Soaps, Indies, JRPGs and Voice Over Surprises – Chris Mayek

This guy is amazing. Check it out:

Transcription

Chris Mayek: Nice to meet you.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah you too, thanks for willing to do this. I’m doing it because I usually don’t do a lot of these, but I’m doing it because I get your requests and then my first thing is I usually go do they have, or my manager will go look like the viewership, if they’ve got like you know over, I don’t know if it’s like a hundred thousand or something like that, then we’ll be like okay that’s good for like you know promotion and stuff like that. And I looked at your account, I’m like going, and at first I’ve been like oh it’s another, cause you get a lot of them from from young fans and stuff like that, I’m like going alright yeah, and then I started looking at your interviews and I’m like going what the fuck, can I swear by the way?
Chris Mayek: Yeah it’s fine.
D.C. Douglas: I’m like what the fuck going on interviewed and then I’m like this is a tenacious fuck and like I’m really it’s super impressive, and by the end of like scrolling through and checking out some of your interviews I’m like going okay first off we gotta get you better lighting, I wanna brand you, I wanna get the logo, I wanna thank you for landing really good interviews and stuff and so you know I don’t know what your future end goal is but you could definitely you know you’ve got the knack for it apparently so…
Chris Mayek: Thanks yeah. So I did want to start from, was it the way that you got into SAG was being in “Murder by Midnight“?
D.C. Douglas: Oh wow, okay that’s right, really fascinating research stuff. “Murder by Midnight” I think, “Murder by Midnight” is actually, it was, I remember there was a couple of them, there were dinner theater shows that we did on Sunset Boulevard. Earl Boen who you guys might know from “Terminator”, he was the therapist like the first three “Terminator” movies and he and his wife used to do this dinner murder mystery thing and so I played Christina Cross which was a murderer in drag and so we had, we sang different songs from like the 40s and we then we would sit down and have parts for a meal and then every part of the story would roll out and all that and by the end it was revealed, it was very high camp and stuff like that, it was super fun, very first gig I got at 19. But no that was a completely non-union experience altogether. I got my SAG card, well I became SAG eligible by doing a commercial called for Roy Rogers.
Chris Mayek: Yeah originally I thought I was going to get my SAG card because I had auditioned for a show on the Playboy Channel?
D.C. Douglas: It was supposed to be like the Playboy Channel’s version of “The Twilight Zone” and I, even though I was 19 I had a, this I still had a low voice and I was 6’2″ and but I auditioned for the role of a 16 year old who’s whose sister’s Barbie doll comes to life when she’s not around and he falls in love with the Barbie doll and like he loses his virginity to the Barbie doll and yeah it was very, it was a twisted little “Twilight Zone” thing but I and it was union though and I thought, I had two callbacks for and the second callback the director’s like okay I think we can actually build the sets larger around you so that you look shorter, seemed real exciting at the time but I’m pretty sure when I left the producer said no we can’t do that and he’s too fucking tall. So my yeah, so Roy Rogers was how I got my SAG card.
Chris Mayek: Someone being in the “Weird Al TV Show” before shortly after that?
D.C. Douglas: That was a friend of mine, Diane de Rosario somehow knew “Weird Al” and he was taking over MTV for like a day and said, because we were in an improv group together and so she said come out and play this, play one of these characters. So yeah but and that was non-union.
Chris Mayek: What about with “Future Force”?
D.C. Douglas: Back off dude!
Chris Mayek: Oh what about “Future Force”?
D.C. Douglas: Is it “Future Force”? Well so that, oh but that was before my SAG card, that was a non-union thing. I joined, let’s see I made, I shot it all in one day in San Bernardino and I swear to drive out there, spend the night, I spent the night sharing the room with the DP and then it was one day they shot all my stuff even though I’m the freaking hero of that movie and I got, I didn’t get to meet any of the other actors because they were all on video screens and that was a very, I learned a lot doing that, I got paid 60 bucks. So that was first film.
Chris Mayek: So what was the like first major TV series that you worked on?
D.C. Douglas: TV series, well I guess the first, the first big one and when I say big like for me it’d be like recognizable credit and all that, I’ve had a very kind of weird career. I’ve never, I never like attained the the kind of, how I envisioned my, what my career would be when I moved to LA is not the career I ended up having, but I don’t regret it at all, it’s been, it’s been an interesting journey. TV first recognizable credit really would have been “Coach”, which was a big ABC, there we go, top 10 every week and it was directed by Tony Dow from “Leave It to Beaver” and I had, supposed to be this drama kid who comes in and it’s supposed to be like from “A Streetcar Named Desire”, Marlon Brando where he comes in and it’s like that “Stella!” and he’s supposed to yell her name out. I had never seen “A Streetcar Named Desire”, I had no idea that’s what it was alluding to and so I was just making up some weird party guy and it obviously didn’t work when we were rehearsing and the director said get together like, it was such a small part they didn’t really give a shit about me but he’s like get together with her and work out the that bit and I didn’t know what that meant, I was gonna approach the series regular and go could you help us, me work on this bit, so but they ended up cutting it anyway because they didn’t, which they do in TV like a little stuff that’s not plot specific they just end up deleting, so I had like three lines that they cut from the show so you see me kneel down at a fireplace.
Chris Mayek: I know you fell in the soap opera like around that same time?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah yeah I guess, the soap operas are kind of like like little paychecks you get throughout your career. They don’t happen as much now sadly I think it was like “Days of Our Lives” or, I get them all confused, the names kind of run together, the longest one I did was or the more, the most games they ever got in a soap would have been “The Bold and the Beautiful” I think. Oh no I had a run on, oh I forget the name of it actually, I got to hold a gun and everything and then I get arrested at the end of the arc, that was that was years later I don’t know, but yeah so the soaps, because there’s, there were three major soaps that shot around here and then like then “Passions” was there for a little bit and “Santa Barbara” which didn’t last long and yeah so this is the kind of gig that you get, you get a day on a soap here or there or whatever, you make some some money and nobody cared that you were on the soap except for you know certain you know family members but like career-wise it didn’t help like, it went into the next audition you know I just did “The Bold and the Beautiful” and like nobody cared so.
Chris Mayek: Well everybody I’ve talked to so far who’s been on soap operas or at least daytime soaps, that it was like way more difficult to get used to.
D.C. Douglas: You know what I think if you don’t have a theater background it might be difficult but, well no way actually yeah because it’s, it moves very fast and they change the dialogue as they go plus the other actors are, no one’s really verbatim on it because they have so much to learn and it actually got crazier in the last 10 years, I haven’t done a soap now in probably about six years, but the last couple times they did it because they were losing so much viewership and their production budgets were cut way back, they were doing, they used to shoot year round and now they shoot shoot in like three week increments and then they’d be off for six weeks and three weeks, so they were like doing two or three episodes a day which really confused like the regulars because they didn’t know what scene am I doing and what episode where in the arc is this part happening, it was, it got really hard for them but for me I guess also I guess because I did some sitcoms if you do sitcoms then you go to soaps it’s I think easier as well because of that, there’s a live component and just moving quick on your feet, no it was never difficult for me, I kind of, to me if anything was like a little easier because you’re not waiting around in between takes, no one’s being super precious, you’re already lit so that’s like the theater part of it, you just walk on and start acting.
Chris Mayek: Yeah I think it’s also because it’s multi-camera, they’re getting all the angles, there’s no you like you do it once or twice and they move on, you’re like going did we get it and of course they got it from every single angle and all of that.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah but there’s a little bit of a higher pressure because they’re moving so fast but I like that so.
Chris Mayek: Okay and I would guess that like in terms of your early TV work that being on “Boston Common” would be the best experience?
D.C. Douglas: That would be, the best is hard, no no the best experiences would have been all the weird freaking indies that I did but the, but “Boston Common” was, it was the best of times it was the worst of times, no it was, it was, I was like the first time I ever got cast in a recurring role and I wanted, my whole thing was like I wanted to become a series regular on some show that would run for three years and I’d make and then get residuals for life and I could just go off and do movies and things like that and that would be my career and of course it never happened, by the time I did get a series in a card as a cartoon as a voiceover the the money and residuals were not the same as they were if you got a show back in the 80s. It was a recurring so I did the pilot and then I like bought them at the end of the week I’d buy like a gift or something for the producers, Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, and the creators producers and I’m hoping that I ingratiated myself because this is what I would do you know with casting people and all that kind of thing that I appreciated myself enough that they might have me back, well then they did when they came back and so I was like really like it worked but then I’m like oh shit I gotta do another gift at the end of this week and so I have to keep thinking of gifts to give them. They were clever interesting gifts about based like around college stuff like being a student, one one week I bought them all boxes of number two pencils because I knew that I heard in the writer’s room they all used pencils so there were number two pencils and on it said how many classes can DC take, just trying to get my character to come back and they ended up changing the character to my name which was sweet so, but I did like it’s 10 or 11 episodes all together and then foolishly spent a lot of that money that I made thinking oh I’ll get residuals but it reruns in the summer and then they cancel it and didn’t rerun it in the summer and I never got those residuals. There’s something about sitcom sets that I’ve never been like like super confident when I’m on set like I know my thing but otherwise as far as like talking to other people I, I had that weird self-esteem thing that I didn’t that I didn’t deserve to be where I was so I didn’t want to bother anybody for fear that they would find out and kick me off the show, irrational but that’s like the fear of a young actor but that’s what I was trying to say about “Boston Common” is even though it was great that I did 11 episodes even though I got to know these people I was scared every week that I hope they like me enough to bring me back so I was never just enjoying that week and being in the moment for that week starting to get to that place where it’s like this is a job kind of thing and it’s not good to say but it’s true.
Chris Mayek: And what is the case where you’ve been like the most starstruck by who you’ve worked with? Star…
D.C. Douglas: Oh, “Diagnosis Murder” with Dick Van Dyke, you know because I grew up with him, he was like and and he was super nice even then you know I mean he’s like 90 something now and so then I guess he was in his 70s but he was like vigorous and doing push-ups between takes and things like that and just super friendly and we, I’m, I get to work with him a lot because it took place in a plane and so the, the set was literally just the capsule of this plane so we’d be between tanks and there was nowhere to go but just to stand there and chat with each other until the next, they’re ready for the next take and so that was neat and I, I held off for half a week before I finally gushed and said how much I, you know I was a fan and all that, I had to do it during, between one of the takes with him so that would be the on a job the most starstruck, personally the most starstruck would be I met Vincent Price at a post office and that was starstruck and I met Tim Curry which would be the, the one because when I, when I knew that I wanted to be an actor when I was a kid, I thought I always wanted to have like Tim Curry’s career and then oddly telling him that in person, I met him at the art play, I told him that in person and then and he laughed and he goes and he started talking about his career and I realized that he wasn’t satisfied with his career, I’m like oh Jesus, no matter what level you get at, you’re never going to be satisfied and…
Chris Mayek: With all the TV shows that you’ve worked on too, has it mostly been a positive experience for you?
D.C. Douglas: I would, yeah the only times that it’s not necessarily been fully positive is because I wasn’t secure in myself because I was fearful of this or that and just couldn’t fully relax. I had one experience where the set was just not a happy set, but I was old enough, because like I said my early, a lot of the first what 20 years of it, I, I think I’ve always had that insecure thing but like the last, last 15 years I’ve been kind of like I don’t really give a fuck, and so at the point I didn’t really give a fuck because it was so funny, it was, I can see the show, some fear, who’s the one that had Anthony LaPaglia on it?
Chris Mayek: Oh “Without a Trace”, you don’t know do you?
D.C. Douglas: I don’t either apparently so I was in the makeup chair and the makeup guy was going on about how the other actress wanted him fired, it was “Without a Trace”, I wanted to get him fired and all that and then Anthony stood up but like there was, everyone was like fighting each other so immediately I got the put into my ear that everybody did not like each other, this was I think the last season as well for them, and the one of the producers was also directing this episode so they said okay you guys are, meet over on this set, the director’s gonna come in and talk about the scene so we get in costume, we go there, I’m sitting down at the table and the director comes in, he looks like a very angry Santa Claus and he sits down and he looks up at us he looks around he’s like who do you play and I go I’m so and so the, the husband and he’s like god damn it, in that moment I’m like oh and I go did they cast the wrong actor because to me at that point this is like super funny, if they cast the wrong actor this would be really funny and he’s like no no you’re just, you’re not supposed to be in a sweater you need to be in a suit, I’m like all right and like so he’s mad about something with wardrobe whatever but like like a completely irrational reaction, it’s like you’re not shooting for another 20 minutes I can easily put on another outfit but it was like, that’s, that was like the ickiest set that I was on just as far as attitude and people with the way everyone was behaving with each other, but it didn’t, but I was at the age where it didn’t make me any like, I was still finding my job because yeah I’d finally gotten over being so insecure about that stuff.
Chris Mayek: And so when voiceover came into play for you, did you kind of prefer that more than on camera?
D.C. Douglas: I love the, because in voiceover there’s actually several different kinds of careers, so commercial with voiceovers, I love going in and working for you know an hour and then getting paid a butt load of money repeatedly, that’s super nice and it’s yes it’s drawing on my acting abilities and the stuff that I studied and all of those years of experience it draws in all of that but I don’t look, but it doesn’t also feel like it, it, it just feels, it feels sort of easy, for the money that I’m getting it’s all out of whack, out of proportion, but I don’t enjoy it more. When it comes down to like you know what feed your soul kind of thing, I, I’ve had so many different examples so for instance recently in July I was doing a film in Connecticut and I was, it was a, I’m fine course so I did union and non-union, it was a non-film I was getting you know I think three thousand a week and I was there for two weeks, I was making six thousand dollars, on my day off I had a voiceover session for three commercials that I needed to go record and they booked a studio, I went into the studio, within an hour I knocked them all out and it was like see you later and in that hour I made more than I was, I made twice as much as I was making for the two weeks that I was there, yet like did I enjoy my support no I, I like I, I don’t mind you know especially if it’s a friend’s film I don’t, I’ll work for free on their film because it’s, I enjoy acting with my eyes, my body, my face, all of that, always far more than I do behind a microphone. I appreciate the artistry that goes into being behind a mic for for gigs and things but it’s never, I like the full-on experience of being on a set and all of that.
Chris Mayek: I would, with like one of the first major voice-over jobs you got was being the announcer on “Young Hercules”, I like this is kind of like has he done his homework?
D.C. Douglas: It’s really impressive that you’re that, all these questions that you ask. The would that have been, well definitely the the first one that anyone would even know about, that was a weirdo, they, it was, they, I auditioned, I went into the producer’s office on Paramount and he had a tape recorder and I basically hit record and I’m standing over his desk and I just had to like do it, it was so weird and I booked it for some weird reason but they reported in LA, they had to record it in Vancouver so they flew me first class to Vancouver, the next morning did the voiceover and then they flew me back, it was the weirdest so, but it was the first, I mean I had done a lot of other voiceover things before then like for 1-900 lines, some like promos for trailer, they used to do a lot of movie trailers back then, they don’t, they rarely use voice and trailers now, but I did a lot of those but they were for like really like C-level kind of films you’d never like, if you were watching a videotape, a video tape at home at the beginning of the the tape before you got to your movie there’d be the previews of all the other things you could rent at that store and but they all had these, they’re all cheesy films with cheesy voiceovers and so I did a lot of those, for a couple companies they paid like 75 dollars a pop kind of thing, they were really really cheap stuff, but yeah so I had been basically doing a little voiceovers here there throughout the 90s, I didn’t get an agent until like 2000 or so, 2001 I think I mean then literally that changed everything, within two years I had a home studio and and I was making all my money from, I was making, I was able to pay all my bills from voice over money so I quit, I didn’t have a survival job starting from then, so I’ve only been making all of my income from acting related stops since 2002, so for the first 15 I was like shit.
Chris Mayek: Did you get into an anime sort of early on too after that?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah you know what’s interesting is that it, I accidentally got it into it because I didn’t realize, I didn’t even know what anime was in the late thoughts I guess, I mean excuse me the late 90s for early aunts. Richard Epcar, really very nice guy, was directing some show I got in it, I thought it was like, I didn’t know if I was doing a movie or what but I know that this session went on and I had line after long after line and he had me back like three days in a row and then a year later they called, they said we’re ready for season two and I’m like season two, and I go I was a voice on a whole like a season of a show, I didn’t because it’s, it’s anime non-union, it anime pays the least amount of money of all the voiceovers you can do yeah, and and at the time I had, when they called back at that point I was just starting my home studio, I was you know, I was going and doing movie trailers for you know two hundred dollars a pop and I’m like or for little commercials and things like that and I’m like going I’m not going to come in for, I think at the time it was like 50 an hour or something and I go I’m not going to come in and do that, I’m sorry, and they were super pisses before I knew who they were but this is also before I knew about conventions and I don’t think actually there were a lot of anime conventions then, flash forward to 2010, I’m at a convention for some video games I’ve done and there’s all these anime voice actors and I’m like how come I haven’t done a lot of anime, I’m like oh that’s why I remember so I reached out to people and I said I was mistaken, I would love to come and do some at that point they raised the rates as well so. So I really the anime, it’s kind of reverse of a lot of voice actors, anime was one of the last things they started to get into voice server wise and only truly because of the convention because the other voiceover you’ll get residuals where you get paid handsomely, anime you don’t get paid handsomely but you could do the conventions which means you get to travel and you’re you’ve got an appearance fee you sell pictures, there’s a whole other supplementary income stream from that kind of thing and so I thought well then now it’s worth it, plus you still get to act you know which is nice and I’ve had some really fun roles so I’ve appreciated it. I landed “Transformers Rescue Bots” which was the first like, that was my first series and also I think it might have been my second time, god maybe my first time, I can’t think of any of the cartoons I did before then if I did, they were like little tiny weird projects here or there that no one cared about so I think “Transformers” was my first big original animation I ended up doing as, after that I did like 10 episodes or more I think on “Regular Show” which was so fun, sadly it’s last year, and but yeah right “Transformers Rescue Bots” was, is the longest running or first run Transformer show cartoon and that was kind of like 100 and something episodes and so that was kind of cool. I’m actually, I just finally booked my second series regular role on a cartoon but I can’t say what it is yet, but it’s gonna be big. I mean the role is something that I could do in my sleep kind of thing, I don’t mean that badly, it’s just it’s an easy, it’s an easy role, but the cartoon itself is gorgeous and I’m so excited to be a part of it.
Chris Mayek: And what was your, what was your experience of being on “Family Guy” then?
D.C. Douglas: That’s weird, you know it’s part of it is loaded because of everything about who he is and he’s very very particular to the point of sometimes you kind of wish you were a mind reader because if you don’t get the exact nuance that he wants, and this is for the little things, so I because I auditioned a couple times for “Family Guy” and each time it was always such an odd experience, I felt like, I felt like I think also it was one of the few times I psyched myself out as well, so there was a line for a “Star Wars” thing spoof they were doing, it was just one line of one cara, of a meaningless character and apparently I was the third voice actor they had in to audition for it and it’s one line and it’s like at one point I’m like you can give me a line reading and it gives me a line reading and I do it and I still don’t book it and I’m like to this day I have no idea what he was not getting, what he was not hearing, it was so specific what he needed, literally three voice actors, professional voice actors, and none of us could do the one line in that cartoon, so that’s so, it was always nerve-wracking to go and audition for him and the one that I ended up do, I did get was that Superman line that did pain isolate them to think of it for one line but yeah so I always need to, you know the stupid thing, I’ll tell you the side story so the stupid thing is because I’m not up on culture, I’m not up on who’s famous and I’m sitting in the waiting room for us to go into for me, because they take you individually for these little things, and I was waiting to go in is it to record my life it must have been not to audition my spin to record but I’m sitting there and there’s some other actors that are sitting in this little nice comfy waiting area and there’s this cute shit girl and she’s so cute but she’s more than beautiful, she is funny and I’m just enjoying listening to her tiger and I’m like, I’m a little older, I’m also you know relationship the time so I, I can’t flirt plus I have no game, I’ve never had game and I just but I damn, I wish I could have flirted with her at the end, I go, I go you were very entertaining is what I said, there was a shocker hand goodbye and I’m in the elevator and this other voice echoes with me he’s like you know that was, do you don’t you know wait, no it’s Mila Kunis, I you’re very entertaining.
Chris Mayek: Wow.
D.C. Douglas: Not only do I not have a game, I’m kind of an idiot so.
Chris Mayek: Are you friends with like a lot of major voice actors too?
D.C. Douglas: Not at all, oh major voice actor is different. Does he say on camera actors unfortunately no, I’d be guest starring more often though, I’ve changed my whole on camera approach these days, I’m kind of more like I just want to do like weird weird characters so I grew my hair along and I’m like either you use this or you can’t use this but I’m not being your your middle aged white lawyer guy anymore, I got tired of that and plus there’s plenty of them, but as far as voice actor wise it’s so funny it’s like what is a big voice actor, I yes I guess I’m friends with, I guess what people would be considered to be big voice actors, I don’t consider myself to be a big voice actor but then I go to a convention, people seem to consider me to be a big voice actor, it’s all relative you know, I’m still looking for my next job. “Transformers Rescue Bots” we had a really amazing cast and also on there was LeVar Burton and one day, we’re all waiting to go in, it was so fun because we used to all report together for a while there before we got unruly, and but one day I was talking about a convention this and and I mentioned something about the hustle of it and like and then I looked at him and I go it must be nice to be a place where you can just say yes or no to things and he’s like, and he’s like baby I have to hustle, he goes the hustle never stops and and it was, it was good to hear it from somebody in the room I was working with you know, a good reminder and then there’s a, there’s a documentary on Joan Rivers.
Chris Mayek: Yeah yeah.
D.C. Douglas: There’s a Joan Rivers documentary that any, everybody should watch because it really captures what it is to be, to have a long career in this business, she’s been famous since the 60s and you follow this documentary and you see in order for her to maintain her lifestyle she’s still, up until she died of course, but she still had to hustle all the time to get the next gig and get the next feed and get the next gig, her whole, her whole life is was always running towards the next thing and it’s exhausting unless of course it’s just second nature for you then and that’s, that’s what it is to be an actor in this business, no matter how famous or big name you think somebody is everybody’s always hustling.
Chris Mayek: Would your first like really major video game role be a Raven in the “Tekken” series?
D.C. Douglas: I don’t know what’s big and what isn’t big, it’s, it’s other people let me know that, I always considered my first big game to be “Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles” yeah, that was the one that when I told people what I was doing afterwards I had a poker group at the time and I mentioned it and and the younger ones were like, excuse me I can swear they’re like fucking good Albert Wesker, that’s huge, I’m like is it really, is it huge, I don’t play video games so I don’t know, and yeah so that’s when I realized and then I just got lucky literally a year later I booked with “Mass Effect”, “Mass Effect 2”, playing Legion and so within a you know two year period there I was in two major franchises and that I think that’s kind of voiceover wise propelled me to this other kind of level, again perception level, it’s you’re always just when I’m not working, I’m not working.
Chris Mayek: Well like two major games that I per game series that I played a lot growing up that you were a part of, if you remember being in the “.hack” or “Xenosaga” series?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah I got a lot of work early on, I, I hooked up with this studio called Cup of Tea Productions in the Valley and those ladies are great and so I got a lot of these I guess they’re JRPGs, I’m learning, I’m learning, I did a lot of those and the thing was is I, I, I regret this that when I started doing them, I looked at them as like it was just another quick thing to make some money like I didn’t really, especially because we’re trying to match the Japanese voices and a lot of times the performance we’re just kind of still to speak Japanese but the sound of it was very stilted so I felt like my performances were stilted and I never put the extra effort to go hey can we soften this or make a little more naturalistic or anything you know that kind of thing, also I would say the producers, a lot of time we had the Japanese producer there or piped in and they’re, they’re reticent to that kind of change as well, they kind of want the English carbon copy of what was in the Japanese and now thank goodness that’s changing in the industry and they realize that what’s, what works you know performance wise for a Japanese audience doesn’t necessarily work as well for an American audience, that there’s certain things that we can do to make these characters more accessible to the English ear and so there’s a lot more of that now. So for instance when I got to do “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure”, playing Kira, I really wanted to because I, I wanted to do the role the minute I saw, I had no idea he was through the whole thing, I just saw the one scene, the first scene that you introduced him and I’m like I gotta do this character and when I got it I’m like you know they played it and I could hear the other guy’s voice who apparently does a wonderful job as well but it’s, it’s still got a little bit of that anime performance and so I wanted to go for more this natural thing, I did one pass at it and the director goes no no just bring him up a little more louder more present and the, the owner of the countenance owner, but the lady who runs that studio was in on that session, she liked to sometimes she’ll do that to make sure that we established the voice and she went no no that’s good, you let him stay with that and so I was able to keep you know what I was doing, I was so appreciative of that, that’s gotta be one of my, that was my favorite anime character up until recently so.
Chris Mayek: All right yeah well who is your…
D.C. Douglas: Spiral. So forgive me.
Chris Mayek: Okay I’m sorry, who is your most favorite like recent anime character then that you’ve played?

D.C. Douglas: My most favorite reason, thank you for asking, not that I set you up for it. Shaman King, yeah yeah wooden sword Ryu, it’s on Netflix, that character is so fun to do. I’m doing basically a bad Elvis, I’m like I figure he’s the 16 year old who where I guess he’s 17, I forget how old he is, but like you know I figured obviously he dresses like Elvis so he loves a certain Elvis aspect so try to work some of that into it but of course I’m not an impressionist, I’m a horrible impressionist so it works good for the voice then.

Chris Mayek: I was gonna guess it was either him or your role and “Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun”.

D.C. Douglas: Oh yeah oh well you know prior to “Shaman King” it would have been, that would have been my second favorite yes, doing, I’ve been I’ve had fun doing that, I mean I feel I’m, I’m also that’s way more in my wheelhouse with the kind of characters that I get like even my on camera characters, that’s more than the wheelhouse the kind of characters they get, so but that show is really lovely and fun to do so, “Shaman King” was just, I’ve never done a voice like that before and and just this attitude, the fact that I get to sit baby, it’s like that makes me happy so.

Chris Mayek: Yeah and this is a darker anime role but “Vinland Saga”?

D.C. Douglas: Yeah that was, it was fun to do, we we moved through it quickly so the thing sometimes it’s like I’ll do a thing, I’ll do like three or four episodes but we’ll do it all in one session and then that’s it and I never get to revisit it again so I don’t, I don’t necessarily get to remember much, I did one recently that we did like I think one or two sessions, it’s only two two or three episodes and it’s called “How Not to Summon a Demon Lord” yeah and I’m playing this this very pious priest who turns out to be have a sex dungeon, so that stayed with me because of this dungeon like, that show’s kind of funny.

Chris Mayek: Yeah that was a quick.

D.C. Douglas: Because he’s just like a small arc in that thing.

Chris Mayek: Has there been a case where you’ve had to get like really emotionally involved with anime so far?

D.C. Douglas: You know it’s such a technical process so like I did “Persona 5” and I had a thing at the end of that where I’m, I have a culpa and I mean he’s a creep, he’s a horrible character but I, the maya culpa is like a fairly long little monologue and at the end of that I mean I teared up in the studio and that was one of the few times that I had that kind of experience but with anime it’s just so limited, there’s a new or it’s fairly new called rhythmo band and that really neat process where “Shaman King” is done that way and Ryu and couple episodes has like these minute long monologues and if we were doing it the old way, that would have taken us you know several hours to get through because we have to do a little chunks on each thing to to make sure that it was timing out, on rhythmoban it’s like I just ran through for the minute and a half, they’d go back over clean it up a little bit, maybe we do a second take, maybe just grab a certain section and then we move on to the next one and like it goes so much quicker and that gives you more of a chance to performance wise get more lost in it and have more of an emotional connection, but I but as far as like just general feel I mean Kira from, because I did a lot of episodes I and he had wonderful monologues so I, I have an affinity for that whole experience, that was my first big anime role so always appreciative of it and I know know for playing lots of creepy people so.

Chris Mayek: In terms of video games like I can ask that same question with video games too, outside of Wesker who do you think you have the most affinity with?

D.C. Douglas: Who’s to say I have an affinity for Wesker?

Chris Mayek: The…

D.C. Douglas: I mean Legion is just my voice but, but it’s such a well-written game, everything about that is so beautifully written and the fan base, it’s a very smart dedicated fan base, you have to go back to my website and go and find like the sample and go oh I like doing that guy, yeah but nothing nothing really sticks out, oh well there’s one right now but I can’t tell you what it is, it’s gonna be big though next year and I’m actually doing mocap for, I don’t get to do a lot of mocap so I think the first full mocap game I did nobody gave a shit about, I mean they love the game they give a shit about the story and that was “NBA 2K14” and it’s like they play for the sports story mode and I’m like that’s, I like we, I spent a week and I like, I did like pages and pages of dialogue and but it was full low cap as well, they they said they were going to make the character look like me and so I did the photo shoot and all of that and then I finally saw the game in a cut scene I’m like going I look like a melting Bill Pullman, that is not how I look, it’s like they did two renders on me and then 10 for all the basketball players but it was a great experience, we did that in San Francisco, that was a full mocap thing but right now I’m doing a full mocap thing for this character that I can’t say anything about it, can I, all I know is there’ll be fan art later and then people might cosplay so.

Chris Mayek: Okay I know with “Fire Emblem” that you got to play like four different characters?

D.C. Douglas: Yeah I did, that to me reminds me of like soap operas where like I’m both, well I’ve been like five different people on that show over the years, I’ve been like three different doctors, two priests, so “Fire Emblem” is a little like that because there’s so many different iterations of it, yeah even I forget all that I’ve done. I think that’s the one that’s got I call them the guilt, the gramp, the grandpa I’d like to mark, oh I’m forgetting the name but there’s like an old character apparently a lot of girls swoon over because they marry him use that he’s an old man, then there’s the bald-headed monk and I can’t remember these character names.

Chris Mayek: Yeah and I guess some other characters.

D.C. Douglas: You know better than me apparently. What what made you start doing these interviews if you don’t like me asking?

Chris Mayek: I met, I met Eric Vale like virtually through a convention like April of last year and then I just started to think that I wanted to, you know ask, try to reach out to people and ask them things that I know they had never been asked before and it started with music people like I did Billy Steinberg who he just, he wrote “Like a Virgin” and “So Emotional” and right songs like that and then yeah led to like Rosanna Arquette and Lea Thompson and that’s just, it’s just amazing that like you asked and you shall receive, it’s like.

D.C. Douglas: Well good for you man, I think that’s fantastic.

Chris Mayek: Thanks, but yeah I was gonna ask next, I know a really recent popular series that you got to be a part of the of “Akudama Drive”?

D.C. Douglas: Yeah oh he was fun too, badass, he was a badass. I actually ended up getting covered in between episodes yeah so they had that, we had to go back and do a pickup on one of the episodes because my voice was still out of it, but yeah I’ll always remember that because of COVID. Yeah yeah no he was, that was a fun, it was, it’s fun to do like a badass character, she really let me do the badass voice too so yeah that was nice.

Chris Mayek: What was your experience getting involved with playing X Drake in “One Piece”?

D.C. Douglas: That was a result of when I said that I went to these cons and I’m like what are you all these anime people, what is this about and then when I decided I wanted to get to do more anime I reached out to some people that I knew, here Elizabeth, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn she was directing some stuff, I reached out to her and to Wendy and a couple others and to Bang Zoom! and Bang Zoom! it’s like she remembered me from years ago, I guess I did a little thing there so I was really grateful for that and she’s just started bringing me in first and small things and then larger stuff but the, I was at a con and, oh I’m gonna blank on his name right now, I’m really horrible with the names people even I’ve known for years they blank on names, anyway he’s a voice actor but he directs a lot of games our directs a lot of anime and he used to be Funimation so I’m at a convention in Detroit and he was down at the bar so I and I’d never met him before so I got introduced to him and then I immediately told him I go you know I am, I know Funimation only at the time, COVID changed everything, but at the time Funimation only worked with actors if you were in Texas, I said you know if you could get me like a large role in one of the animes I’d you know fly myself out to Texas and you know put myself up for a week to, to knock out like a nice big role you know because I knew that that would help the convention stuff and and he’s like I’m so glad you mentioned that he goes there’s these tr, I guess the trio or five, what do they call them, you would know what it is the or somebody out there does, the of this group of pirates that he’s, X Drake is part of and he goes I want to ask them with, with, with well-known voice actors he goes so I’ll put you in as one of those guys and I’m like fantastic so then it turned out I didn’t have to go to Texas that we could do it over at Todd Haberkorn’s thing, the few episodes that he has and they said there’ll be more when they get to his ark, he’s got a huge ark but it could be five years from now they’re so far behind on the, the manga so, yeah so that’s how that happened so super grateful to him, the guy whose name I know that I just don’t know at the moment.

Chris Mayek: It’s okay, I see yeah.

D.C. Douglas: Anyway so yeah, it put me in Borderlands recently, “Love’s Something or Something” and I’m a, I have a storyline, I’m just a gunslinger type guy who they can’t remember anything, Billy Briggs, I don’t even know if I’m he’s actually even uncertain of his own name and then through this through following him you, the story outlines and you, it’s actually a really sad story but it starts off very funny and so it’s happy to be put in that, that was a voice that I hadn’t done before in a game so I was appreciative.

Chris Mayek: What is the case where you’ve had to alter your voice the most for a role so far?

D.C. Douglas: Oh well I mean there’s ones where you have to be like a creature you know and you blow out your voice for that one session and then never visit it again thank god. Well there is “Persona 4: Dancing All Night”, I’ll never get a character like that again nor should I ever do that again but you know what it was written the way it was and it’s like either we’re doing it or we’re not doing it so.

Chris Mayek: Yeah I’m not gonna do the voice right now, you can go to my…

D.C. Douglas: I’ll look up “Persona 4” and you can watch the video.

Chris Mayek: And how about with like the case where you’ve had to do the most voices like incidental stuff in one in one series per game or something?

D.C. Douglas: Yeah it’s the only one that comes to mind and it’s not like, here’s things, I’m not like a man of a thousand voices, I sometimes consider myself like I’m lucky that I have a career, I think I have like eight voices in me and then everything else I’m like just trying to barely get by on and but it was, it was a “Star Wars” game, nightmare, yeah “The Old Republic”, yeah I think that’s what it was, yeah and it, it was actually, it was a while ago but I came in and it was literally they had a binder full I mean it was this thick of a binder of voice files of incidental characters so for four hours they go go to page 238 and like here’s this vendor that you’re going to speak these lines for then page 320, there’s this so I mean I did a whole bunch, I found a friend of mine found a lot of what I had done in the game and sent me the voice files video files and so I put a compilation together on my website of it just because I’m like I’m in “Star Wars” and that was really exciting to, to see but the music, once I put the music to it I’m like I’m in that world, so that was the most voices, it would have been more voices but I had gotten in trouble for some political stuff before that like the year or two before that and the director was Canadian but as we were doing it she, she realized somehow the fact that GEICO commercials came up and then she goes you know there was the guy, the guy, the commercial guy who got in trouble with the tea party, I’m like oh yeah that’s me and she’s like pulled the phone and then like the whole session stopped and for literally 45 minutes we just talked about all of that experience and then it was like we had 10 minutes left and she’s like okay maybe just wrap up one more character so it would have been more characters but she wanted to hear all the, the background on how that controversy like rolled out so yeah which also quaint now that we’ve had, now that we’ve been through the Trump experience.

Chris Mayek: Some of your on, on camera stuff in terms of real recent TV series that you’ve been a part of, what’s been the most memorable like “NCIS” and “Workaholics” and like so?

D.C. Douglas: Two years ago I, my age, it was just getting me like like less auditions and bad auditions and I tried to look for another agent and no, I couldn’t get other agents, bigger agencies that I was trying to get with and then the last audition he got me was like to be Michael, oh shit that Lloyd actually there’s a Trump thing, the lawyer for Trump, it was a reenactment thing, Michael Cohen, and I’m like number one I don’t look like Michael Cohen, number two I’m not shaving my booty and number three it’s a reenactment thing, I don’t need to act that like I’m not that hard up to act, I mean I want to act but acting good things, I don’t want to have to like, if I was 25 yes I’ll take anything I want to act, I just want to keep acting, get as much credits and all of that but you know once you pass 50 you’re like no fuck this, it’s like if it’s not something interesting or good I don’t want to do it, I don’t need to be on a set and so I had a big following with my agent and I called this casting lady who that I knew for years ago, she was casting and she and that was part of a boutique agency and it was a small agency and I knew that it was going to be that and I said listen this is the kind of career I think I want now, I just wanted to answer your question, this kind of career I think I want, I just want, I go the most fun that I have had in the last 10 years have been these little indie films I’ve done in Houston and Philadelphia where I’m getting paid SAG modified low budget, things like that but I’m playing the lead or I’m playing the murderer or I’m playing some really weird character and I go that’s the most fun that I’ve had as an actor in the last 10 years and those are the things that I want to be doing and I go sometimes even if it’s like it may pay just a hundred dollars and it works one day and I go and that will still be your commission, I guarantee you’ll always get 100 commission from me but would you be willing to submit me on that stuff and she’s like absolutely and she goes and if you want to do that she’s like have you thought about maybe changing your look because you look very actory and I’m like change my look, I, I do and, and she’s and I go, she’s like you, she’s you grow your hair a little bit and I’m like I’m gonna grow my hair out, I’ve always wanted long hair since I was 25, I’ve wanted to have long hair, I’ve never been able to be me and so now finally goatee, long hair, this is how it’s going, if you can cast me great, if you can’t whatever, it took me a year to grow it and then last December I started submitting, I just started booking things, I’ve done like four films since then and I’m like that’s more than I would get if I was the short-haired you know white guy lawyer or whatever because everybody goes out for that stuff and so yeah so I’m, so the, the most memorable have been these little indie films that I’ve done are all over the place and they may be and again this is weird, I mean they may be shitty movies you know you may watch them and go that’s a horrible film and I go but I know that I’m good in it and then I had fun so that’s all I ever wanted to do was to have fun in my life.

Chris Mayek: I wasn’t bringing this up earlier, I couldn’t find any info on it but what was “King’s Pawn” in TV movie?

D.C. Douglas: Oh yeah that was a, it was a, it was an independent pilot that they were doing for a, for a sitcom and Glenn Morshower who you would know because he’s in everything, he’s in every big movie is like the some military guy, it was him and it was oh I forget his, thank you Pat, and Joe Seneca I think it was his tongue, they told you horrible names, he just passed away too several years ago, the uncle.

Chris Mayek: Yes yes such a sweet guy.

D.C. Douglas: I had so much fun working with them and then and then I was basically his son-in-law, the white son-in-law who was annoying and all of that and his daughter was played by the executive assistant of the guy who was funding the pilot so she was not, not the best actress, she’s a sweet lady but but she was like and they had this veteran director directing the pilot and I remember he came up to me the day that we were filming and he goes first, because he hadn’t been there through the rehearsals that we’ve been rehearsing on our own and then he came in for the last three days and so we’re at lunch and he comes over to me and he’s like these two weird fucking people, he’s like even he didn’t understand what this, this whole deal was and like it’s interesting, he’s like yes he said listen in your scenes with her, make her alive and I’m like huh and he’s like do something, kiss her, slap her butt, do something, make her react like, I’ll do what I can and he didn’t say slap her butt he said something, I can’t remember what it was but it was like but basically like get her to be a little more alive because it was a sitcom and yeah so we did this to comment a pilot and of course it never went anywhere and then that was it and they were, the people that were behind it were, they were an odd odd group of people, they had money though so, yeah but I got to for a week I felt like I was on pilot but I never considered really being a pilot so.

Chris Mayek: Okay, what about without “Emma’s Wish”?

D.C. Douglas: You’re going way back, you just really want me to relive my mediocrity. “Emma’s Wish” was a movie of the week and I played a carny and I’m still in the film but they cut the scene the way down but I was able to get the dailies back, it was back in the day so if you made friends with somebody on set you can get the dailies so I got the dailies, I was able to edit my own version of that scene and make my, make me even more evil in it but yeah it’s supposed to be like a flashback scene at the beginning of the movie where this girl, I’m supposedly this magical carny guy, that was actually kind of, considering my look at the time was a, a unique character.

Chris Mayek: Yeah that was like 98 or something wasn’t it?

D.C. Douglas: I had a mustache in that, I’m sorry I just, I didn’t realize, I thought that I didn’t start growing my goatee until until this century. Yeah the things that I’m excited about right now, there’s two big things and one I’m in the middle of doing mocap stuff, I’ve actually worked on it, I’m amazed at how much I’ve worked on it because the role is, it’s, it’s not a huge role but it’s, it’s an important or I guess you could say this yeah because we don’t know anything else that I’ve said about it, so I guess if there’s bosses I’m the, hang on hang on let me do the math on this to me, he’s got to get him after him, oh yeah so technically you think I’m the second to the last boss but I’m actually the third to the last boss because there’s a twist but that’s all I can say because you don’t know anything else about it so I haven’t broken any NDA, but yeah but I’ve started working on it at the beginning of this year and I, I go back next month do some work on it and then in January do some work on it so I don’t think it’s going to come out until either the end of next year or maybe even the beginning of 2023, but when it, no actually pretty quick, it may come out in next year, but it’ll be big, it’ll be fun.

Chris Mayek: Yeah and then the other thing the cartoon.

D.C. Douglas: Is we start recording in January so that should hit, it’s, it’ll be on one of the main main streaming platforms and that’ll be, that’ll probably start airing in the summer so and that’ll be, that’s a really a cool one for not really young kids, “Transformers” for really young kids, this one is I think aged like like from 10 to like early teens kind of thing so yeah.

Chris Mayek: And is there, oh I got a film coming out called.

D.C. Douglas: I have two films coming out, they’re both titled similar, one is “A Stepmother’s Secret” and that’s coming, that should be coming out a Lifetime I think probably in the next couple months and then also probably in March or April of next year “Secrets by the Seashore” comes out, that one I had a blast doing and yeah both with my long hair so those are two of the things that, that I got to do recently but I mean like I don’t think people who watch your interviews are really into Lifetime films.

Chris Mayek: My final question is always asking what do you want your legacy to be?

D.C. Douglas: Legacy is a lie, no. [Laughter] I you know it’s funny and I’m actually I’m, I know I’m joking but I’m not because this all ends, this, the human race will end eventually, this planet will end, the sun is going to die, this is all, every, there nothing goes forever or, or it does in a different form and so when people talk about legacy you think about it like what’s someone’s legacy from you know 1412, you know it’s doubtful it’s around anymore so and it’s also a weird thing it’s like I want to make sure you have to deal with my shit once I’m gone you know, you know everyone be free to start your own live your legacy and that’s it and then when you’re dead, let it end. I think it’s, it’s more about you know day to day living in the moment and being you know kind to yourself and being kind to the people that you meet and because no one knows why any of this is happening, it’s all a fluke or it’s not but regardless we don’t understand it, everyone’s just kind of making it up as they go so I think if you can at least leave people you know with good feelings as opposed to negative ones, that, that is the legacy and that’s an in the moment legacy so that’s what I want but as far as career career-wise I’m if you get enjoyment out of things that I’m a part of, that’s fantastic, I’m just an actor you know having my fun and if it translates to you enjoying it then that’s freaking great.

Chris Mayek: Yeah well thanks, I’m glad that we got to do this.

D.C. Douglas: Yay well thank you, I’m, I’m again, I think what you’re doing is fantastic, get yourself a logo and promote yourself some more, you’ve got like already a nice library of interviews you’re doing great, best of luck to you and it’s really nice meeting you and very very impressive what you’ve done so far.

Chris Mayek: Thanks yeah it’s already, that’s surprising too because I’ve already had like there’s a kid that has autism named Sebastian who’s like reached out to me and he’s inspired by what I’m doing and he started interviewing voice actors too and it’s something I would have never thought of.

D.C. Douglas: We all affect each other, that’s the leg, we talk about leg, after you’re gone it’s like no it’s more like in the moment now how we help each other, I think that’s far more important and so I think that’s fantastic so very cool.

Chris Mayek: I’ll be sure to send it to you of course once I have it up to.

D.C. Douglas: Absolutely please do so, lovely meeting you man.

Chris Mayek: Yeah you too, have a good night.