Last week I had the opportunity to chat with Lauren Landa, who you may have known a few weeks ago as the voice of Madoka Magica’s Kyoko or Blazblue’s Litchi Faye-Ling…until she was announced as Annie from Attack on Titan.
So of course I ask her about the role, how much of the show’s she watched, but then ask her about voice acting and how she got into it.
So, how long did you know you had the role of Annie?
Hmm, well…I’m not really sure if I’m supposed to say how long I knew…
Well ok, ok fine! *both laughs*
But as for getting the role of Annie, it was pretty exciting because I had not seen this show before I was cast, and when I was cast I decided, “Well…I can either go ahead and watch the whole thing or I can be surprised while I watch the show.” But either way I decided to watch the show not only because I was cast in it, but because I had heard nothing but fantastic things about it and everybody was talking about it. So eventually I did see it and I was hooked off of the first episode. It was awesome! It’s an awesome, fantastic show. It’s like Walking Dead meets Game of Thrones in my opinion.
Yeah. And Game of Thrones is one of my favorite shows so that automatically works for me.
But yeah, Annie…she’s a badass character. Not only is she tough but she has a very…I don’t know how to describe Annie because she’s a very serious, lovely lady that obviously has a past, but we don’t know what that past is. And like I said she’s a total badass! *laughs*
So I guess when you started watching and started hearing about it, were you surprised that you enjoyed the show so much and that, “Oh wow, this show is really popular” and stuff like that?
Well when I first saw it I didn’t really know what to expect. I just assumed it was another anime show that a lot of anime fans liked or one of the bigger anime shows, like a Full Metal Alchemist, a Naruto, or Bleach. I just assumed it was just like that. So when I saw it, I was surprised because it really is not like, in my opinion, any other anime that I had ever seen and honestly at times I forgot I was watching an anime. And really that’s what it comes down to is that anime is just animated. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a genre of its own, but to me it’s just like…it’s the same as liking any other show like Game of Thrones or True Blood or How I Met Your Mother or any of those shows. It just happens to be animated.
And so for fans who enjoy anime already of course it was already a given, but for people who don’t usually watch anime I actually told them — and I do to this day, I actually tell them — “I promise you, if you do not like anime, you’re going to forget that this is an anime because it’s not just your typical anime show” and most people that have seen it have really loved it and enjoyed it. So yeah I mean I was a bit surprised because I don’t get to watch that much anymore because I work so much with it. But when I do choose to sit down and actually watch what I’m working on, or a show that people keep telling me to watch, most of the time I do like and enjoy it. Titan is one of those shows that not only am I so excited to be a part of it, but I’m so excited to be a part of a show that’s just awesome, that’s just fantastic, I still get excited to this day about it.
So how did voice acting become an opportunity for you? Did you have any idea you would become one when you was growing up?
When I was growing up I just knew that I wanted to act. Like I knew I wanted to be an actress, I wanted to be in films, in televisions…and you know, when I was little, voice acting never occurred to me because when we’re little we don’t think that much about it. *laughs* At least I didn’t! All we notice is that there are voices coming out of these cartoons. And that’s a fun idea! But I never actually thought of pursuing that until I got to college. When I got to college, a friend of mine, Peggy O’Neal, said, “Hey, you know you should look into this if you have an interest in it.” Because by that time I had pretty much done stage productions throughout my entire life so acting was no strange land to me. But when I spoke to her about that, I then met Tony Oliver, who, after taking one of his workshops — because, again I knew nothing about workshops at the time I knew nothing about that — but after I took it, he pulled me aside and said, “Yeah, you definitely need to get into this.” And a few months later, I was cast in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, which was my first anime show. In that I played Alf and Chrono Harlaown. Arf was Fate’s little familiar who is kind of a demon dog kind of familiar, and then Chrono Harlaown was the little boy that comes in later in the season and he’s kind of an army brat. So that was my first anime.
…Sort of? I had watched a few anime and I played some video games, like I really enjoyed Zelda, the Grand Theft Auto games, I enjoyed some fighting games but I didn’t get too much into fighting games because I was always terrible at them, but I remember playing Bloody Roar. I don’t remember which one, but I remember playing that. Grand Theft Auto 3 was definitely one of my favorites. And Ocarina of Time, definitely one of my favorite Zelda games, and I’d like to add in because I totally like to brag about this: I can beat the Forest Temple in less than an hour!
*laughs*
Some of the Zelda fans out there are like, “Girl, that is nothing!” *laughs* But I am proud!
So what has surprised you about the anime industry? From interacting with other voice actors, speaking to companies, the fandom, etc?
Well, to me, interacting with other actors is just like interacting with other people that you share the same passions with. Typically when I do meet other actors we always have something in common. So it can either be that we both enjoy acting for a living, or a certain show, a certain activity, and usually we just bond over that, but really the people in this industry are by far fantastic people and some of them are my dearest, closest friends whom I love dearly, and honestly, I can’t imagine the industry without any of them. And not only that but for the most part it’s a supportive community. When someone doesn’t get a role, when the other person does get a role the other person will shake that person’s hand or say “Oh, congrats! Congratulations on this!” Honestly a lot of people have come up to me in the industry and congratulated me on the Titan role, and I’m incredibly grateful for that because they don’t necessarily need to do that, but you know it’s kind of them to do so and it’s supportive and I think that’s fantastic. That’s what I love most about this community.
As for fandom, I love going to cons and meeting fans. It’s fun because they really do love the projects you’ve been a part of. To this day I still meet people that have not seen REDLINE but when I open them up to it, when I say, “Oh no, you have to see this movie!” they go to the dealer’s hall and if the dealer’s hall actually does have REDLINE they will buy it and then the next morning they will come up to me at an autograph signing or a panel and they will say, “OMIGOD, I just saw REDLINE, it’s amazing!” And I love that, I love moments like that where you know, we self promote our shows, that’s one thing, but I think if we actually do enjoy the projects that we’ve been on that says a lot, and people have often enjoyed the shows that I’ve told them about even if they’re not mine.
So it’s fun meeting fans and a lot of the fans are incredibly supportive. There is a dark area when it comes to fandom and that’s either the dub haters or the sub haters — whatever, to each his own, whatever their preference is — but for the most part most of the fans that I have met have always been incredibly supportive and very nice, very friendly, and just a lot of fun to hang out with at cons.
Can you share any video game or anime related schedule when you have to do a recording?
Well, it depends on the role, how much time you have…let’s see…for REDLINE, for example, that’s only about a 90 minute film, and because my part (Boi-Boi) is relatively small, I think that was knocked out in one session, probably two hours, two and a half hours, something like that. Video games can be a bit more difficult, especially if it’s a fighting game or an RPG, you will be doing fighting, you will be screaming, you will be doing damage noises, anything like that. That can usually take up to, maybe four hours for one session and then the next session can be two. It really depends on the character and how many lines that character has or dialogue, so really there’s no definite answer, it varies all the time.
Unless we are given the material beforehand, we really don’t, or we’re really not able to. I was really lucky with Titan because the whole thing was on Netflix — legally! *laughs* — so I was able to check that out and to see the story and what happens with each of the characters and what Annie was like, her personality, but most of the time, unless the studio or client gives you some sort of preparation, you really don’t have that opportunity unless they give it to you beforehand so I have very rarely gotten anything in advance. I did get some info on Litchi Faye-Ling from BlazBlue in preparation and in advance, but that was the last time that I can honestly remember. Other than that, you really don’t find out anything until you go into the audition or until you’re sent an audition, or until you’re cast as a character and then you go into the session for the first time. So most of the time, you don’t really find out in advance unless it’s an audition of some sort.
Anime has been subject of criticism, particularly when it comes to fanservice and how it treats women. When you work on roles for anime does that affect whether you choose a role or not or you believe you haven’t had to worry about that?
For me personally, I’ve never had to worry about that. I’ve never been offended by fanservice, I’ve never been offended when a woman has a huge chest, I’ve never been offended when she may have…other bigger bodily functions…you know, whatever! I’ve never really paid attention to that honestly. When I get cast for a woman role that means that I’m good for it or that I’m good for the part, and that’s really all that I think about. I’ve never really gotten offended by anything. I mean I speak for myself of course, I can’t speak for the other actresses in the community, but I myself, I’ve never gotten offended. In fact, I felt very fortunate because all of the female characters that I’ve played have been incredibility strong and beautiful and sexy actually, and that, I don’t find anything bad in that at all. I don’t see any negativity in that. So I honestly can’t be offended by that.
As far as fanservice goes, I was in Ikki Tousen, and I played Chubou Sonken, and she is a very innocent character, so she didn’t have a lot of nudity scenes or any fanservicey scenes, but she was a part of fanservice scenes — again, that just did not affect me in any way, but to some other actress it may, I just would like to be considered open minded, and not only that, it really doesn’t affect me in any personal way.
Now I’m pretty sure you’ve heard from plenty of people of “Oh how do I get into the voice acting industry, what should I do–” so I’ll just ask this: If there is one thing a person can or should do to get into the industry as a voice actor, what is it?
Well first off I would say don’t limit yourself to just being a voice actor, that’s the first thing I would say. Don’t limit yourself and say, “I wanna be a voice actor for anime,” or, “I wanna be a voice actor for video games.” Yes, you can limit yourself, I’m not sure how far you’ll go. I would recommend the first thing that you do is take a theater class. Start training yourself in theater, start training yourself in improv, take voiceover workshops, because voice acting is a part of acting, and that’s something that people seem to forget, and some people actually do think that voice acting is simply just talking into a mic. It’s not a science, but at the same time it’s not 100% easy. That would be my first tip: to not limit yourself. Honestly, theater helps train so many actors for so many different things, and it helps you grow out of your little bubble, it helps you kind of…come out of your shell a bit, and theater really was the best thing that I could have done for myself as an actress because it really just trains you for everything. So take theater classes, improv classes, join your local community theater, either as a crew member or audition for it. If you don’t get cast in the show, see what you can do to help as a crew member because believe it or not, as a crew member you can still learn just as much, and then you can move on up, from being a crew member to going in front of the curtains or move on up behind the curtains, it doesn’t matter. It’s still experience and experience helps the most.
Final question: What are your plans for the rest of the year? Any upcoming anime/video game roles, cons you’re attending that you can share?
Well as for new roles, unfortunately I can’t talk about any of them yet, but there is a video game role coming up, I’m not sure when…I want to say June or July, I’m honestly not sure, but there is a video game role that I’m very excited to announce because I had a blast with this character. But honestly right now I’m still enjoying the fact that they just announced Annie, I’m still on that high, so to speak, so–*laughs* I’m still really feeling that and I’m very excited about that.
For anime cons, actually this weekend (note: it was this one, which passed), which is the 28-31st, I will be at Omni-Con, which is in Cookville, Tennessee. It’s a very small con, but I would really love to send love to it because it’s run by very nice people and it’s such a small con that deserves so much more love than it’s actually getting, so, if you’re in Nashville or Cookville or Knoxville — I don’t know how far Knoxville is from Cookville — but if you’re in the area, come on by, say hi, we’re gonna have fun.
There’s also Saboten Con that I will be attending, Go! Daiko-Con, that’s is the first weekend of August, and, if it’s not announced yet it will be so I apologize, I will be a guest at Animazement. So there’s a lot of cons coming up, like Anime Expo, you can probably guarantee that I will be there, I’m there every year, so I’m hoping we’ll have some Titan action going on there.
