Today marks the release of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] in North America, so hopefully all of you are currently exploring the Realm of Sleep in order to become true Keyblade Masters! For many of you, the wait has been since E3 2010 and for others you've only just learned of the game's existence. No matter how you came upon the game, I'm sure you all will enjoy what lies in store from the new installment of the Kingdom Hearts series!
In order to celebrate Kingdom Hearts 3D's release, we have a special treat for you! Last week, Joey (Chaser) and I (Master Spockanort) got the chance to interview Ben Diskin, voice of Young Xehanort! We asked him a few questions about recording for Kingdom Hearts 3D, as well as a few questions you all on the forums were burning to have answered!
Warning! The interview contains a spoiler (starting at 27:00) as well as adult language and content. Proceed with caution!
Without further ado, we present our interview with Ben Diskin!
|
Joey: I'm eager for this, yeah! Ben: Yeah, Arielle and I, we have a nice morning. Past noon for us! *laughs* Joey: *sniff* Ben: (doo doo doo cha cha cha~ *whistles*) Arielle: Okay, so I think I have this straight. Ben: Okay. Arielle: Okay, so... Joey, what are you going to do? Joey: Huh? Arielle: You're the one holding it. Joey: This. Arielle: This is your interview. Joey: Oh god. You're the one who had the idea! Ben: *evil laugh* Arielle: *laughs* Joey: Okay, so when are we going to start recording? Arielle: Already have it recording. Joey: Have you? Arielle: I can just cut it, so... Joey: Add it to the blooper's reel. Ben: We haven't even begun yet. There shouldn't be a blooper's reel yet. Arielle & Joey: *laughs* Joey: Okay... Arielle: Yeah that comes later. Joey: Okay so, starting... Hello everyone, and welcome to the second ever Kingdom Hearts Insider voice actor interview! I am Joey, also known as Chaser on KHInsider Forums. Arielle: And I'm Master Spockanort, also known as Arielle. Joey: And with us, we have a special guest. Coming back from recently trying to stalk Sora and Riku, we have Ben Diskin! Ben: Hey, how's it going? (Ben): Yay! Arielle: It's awesome! Joey: We are very excited, Mr. Diskin, Ben, to have you with us in such a short time. Ben: Oh, it's my pleasure. No problem! Thanks for letting me troll your forums last night. Arielle: Yes, that was hilarious. Joey: You broke the forums in record time. Ben: I saw! I was like, wait a minute, I just posted one quote and suddenly the whole thing went down! What the hell? Joey: You have the power. Arielle: Everybody was so excited, like "Oh my god!" Ben: I doubt that, but thank you. Joey: So Ben? Ben: Yes? Joey: I'm sure you're aware that Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], it's a popular game among fans not only because it is a true sequel to Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts Re:coded, but also because it pushes, it does push the timeline forward but it also connects to the long awaited- Ben: Kingdom Hearts III? Joey: The game is already released in most parts of Europe, July 31st for North America and tomorrow for the Australian fans. Ben: Very cool. Joey: Yes! So we've got this interview right in the middle, which is great. Ben: Alright! Not bad. Joey: Yeah. Ben: And technically I can't get into too much trouble for this, Non-Disclosure Agreement aside, because it's already kind of released. So, you know, really. Joey: Yeah. Ben: Haha. Joey: All the technicality. Ben: Alright, so here's what happens in the game! Okay, first! No. *laughs* Arielle: *laughs* Joey: *laughs* Arielle: No, no spoilers. We can only do porn. Ben: Well don't worry. I don't think I'd be able to do that if I wanted. Joey: So Ben? Ben: Yes? Joey: Why don't you tell the people who's going to be listening some stuff about you? Ben: Oh, okay! My name is Ben Diskin. I've been a voice-over actor since I was about 6 years old. I got into the industry thanks to my parents who were both actors. I've been doing this since, I've been doing acting since I was, like, born basically, and voice acting for almost 24 years now because I'm turning 30 in about a month. It's pretty much the most awesome job in the world if you can make a living at it, and it's really cool! And that's me! Arielle & Joey: *laughs* Arielle: Wow, you're turning 30? Ben: Turning 30. Ohhh... Arielle: Wow, that's a milestone. Ben: I heard that. Yeah. Joey: We should just sing "Happy Birthday" since we won't get the chance again, but no, right? Ben: *laughs* Arielle: We have terrible voices and stuff. Joey: Yeah. Ben: *laughs* Joey: Okay, Arielle. Arielle: Yes. Joey: Would you like to say anything? Arielle: Ohh... well... Ben & Joey: *laughs* Arielle: Well, what can I say? Okay so, why don't we start the questions? Ben & Joey: Okay. Arielle: Now we have 11 free chosen questions, and 5 that are from the forum members on Kingdom Hearts Insider. Ben: Oh boy. Alright. Arielle: So, to start things off, lets have a nice and easy question about the series. Ben: Okay. Arielle: We heard you played the games in the Kingdom Hearts series before. Ben: Yes. Arielle: Do you enjoy it? Ben: Do I enjoy it? No, they're horrible ga- yes, of course I do. Yeah, I remember I got these games like right when they came out. The first one I was really skeptical on because I thought, well, I mean I like Final Fantasy, and Disney's alright. And I was like, "But who the hell would mix these two together and think that's going to be a good game? That's a terrible idea." And I played it and I was like, "Wow. Now this is actually really, really awesome." I really like the first one. Second one I thought it was a little too easy, but I did enjoy it. I liked the story of course, and that was really cool. My only problem with this freaking series is that so many games are for portable systems! I don't own any portable systems! Good lord, I mean the only portable system I ever owned was a Gameboy? Like the original Gameboy? So I'm like "Crap! I don't have a Gameboy Advanced! I can't play Chain of Memories! Then it went to DS, then it went PSP, then back to DS, now 3DS. I'm just "Argh!" Arielle: Yes, it's everywhere, and that's the biggest complaint. Ben: Ugh. Yes, so I'm really hoping that Kingdom Hearts 3D is just, hopefully it's a multi-platform for like home consoles that's like out for all three of them. I hope that's the case. But... Joey: We wish. Arielle: We wish. Ben: Yeah... Sometimes tells me, something tells me though, that's it's going to be a WiiU exclusive. It's going to be something like that. Joey: Kingdom Hearts 3D? Ben: No no, Kingdom Hearts III. Joey: Oh. Ben: Yeah. Joey: Many fans do hope that's going to be a multiplatform title. Ben: Yeah, no kidding. Joey: Because it's the big one, so they'll be able to play it on whatever system they like. Ben: Right. Joey: Instead of just PS3. Ben: Mmhmm. Joey: But I'm sure that, as long as it's back on a home console, they'll enjoy it. Yeah. Ben: For sure. Joey: Yeah. Okay, second question: how were you cast for the role as Young Xehanort? Have you met any high profile voice actors from the game? Ben: Absolutely no idea who else was up for this. Normally, I'd say like 99.9% of the things I audition for, the things I get, it's just stuff I audition for; this was a weird, WEIRD casting thing. Basically what happened was, I had auditioned for a different Square Enix game, and I have no idea what even that game is called. By the way, in case you're wondering, in the video game industry, they are super, super secretive. Non-Disclosure Agreements ? that's just the beginning. The games, most of the time we don't even know what the title of the game we're trying for. They give it like a codename instead so nobody can even do research on it. So this was a game, they codenamed it, and I'm not making this up, Codename "Yellow Pee"? Joey & Arielle: *laughs* Ben: Yeah. So, I don't know what it is. I guess it was just to be funny, but anyway, I think it was Final Fantasy XIII-2. I think. I'm not sure. But they had me trying out for like well over or, 13 different characters. What they wanted was, at the beginning of each take, you were supposed to say, "Hi, my name is -your name here-. I've read and agreed to the Non-Disclosure Agreement and I'm trying out for the role of _____," and then you'd say the name of the character, and I totally forgot to do that for like all 13 of my auditions, so I went "oh god." So I'm not going to re-record all of these auditions; that's stupid! So I just made one blank slate of me saying all that and just put it at the beginning of each one of those auditions. Well I got called in to do this game, and I thought, "Was this 'Yellow Pee'!?" I would have remembered saying something as iconic as "Keyblade", you know, in an audition. I don't remember trying out for this! Well, it turns out that that stupid slate that I put at the beginning of every single one of those takes is how I booked this job. So I never auditioned for the character at all; it was just, they were just "Yeah, I like the way he says "Hi, my name is Ben Diskin and I'm trying out for the role of blah blah blah." It's awesome! Let's hire him based off of that!" Arielle: That is perfect. Ben: *laughs*So, it was a weird, weird casting session, but it was, I mean, I'm okay with it. I'm happy with it. Arielle: You cannot complain. Ben: Heh, no! Arielle: You have a ton of fans now, I know that. Ben: *laughs* Joey: Yeah, your official Facebook page doubled overnight when things got out. Ben: Yeah, it did, yeah. Joey: That's just amazing how fast Kingdom Hearts fans can react to sudden information. Ben: Oh yeah. That's how I knew the game was coming out soon. It's just a bunch of people that said, "Hey, hey! Was that you?" I'm like, "Okay, it's either come out or there's like a preview online somewhe- yup." You guys are scary good at recognizing voices. Arielle: Oh yeah. It was because somebody remembered you for being Harm from Young Justice. Ben: Ohhhh, oh yeah~ Joey: *laughs*Who was it though? Arielle: I think it was Hillboy. Ben: Was it Hillboy? Oh. Arielle: I think, yeah. Everybody was just surprised. Joey: Arielle, did you want to move on to the next question? Arielle: Oh, sorry. Ben: That's okay! Arielle: Um.. Ben: I think we should leave all these bloopers in. I think it's just real, you know? Joey: *laughs* Arielle: Yeah. Keep it going for long extended periods of silence. Joey & Ben: *laughs* Arielle: Was it difficult to come into an established game nearing the end of the Xehanort saga and voice a completely new character that is critical to the series? Ben: Well, let's see. Yes, and no. This, gosh, I'll be honest with you, I take absolutely no credit whatsoever for my acting performance in this game, because, how can I, okay; whenever you go into to do a recording session for something that's been established, the director will usually give you a quick run-down of what the show's about or what the game's about, what's happened so far ? to just kind of bring you up to speed. With this game, during one of the breaks, I spoke to one of the guys who was kind of helping with the translation, and I said, "So dude, what is this game series about?" And he just started laughing. He's like, "Dude, that's like asking if I had the cliffnotes to Shakespeare. I can't just summarize the entire game series!" So for this thing, what they did was rather than say, "Okay, here's what the line means, here's the situation, here's why your character is saying it," the director who was by the way, in Japan, translating through a translator here in America, was basically telling me what emotions she wanted to hear from my character with each different sentence. So most of the time, in fact, I'll be honest, the entire time, I have no idea exactly what any of these lines mean. Joey & Arielle: *laughs* Ben: None. The whole like "Hypocrite. You are the one who has made your heart a prison even if you are not the prisoner"? No idea what that means! I don't know! Joey: I think when that came out, not many people did know what that meant. Ben: Well that's, well the point of a teaser I guess, but like if I played the game, I'd be like all, "Ohhhhhhhhh, that's why he's calling him a hypocrite! O~kay." Joey: Maybe Josh would know? Arielle: Yeah Josh, do you know? Ben: Yeah Josh! What is it about? Why am I saying that? Arielle: Hey Josh~ Ben: Does Josh have a mic? Arielle: *laughs* He probably won't answer. Joey: Oh Josh. Ben: Josh is too shy? He's just a big question mark. Arielle: He's off there playing Kingdom Hearts 3D. Ben: Well, okay. That means he has better things to do. Arielle: *laughs* Ben: Because it's a good game. Joey: For those who don't know, Josh is um... Arielle: Souji Seta. Joey: That's how you say it? Arielle: Yes. Ben: *laughs* Joey: So, he's sitting in on this. Okay um, You’ve voiced characters such as Hahn from Avatar: The Last AirBender, Harm from Young Justice and Stitch in Stitch! Was it difficult to turn up to a recording studio and try to match the voice you’ve previously established for this character? Ben: Usually for, at least those three, no. Because Harm and Hahn from Avatar, those were both single-day record sessions. So it was: establish the voice, go; that's it. But for stuff like, I would say like Sai from Naruto would be an example, for those of you guys who don't watch the show, Naruto Shippuuden, it's all about ninjas. So I was a ninja. Anyway, my character doesn't really have much to do with the plot anymore, but every once in a while they'll bring him back and it'll have been like, you know, two or three months since I've actually done the character's voice, and they'll have to fill me in on what's happened so far inbetween my character's appearance and disappearance. But usually, maintaining characters ? as long as it's real character, as long as it's an established character ? it's not hard to get back into it become part mentalized in my brain; it's like I know what this guy's been through, I know what his emotions are, I know how he'd reaction in certain situations, so getting back in, it's like putting on an old pair of shoes. It's really not that bad. The only time it's tough is when they bring back a character that had maybe two lines and just one general attitude. Like, "He was that one sarcastic guy in episode 2! And now we want you to come back, and now he's like a full-fledged character and he's got like 37 lines and go!" "Uhhhhhhhh, dah. Can you remi-, what?" That's the only time it's really tough, but usually, usually I'd say it's a fairly natural thing and I tend to think it's probably like that for most voice actors; that's just my guess. Joey: That certainly is an interesting take on characters. Arielle: I think it's interesting. Ben: Well thanks! Joey: I think so too. I don't watch Naruto but- Arielle: Oh I do. Ben: *gasp* Blasphemy! Joey & Arielle: *laughs* Joey: Well my sister does! Ben: Oh okay, alright. Joey: She's a big fan of anime, so I'm sort of in on it. Ben: Oh right on! Arielle: I haven't caught up, so... Ben: Aww. Arielle: I'm still probably in Naruto, not even Shippuuden. Ben: It's a good show. Joey: Alrighty. Arielle: Okay. So! Ben: Yeah? Arielle: Ummm... What kinds of hazards... What kind of question is this? Joey: I thought you wrote it Arielle! Arielle: I did! Ben: You write this one? Arielle: But I woke up and I read it and I was half asleep. Okay. Ben & Joey: *laughs* Arielle: What kinds of hazards did you encounter when voicing Young Xehanort? E.g. did you not sound “evil” enough, was the direction constantly changed? Ben: Oh, no actually, I sounded too evil at first because he seems just kind of a "Sephiroth-type" character, you know like, evil, brooding guy, and basically the direction I was getting from them was mostly, "Make him a lot more flat and ambiguous because even though he is the younger version of the game's ultimate villain, we don't actually know if he's actually a 'bad guy'. You know, people are different when they're younger than when they are older so, is he really actually on the bad guy's side? Is he actually, maybe he's considering he doesn't actually like who he becomes? So we don't want him to just sound like evil right off the bat. " That was my tendency because I just wanted to make him dark and villainous, and they said "Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa no. Tone it back then." Joey & Arielle: *laughs* Ben: That was the main direction, yeah. Arielle: Well I think you pleased, well Josh isn't here to answer, but he's been like "oh my gosh his voice is so good!" Ben: Oh! Thank you Josh! If.. you're listening... Arielle: He's listening. He's just hiding. Ben: Ohhhh... Joey: He's a bit shy, at the moment. Ben: That's okay. Joey: Okay. Where you shocked by how vocal the fans are when it comes to Kingdom Hearts? Ben: Not at all. No. *laughs* I mean, I've seen the Avatar: the Last AirBender fans, I've seen My Little Pony fans, this series, I know it's got like a very, very hardcore fanbase, so I was like "Yeah." I was totally expecting something like this *laughs*. But I'm really happy. I like cool fans. I like fans who are really like into their stuff. People who are just kind of casual, that's cool, and I'm glad that they're there and they're playing and they're watching, but the fans who are just, they just know everything there is about the series in depth; the fans who maybe noticed that when I signed on as Trollenort on the forums last night who were like, "Hey, Trollenort should be spelled with an 'A', not an 'E'!" I love fans like that. I don't get mad; I think that's really cool! Joey: Did anyone say that? Ben: No, but that was the first thing that I thought of when I signed up and I went "Ah crap! I already did it! Damn it!" Joey: You could just apply for a name change. Ben: *laughs* Oh, I should have done that. Dang! Arielle: You have to write a story though. Joey: Yeah... It's very complex. Ben: Oh. Arielle: You know, when I saw you sign up, I went to my friend, I was like, "I sense danger." Ben: *laughs* Arielle: Then I looked at your birth year and I was like, "Oh. It's Ben Diskin." Ben: What? Joey: Yeah, you signed up for the forums and everyone was like, "Is this Ben Diskin?" "What if it's not?" "Oh my god, it's Ben Diskin on the forums!" And it just blew up. Ben: *laughs*Yeah, literally. The forum crashed! Wow! Joey: Yeah! Arielle: It hasn't done that in a while either. It used to do it all the time. They fixed it, but... Ben: "Ben Diskin, you crashed our forums! Noooooooo!" I'm sorry. Joey: *laughs* Arielle: Okay. Joey: Want me to do the next one, Arielle? Arielle: Yeah. Ben: *laughs* Joey: So you've said in the past that you didn't have a 3DS at the time so you wouldn't be able to listen to yourself and play the game? Do you see this changing in the future, and will we be able to get your 3DS friend code? Ben: *laughs*Um, you know what? Probably not. Just because, aw, I suck with portable stuff so hard. Like usually, whenever I'm out, I have time to just play like, you know, just some quickie game of Angry Birds on my phone and then I'm back home, and I feel really weird playing a portable system at home anyways so, yeah, I probably wouldn't. But if I were, I would definitely give you guys my friend code. Joey: Ohh. Arielle: Awesome! We could friend him! Joey: That'd be like the best! Brag about it all day. Arielle: Oh. Okay. Ben Diskin says he'd give us his 3DS friend code if, you know, he had one. Joey: We'll make a fake one for you. Say it's you. Ben: Perfect! And just be a real asshole to like everybody, will ya? Joey & Arielle: *laughs* Ben: "Hi I'm Ben Diskin. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you and fuck you! Hahaha!" Arielle: *laughs* Ben: " God, that guy's a jerk! Man!" Joey & Arielle: *laughs* Joey: I don't want to be your friend anymore. Arielle: Why are we even friends with you anymore? Ben: *laughs* Arielle: Okay, what's the next one? Ben: Accident. Arielle: Okay, so you know you were voice acting since you were a nub. But what inspired you to be a voice actor? Ben: Oh, okay. Arielle: You answered it already. Ben: Sort of. Yeah. Well, I guess what inspired me to be a voice actor was probably the fact that I love cartoons to begin with, of course. But it was actually, when I was a kid, I was about 8, I did an on-camera movie that I think a lot of people at least know about or like? It was called "Kindergarten Cop" and it was starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. And I was, the story for those of you who don't know about it or don't want to see it, is about Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cop pretending to be a kindergarten teacher. There's a whole classroom full of kids and I'm one of the kids in that class. So, after shooting it, I made the terrible, terrible mistake of telling everybody on campus, "Oh hey! I'm in this movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger!" And so, I got to experience in a microscopic kind of way, what it's like to be famous. And it is a very, very unpleasant feeling. So basically, I got a lot of people picking on me, beating me up, pushing me around; I got people pretending to be my friends and then realizing that I actually was not a movie star and did not have a lot of money, suddenly feeling betrayed and hating me, and it really kind of sucked, and I went, "Wow. I really don't think I like this. I don't really know if I want to do this acting thing anymore. Everybody's a jerk to me because of it." But then when I was about 10, I got to be the main character on a cartoon called "Problem Child". It was based on the Problem Child movies. The cartoon show wasn't necessarily a huge hit, but it was my first role in an animated series, and nobody knew it was me. There were actually kids on campus who watched that show and none of them knew it was me except for my friends who I swore to secrecy, and I went "Wow, this is awesome! I get to be an actor. I get to play characters I normally wouldn't get to play, and nobody knows it's me! I can just sort of do whatever I want, and I get to be a normal person at the same time." So that's really for me, that was what inspired me to really be a voice-over actor as opposed to just doing on-camera stuff. Arielle: Wow, that's really inspirational. Ben: Thank you! Ben & Arielle: *laughs* Joey: Do you have any funny or inspirational stories from the recording studio? Ben: Uhhhhhh *laughs*Oh god. Should I tell this one? Alright. Joey: Yes. Ben: Okay. Alright. This is, here's the thing: for those of you guys who do not know, voice over actors, when we're in the session, we tend to be very very graphically blue when it comes to comedy. We love telling incredibly dirty jokes and being filthy degenerate perverts. It is one of the most fun parts of the job, and everybody does it. Anyway, well most people do it, anyway this was in a recording episode of a show called "Codename: Kids Next Door", and Tom Kenny ? this is a Tom Kenny story, there are a lot of them I'm sure ? he was playing ? I forget who he was playing, I think he was Santa Claus, yeah this was a Christmas episode ? two of the characters are fighting. They're both kids, and Santa, instead of saying, "Hey you kids, take it outside!" as sort of a Christmas-y pun, he said, "Hey you two, take it under the mistletoe!" But, by accident, he doesn't say that. Instead he says, "Hey you two, take her under the mistletoe!" This starts like a whole swarm of people going "Yeaaah, take her under the mistletoe!" "Yeaaaah, show her what's up!" "Down undah!" Just all sorts of stuff, and it keeps kind of escalating. The guys who were on the other side of the glass, the voice director, Collette Sunderman and everybody recording it, they're not actually listening to us yet. They can just sort of see our faces as we're all making jokes, and suddenly, everybody just sort of goes "OHHHHH!" and makes an "OH" face, looking at them and points at Tom Kenny like, "That was him! That was him!" And they, they go, "What? Wha- what happened? What happened?" And they said, "Say it Tom. Just say what you said to us." And he said, "Awww, god." He said, "Okay." He said, "Yeaaaaah. Oh yeaaaaaah. Let Santa watch. Ohhhhhh yeaaaaaah. Ohhhhhhhh, Santa's eggnog is really starting to flow-ohohohohohoooooo!" And so that just, awwwww. That was the line, and of course he crossed it because he's awesome. Joey & Arielle: *dying of laughter* Ben: So there you go. Joey: Oh my god. Ben: There's my silly~ There's my silly voice-over acting story. Arielle: *still laughing* Joey: That was the best. Arielle: *dying* I can never look at Kids Next Door the same way again. Ben: *laughs* Joey: Arielle and I will chop that down after this is done. Arielle: Yes. Joey: Okay. Some voice actors like to pull on their life experiences to give life to a character. Others like to pretend they are something they aren't. What do you do to give your characters a personality? Ben: Well, let’s see. For the evil characters, like well, any kind of villainous character, for me that’s very easy because I truly am a terrible, terrible human being. But for the good guys, that’s where things get tough. I’d say in general, in general I like to pull from any kind of, not necessarily any kind of life experience but emotional experience that I have because it makes things feel a little bit more organic. Like say, whenever I played, say, Eddie Broch, or Venom from Spectacular Spiderman ? that for me was kind of easy because, essentially the character was a “nice guy” who kind of freaking flips out, and I’m like, “You know what? I actually am a nice guy, and I know what it’s like to finish last all the time,” so to speak, so I was like, “You know what? I can totally pull this off ? pull the guy who feels like everybody’s just against him and the world is just a terrible place ? I can pull that off no problem. It’s characters who are very, very, very different from me who I have a tough time characterizing unless I have a good director. So usually you’ll see like a kind of a, not a bad performance, but just sort of a meh performance from me if it’s a character that I’m just not really like and the director just really wasn’t able to get that out of me. Arielle: Okay. Ben: Nice. Joey: That’s interesting, yeah. Arielle: Because I know it’s, a lot is relying on the director, so… Ben: Yeah. Arielle: Do you want me to say this, Joey? Ben: Um… Joey: Umm, I can say it if you want? You can ask the question? Arielle: No, I can say it. Joey: Okay. Arielle: Sorry. Ben: Yeah you are. Ben: Oh hey, Arielle? Arielle: Mmhmm? Ben: Could you do me a favor and maybe back off a little bit from the mic? Because most of your words sound like, they’re kind of like bleeding and I’m having a hard time understanding what you’re saying. Arielle: Oh sorry! It’s because, it’s my laptop and it’s not that good. Ben: Ohhh! Oh okay. Joey: Arielle, are you still getting that double speech thing? Arielle: Yeah. Ben: Oh jeez. Arielle: Yeah, I hear myself. Ben: “You’re a bad man, Ben Diskin.” “I’m sorry, Arielle!” Arielle & Joey: *laughs* Arielle: Okay. Onto the questions from the forum! Ben: Okay. Arielle: We asked our members to think of questions to ask to ask you, and the best 5 are chosen. Ben: Cool. Arielle: Those are either related to Kingdom Hearts, your previous work, or your personal life. Ben: Okay. Arielle: We did see many wonderful questions. Unfortunately, like we said before, we can only choose five. So, without further ado, we’ll kick things off with a question from Relix: Joey: Relix asks, “You’ve voiced a great spectrum of characters ranging from shady ninjas to kids fighting adult tyranny. Do you find voicing villainous/antagonist characters, such as Xehanort, liberating as a voice actor? Ben: I think that anytime you get to play the villain, it’s a good day. I mean, look ? heroes are great. They’re really fun characters to play, but the villain always steals the show. I mean, hey if you look at like, I don’t know, Lion King; yeah, I know a lot of people who are like, “Oh yeah! The big opening song, “Circle of Life”, that’s great.” Yea- no. For me it’s “Be Prepared”. That’s the shit right there. So you know, it’s that kind of, it’s that kind of thing. Like the villains are always complicated and interesting. The heroes can be kind of one-dimensional, so yeah. Playing a villain is always fun; it’s always something that makes you stretch those acting muscles, and step outside of yourself and really have a good time, so I would say it’s very liberating. It’s awesome. Joey: Yeah, I love the antagonists as well. I find them to be some of the best characters- Ben: Oh yeah. Joey: - in certain things. Ben: Like? Joey: After one of the releases of the Harry Potter movies, everyone kept saying that, “Oh Bellatrix is such a bitch for what she does, blah blah blah.” And I just keep saying, “Bellatrix is one of the best characters on there.” Villains are just the best. Yeah. Ben: Oh yeah. Joey: Anything you want to add, Arielle? Arielle: Umm… Sorry, I was thinking. I was reading and thinking. Um, no I love villains. They’re, like I agree with Joey. They’re the best. Ben: Hee hee.(Gollum impression) “Yes, yessss!” Joey & Arielle: *laughs* Arielle: Well now I want to watch The Lord of the Rings. Ben: Okay. Arielle: Okay, so the next question's from Hillboy. Ben: Okay. Arielle: Based on some picture you posted on your official Facebook, we assume that you're familiar with the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic show. Ben: Uh huh. Arielle: And he asked, "Who's your favorite pony?" Ben: Okay. Um, phew. I don't mean to be rude, because this is like, you know, this is kind of impolite, uh, I don't want to tell you how to do your job, but the question is actually supposed to be, "Who is best pony?" That is how my people say it, okay? Joey: No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. *laughs* Ben: Second, that's *laughs* Joey: He's the one who wrote it. He wrote it. Ben: What? Hillboy! Oh, I am disappoint! No, that's okay. Um... Joey: *laughs* Ben: Oh god, I don't know. That's like asking a dad to choose his favorite child. Arielle & Joey: *laughs* Ben: Okay, I don't know. If push came to shove and I had to go rescue one of them from a burning building, I guess I'd say Fluttershy. There you go. Arielle: Oh yeah~ Joey: Fluttershy? Um... oh that's Fluttershy! Okay. Arielle & Ben: *laughs* Joey: I just looked at Google. Arielle: You had to look it up? Joey: Did a quick google of it. Um... Ben: She's the shy one. Joey: Yeah *laughs* Um, the next question is from staff member Sign. This one was picked by Arielle, so if any of you listeners have any problems with this, yell at her. Ben: *laughs* Joey: Sign would like to know- Ben: "How big is your dick?" No, I'm just kidding. Ohhhh! Arielle: *laughs* Ben: It's not that, what? Joey & Arielle: *laughs* Joey: Would you say you and Xehanort have anything in common? Ben: Oh, would I say me and Xehanort have anything in common? Well... Joey: Yeah, how to dominate the universe or... Ben: Well, let's see. Um, there was this one time I tried to travel back in time to fix things in my pa- no. I don't know! Again, the problem with asking that question is that I would really need to know a lot about Xehanort, and like I said, most of the, most of the time I really didn't know what I was even saying, so it's kind of hard for me to pin it down. I suppose in terms of him sort of being this kind of emotionless person that, at times, I can definitely be that way. I'm a bit of a, pardon the expression, because I'm sure this word will offend people, but I'm a bit of a social retard. Joey: *laughs* Ben: So, like I really am, just, yeah. So I mean, I can understand that but that's not really Xehanort. It's not like he's just shy or has bad people skills. I think he has some slightly bigger issues than that, so ehhh, not really. No. Arielle: Nah, he's got a lot of deep issues. Ben: "Well yes. I do." Joey & Arielle: *laughs* Ben: "Yeeeeeeeeeesss." Joey: Um, Arielle! Would you like to say this next one? Arielle: Ohhhhh, okay. Okay, the next question is from a new member: Trollenort would like to know why you ruined Stitch in the anime. Just kidding~ Okay. Ben: *laughs* Ohhhh, because I like ruining people's lives, that's why! Yes! Arielle: *laughs* Joey: Your life? Ben: Haha! Arielle: Let's see what kind of... The real question is from rokudamia2. Ben: Okay. Arielle: Roku asks, "Have you met any actors that worked on the series of Kingdom Hearts?" Ben: Oooo. Um, you know, if I had a cast list in front of me, I could probably answer that question, but it would probably have been like seeing them on something else, you know, because this is uhh, really for like all video games that I've ever been on, it's always like single-person record because, I'm not sure why they don't like doing ensemble stuff, with the exception of course of mocap - motion capture stuff - because that way, you know, they actually have the actors in person talking to each other, but usually for most games, it's just you by yourself in a booth and maybe, maybe, as you leave the studio, you'll see somebody else coming in to do their part. So, if I did see anybody who I have not already known, I'd probably didn't even know who they were and just walked right past them. Arielle: I can understand that. Joey: Yeah. Have you ever met, um, Jesse McCartney? He's done Young Justice, hasn't he? Ben: Uhhh, yes! Let me see, did I actually meet him? I'm trying to think if he was there for the record session, and you know what? I don't remember if he was present or not for the one I was in, so I'm not entirely sure. Joey: Oh okay. Ben: I'm not entirely sure. Sorry. Joey: *laughs* Yeah, he's in the Kingdom Hearts series as well, voicing Roxas and Ventus. Ben: Ah, sure. I hear he's good. I hear people like him. Joey: Yeah, he's improved a lot. Arielle: People used to hate him, and then after a while, everyone was like, "Oh my god! He's so amazing!" I think it was probably after he started Young Justice. Ben: *laughs*Ah yeah. Joey: He's come a long way. It's like watching a little child grow up. Ben: *laughs* Joey: Okay, umm... our final forum question comes from skyfoxx. Skyfoxx wonders, "Did you enjoy the experience to voice as Young Xehanort? And if Square Enix ever contacted you again in the future asking you to reprise your role, would you accept?" Ben: Uh, let's see. Yes, I definitely enjoy playing Young Xehanort. It was really fun. He's a very interesting character to say the least, and if Square Enix ever asks me to come back and play the character again? Oh hell yeah! I would definitely do that! I like working with Square Enix. They're really cool, and these games are freaking awesome, so yeah. Joey: Awesome! Love to have you back. Ben: Well thank you. Joey: *laughs* Ummm... Arielle: Joey, you've become mumbled. Joey: I've become a mumble? Arielle: Yes, you have. Joey: Sorry, umm, can you hear me better now? Arielle: Cue now. Maybe it's my computer. Joey: That's awkward. Umm, of course we'd have technical difficulties during this, not before. Ben: That's okay. Arielle: Of course it's at the end! Ben & Joey: Yeah! Joey: Well, nearing the end. Um, so, now as a treat, we've asked Ben to read out a couple of lines that Young Xehanort says in the game himself. These quotes were from trailers released earlier in the year, and we thank you, Ben, for giving us this opportunity. Ben: My pleasure! Just to let anybody know, I am having some vocal problems right now. My bronchial tubes are like really swollen, so I'll do my best to do his voice, but it sounds like he's kind of going through puberty, you'll know why. Okay? Joey: Okay. Ben: There we go. Ahem. "Hypocrite. You are the one who has made your heart a prison, even if you are not the prisoner." "Come with me." "The world is just... too small." Arielle: And that was awesome! Ben: Thank you! Joey: Wow! Ben: Wow! At least, it didn't sound terrible! Alright! "The world is just too small." Joey & Arielle: *laughs* Ben: Thank you, Young, young Master Xehanort! Ohhhh... Shouldn't have gone that far back in time. "Oh my gosh, I'm so gonna pwn the universe! Yay!" Ohhh... Arielle & Joey: *laughs* Joey: Hey, that's an idea for a spinoff! Ben: *laughs* Arielle: The journey of Kid Xehanort! Ben: Yes, a very, very bad idea for a spinoff, haha! Joey: Go out with Young Young Xehanort! Ben: Awwww, betrayal! Joey & Arielle: *laughs* Joey: Okay, is there anything else you would like to say, Ethy? Arielle: Ohh. Joey: You know, just in general, something? Ben: Allo? Allo? Joey: *laughs* Arielle: Okay, um... Joey: Are you ready? Arielle: You're just... okay. Talking to you was amazing! Just saying. Joey: Yeah. Ben: Well, talking to you guys was cool too. Thanks so much for having me on your show! Or interview thing, website , whatever! Joey: Yeah. Ben: My pleasure. Arielle: Yeah, we're sorry we're really awkward, but... Ben: That's okay. I'm extremely awkward too, so everything works out. Arielle: You know what I wish? I keep hearing myself so I keep trying to talk like really slow and I can't listen to you guys. Ben: Aww, that's okay. Joey: You can always listen after. Ben: A-also, I-I h-have b-be-been t-ta-talking li-like th-this, s-so-sor-sorry sorry sorry... Joey: No you go! Arielle: Oh! Ben: *laughs* Arielle: Joey, you want to wrap this up? *laughs* Joey: Umm, I was just going to ask Ben if he's going to stay around in our forums. Ben: Ohhhhh. Joey: *laughs* Ben: I might. Especially if I just say, "Screw it! I'm gonna get the 3DS and I'm gonna play this game," you might wind up seeing some more posts from me saying, "Hey guys, guys how do you beat this guy? Where' s the secret treasure in this world because I don't know?" You're like "Goddamnit Ben! Look it up on the freaking forum. Somebody already posted this! Jeez, use the search bar!" Joey & Arielle: *laughs* Ben: Awww! Joey: I'm sure that if you were to post saying "I don't have a 3DS," everyone would be donating money. Ben: Ohhh, no no no no no! I don't want to do that! That's, please keep your money! Actually, buy this game with your money! Do that, okay? Joey: Thank you! Everyone go out, buy the game- Ben: Yes! Joey:- and give that to Ben! Ben: *laughs* Joey: Either way, you're still getting their money. Okay, so Ben, on behalf of KHInsider, we thank you for doing this interview with us, and we appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule. Ben: Oh, my pleasure! Thank you so much for having me, guys! Take care! Arielle & Joey: Thank you! Ben: And bye Josh! I hardly knew ye! Arielle & Joey: *laughs* Joey: Um, okay. This is Joey- Arielle: And Arielle- Joey: From KHInsider, the #1 fansite on the internet- Joey & Arielle: Signing off! Joey: Or something less cheesy. All: *laughs* Joey: I think that went well. Ben: Yeah! Arielle: Now I can go back and edit it. Joey: Yeah, edit out. Oh, can you um, copy/paste the awkward silences so they're double as long? Arielle: Yeah! Ben: *laughs* Arielle: I'll do it to everyone so that it'll be a, what, two hour interview? Ben: *laughs* Joey: Yeahh... make people sit and wait and listen to the whole thing~ Arielle: They can listen to me google and- Ben: Actually just take the whole thing and just actually physically stretch it out so that everybody sounds like "fasdjfalhilealahraiuwheraiwerhalhweahrhewuhalgbasb". That'll be perfect! Oh yeah. Arielle: Definitely. Josh: *laughs* Arielle: Yeah Josh. You missed the end. Joey: Yeah, if you stayed around. Arielle: Maybe if you'd talk... Joey: Participated. Arielle: No. You don't get to see it, okay? Ben: Alright guys, I'm gonna take off, okay? Arielle: Okay, thank you so much! Ben: My pleasure! Talk to you guys soon, hopefully! Bye! Joey: See ya! Arielle: Bye! |
