Actors Sonny Strait and Eric Vale, who voice the My Hero Academia villains Re-Destro and Tomura Shigaraki respectively, are about to go head-to-head in the anime's upcoming My Villain Academia arc. This will be quite a change for the two veteran talents since the dynamic duo has worked together on numerous other projects as heroic allies in big-name series including Dragon Ball and One Piece.
A major deviation from their normal roles, both Strait and Vale discussed what these changes mean to them as actors and, particularly, what they're looking forward to in the coming episodes. They should expect quite a substantial amount of airtime in the near future as the sudden emergence of the villain Re-Destro sees him acting with a swift vengeance as he endeavors to extinguish Tomura Shigaraki and his beleaguered League of Villains along with anyone else who regulates quirks.
Unlike their characters, Strait and Vale bantered and joked with each other quite freely during their interview, undoubtedly because of their longstanding professional relationship over the years. Screen Rant learned a lot about how they feel about their characters and the My Hero Academia franchise and got to experience firsthand who the actors are as people behind the mic.
Screen Rant: So first off, we have Krillin slash Bardock and Trunks from Dragon Ball, Sanji and Usopp from One Piece, and now Re-Destro and Shigaraki from My Hero Academia.
Sonny Strait: It’s a full room!
After voicing characters from the same franchises over the years, what’s it like working together again in such different roles in My Hero Academia?
Sonny Strait: Any time I get to work with Eric, and I have had the honor of directing some of his parts, it’s been awesome. He puts so much into it. He’s an artist with how he approaches everything he does. It is great to work with him on anything.
Eric Vale: Wow. I’ll say Sonny is okay to work with sometimes.
Sonny Strait: I was expecting that.
Eric Vale: Truthfully, it’s wonderful to be able to do some things with Sonny again. Granted, we are doing it remotely at this point. Everybody is remote. But it’s fantastic.
Sonny Strait: It’s like an old shoe.
Eric Vale: I’m an old shoe.
Sonny Strait: It smells weird, might not fit like it used to, but you'll wear it because it’s so stylish.
Eric Vale: You should have also mentioned leathery.
Sonny Strait: And I’ve got a great tongue. Maybe I should have said I have a great sole. That’s not true either though.
That was amazing. So, Sonny, Re-Destro was one of those surprise characters I wasn’t expecting in My Hero Academia, but was glad when he appeared just because it just adds to the chaos. Even though he’s just had a minimal appearance, what are you most excited about his character so far?
Sonny Strait: I love the complexity of his character. He has some conflicting emotional things going inside of him. I dig anything like that because it allows you to delve deeper as an actor to find empathy for this very complex guy.
I’ve been hearing that a lot from other My Hero Academia voice actors.
Sonny Strait: That’s probably why the show is still going on.
The voices of characters like Re-Destro and even Fire Force’s Joker definitely changed it up for you in comparison to your other big names like Krillin from Dragon Ball and Usopp from One Piece. So it must have been nice to get that change.
Sonny Strait: Generally, I play goofy characters or gags, and sometimes they’re one in the same. So when I get to branch out with a villain like Joker and now with Re-Destro, who is such a cool character, I get really excited that I can get behind the wheel.
I believe you were Present Mic at one point, but were you following My Hero Academia up until you got rehired for Re-Destro? Or did you have to jump in quickly?
Sonny Strait: I’ve been really behind. I’m still catching up. I’m reading the manga, learning his path and watching a lot of YouTube videos anlayzing his character. That’s what’s amazing about the world we live in today. You can research a character so easily now. You just go online.
So, Eric, you’ve also played a lot of heroes. Shigaraki is a big shift from that. His voice is especially off-putting. What’s it been like to voice such a character in comparison to those with deep booming voices like Sanji and a more moderate, even sounding voice like Trunks?
Eric Vale: It’s a release. You know, for the villain you need to play somebody who is as far down the road for a bad guy as possible - [it's] fun. I’ve been fortunate to have had some great characters, a lot of whom are good guys, so to be able to dive into a bad guy with such a fun creative voice and characterization as Shigaraki is just wonderful. And the fan response has been huge.
Did you come up with his voice on your own? Just because it’s so unique and disturbing.
Eric Vale: It wasn’t all me. I was in the booth with the director, she had an idea of the way the character would be, and let me give her my take on the character first. And then we worked a little back and forth on what she thought the voice should sound like and I fine tuned it to those specifications.
You mentioned you would give your take on Shigaraki?
Eric Vale: My vocal ideas, yes. At first, I wanted to know if his voice should be real deep [speaks deeply] or real high up here [speaks in falsetto]. You have to find a place where it will all end up. I would begin like this [speaks in a new voice], and she would say, “More breathier.” So something like this [makes his voice breathier]. Then she said, “Now put a little whine to it,” so I would speak something like this [speaks like Shigaraki], and it developed like that, going back and forth.
Wow. Thanks for doing that. So Shigaraki has been out of the game for a while. What are you looking forward to most after such a reprieve?
Eric Vale: Who’s my character again? Shigaraki? [laughs]
More attention. I need more attention in my life. I need a microscope on my performance because that doesn’t make me nervous at all. I’m looking forward to making the fans happy with what we do. That's what I really want. It’s my job to make sure I am honoring the character in the show. It’s one of my responsibilities. But it is also my responsibility to make sure the fans are happy, so I’m really nervous. I’ve been told by a lot of fans that they are looking forward to what’s going to happen. That is rare. Oftentimes these shows that we work on aren’t too long so you can be finished with a show before you even hear any feedback. But we are right at the peak of My Hero Academia, and we get feedback week to week. That’s not scary…
Sonny was saying that he read ahead to catch up. Did you ever read ahead?
Eric Vale: I had a vague understanding. I don’t want to know too much until I get into the booth and start voicing it.
Sonny Strait: That’s a legitimate approach, so you act blind as you react to the character. For me, it depends on the show. This show has so many high expectations, and I'm coming in now in the middle of it. So I’m like, “I better know what the hell is going on.” So I’m desperately researching that now.
What shows did you do it for?
Sonny Strait: I did that for One Piece, but generally, I don’t. I like to be surprised by it like Eric. I really like One Piece as a manga and I'm really liking My Hero Academia as a manga, too.
There's a lot going on right now in the manga.
Eric Vale: I stay in the moment, I don’t read ahead. It's hard though. You work in anime, and it’s such a specific, really pretty intense industry, so by the time my free time rolls around, I read different books like non-fiction.
Like what specifically?
Eric Vale: I’m reading about the Alamo.
Sonny Strait: See, Eric, is a writer. He reads real books. I read comic books.
Eric Vale: I read comic books!
Sonny Strait: Yeah? What are you into?
Eric Vale: [Pauses.] Old ones.
Sonny Strait: I’m with you there. Not a lot out there unless it’s been running for a long time.
Eric Vale: I still re-read the graphic novels that I had back in high school.
Sonny Strait: What’s your favorite?
Eric Vale: Watchmen is good. But I always liked Arkham Asylum.
Sonny Strait: Oh, yeah, that’s such a great book. The story is good, but the art especially. Oops. We were told not to mention these other intellectual properties. My Hero Academia!
New episodes of My Hero Academia are available Saturdays on Funimation.
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