VAM 232 | Interview with Ben Diskin, Part 1
Welcome to episode 232 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Welcome to the first part of my interview with the multi-talented and Emmy award winning voice actor, Ben Diskin! You may be familiar with his voice acting work in animation including Eugene in Hey Arnold!, Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 2 in Codename: Kids Next Door, Eddie Brock and Venom in Spectacular Spider-Man, Keldor/Skeletor in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Skaar, Bulldozer, Fandral and Miek in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., and both Gonzo and Rizzo the Rat in Muppet Babies for which he won a Daytime Emmy award! In games you may have heard him as Glenn Lodbrok in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, Young Xehanort in the Kingdom Hearts series of games, and Franklin Lieste in Date Everything! Some of his anime roles include Kai in Blood+, Sai Yamanaka in Naruto Shippuden, Char Aznable in Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, and Haida in Aggretsuko.
In the first part of our discussion, Ben shares with me how he got started as an actor. As crazy at it might sound, for all intents and purposes, Ben was signed to his first acting agent in utero! His parents were both actors in Los Angeles, and when his mother was pregnant with him, her agent offered to represent Ben once he was born. As a baby, Ben started getting cast in commercials and other acting roles on-camera. It certainly helped that both his parents could not only coach him on his performances, but that they also had a realistic understanding of the challenges of pursuing an acting career. Unlike some stage parents, they didn’t need Ben to become a big star, they were just happy if he was enjoying himself. Any money he might make they planned to save for his college fund.
Little did they know that Ben would not only enjoy acting, he would became passionate about it. Acting was so important to him that even as a young child, he was willing to put up with the tedium one regularly experiences on a live-action set. Shooting actors on film can be a slow and laborious process. Often you have to arrive very early to be put through hair and makeup even though you may just end up sitting around for hours after that, waiting to be called to perform your one scene. You can imagine how frustrating this might be to a young person, but Ben was so eager to act that he was willing to endure it as long as he got his chance to play pretend.
In fact, Ben was so committed to the process of acting, that he soon felt frustrated as producers began to typecast him. He was hungry to play all sorts of different characters, not just the slightly nerdy kids he was often hired to portray on screen. He discovered that voice acting could offer him the opportunity to play a wide range of roles, and he need only be limited by his ability to act, and the sound of his voice, rather than by his physical appearance. He quickly set about expanding his vocal range so he could play as many characters as possible.
One of the things I find most interesting about Ben’s journey is that he experienced both the highs and the lows of acting at such an early age. For example, his young psyche had to come to grips with how being famous might affect his relationships with his peers. Early in our time together, Ben shares with me his story about letting his friends on the playground know that he had been cast in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Kindergarten Cop, and how through a series of misunderstandings, this actually damaged some of his friendships. He also shares with me an experience he had with a casting director who told him to his face to stop trying to play characters outside of where he was normally typecast. This experience made him so frustrated, that he resolved to find a way to prove that close-minded casting director wrong, by booking as many different types of characters as his vocal instrument would allow.
The pivotal mindset that supported Ben in the midst of these challenges was that he was fascinated with being an actor who could express things that were original and meaningful, and he cared very little about getting attention or approval from others. He was truly living the advice that I often repeat on this podcast, “Love the art in yourself more than yourself in the art”. I hope Ben’s story and his deep commitment to acting inspire all of you in the audience to do the same!
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