AWC 2012: Interview with Monica Rial

AnimeWorld Insider sat down with Monica Rial- voice actress of numerous animes to ask her a few questions on how she got into voice acting, her favorite convention experience and why she would want to voice Totoro.

AnimeWorld Insider: Thanks so much for talking with us today, Monica. How did you get started in voice acting?

Monica Rial: I got started in voice acting back in the 90′s. That sounds so old. I was doing theater in Houston I worked with a gentleman named Jason Douglas, who’s like the voice of God, he’s in everything. He was telling me “Hey I’m working for this company in Houston and they do voice overs. He showed me this little character that was on his keychain and I recognized it as anime, because my brother was an anime fan. I was like “Someone’s doing anime in Houston? Like seriously?”  So he gave me the number to AMV films and I called them. they just happened to have auditioned that weekend, so I went and auditioned and they called me in to do what’s called wallow, it’s like the background voices and miscellaneous people for a show called Martian Successor Nadeshiko and that was the first thing I did. Then after that got casted as the lead in gosheria and one of the supporting characters in generation gull then it just kind of expanded from there. I never expected it to become my career. I just thought it was a cool thing I was doing for the summer. or a cool thing I was doing for a couple of years. Now it’s been 13 years, and I’m like Holy. I keep waiting and saying “Some day they will be tired of me”. Right?

AnimeWorld Insider: No I don’t think so. If you could be any of the character that you’ve voiced who would you want to be?

Monica: Oh, I’d probably be, looks wise, I would want to be Sakura in Tsubasa because everybody in that world is very tall and very thin and gorgeous and they move like ballerinas like everything they do is light and airy, even when it’s dramatic everybody’s so happy. That one or Sgt. Frog would be a fun world to live in. there’s some craziness there. or maybe Dragonball. Dragonball would be a really awesome one just because who wouldn’t want to walk outside and see Vegeta and Piccolo fighting it out.

AnimeWorld Insider: Those are awesome characters to be. I know you’ve recently done the voice of Stocking in Panty and Stocking with GarterBelt. How was it to do such an off-the-wall character?

Monica: It was probably, it was my favorite thing I’ve done in a long time. It was because I got to use my regular voice, which doesn’t happen a whole lot when you do the more risqué roles. You usually don’t get to use the cute voice and then say horrible dirty nasty things. so it was awesome for me to go in and read some of that stuff and go “I can’t believe I get to say some of that stuff” and everybody that would come in and watch a little bit of it they were like I feel so dirty when you say the f word, it sounds like a 12 year old. I’m sorry! It was actually the show was so much fun the adaptors for the dub did a really great job of kind of making it own thing So if you get the disc you can watch the Japanese, you can watch the dub, you get two really awesome experiences that are different enough

AnimeWorld Insider: I watched it in Japanese first, then saw the dub and I was like “Wow, it’s so different but still the same show”.

Monica: It’s fun talking to Jaime Marchi, who did Panty in the adoptions, she said it’s hard because in Japan there are things considered really offensive, but in the states you really have to go all out to offend people. She had to go “balls to the wall” to make sure that she was still offending people. It was a lot of fun.

AnimeWorld Insider: That’s really cool. If you could choose a new career what would you want to do?

Monica: I don’t think there’s anything I would ever want to do more than what I am doing now. I do have a cosmetology license. So I am a hairstylist, I just don’t do it anymore because I voice act so much.  So I would probably do that because I enjoy it. Anything creative. I wish I could be a cook. I’d love to be a chef. but I’m just not good at it.

AnimeWorld Insider: What has been a really great convention experience?

Monica: There’s so many. I really like going to the cons that are under 5000 or 6000 people because you get more one on one time. I just really like having moments with people and getting to hear their stories, or why they got into anime, or why they enjoy what they enjoy or what their favorite show is. Those are some of my favorite memories, like sitting out in the lobby in between panels and just talking to people and getting to share experiences. Sometimes at the bigger conventions you lose that. I just did (Anime) Expo, it was fun, you get a lot of free stuff and there is always stuff going on but you lose that kind of personal touch. So I really like any show, like this one where it’s a little bit smaller and you get to talk to everybody and hang out. I don’t have to be rushed from one thing to another. It’s just a better experience.

AnimeWorld Insider: If you could pick an anime series to voice in what one would you pick?

Monica: I have two. I always joked I wanted to be the voice of Totoro. I’d be ‘Rarararaw.’ I’d be a terrible Totoro. I’d have to be the mini baby Totoro, because there’s no way I could play the big Totoro. That one and my favorite all time anime movie is Perfect Blue. It’s really creepy, and the dub was fabulous, so It’s not like I’m saying that I would do so much better but it’s just that I would love a chance to play Mima, the main character. It’s my favorite show ever.

AnimeWorld Insider: Do you any exciting upcoming roles you are looking forward to or can talk about?

Monica: I do. I don’t know what I can talk about. Fractal and Panty and Stocking are out. Those are both awesome. There’s a bunch of really really awesome stuff that’s going to come out soon. I can tell you that I’m certainly still working, in fact I have to go back on Monday. I have to make sure I don’t get sick. I have to be at work at 10 in the morning, and they will get really mad if I’m not there. So there is a lot of really great stuff coming out, unfoirtunalty I don’t think I can talk about it all. I think I can talk about we have Fairy Tale season 2. I’m excited about Fairy Tale because I’m a head writer on that. Thank God I can talk about that. You never can know because we just did C. Control, it’s a great show that I wrote and I’m also in it. That is one they just announced but we worked on that before Panty and Stocking and it got tied up somehow. You never know what you are allowed to talk about so I wait till it’s out

AnimeWorld Insider: Last question, what would you like to tell your fans or anyone?

You guys are awesome! You are the reason I enjoy going to convention. I go out there to meet all you guys face to face. If you guys aren’t on my facebook group, I have a facebook group, www.facebook.com/groups/rialists. Then I’m on twitter @Rialisms. So find me. I try to check in and say hello. I try to go in and answer questions or I will live tweet during the toonami stuff. Thank you guys for supporting me all this time and Holy moly it’s been 13 years and I hope you continue to support me and I love you! Thank you!

Thank you so much Monica Rial for sitting down with the Insider!

One Response to “AWC 2012: Interview with Monica Rial”

  1. [...] Because I remember when I had first gotten into anime it was hard to find. It was on VHS. [Monica Rial] and I were talking at a panel earlier today about how anime is really affordable now, it’s easy [...]

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