Zach Aguilar is one of the best voice actors in the industry right now. From his star-making role as Genos in One-Punch Man to playing the protagonist in series like Demon Slayer and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Aguilar’s already-impressive acting resume has only grown year after year.
Aguilar has lent his talents not only to several anime series and movies, but video games like Fire Emblem: Three Houses, NieR Replicant, and shows no signs of slowing down. I had the opportunity to sit down with Zach Aguilar in a fantastic conversation where he dove deep into his career, broke down the audition and recording process, and share his thoughts on some of his favorite anime and video games.
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You’ve been working in the voice acting industry for a few years now – quite a few, actually – How’d you get your start performing?
I grew up doing on-camera as a little kid. I was six years old, my mom had the whole Agent Manager thing going. She’d call up my school, lie to them, tell them that I was sick, and then she would drive me to auditions. I’d been doing that for a while, and ultimately, kind of found voice acting. You could say my love for performing and acting was found through anime and video games.
Were you already a big fan of the Demon Slayer manga before you auditioned for the anime’s dub?
So that’s the funny part about it – I didn’t know much about the manga at all. Everything that I kept up with as a kid was Naruto, Bleach, and Dragon Ball. With the newer stuff, I would see a little bit or hear about it, but I didn’t know a lot about Demon Slayer until I got that audition. I auditioned for the role, then I ended up getting the job, and that’s what really inspired me to read through the manga. And it was incredible. So I went ahead and read everything to see where the story was going. I remember when we recorded that first episode, I was just thinking, “Wow, this is, this is going to be a wild ride.”
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is now the highest-grossing Japanese film worldwide. How does it feel to be part of such a momentous achievement?
Absolutely mind-boggling. Growing up watching anime, voice acting was my dream – this right now is my dream. I watched shows like Naruto, and I thought, “Oh, man, if I could get on a show that has action and humor and everything…” It still feels really surreal. It’s just a huge honor.
In that same vein, Demon Slayer is one of the most popular anime and manga franchises in the world right now. Why do you think that is?
I think it has to do with the incredible animation by Ufotable, and Demon Slayer‘s vibrant characters all having their different personalities. Of course, the character designs, too. That’s something else that I’ve seen a lot. I go and meet a ton of fans at events or conventions, and everybody is wearing an outfit of the characters they relate to. I see a lot of dads wearing Rengoku, and the moms will wear Shinobu’s outfit. Demon Slayer just has all of these amazing elements, so everybody can relate to it in some way. And it’s really, really cool to be a part of that – something that even families can all get together and say, “Hey, we bonded as a family watching this show”. I just think that’s just so freaking cool.
Speaking on the amazing elements that make Demon Slayer popular, Infinity Castle’s art direction and animation are simply on another level, so much so that the movie was garnering a fair bit of Oscar buzz in the lead up to the 98th Academy Award nominations. Do you feel disappointed the film didn’t make the nominee list?
You can’t win them all, you know? Honestly, there are so many great films this year that didn’t make the list you can’t even be mad. Just getting nominated for the Golden Globes and other awards is absolutely incredible. But hey, I mean, we still have two more movies, right? So you never know.
When it comes to your method of portraying Tanjiro and putting your own take on the character, how do you go about that? Either versus or in conversation with Natsuki Hanae’s performance in the Japanese version?
It’s a fine line to take inspiration from what he’s laid before me and make it my own. It’s funny, because the first time I met him was when we were doing the Swordsmith Village arc, and that was his advice to me. I asked him, “What is the best advice you can give me moving forward, playing this role and trying to bring it to English-speaking audiences?” And he told me, “Just believe in yourself, trust your own ability. Don’t worry about what I did. They picked you for Tanjiro. You are Tanjiro.”
I was really flattered that he said that – that he trusted me – trusted my own interpretation. I just do my best to walk that line, and I always take inspiration from his performance. He’s absolutely incredible. He played my favorite character in a show called Your Lie in April. He’s just amazing. I’m always doing my best to take his interpretation and turn it into something that I think English-speaking audiences will be able to enjoy and appreciate.
Who have been your biggest inspirations and influences in your acting career?
Oh, wow. So many people. For film, Jim Carrey and Leonardo DiCaprio. For voiceover work, Yuri Lowenthal and Tom Kenny – growing up watching SpongeBob was just crazy. I’ve been lucky enough to be in some things with Yuri. I’ve never directly gotten to work with him yet. And then for Tom, I would love to work with him. I just want to keep doing the best I can and, hopefully, get more opportunities to work with these incredible people,
What are the main differences between recording for a season of Demon Slayer versus recording one of the films?
For the films, the recording timeline is definitely different. Sometimes they’ll just have us come in over the course of a couple of weeks, and we just knock it out. Whereas with a season, they’ll say, “Hey, we’re recording episodes 1 and 2 during these two weeks.” And there’s more flexibility for it. But other than that, I would say it’s about the same technicality-wise. You’re working with the same team of people. You record to the animation, and that’s kind of it.
But I will say, recording for the films, you definitely have that pressure, you know? You’re gonna go to the theater, you’re gonna probably watch it multiple times with your co-stars and your friends and your family. I had friends of mine go, “Hey, let’s watch the Demon Slayer movie.” And I’m like, “Oh yeah, I’ll go watch it for the eighth time!” You know what I mean? You just know you’re going to watch it over and over and over and over and over again, and, you want people to enjoy it, because you realize it’s on that level now!
On that note, how many times have you personally seen Infinity Castle at this point?
Definitely over 10 times. I saw Hanae at the premiere, and he had watched it so many times. He was doing the World Tour, traveling to all these different countries, going to the premieres, so he’s watching it in every single language. I think he just came from Mexico, so we watched it in Spanish, which is so cool. He said, “Hey, you should join me on some of those”. And I’m like, “Yeah, man! Put me in coach. I’d love to go to Germany or something, and hear that version.”
I know that voice acting is often solo work. Do you ever get a chance to read with the other actors? Or is it primarily yourself in the booth?
I would say, for the most part, it’s me in the booth. I prefer working with other actors, or even working with a director who will read the lines, or say a line before mine the way that the director thinks the other actor specifically would say it – just so I have something to play off of. That’s why, for this movie, I held off on recording until the final days of production. I wanted the other actors to be mixed into the audio so that I could hear them in my headphones while I was performing.
What’s been your favorite scene to record so far in your Demon Slayer career?
Oh, it’s so hard. There are so many good moments, you know!? I would say the Entertainment District. I loved that fight against Gyutaro. Oh and Tengen! The ending of the Entertainment District was incredible. Lots of screaming, lots of completely visceral emotion. And sometimes it’s just really therapeutic to go into a booth, a soundproof room, and scream your head off.
Oh, I bet. Do you have any acting rituals you get going before you start recording?
Oh, yeah, I have way too many of those. I’ll drink tea. I’ll do vocal warm-ups, do a 30 to 40 minute singing vocal warm-up. I’ll use a neti pot to clear out my sinuses, which is probably TMI. But I do everything I can to really prepare myself. Sometimes, that preparation for acting – to get your brain working and get everything moving – is just going outside and going on a jog. Going for a run for a little bit makes you just feel much better and ready to perform. When we dub, it’s very much, “Go, go, go, go, go! Here’s a line. Read it, do it.” And you don’t have too much time to think exactly about how exactly you’re going to do the line. You’re just living in the moment.
Moving on to video games for a little bit, you’re the voice of male Byleth from the Fire Emblem games. What’s it like playing a silent protagonist, and then getting opportunities to flesh them out in subsequent spin-offs and sequels where that silence isn’t as pronounced?
Very surreal. I had friends who played Fire Emblem, but I hadn’t played it until I got into Three Houses, funny enough. It’s just hard to believe I got to be a part of this legacy for Nintendo. I remember when Byleth got put into Super Smash Bros., I wasn’t told about it. I’ll tell you the story about what happened. When they book you for recording, they say something like, “Oh, here’s a project code that you’re working on.” Sometimes it’s something random, like “White Snow 3” or something.
I knew what the project code was for Fire Emblem, so I went into the booth, and I started working on what I was told was Three Houses DLC. They told me, “This is Fire Emblem: Three Houses DLC!” Halfway through recording, we got to a part where I actually had to match my voice to picture, which was the delivering of the Smash letter. And I saw the picture, and I looked at the director, and I said, “What is going on? I’m so confused. Why is the Smash letter there? What is happening!?” And the director and producer are laughing their asses off. They think it’s the funniest thing ever. I’m like, “What, guys!?” I’m really confused.
They say, “This isn’t actually Three Houses DLC. This is Smash Bros., Byleth is going to be a playable, and if you tell anyone, we will kill you. So don’t tell anyone!” That was probably the hardest secret I ever had to keep. I would have weekly tourneys where I would play with my friends, and we would all hang out, and kind of theorize, “Oh, who’s the next character they’re gonna put into Smash?” This was before Sora came out. Everyone was like, “Sora, please, please be Sora!” And I secretly knew that it was gonna be Byleth, but I just couldn’t tell anyone for a very, very long time.
How long did you have to hold onto that secret?
Oh, months and months and months. It wasn’t an entire year, but it felt like forever to me,
Are there cases where you go into the booth for something, and you just never find out what the project is?
That has happened before. Some actors probably just don’t ask, but if I didn’t ask what the project was, I probably wouldn’t know. When I go in, I always want to know what I’m doing. I’m like, “Guys, I’ve already signed the NDA. Obviously, I’m not going to say anything until it comes out. What is this?”
Do you feel like that lack of context affects your performance?
It can sometimes. If you’re a fan of specific games or genres, you sort of know what type of performance they’re going for, whether it’s a more theatrical or animated performance, or if it’s just super grounded, like you’re doing on camera and film. But usually the director is there, and they guide you in the right way.
It might be like picking a favorite child, but do you have a favorite role you’ve done?
Oh, wow. It is like picking a favorite child. That’s really, really hard. I get asked that question a lot too, even at conventions, “Oh, you’ve done this and that and and this game and this anime! Which one’s better, which one’s your favorite?” And every single one is so different. I can’t really pick one, to be honest with you. I don’t want to pick one! But I loved working on Dragon Ball, because that was a childhood bucket list thing for me. Same with Smash Bros. Being in that was incredible. NieR Replicant was super fun. Obviously, Demon Slayer – it’s changed my life. It’s added so many new opportunities to my career. I’ve gotten to travel the world because of that show and meet so many people. Every role means something different to me.
I’m glad you mentioned NieR Replicant. NieR is one of the most emotional and subversive games ever made, and you played the main character pre Time-Skip. What was it like doing voiceover for a game with such a charged story?
It was so cool. I unfortunately hadn’t played the game yet up until that point, but I watched a lot of clips. I watched a lot of Father Nier’s performance just to see if it would give me a feel for what the character was. To be honest, it didn’t, because the character was so different, but the team at Square was super nice and awesome. They gave me a whole PDF of the NieR universe’s lore for everything, even the Drakengard games. I’m not even kidding, it was a 30-page PDF. I read through all of it to make sense of what exactly I was doing. It was so, so fun to go in there. Even though I recorded my lines individually, I got to hear snippets of Liam O’Brien and Laura Bailey’s performances, and every single time, just hearing those guys in my headphones, would put a smile on my face. They’re they’re some of my voice acting heroes.
Do you often get like those big context PDFs for projects, or is NieR an exception?
NieR is definitely an exception, but I wish that I did get more stuff like that – just more info about the project and the character or something that I could reference. We don’t always have a lot of time recording these projects. I think people might assume that there’s some long, intricate table read where I get to sit down and talk with the writers and the producer, but that doesn’t really happen. If you have questions or something you want to incorporate into your performance, you usually ask them while you’re working on the thing, and then hopefully they’ll be able to answer your question.
In cases where time and opportunity allow you to do so, how much research do you like to put into your characters?
A decent amount. I try to find any source material that the project has. For NieR, it was the previous game, even though the protagonist character was entirely different – it was a father figure versus a brother figure. I’ll read a manga. For One-Punch Man, I was a fan of the original web comic, so when I ended up actually booking that role, that was insane for me. A lot of my friends online had said, “Oh, wait until this becomes an anime. This is going to be sick, dude. I wonder who’s going to dub the characters and all that?” That was very surreal. I can’t believe that one worked out for me, but I do my best to look into it as much as I can and see what’s out there, because I feel like it only ever helps me get the sense of the character. And even if I don’t necessarily have a sense of the character, I at least have confidence that I have a sense of the character, and that comes through in my performance.
I know it’s probably not possible, given just how stacked your resume is, but have you played all the games you’ve done voice work for?
Oh, I don’t know if I’ve played them all – not every single one. There’s a couple that I’m missing. I got to be in World of Warcraft, and I was in a very specific part of the game, so I didn’t get to that. Technically, I was a WoW player, but I didn’t play that specific expansion. I guess you could save the game. But I’m definitely missing some.
When it comes to the ones that you have played, do you tend to gravitate to the characters that you voice? Are you a Byleth main Smash?
It’s funny, before Byleth came out, I was a Jigglypuff main. I just thought it would be so funny to lose to Jigglypuff. That’s what made me want to play that character, just so I could piss all my friends off. After Byleth came out, I started playing as him. He’s very different than Jigglypuff, which means I sucked. I was very, very bad with Byleth, and I would rage online because I was so awful as him. It’s a curse – you get to play a character and be a part of Smash, and you suck as your character that you got. I ended up practicing a lot, though, and I will say Byleth and Jigglypuff are my two best, so I have improved my skills a lot.
When it comes to the audition process for different roles, do you audition for specific characters, or is a blanket deal where your voice is matched to who the director thinks your voice you’d work best with?
That’s a good question. Usually, I do get specific auditions for characters. That has happened in the past, where a director will say, “Hey, I heard you audition for the main character in this show, but I wanted to give you this character instead”, and they’ll just auto-cast you based on that audition that you did before, because they can hear it. Maybe they’ve worked with you, and they know that you have that range to be able to portray this character. Or they’ll just bring you into a session, and it’ll be a low-time session, so for a couple hours, you’ll go in and record for whatever character they try to auto-cast you as, and then they’re like, “Oh, yeah, it sounds great” You’re gonna keep playing this role for another five years.”
With something like Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, what was that audition process like?
So I had been going to conventions and meeting a lot of the Dragon Ball actors there, which was crazy to me – they’re my heroes. I grew up watching Dragon Ball. I would listen to Chris Sabat, Sean Schemmel, Monica Rial, and Sonny Strait. Meeting them in person was surreal. So I got to meet Chris Sabat, talked with him for a little while, and we went out to dinner one night, and I was just doing stupid impressions, and really weird voices, and he called me up a few months later and said, “Hey, remember voice you were doing at dinner that one night? I got a character that I think is gonna work for that voice. Can you send me an audition by tomorrow or something?”
So he sent me Dr. Hedo, and I did the audition. But then I think he kicked it back to me, and said, “Yeah, like, it’s great, but can you actually make it even more annoying?” He gave me direction on the audition, so I did another take, and I think he submitted it to the company, and then they cast me as as Dr. Hedo. I flew out to Texas to record that role over the course of a weekend, and it was just me, Chris Sabat, and Rawly Pickens, and we were just in the gigantic Crunchyroll building all by ourselves, recording in a booth.
What a crazy way to get the role!
It was so random, but sometimes weird stuff like that happens, and you just have to be ready for it. You always have that part of your brain turned on – you’re ready to perform and just do something weird. And it was a weird role for me too. Dr. Hedo has a whole different kind of voice than you know what I usually do, but I just had a lot of fun with it.
As a Dragon Ball fan, how happy are you to be part of the franchise now?
Oh, it’s insane. And he’s a part of the OG lineage too. He’s Dr. Gero’s grandson. That’s mind-blowing. It feels awesome to be a part of it, and I hope I have a chance to return or do something else like the new series or a video game. Whatever it is, I’d love to come back.
I was gonna ask you, are you excited about the Dragon Ball Super remake?
Yeah, I think that’s super cool! No pun intended. I’m excited to see it. I’m sure it’ll be great.
The Voice of Toy Freddy Kellen Goff Talks FNAF, Scott Cawthon, & Voice Acting
Kellen Goff breaks down voice acting, the different mediums he’s worked in, working with Scott Cawthon on FNAF, and his role as Toy Freddy in FNAF2.
What are some of your favorite anime franchises of all time?
Oh, wow. Dragon Ball, Naruto, Code Geass, Death Note, of course – the classic – my favorite one is Your Lie in April, though, just because I grew up playing piano, I am a long-time piano player. That series really resonated with me. Every episode felt five minutes long because it was so good. I was just so entranced by that show, and everything about it… the music and the way that it played into your emotions and the animation.
So you’ve also lent a lot of your talents to different JRPGs. Do you have a favorite JRPG franchise?
Oh, that’s hard. Can I say Pokémon? I would say Pokémon. I think that’s the longest one I’ve been with. That was like my intro to JRPGs. I play every single Pokémon game that comes out, and I’ll go shiny hunting.
This being GameRant, I do have to ask, what games are you playing right now?
So it’s kind of embarrassing. I haven’t played it yet, but I just downloaded Red Dead Redemption 2. So good. I just got it, and I am absolutely loving it. I’m only five or six hours in, but it’s so cool. I’ve always wanted to be a cowboy.
Top five video games?
Probably Halo 3, Kingdom Hearts II, Persona 4 Golden, Super Mario World, and Donkey Kong Country.
Great list. Jumping back to your career, I’d love to talk about Cyberpunk a little bit. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is heralded as one of the greatest anime ever made. How do you reflect on that experience?
It was very surreal. I got that role. I was asked to audition for that role. When I had COVID, I was so sick, and it was the worst timing possible. But I got a call from Wendy Lee, and she said, “Hey, you know, we’ve been auditioning this show, and we haven’t really found the person we’re looking for, and I was just wondering if you want to give it a shot and see what it is?” I was like, “I’m so down to try. I’m always down to try. But unfortunately, I’m extremely sick right now, as in, I’m awake for maybe three hours a day.” Like, that’s how sick I was. And she gave me a deadline for the audition, and I’m like, “Please, can you push it back to give me another week or something so I can recover?” And she was able to do that, but I still was not vocally there.
My voice sounded very hoarse. I was trying to get my voice back. I did everything I possibly could. I took all of the meds. I went and sat in a sauna. I just did everything I could to get my voice back to sounding somewhat normal. I remember sending in my audition. I wasn’t given too much detail on what that project was. It just said, “Oh, it’s David. He is a street kid and kind of lives in a dystopian world and things are cybernetic or cyberpunk.” They might have actually used that wording, and that kind of made me think, maybe this is Cyberpunk 2077. I remember I sent in my audition, and a week later, the director called me, like, “Hey, I got great news. You got it! You’re gonna be our David.” And at the time, I didn’t know what that meant. Like, cool. Another job, I guess. We’ll see what this is. I didn’t even know that this was the main character. I go in and record on the first day, and they have a team of people – a very small team from Poland and a team from Japan – just patching in.
I just start asking a lot of questions about it. So what exactly is this? And then they told me, this is Cyberpunk Edgerunners, and it’s an anime. It’s based on the video game, but it’s a prequel to the game. I thought that was really interesting, because I had played a little bit of 2077 so I knew some of the lingo. I remember talking to the team, and they were impressed that I knew some of the different things and references that I saw. And I’m like, “Oh, look, it’s the koi fish” and they’re like, “Whoa, how do you know what that is?” I’m like, “Well, I know the game, you know?” The team never thought that it would become what it did.
I was told they had no plans to ever do merchandise for the show. They didn’t expect it to be big after they released it on Netflix. They ended up having to hire, I believe, a whole department for merchandise, to put out merch for the show. That was probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. Because the writers were on the line, they were so receptive to what I had to say. It’s not that it doesn’t happen, but I think a lot of the companies are very strict on what they want specifically. They’re very much, “You’re doing the voice and you’re playing the character, but we want to keep this specific line.” But there were times when I would be doing a line and everybody kind of thought, maybe there’s something else, you know?
I think a lot of people in that room while recording had that thought. I would say, “Hey guys, I have an idea. Can we record something I want to check out?” And nine times out of 10, they would keep whatever idea I had, whether it was David saying a swear word at the end of the line, or mumbling a little bit before the line, or even just changing it entirely to fit the same kind of context they’re going for to make it sound more grounded and realistic. When it comes to anime projects, we were definitely able to take our time with that show. We took a lot of time just making sure that it was done right. And I’m so thankful for it. Those guys are just freaking awesome to work with. It was such a pleasure, such a fun time.
Building off that, how much liberty do you get with something like Tanjiro and Demon Slayer when it comes to putting your own spin and take on the character?
Tanjiro, I will say, is a little bit more strict. Sometimes we try to change things, and they’re like, “That’s too much liberty. You can’t do that.: And so maybe I’ll say something else instead. Either way, I always do my best. I listen to the producers, and I try to make them happy, and the director too. There was a moment in this new movie where they did listen to what I had to say. I’ll tell you exactly why. It was when Tanjiro was giving a speech to Akaza, and he says, “The strong should aid and protect the weak”.
I remember reading the manga, and I knew that that was the exact line that he said in the manga. I said, “Guys, I think that he should keep this line.” What it was written as was something entirely different, but I think that this would fit the mouth flaps. “Why don’t we just literally use exactly what was in the manga? That makes sense”. They looked it up as we were recording, and I ended up laying down the track, and they said, “Yeah, you’re right. You’re right. Let’s let’s keep that.”
- Release Date
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April 6, 2019
- Network
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Adult Swim
