We had a chance to do a Kent Williams interview at this year’s Ohayocon, one of the main voice actors in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands.
In the interview, we briefly tease/discuss a project releasing at the end of March. Now that it is almost the end of March and the game is releasing, we can speculate that it is Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. Look out for our review of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands in the near future. Without further ado, let’s go over our Kent Williams interview from Ohayocon.
Kent Williams Interview
Matt: Can you introduce yourself?
Kent: Hi, my name is Kent Williams, FUNimation voice actor, spanning Dragon Ball Z to My Hero Academia.
Matt: I don’t know if I’ve formally introduced myself, I’m Matt (Shaggy)
Kent: Nice to meet you Matt – “shaggy”
(random person – Zoinks)
Matt: Shaggy, Yes
Kent: What timing – That’s amazing.
Introduction to Voice Acting
Matt: First Question, what originally got you into voice acting?
Kent: I was already an actor. I was already a stage actor and a performer, had an agent, and was doing all the commercial stuff. Then I got I had a review and that reviewer in Dallas said, “Hey, I’m doing an article on this company called FUNimation and they’re doing something called anime. It’s dragon something, and do you want to go audition? I can set you up” and the rest was history. I auditioned for Chris Sabbat and Justin Cooke, you know, two that are still famously with the company.
Matt: Also, if you need to stop for any reason just let us know, especially if anyone has a question.
Kent: No, no, no we are good, let’s knock this out!
First Role?
Matt: What was the first role you auditioned for?
Kent: The first role I auditioned for was Dr. Gero and got it, so I thought “well that’s easy”, Not so much.
Funny Voice Acting Stories?
Matt: Any funny stories from all the time voice acting?
Kent: I feel like I’m one of the actors that doesn’t have funny stories. I don’t get people bombing me in the booth. No, I can’t think of any. Watch, when once we’re done, I think of a million of them.
Other Career Paths
Matt: If you weren’t a voice actor what would you like to do?
Kent: I was going to be a doctor. All through high school. I was going to go to med school.
Matt: I remember that from the Q&A. We talked briefly last night.
Desired Role?
Matt: What’s one role you wish you could have been and not the Pokemon one? Any character, any company.
Kent: So like a FUNimation one, I can’t think of anything I would want to be. You know I don’t really operate that way. I don’t think about something that has already been done by somebody else that I wish I would have gotten to do. There are characters that I’ve auditioned for. But I mean that’s 20 years of auditioning for FUNimation that, I, you know, if you have not done the casting but like I really wanted to be in the Moriarty bit that just came back, just came out.Sometimes when you’re on a certain number of shows. You’re not allowed to be cast on something else. I never know exactly what that is because it could be a big role, it could be a tiny to small role but it’s regulated. So I feel like I’m out by default.
Voice Acting Inspiration
Matt: Who’s your voice acting Senpai? So one person who is in voice acting that you look up to or you draw inspiration from could even be somebody from in Western-like, you know, the old like talkies.
Kent: How interesting. I can only think of movement. Growing up as a kid I just idolized Gene Kelly. I wanted to be a hoofer like him. I wanted to be able to move like that. So as a stage actor. I’m a movement actor. I do Kabuki. I’m a marionettist. So, I think I gravitate toward the movement. So that’s an interesting question. I haven’t been asked that before. So I hope it’s not a terrible answer.Matt: I like to throw curve balls out.
Kent: That is a curveball.
Upcoming Game? (Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands)
Matt: So, based on our talk last night. How excited are you for that upcoming gaming launch?
Kent: I know Kiba and Barry just announced it. He’s like, well, this is a little certain GearBox game coming out in March, even if it’s wrong. I’m going to go ahead and announce it because the three of us are on it together. We have a rapport, shall I say? Yes, we definitely work with one another, but it’s in the context.
Matt: I get it.
An Obscure Fact
Matt: What one random or obscure fact?
Kent: I’m outing myself here a bit. As a voice actor. It’s weird. I actually have a hearing disability. I don’t experience silence. I have congenital tinnitus. So it always sounds in my ears like speaker feedback, always loud in here. Deaf to silence, is what I say.
Matt: After the 13 concussions I completely understand.
Kent: And the drowning and the covid on my gosh!
Matt: I’ve almost gotten struck by lightning four times.
Kent: Oh My God.
Recreational Activities
Matt: Favorite recreational activities
Kent: I used to like to water ski. When I was in high school I could slalom really well. I am not a sports person at all though, unfortunately. A lot of the kind of theater that I do. I feel like others would consider it a hobby like I’m big on Japanese Kabuki theater, I actually teach it. I do a lot of teaching. A Marrionettist, like full-size, handmade marionettes, like really big heavy puppets, like operating a kindergartener on strings.
That’s kind of what that’s like, I don’t know. Pastime. I do love video games.
ZaffLuto: Favorite game?
Kent: I love the baby games. I do love Pokemon playing Arceus, and I love Animal Crossing.
Favorite Game & Franchise
Matt: Favorite game and game franchise?
Kent: My Family and I, we are Nintendo all the way pretty much, All the Link, all the Zelda games for sure. I get the first-person shooters I watch Todd Haberkorn extensively play Call of Duty but after a while, I can’t look at it anymore because it just makes me sick for some reason and I can’t watch 3-D movies.
Matt: Could be the photosensitivity, the flashing, and whatnot.
Favorite Villager & Aesthetic (Animal Crossing)
Matt: Favorite villager in Animal Crossing? Kiba said Kiki.
Kent: Really? Oh, how funny. I love the little white goat Chevre. I love her. She was first. She appeared on my Island right at the beginning and I’ve never let her go in the two years that the game has been around.
Matt: Aesthetic for Animal Crossing, what one is your favorite. So, you know how you can decorate your Island in different ways, like either fall, spring, flowers, pink, black, or white.
Kent: I’m a collector in that game so for me, it’s important for me to get all the way to the blue roses. It’s like I had to do it and so my island is kind of floral. It’s got a lot of rural areas. It’s got some very city areas like the little cityscape has all the little businesses together, but I keep mine, then I have all the fossils out everywhere. So, I have like a fossil park.
Who to Work With?
Matt: One voice actor you’ve always wanted to work with; and also a general actor, you’ve wanted to work with?
Kent: See the thing is when you work with the voice actor. You don’t really get to work with that actor, that’s the thing. You’re performing in isolation for a while, but I would really like to be, besides just sharing, you know, the Hohenheim father bit with John Swasey. I’m really geared on working with him in his Houston Studio, but also just in a FUNimation show. I’d really love to work with John Swasey. That’s kind of a yet.
Matt: I believe Kiba said Tom Holland.
Kent: Interesting, Ok!
Cats Vs Dogs
Matt: Cats or dogs, and if neither then what?
Kent: Cats. Cats all the way cats. Dogs, I like to look at from afar but the dogs are the animals after I pet I want to wash my hands.
Pokemon
Matt: Favorite starter Pokemon and then favorite Pokemon in general?
Kent: It’s like picking a favorite child. I think I’m going to pick Girafarig because it is a giraffe and it’s kinda unused and insignificant, but its name is a palindrome and it’s a giraffe-based character. I love that one.
The starter. I always start with the grass. I’m partial to grass. So any of the grasses, I’ll go back and collect them. So I’ll play it again and try out the other starters, but always grass.
Favorite Con Experience
Matt: Favorite Con experience, like one that stands out?
Kent: They are all so different. You know, like this one is just massive. It’s my first time here in Ohio. So i’m just blown away and also by the receptivity. So I mean, I just enjoy that so much. I don’t know if I have a favorite con experience. I’m super excited about the panel that we just finished the Queer in Anime panel. I was really happy about that, that’s something that’s new to me. I’m kind of new to coming out to Cons. So that was really fresh.
Matt: I believe Kiba said someone came down to the convention to measure him to make a cosplay for one of his characters.
Kent: I’ve never been measured in that respect. Interesting
Favorite Voice Actors
Matt: Favorite voice actor, English, and Japanese?
Kent: I couldn’t tell you Japanese, English. I’m just going to go with my buddy Todd Haberkorn.
Matt: I was going to say if you had a character from Japanese anime. Because sometimes you don’t always know their names.
Kent: I love Spirited Away, the dragon character (Haku), you know that also came in like, you know, human form.
Matt: I hear the voice. I can’t think of the name.
Kent: I know as soon as I try to think of it too. It’s been a minute since I watched that but I just was so enamored. So enamored.
Matt: I’ll find it real quick so we won’t be. So I mean, you know how it is if it’s stuck in your head. The American voice actor is Jason Marsden who is here.
Kent: That’s amazing. He’s actually here.
Matt: Jason Marsden is the English one. The Japanese I’m unsure.
Kent: I took my glasses off for this interview so I can’t see a thing, it’s a watercolor array.
Matt: It’s Miyu Irino.
Kent: There you go! That’s exactly what I meant to say.
Matt: Thank you, very much
Kent: Totally! Thank you.
Socials
ZaffLuto: Do you have any socials you would like to plug?
Kent: You know, I do have a Facebook and it’s just Kent Williams. You can find me easily and I will friend everybody. Probably once a year because I rarely go on. I have been given an Instagram and Cliff Chapin gave me a Twitter account. I have no understanding of how to use them. I think it’s just age. So I don’t.
Takeaways?
Did you learn anything new from our Kent Williams interview at Ohayocon 2022? What questions should we have asked during our Kent Williams Interview? If given the chance to do another Kent Williams interview, what do you want us to ask, within reason?
Here’s a video recording of our interview with Kent Williams:
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands launches today, March 25, is available across Windows PC (via via Steam and Epic Games Store), Xbox One, Xbox Series X+S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.
