Interview: Voice Actor Daniel Kevin Harrison (Voice of Gokudo)
In today's interview, I have successfully had gotten in contact with another voice actor! And it's been a while since I've interviewed one.
For those who don't know, last year, I interviewed voice actress Marcy Goldberg, who plays Daisy in the obscure Dragon Quest anime Dragon Quest: Abel Yuusha Densetsu. In the English version, it was known as Dragon Warrior and the dub sadly lasted 13 episodes. It's one of my favorite anime and to get in contact with Daisy's English voice has been amazing. It was my very first interview with a voice actor.
Today's voice actor is Daniel Kevin Harrison. If you have heard of the anime Gokudo the Adventurer and watched the English dub, you might know that he plays the main protagonist Gokudo Yuccot Kikansky. Gokudo is an amazing old anime that I recommend checking out and it's another one of my favorite anime. His other roles include Hiroshi Nakano in Gravitation, Don the Repairer in K.O. Beast, Seishinjia in Madara, and Muryou Subaru in Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars.
How did I manage to find Daniel? I had a hard time trying to see if he had any contact information but I nearly gave up. However, I had some luck as I found him on a website: voices.com. I made an account since you need one to message people and waited. I thought: if he doesn't reply, I might just give up and deactivate my account. But I was happy when he replied on 9/23! He was happy to do the interview with me on the site.
Enjoy! It's pretty short.
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Me: How did your voice acting career start?
Daniel: Heh. I wouldn't call it a career, but…
I was working on a movie when one day a friend of the director showed up. The man's name was Joe Digiorgi and he ran a sound studio in New York which, according to some people on set, did dubs for Anime titles. I had NO idea what Anime was, all I knew was that Joe 'made cartoons' and I had three young sons who would be VERY impressed if they heard Dad's voice in one. Every time Joe would come to the set, I would make a point of physically putting him on the ground, sitting on his chest, and yelling, 'I have children who want to hear me in cartoons Joe! Hire me! Hire me!'
This went on for the length of the shoot, and after we had wrapped, Joe got in touch with me and asked if I would be interested in voicing this character Gokudo. I was very interested, so I went down to New York, got in the booth and started. It was a gloriously fun experience and Joe hired me for several titles after that.
Me: That’s awesome! Do you have any memories working with the cast of Gokudo or playing the character?
Daniel: Tons! I have told these stories so many times at cons..and I love them all!
Bill Timoney was the director of Gokudo, and was really the only other person (beside Joe and a couple of other engineers) that I interacted with. When you do a dub, generally you come in and work for as long as it takes to dub in all your lines. Unless you are a major character, you could be done in as little as a couple of hours. The cast doesn't all congregate and work together, it's just one person in the sound booth. Because I had so many lines in Gokudo, it took me several eight hour sessions to get all my lines in, maybe five or six days all together.
When we first started, it was important to find Gokudo's voice. Joe, Bill, a soundboard engineer and I were sitting at a table in the studio, trying to come up with one and were getting nowhere. It got to be lunchtime and Joe said that we should call in takeout order from this great deli nearby. We each said what we'd like, and my order was a roast beef with cheddar cheese on wheat bread. When Joe called it in, the deli said that they didn't have roast beef, and asked if I'd like something else. Well, I had never heard of a deli that didn't have roast beef sandwiches, and I was hungry and upset. 'No roast beef!!??' I said (loudly). 'What kind of a shitty sandwich shop doesn't have roast beef!!??' Bill Timoney spun around in his chair, pointed at me and said, 'THAT is Gokudo's voice! He is pissed off because he wants a roast beef sandwich and the deli doesn't have them! THAT is the voice I want you to use!!' So, from then on, whenever I wanted to get into character, I would say, 'No roast beef??!!' just as I had said it that day, and I would be back into Gokudo's head.
The dubs were released as we finished them, not all at once, and Joe would give out a few copies as they became available, so I was able to give them to my boys and let them watch them while I was still in the process of dubbing the later episodes. They loved them and would invite their friends over to watch. For a while, I was the neighborhood rockstar.
Me: Wow! That's hilarious and awesome, Daniel! My next question for you: is doing voice acting a lot of work for you? Or is it simple and easy?
Daniel: It was never hard, but I took it very seriously, so I wouldn't call it simple and easy. It was a performance, not just a reading, so it took effort and focus.
Me: Any fun memories at a convention? Have you ever gotten any gifts from fans?
Daniel: I have some beautiful artwork from fans and I made a lot of friends at the cons. Occasionally I would bring one of my kids or my wife and we'd have a fabulous weekend somewhere while I got to feel like a celebrity for a few days. I really loved the inclusive vibe and culture of acceptance at the cons, I've never experienced that anywhere else. PortCon in Maine was my first, and I think I went there for 5 or 6 years. Julie and her crew ran a fabulous event.
The most surreal con experience was in New York. We were having a cast-wide panel for Gravitation in a ballroom that held hundreds of people. The show was going to be released in six months or so, but that ballroom was FULL, and the first seven or eight rows on both sides of the center aisle were taken by cosplayers. The whole place screamed every time one of us said anything! It was like being in the Beatles. Just crazy.
Me: That's so awesome! Speaking of beautiful artwork, I'm an artist myself and I would love to draw you Gokudo! Although on this site [talking about voices.com], I can't send images sadly. Do you still continue to do voice act to this day for other projects? And do you still appear at conventions?
Daniel: I haven't voiced any anime for a while (years) now, nor have I gone to a con in over a decade. I recently retired from my work, and would love to get back into acting, but I have a few things to do first…perhaps then I will start to explore old contacts and see what is what.
Me: If Gokudo ever had a sequel or made a return, would you return to do the voice of him?
Daniel: Absolutely!
Me: Yeah!!! Do you have any advice for me as a beginner voice actress and for those who want to start voice acting?
Daniel: Read out loud for at least 1/2 an hour every day, and record it. Play it back and listen. Hear if your voice is interesting, or simply a droning monotone. Work on putting inflection and an interesting quality in your voice. Go to a con and sit in on panels with VAs and ask good, intelligent questions, not typical fan questions. Ask about their work, their process; be informed about their body of work and let them know that. They will appreciate the genuineness of your interest and may be approachable after the panel to talk one on one. Research the studios in your area, see when they have auditions or casting calls.
Me: Only two more questions left. Do you have any social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)?
Daniel: I'm on Facebook, but not as an actor. Not on Twitter or Instagram.
Me: And finally, do you have any questions for me?
Daniel: No, but I wish you well! It was a pleasure talking with you.
Me: Yeah! Thank you so much, Daniel!
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