Hello, everyone! Deeman here, and I have some exciting information to present you with. KHInsider has just recently interviewed a voice actor for the Kingdom Hearts series. How enthralling and engaging it was to be able to communicate with this lovely person. Her name is Naia Kelly, the voice actor for Jane Porter in the first Kingdom Hearts game. For those of you who forgot who Jane Porter is, Jane is the woman professor in Tarzan's world, studying the apes there. Willingly, Naia has answered my list of six questions. This is truly a lovely read. Make sure to say what you think of it after reading the interview!
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Deeman: What was it like to play as Jane Porter in Kingdom Hearts, a game now known to all?
Naia: I have first admit that I had no clue that it was a game "known to all". I didn't realize that fact until last year. I was invited to be a guest speaker at a local Los Angeles elementary school for Career Day and went there totally in the dark about the success of this game. I realized the level to which the kids, and adults, love this game at lunch time when I was asked if I would sign some autographs and take pictures. I said, "Sure, no problem." Well, for anyone who doesn't know, voice over artists are not usually asked to do that... maybe make a phone call on a birthday for someone at the Make A Wish Foundation or something like that but, nothing like this. I'm not shy, but when I was swarmed by 100+ kids and they had to call security because things were starting to get out of hand, it was only then that I realized the immense popularity of KH. All ended up well and I was asked to come back again next year as the kids were really into it and I had put together a presentation that allowed them to try to do what I do.
To say that working on KH was one of the highlights of my career would be an understatement. It was a great experience all the way around. I came into the recording studio and only knew that Square Soft was another big video game company out of Japan. I had done a project earlier for Sony PS and knew who they were, but didn't even realize what I was about to do. Actually, and you're going to laugh, I don't play video games very much, OK, hardly ever. Really. I don't even watch t.v.... honest! And... I hadn't played FF before but had heard it was major. Nope, I'm really not kidding. No one wants to believe me on this, but I can assure you that if I were forced to play a video game to save my life right now, I'd be in some serious trouble! Actually, I'm really glad I hadn't really understood the popularity because I might have been nervous! These were the "biggest of the big" in the video gaming biz and I had no clue! Hahahah! Really, I'm not joking. I guess seeing the identical black BMW SUV's lined up in the parking lot should have given it away to me, duh, but I was just focused on doing my absolute best.
We were all introduced to each other and led back to the studio and I realized that it might go a little longer than I'd thought because they spoke some English and my Japanese consisted of "Konichiwa", (hello) and "Kampai!", (cheers!), which wasn't too much help
. It all worked out just fine though. The actual head of Square Soft, who was only in his 20's at the time, came with about 7 or 8 people with him. Everyone was really nice. I'm assuming the entourage were the designers, project managers, animators and so on. Apparently they had done a version in Japanese first and so I was then told that I had to do something a bit tricky. I had to create the voice, facial expressions and inflections of the character to the base animation that already existed.One man began setting up a camera to take video of my face so that they could make the expressions look even more human and match my lips for the English translation. They didn't tell me there would be a camera, but I've had a good bit of on camera training so it didn't bother me at all. Then there was a little problem... I saw him looking into the video camera and then up at me and then back into the camera and he started to look worried Apparently the lighting in the booth was a bit too dim for the video camera because it's hard to read so many lines for that long of a period of time with really bright lights in your eyes. The lights in the booth pointed down at the paper, not right into my face like a video camera's lights do. They couldn't see my lips enough. They were all wondering how to fix it... well, I said, "Wait, I think I know! Red lipstick? Would that work?" I quickly pulled out a tube of Christian Dior's red and saw big smiles were everywhere. Well then, problem solved! My Grandma always told me to keep a little red lipstick in my purse because you never know when you're going to need some! Hahahah! How true! Now we were ready to record.
First of all, I have to say that the animation I saw at that time was... great. I noticed that right off the bat. I thought to myself how far video games had come from Atari and Pac Man days... not that they're not classics, because they are, but you know what I mean. As a matter of fact, I got a a little chill down my spine. The session went really smooth and afterwards they were all smiling and shaking hands and bowing and so I knew they were really excited about what we just did. They directed me perfectly throughout the session. They knew enough English to get their point across and were able to answer any questions I had... I wish I could say the same for my Japanese! Just as we were about to leave, they all pulled out these books that Disney Character Voices had printed up especially for the KH project and my picture was in it, to my surprise. They all asked me to sign it and it and I did so, gladly. I didn't even know they had a book with me in it! The Magical World of Disney is an understatement for sure because you never know what they're going to be up to next. Certainly, I would rate this as one of the best experiences of my career, if not the best.
Deeman: Were there any parts of the dialogue that did not make it to the finale game?
Naia: I believe that all of it made the game but will try and check that out with the folks at Disney. [DEEMAN NOTE: She contacted Disney, but they were unable to give her any information regarding the next KH title] Also, I understand that there is talk of the next KH going onto the hand held. I will try to find out. You never know if the Voice Over department will know something like that but it can't hurt to ask.
Deeman: How was the atmosphere of the work place? Was it an enjoyable experience?
Naia: As I described above, the atmosphere was nice. The Square Soft team looked a bit tired when we started but got their second wind by the end. It was a long plane ride for them to come from Japan to LA and I'm sure I wasn't their only session. There were quite a few Disney characters in KH so I'm sure they'd been at it for a day or two before they were in session with me, not to mention the plethora of other meetings they must've had to schedule while being in LA. Great experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat!
Deeman: How long would you estimate it took to record of the lines of dialogue for that part of the game?
Naia: I would say it took about an hour and a half, give or take. When you get into the booth and put the earphones on, it is like you enter another world. I'm generally quite fast at laying down good tracks but it took a little longer because of having to watch the animation 3 or 4 times before recording because they needed me to match everything up as close as possible to what they had already laid down in the animation. The fact that when I do the voice of Jane, my face actually takes the shape of how the character was drawn helps. They told me that the first day I worked with them at Disney some 9 years ago. So I'm really glad it went as quickly as it did, and I'm sure the Square Soft team felt the same way!
Deeman: What does it feel like to hear your voice in a game?
Naia: Ummm.. it's kind of strange, actually. Hahahah! I just laugh because I know what I was thinking at the time to get myself to sound that way! And nope, I won't divulge that secret!!! HAHAH!
Deeman: During the time you were recording the dialogue, did you think that the game become a world-wide hit? If you weren't sure, what are you thoughts now considering the game has become so popular?
Naia: I knew it would be successful when I felt that chill go down my spine. I thought, "Gee, I bet this is going to be a BIG one!" It was. Only I didn't realize it until years later! Isn't that a riot? I know, you all can't understand how someone who does what I do is so oblivious to the gaming world... well, maybe that is the biggest plus to my being able to do it? I don't know. All I know is that somehow I've been blessed with working with simply fabulous people on incredible projects, so I'm just going to stick with what's worked up 'til now
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So, what do you guys think? Pretty awesome, huh? It was a beautiful experience.
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