love Wiz, I love Future and a lot of other kids that are coming up right now. All mixtape stuff I listen to.

Question: Would you be able to say something as Riku?

David: What?

Question: Anything.

David: Well, you know. Give me something. I don't know. It'd going to sound like me. It's attitude, right? So if I came in and I sat down and did all Riku all the time, you guys would think I was a jerk. I don't know, jeez. But if you guys give me a line, I guess I'll say it.

Question: What about the most famous line from the first game that set the story before Riku...?

David: Are you quizzing me? Are you quizzing me? I don't know. Which one? If you guys don't remember, I'm excited.

Audience: Is that the paopu legend? Is that what you're talking about?

Audience: Eh, no.

David: You know what I saw by the way? Just a random thing I saw. There's paopu fruits in the merch area! I almost got one!

Panelist: Someone buy him one! Someone buy him one!

David: It's not a cry for help. Someone was like "Hey, that's a paopu fruit." I was like "What? Where?" I didn't even realize it that, I don't know, they would be making it. It was cool.

Question: Just say something with "Sora". Say "Will you share a paopu fruit with me?"

David: I'm sorry, but you know, I'm in this position a lot where I have to be like "Sora!" (in Riku's voice) Right? It's always like "What?" Someone else is always getting into shit. I'm supposed to watch my mouth.

Question: Future projects that you want to talk about?

David: Yeah! Actually, I just signed on to a project.

Question: "Scared of the Dark"?

David: No, actually. That's an unofficial announcement. I've read that as well.

Question: Which one?

David: I, just the other day, signed onto "In Your Eyes", which is the new Joss Whedon project. Not "The Avengers". I know. It's his new indie-project that he wrote. I'll be supporting on that. I'm doing a supporting part. I start tomorrow, which is strange but I do start tomorrow. We don't usually work on a Sunday. Whatever, right? Team player. If Super 8  said "Work on a Sunday", I'd have been there. No problem. And thank you.

Audience: It was new, it was different.

David: I thought it was very cool though. I'm a lucky guy, you know? I get involved in these projects that turn out to be awesome and, man, am I lucky. Super 8 was just a shining example of that. I was so happy to be there because, who did I have to pay to get in there? It's great. It's so much fun on top of such an awesome opportunity. But yeah, I just signed onto In Your Eyes. I'll be supporting with him, the new Joss Whedon project. It'll be kind of cool.

Question: Riku travels to new worlds, finds himself in new situations. What would he do?

David: "He pulls out his Keyblade." "The 7th Heaven world." What would he do? I guess, well, he'd have a lot of problems to solve. First of all, we'd have an issue, because I'd have to voice two characters! That'd be cool. I get to have a conversation with myself. That'd be an interested challenge. I'd look forward to that. Let's see. There'd be at least three teen problems to solve. Like one of those "fetch 'em" quests, like you show up in the world, fetch a thing for each person in the family to solve their family problem, and in the end you get to battle something evil. What's evil in 7th Heaven? We didn't even have an "evil", did we?

Question: Sephiroth?

David: The minister! Battle Stephen Collins! "Fshh, Fshhh!" (Battle SFX) Who has a Keyblade. A religious artifact. We can't go down as Riku!

Question: What's your favorite game so far?

David: What's my favorite one? I really like the games where they change what the characters look like, and I always get excited to see that. I always forget, so when we're doing the game, I always go and I'm watching a cutscene and I'm like "Whoa! I'm a- What's going on!? Why do I look like that for?" And they explain to me what's in the game, what's going on. Sometimes we just roll. You just roll right into it, and I'm "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You might want to fill me in now." I love the mermaid ones actually, where we're all swimming. I think it's cool that the different character models that they build for some of the worlds. So if I show up in a world and I'm still dressed up in my standard outfit, you know, not fair. Not fair.

Question: I heard that there's rumors that the game is also coming out on the Playstation Portable. Is that true?

David: I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know. And again, if I did know, I'd have to lie to you. But honestly, I don't know. I don't know and I don't have my own copy of the one on the 3DS yet, so they haven't sent it to me early.

Question: Is it playable if you haven't played any of the other handheld ones?

David: It's interesting. It's interesting, I'm sorry. Just had to think about that. The question is "Is the new Kingdom Hearts game playable if you haven't played any of the other games?" So, do you have to know anything about the franchise. I'd be lying to you if I said not playing any of the other games wouldn't supplement the material. It really helps. It gives you all of that backstory so that when Riku is surprised to see somebody, you are too. Things like that. It helps. But I think the games are cleverly built to stand on their own. This upcoming game does have its own enclosed, independent storyline, so it works fine on its own, and Riku is a cool part of that. That's why I was happy to say that I wish I could spoil it for you.