SacAnime: Summer of D.C. Douglas Interview

FerrisWheelPro: So I’m here today with one of our guests of honor, D.C. Douglas, actor, voice actor. They’re totally not the same thing. How are you doing today?

D.C. Douglas: Good, good. Excellent. That’s his actual voice, like that’s- Yes, I basically, I have to stretch when I do Albert Wesker or when I do Legion, otherwise I talk like this.

FerrisWheelPro: What does D.C. stand for?

D.C. Douglas: Domestically challenged. I just met you, I’m going to tell you my real name? I did it at a “Transformers” convention once. I put out my real name and then I realized, what am I doing? People kind of stalk me at home and I- So I said, “If you put this on the Internet, I’m gonna come after you.” And he did. And so I’ve asked YouTube to remove it, saying it’s revealing personal information. I didn’t mean to be on the Internet. It actually says in the video, I said, “Don’t put this on YouTube.” So I’m waiting for them to take it down.

FerrisWheelPro: I assume that your parents were patriots and they named you after our great capital, District of Columbia Douglas.

D.C. Douglas: Absolutely. I was born in Berkeley and my parents were all for the Vietnam War.

FerrisWheelPro: So what is your favorite part about what you do?

D.C. Douglas: Money. I’m literally asking the same questions I asked in our interview you can watch right over here. Yes, you are, actually. I’m consistent. Well actually, yeah, I mean obviously it’s great. I’d rather that than be waiting tables, which I have done, or being a personal assistant, or working at an envelope company. All of that stuff. So yeah, it’s just a great way to make a living, but it’s also, you know, the reason why a lot of us are actors is because we get a rush from performing and taking on characters and stuff. So one could say I have an addiction problem.

FerrisWheelPro: It’s like cocaine, but better. Man, this is a family show. What are we doing?

D.C. Douglas: It means like Coco, like when Coca-Cola put it in the- like 1900s and the early- Or if you’re cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, you know, right? I mean, like, what do you think’s in them? Come on, chocolate.

FerrisWheelPro: He’s just referring to uh, songs from the 70s, so-

D.C. Douglas: Oh yes, of course. “Cocaine” you know, the song by what’s his name? Um-

FerrisWheelPro: Eric Clapton.

D.C. Douglas: Eric Clapton, yes. That was gonna be a very long pause if you had not chimed in there, because I’d be going “uh, like, uh.” I really needed some ginkgo biloba.

FerrisWheelPro: Would you say Albert Wesker is your most accomplished character of yours, if you know what I mean by accomplished?

D.C. Douglas: I don’t know what you mean by- Well, like, you’re- How do I say it? That was popular.

FerrisWheelPro: Yes, like Christian Bale’s Batman or-

D.C. Douglas: Yeah, because I’m so up there with Christian Bale, of course. I mean, George Clooney started with “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”. I mean, what are we gonna do? Except that George Clooney was 20-something and I’m at- I’m at the weaning side of my career. Yeah, I would say that the majority of the people, it’s Albert Wesker first that come for these cons and stuff, and then it’s Legion from “Mass Effect” lately. And now “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City” is starting to pick up steam. And then the rest of them, if there’s little kids, then “Transformers: Rescue Bots” will pop up, which is good. And then like “Tales of Vesperia”, I got these others like ‘Tekken” in “Tales of Vesperia” and “Eternal Sonata” because I started getting requests for these, like kids were- Well yeah, the kids, but bringing in these games and things for me to sign. I’m like, “You played that?” And they go- And I go, “You know that I was in that?” “Like, that’s so cool.” So I have these to please them.

FerrisWheelPro: Did you ever get any kids coming and say, “Could you sign my ‘Resident Evil’ case?” Because you know, they’re not technically old enough. You had any kids asking for that?

D.C. Douglas: What do you mean, like young, young kids? Like, I- I’ve always wanted to hear- I will tell you, I was at a convention in Miami recently, or six months ago. Anyway, I’m at this convention and I’m actually talking to a Power Ranger there. What’s his name? He’s really subtle guy with a square jaw.

FerrisWheelPro: Jason David Frank?

D.C. Douglas: No, another Jason. You guys know him. Anyway, so I’m talking to him and he did the mocap for one of the characters in “RE6”, “Resident Evil 6”. And there’s these two 12-year-olds, they’re going, “Are you-?” He’s like, “Yeah, I did the mocap for the characters.” They’re like, “Yeah.” And then he points to me, he’s like, “And you know who he is?” And they’re like- I think he does Albert Wesker. And they’re like, “Wow!” In one year I go from like, “Oh my god!” to people going, “Who?” It’s not fair though, because actually, I have to say, the last- I mean, the last big one, “RE5” for Wesker was 2009. And there were a couple other smaller games with him in it, but other than that, nothing. And every year he seems to get more popular in death. So that’s like unusual. I really thought I would be done with cons by this point, but this is the most- This year I’m doing like 16 cons all together. So it’s insane. It’s wonderful.

FerrisWheelPro: I was watching- I was on your website and I noticed- You were on my website?

D.C. Douglas: I can’t believe this, where this is happening. When he scrolls- You’re gonna lose the video to this interview too, I know it. Oh, oh, we weren’t recording?

FerrisWheelPro: You were in GEICO commercials for a while. You were that guy that said, “Oh, this is a- this is not a paid celebrity, so we hired one. Thank you, bye.” Like, oh my god, MSNBC couldn’t get it right, but you got it right.

D.C. Douglas: Yeah, no, it was a celebrity campaign that I did for two years running that bought me a house. So I did- It was like, “Bob Smith is a real GEICO customer, not a paid celebrity. So to help tell his story, we hired a celebrity.” So that was a big one that I did. I’ve actually got a new one coming out that I don’t know if I can say it or not. It’s not GEICO, it’s a whole other company. But it’s so fun, and I’m working- I’m in the spots with the guy who does- with Tom Kenny, who does the voice of SpongeBob. I mean, and every other character in cartoons ever. I should say that. He’s so funny, and he’s so sweet. So it’s- I’ve had a blast working with him.

FerrisWheelPro: You’ll know it’s awesome. I can tell you the product, but I will tell you that when you see a commercial and it’s two computers talking or like answering machine computers-

D.C. Douglas: That’s us.

FerrisWheelPro: Yes. So that was about it for this interview.

D.C. Douglas: That’s it? You know, we had to make it short. It was an awful interview. What are we talking about? DCDouglas.com and follow me on Twitter and send me weird things. And Facebook and Tumblr. Fever18 Tumblrs, you have to be over 18 to follow me on Tumblr. That’s a fact, Jack.

FerrisWheelPro: So can Albert Wesker take us out?

D.C. Douglas: Yes, thank you very much, Sakon. I had a wonderful, completely saturated experience.