For years, Yuri Lowenthal has had many adventures in the world of voice over acting – including voice acting jobs that let him play Superman (in Legion of Superheroes), Ben Tennyson (in Ben 10: Alien Force), and the English-dubbed version of Sasuke (in Naruto). Gaming enthusiasts also know Yuri as the voice actor for Prince Dastan from Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Nightcrawler from Spider-Man: Web of Shadows.
Yuri recently visited the 2009 Phoenix Comicon and participated on several panels where he discussed his voice acting career. Suite 101 caught up with him at a January 23 panel and learned more about the world of voice over acting.
Suite 101: You speak four languages – Japanese, German, French, and English. Does being multilingual help you in voice acting?
Yuri: That’s a good question! It does help in doing accents and creating different characters – it’s given me more range in the type of characters I can play. A lot of video games I audition for are wartime video games – lots of World War II video games – and they’re always looking for German, French, and Russian speakers. So it’s definitely helped in that sense.
Now when I’m dubbing Japanese anime, it’s not necessary. There are many dub actors who don’t speak Japanese and they do an amazing job. But I feel it helps me because usually when we’re dubbing, they’ll play the Japanese line before we record the American line so we can maintain the emotional level and context. And where some people would get the emotion but won’t understand what the line means, I have that added insight.
Suite 101: Would you be interested in providing the Japanese voice for an anime show and not just the English dubbed versions?
Yuri: It would be interesting and very cool but I’ve never been asked to. We don’t get a lot of contact from the Japanese production side when they’re dubbing a show. They do all their stuff and once it’s going on there they send it to the United States.
I have played Japanese-speaking characters in some video games though, like Medal of Honor: Rising Son, so speaking Japanese does come in handy. I always look for another opportunity to use my Japanese.
Suite 101: Do you record your lines alone or with the entire cast?
Yuri: When we’re doing a show like Ben 10, we usually have the whole cast there. Sometimes because of scheduling conflicts, you can’t have everyone, but they always try to have everybody in the room.
But when I’m working on other shows, especially dubbing anime, we always do it in a booth, one person at a time. And you really have to use your imagination because it’s just you in there and you have to imagine what the other actors are saying.
Suite 101: Which voice recording experience do you prefer?
Yuri: They’re two very different experiences. I prefer working with a group – because as an actor that’s the most fun. You get to bounce off what other people are doing. You can really react to what’s going on. I definitely prefer the big group.
The best thing about showing up for group sessions is the people I get to work with. Usually when we go in to record an episode, there’s a guest star who’s either there to play the villain or someone who’s going to help us. And it’s always this great surprise to see who’s going to show up. Because they usually get really cool, really fun people.
I showed up to work for an episode of Ben 10: Alien Force and Clancy Brown was in there. He was in Highlander, Pathfinder, and he also does a lot of voice over work – he played Lex Luthor in Justice League. And it made me all nervous and I was trying not to nerd out too much!
Read more about Yuri's animation work at Yuri Lowenthal Talks About Ben 10: Alien Force and learn more about his career by visiting The Official Website of Yuri Lowenthal.
And learn about voice actors Will Friedle and Peter Cullen at From Dark Knight to Disney Sidekick and Peter Cullen: Voice of Optimus Prime and Eeyore.
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