The cast of Critical Role walked onto stage to thunderous applause at this year’s Anime NYC. The venue’s main stage was practically overflowing with people; fans waited in incredibly long lines for the event’s main stage for the chance to see some of their favorite creators and voice actors take part in a fireside chat — and for the opportunity to ask them a question during a Q&A portion of the panel. Critical Role originally started off in 2012 as a group of friends playing games and RPGs in each other’s living rooms. Since then, that relatively straightforward setting for campaigns has evolved into a multi-platform entertainment phenomenon featuring well-known voice actors and some spectacular adventures. Now, Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Matthew Mercer, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham are filling out massive rooms with fans.
This was the first time Critical Role came to Anime NYC, and one of the first questions that host Ginny Di asked them was how they felt being at the convention for the very first time. All around, the group felt like it had been a remarkably fun experience. Travis Willingham excitedly exclaimed that New York City was awesome and he loved it, while others commented on how surprised they were at the level of reception and the raw amount of energy from fans.
Perspectives on Voice Acting
The first half of the event was dedicated to questions submitted by fans from Critical Role’s Beacon Discord, with most questions having to do with voice acting (it’s an anime convention after all). The first question for the entire group had to do with the recording process for the Legend of Vox Machina and Mighty Nein animated series. Specifically, host Ginny Di asked whether the guests’ process was different when thinking about and getting into the headspace of these characters. Everyone shared their perspectives:
Travis Willingham: With anime, you obviously have a line and then you’re trying to match lip flap. There’s also a physical performance that’s there. So there are a number of things that are informing your read. For Legend of Vox Machina or Mighty Nein, it’s a blank slate. We’re also responsible for a lot of the dialogue ourselves and can also throw it out the window at any time. It’s just these maniacs in a small room which shouldn’t be legal (audience laughs). So anything and everything can happen and we get multiple chances to record it as well. We’ll have an original session, a pickup session, animatics will come back, and we’ll want to change dialogue or add things. So, they’re very similar in that. I think if you can — I refer to anime as the boot camp for acting. If you can do anime dubbing, then you can do the real thing.
Taliesin Jaffe: The group setting is also nice because anime are very solitary. It’s just you in a booth and with your nerves. As opposed to looking at everybody else and they’re also nervous. Although, thanks to Covid also, we had to break up some of the early ones. And so there was a lot of — thank god for anime. Because we were used to having being able to piecemeal our performances together like we were all in the room.
Marisha Ray: Yeah. We recorded the first episode altogether and then the pandemic hit. And then I don’t think we were able to get back in a room together until the last episode of that season, or was it season two?
Sam Riegel: But that said, we do use a lot of anime techniques and stuff when we dub in the fighting stuff and the magic stuff, we get to use all of our (grunts like an anime character in pain) (audience laughs).
Laura Bailey: It’s kind of a fun competition because we’ll have to do pickups to picture in the room with the whole cast, and then it’s like, who can do it the quickest to picture, you know?
Marisha Ray: Wait, it’s a competition or is that just in your brain?
Taliesin Jaffe: Oh not for you. It’s not a competition for you.
Laura Bailey: It’s just me. It’s just me. Everything is a competition.
Liam O’Brien: It’s not a competition because I’m the fastest (audience laughs). When you do any kind of voiceover, it’s like being in a holodeck of sorts. And so when you’re dubbing anime, there are restrictions. So it’s more like Professor X’s Danger Room, where the walls move around and you have to constrict and slide under things and fit into places. And when we’re working on our show or other kinds of non-dubbing jobs, it’s more like the loading room in the Matrix. It’s just whatever we imagine. So it’s a different kind of holodeck.
Travis Willingham: There is a competition on reactions though, especially if we go around the room and it’s like, we want everyone to die by fire, or everybody fall from a large ledge. Whoever starts first, it always ramps up to ten by whoever’s last.
Ashley Johnson: Yeah.
Marisha Ray: It’s true.
Taliesin Jaffe: Just run the whole fight, I’m going to chase it. I don’t need to know. Not one kick. Give me three kicks, a punch, two ducks. I’m fine. Let’s just go. Let’s just go.
Liam O’Brien: It’s one of our favorite times to laugh at each other in those records.
Ginny Di: Yeah, if you have to ask if it’s a competition, that just means that you’ve already lost the competition.
Marisha Ray: I’d like to think I’m in competition with myself. So.
Travis Willingham: That’s what losers say. (audience laughs)
Other questions to the group touched on subjects like being the dungeon master for a one-shot campaign set in the world of an anime, what would happen if two characters (Tohru from Fruits Basket and Jester from Mighty Nein, both voiced by Laura Bailey) switched places, what classic anime were deserving of getting the kind of reboot treatment that Sailor Moon did with Sailor Moon Crystal, and some more pointed questions to the guests about their countless performances across many series.
Audience Q&A
There were plenty of excellent questions asked by the audience (and an incredibly long line to ask those questions queued up immediately the moment the Q&A period began). Some highlights of this section, apart from questions related to the guests’ various roles and their character arcs, were the pieces of advice they gave to aspiring voice actors, improv enthusiasts, and those seeking to start their own longstanding gaming campaigns with those around them. One fan asked about books to help with improv and the art of ‘yes, and.’
Sam Reigel: I think there’s a Charna Halpern book [Truth in Comedy] […]. But honestly, it’s been so great to do improv with these guys because what we do, we are doing a shared story. But a lot of what we do is really rooted in improv. And just being able to say yes to each other and build on everything and build on the reality that we create with each other has been so amazing. And it’s such a great tool for actors, for writers and just for life itself. You want to be a person in life who says yes to things. Just in general. And if you can make that part of your life in any way, be it professionally or personally, it’s the greatest. So yes, I highly recommend doing any improv and I’ll post some books on my Twitter.
A surprising appearance came from Sam Reigel’s mother, who revealed that when Sam was a kid he wanted to be a minotaur when he grew up, something that is hilariously in line with some choices he’s made during campaigns as an adult. Toward the end of the session, another member of the audience asked about ways to create meaningful D&D campaigns with a group and how to find that group in the first place.
Matthew Mercer: Part of building a campaign to the tastes of what you enjoy about this game is about seeking out people of similar interests at the table. And a lot of that is having that session-zero conversation about what do we enjoy the most. Do we like to kick down tables or kick down doors and defeat monsters and take their loot? Is that our focus? Do we like to do rich intrigue and narrative based stories? Do we just like the thrill of heroic adventure? Are we more thespian-like performers at the table? Are we more interested in just flowing with the narrative? Those are important conversations to have at the top. But also, not every table is going to be right for you too. [ . . . ] But to your point, it can be hard sometimes depending on where you are or what you have at your disposal to find the right table. Sometimes it’s checking out your local game stores and seeing spaces that host games. There are online places and forums in your local area that might [be] looking for group scenarios, and there are websites now that do connect people with groups for digital online play. And you can go ahead and do searches in those spaces to very specific types of games you’re looking for. [ . . . ] That’s primarily for online play but those are at your disposal so you can search for some of those services online. Other than that, it’s just kind of the internal search for the right group, which is part of the journey of being a tabletop role-player. Good luck.
All in all, the panel was quite a treat and an hour that I’m sure everyone in the room thoroughly enjoyed. If you’re interested in checking it out, the entire thing is available to watch on YouTube and you can give it a look below.
Featured image courtesy of Den of Geek/Nick Morgulis/Anime NYC
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