At 2003's AnimeIowa convention, our own Nathan Thorell had the opportunity to interview Greg Ayres, the up-and-coming voice talent from the Houston, TX talent pool. You may have heard Greg in recent hit series' such as Saiyuki, Full Metal Panic and Angelic Layer. Here, then, is the first in our series of interviews with the Squeaky Sensation himself, Greg Ayres-- as conducted by Nathan Thorell.
It was a very warm afternoon in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on a Saturday afternoon. After setting up the equipment, I found myself sitting next to Greg Ayres, rising star of Industrial Smoke & Mirrors dubs, who you may have heard as Son Goku in Saiyuki, Yuya Asou in Super GALS!, Mannen in Pretear, and (coming soon) Kaworu in the Director's Cut episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Nathan Thorell (NT): So, Greg, how are you enjoying Anime Iowa so far?
Greg Ayres: I’m digging it. I’m having a great time! It’s a smaller con and I much prefer small cons to big cons. Most of my big con experiences have been pretty bad, so far. My small con experiences have been awesome.
NT: And, your panel went over very well with Rob Mungle and Jay Hickman this morning.
Greg: It was great! I was really shocked. It was Rob and Jay’s very first convention and they took to like a duck to water. We got a lot of really good questions, but it was really, really early in the morning though; so, when we were asked to do voices, we all kind of had to struggle a little bit.
NT: So how did you get your start working for ADV Films?
Greg: Chris Patton and I were working on a stage production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show together, and (ADV was) casting Spriggan and needed to find somebody who sounded young and could record for a long time. I think (Chris) gave them my name and Steven Foster called me and couldn’t believe I sounded as young as I did. I made it up until the last round of Spriggan auditions and I didn’t get the part. I auditioned for another year until I got anything and Steven really loved my voice. He said he filed my voice under the “freak” category and he kept saying, “Oh, I always call you when I have a fun role,” and eventually he got me a bit part in Steel Angel Kurumi.
When that was over, I would’ve been happy if that was the only show I ever did just to say I was in a series. But then, I came back and did another character (Mikhail) in the series where I shared a role with Claudia Black, which was great. Steven knew I was an anime fan from back in the eighties, so he knew I was pretty stoked about it. As soon as Kurumi was over, I auditioned for and landed the role of Son Goku in Saiyuki, then Full Metal Panic, and NeoRanga and it just seemed to kind of “snowball” from there.
NT: So you must’ve started around three years ago, then?
Greg: Auditioning, yeah, about three years ago. I didn’t start recording until a year later, but I’m kind of glad. I think I got my first role right in time, because I was doing a lot of stage work and I think that really got me ready for my work in the booth. I don’t think I would’ve been really ready prior to that.
NT: And the important question is whom did you play in Rocky Horror?
Greg: (Laughs) You can see the pictures on my website! I played Frank-N-Furter, which is really kind of a funny story, because I was in 6 and a half-inch platform heels and Chris Patton and I have known each other since we were teenagers, and he’s always been taller than me, even when we were shorter. And so, when we started doing Rocky Horror, the first time we had a dress rehearsal, I was staring him eye-to-eye. It was a pretty creepy experience. He was like, “Oh my God, you’re the same height as me!” I was like, “That tells you how tall these shoes are.”
NT: So, this summer, starting with A-Kon, you went on your convention summer tour. How did that go?
Greg: It’s amazing! Because, being a fan, I’m used to cons, but not the guest treatment, so, it’s pretty wild to be flown out to a different state and people, you know, being excited to meet you, just excited to talk to you, as opposed to finding two people to run around a con with all weekend. It’s been wild just going in and meeting people. Meeting industry people specifically has been my favorite thing, but I just love cons in general, so I’ve been stoked this whole time.
NT: I suppose you get to talk to other voice actors who aren’t from Houston and see how they do things, as well.
Greg: Even the Japanese voice actors.
NT: That’s true. There was Maya Okamoto at Anime Central, for example.
Greg: Maya! Who is now my favorite seiyuu (Japanese voice actor). She’s just so great. Then there are the different character designers and Yoko Ishida (Para Para style Japanese singer), although I didn’t talk to her. But, it’s just been fun in general. I’ve been having a blast from the time I get there until the time I leave.
NT: But you’ve been going to conventions before being a voice actor?
Greg: Yep! My first long-distance travel to a con, I went to Animazement in 2000 to hear Rachael Lillis sing the Jigglypuff song. I went for other reasons, too; I have friends that live in Raleigh, North Carolina, but, I was planning a trip to North Carolina and there was a con, Animazement, that had just announced it’s guest lineup, and my friends like, “Oh my God! You gotta come. Jigglypuff’s going to be here!” So it was kind of a joke that I was coming to North Carolina to hear Jigglypuff sing. So, I have a lot of fun at cons.
NT: That’s definitely a cool first long-distance convention.
Greg: (Laughs) Yeah! And Houston, believe it or not, does not have its own con. We do have our first con (Oni-con) coming up next year, so I’m looking forward to that.
NT: Do you have any crazy fan stories you can tell from conventions?
Greg: Yes. I have some weird AOL Instant Messenger stories, but my favorite con story... Anime Mid Atlantic was my first con to go to by myself, technically. I shouldn’t say by myself, Tiffany (Grant) was there, but Monica and Chris weren’t with me, so I was kind of a fish out of water. It was cool, because I got to really get to know Tiffany a lot better. It’s also my hometown, so I had a lot of relatives stopping by and things like that. And, Sunday morning, after a pretty wild Saturday night after the dance and having the fire alarm pulled at two in the morning and standing out in front of the hotel for an hour, I had a relative come over and wake me up and we had lunch together and I was just in my room and pretty scraggy looking. Well, as they left they had only been out the door for a few seconds, you know, I stood at the door and talked to them for a few seconds before they left. I guess someone in the hall heard my voice and recognized it, and there was a knock on the door fifteen seconds after they left. My first thought was that they forgot their keys and when I opened the door in my boxer shorts, and tank top, and my purple hair standing on end and a cigarette in my mouth, a little girl was standing there with a flash camera and... captured probably the most frightening picture of me ever taken. I made her erase the picture and I told her that I never refuse a picture and if she would meet me downstairs I would be glad to take a picture.
Please keep checking back for part two of our interview with Greg Ayres in which he discusses his work on Aura Battler Dunbine and one of his most popular shows to date, Saiyuki.