Trollhunters Defenders of Arcadia – Con talks Trollhunting and Voicing Toby with Tales of Arcadia star Charlie Saxton

Trollhunters Defenders of Arcadia – Con talks Trollhunting and Voicing Toby with Tales of Arcadia star Charlie Saxton!!!

Tea or coffee and why? (Con age 13)

Charlie Saxton – I am going to cop out and say both because they each have a particular set of special healing properties. Coffee has the caffeine you need to wake you up and give you that kick in the butt to start your day and keep you energised. Tea has its healing properties to help my tummy ache when I’ve had too much coffee to drink. I also like to have a nice cup of sleepy time tea before I go to bed. It’s really nice, a little bit of camomile. It’s tough I can’t cheat because I love them both equally, they’re very important to my life. I will say I started drinking tea first and then I joined coffee later in life.

In real life would you rather have a massive sword, a glowing blue aura or invincible armour and why? You can only pick one!!! (Con age 13)

Charlie Saxton – If I had to pick one, I would probably go with the armour because a gigantic sword sounds cool, but it’s probably very heavy. A blue aura might look neat, but what does it do? Do I just glow? And then everyone’s like, “Hey man, you’re glowing”. And I’m like “I know”. So that’s kind of the end of that. I would definitely choose the armour because I tend to trip from time to time, I have a lot of steps in my house and I’m always falling over so I’m sure I would save a couple of injuries to my shins and my funny bones if I was wearing some invincible armour for sure.

What’s the easiest and hardest thing about voicing animated characters? (Con age 13)

Charlie Saxton – I would say the easiest is definitely the lack of having to get ready. I think I spent more time getting prepared for this interview. And when I say getting prepared, I don’t mean learning lines and doing the work as an actor. I’m literally saying I’ll go to voice over recordings in my pyjamas. I’ll go record Troll Hunters in some basketball shorts and a T-shirt that I slept in and no one will be any the wiser. So that’s definitely the easiest part, the casualness in terms of what you need to look like for the job.

The hardest part is definitely that you’re not really interacting with another actor, you’re kind of in the booth by yourself. However, sometimes when we would do Troll Hunters, I would have Rodrigo Blaas or Brook Chalmers or any of the directors that were working on that episode, they would be in the room with me and they would help me. They would do dialogue with me as well. I would love to torture Rodrigo because he is the voice of Gnome Chomsky, so whenever there was a scene with Tobey and Noam Chomsky, I would purposely be like, can you just give him to me? I need the motivation. Really I just liked hearing Rodrigo doing that Noam Chomsky voice. So that’s definitely the hardest part about voiceover animation, is that when you’re acting in live action, you have your environment and other people and other things around you to react off of. It’s different in voiceover, more challenging but also more freeing in a way, because there’s no holds barred and you can do whatever you want.

What do you find easiest – voicing animated Films/Shows or video games? (Con age 13)

Charlie Saxton – Recording a video game is interesting and it’s more fun because there are different paths that you can take as the person playing the game. So for all the other characters in that game, we have to record all those different responses or answers. In that regard, it’s more difficult as you have multiple different storylines going on at once. Whereas when you record a film or television show, there’s one cohesive storyline that you as the viewer follow. As the game player, you can choose your own story. So for recording voiceover, it’s definitely bit more challenging because you’re doing multiple takes of different things and different actions and different variations of the lines.

If you were a Trollhunter do you think you would be good at it? And if not – why not? (Con age 13)

Charlie Saxton – I think I would have the bravery and the good nature and the morals of a troll hunter. In terms of the physical strength and stamina and cool headedness required to do that…I don’t know, I get a little nervous if I have to order a pizza over the phone, I don’t think I’d do too well facing a 40 foot Bular right in my face. But I would try my best.

If your best friend was Trollhunter – what qualities do you have that could aid them with Trollhunting? (Con age 13)

Charlie Saxton – Now we’re talking. I’d definitely be there to pat them on the back and give them words of encouragement, maybe a little humour in case times are tough. Snacks! I will have snacks because you have to be prepared as a troll hunter. You need your protein. You need your vitamins. The fight never stops. So, you have to make sure that you’re fully nourished. And then if things were really, really rough and we weren’t sure what was going to happen, I’d pull out my phone, I’d call the Uber, and we’re good to go. We’d get out of there.

What was the funniest thing that happened while making the game? (Con age 13)

Charlie Saxton – I can recall one particular moment where I believe I was recording a fight sequence that really involved a lot of “effort” is the term that is used in the industry. So the sound effects I make using my mouth. And I was doing a guttural kind of almost a puking sound. And let’s just say that I got a little too into it. I committed a little too much and I almost spewed right there in the recording booth, I kind of had to take a moment to pause and say, hold on. These are not fake gagging voices that I’m taping now, these are authentic. So, you should keep them but I need a moment! So that was that was probably one of the funniest experiences recording a video game.

If you could have a video game based on your life what type of game would it be and what would happen in it? (Con age 13)

Charlie Saxton – Oh, I think my real life video game would definitely be one of those old school arcade games where you and three of your friends can all gather around and you’re all walking around together and mashing buttons. You get to be me as well as my bandmates because I’m in a punk band. The whole point of the game would be that we’re all trying to go eat Korean barbecue because we love Korean barbecue. So we have to walk through the mean streets of Los Angeles, dodging bad guys and other bands who were trying to steal our equipment or dodging parking tickets because we parked too close to a fire hydrant, just dodging all the things that a typical band member usually faces. And then for the mini games; you would have to practice your guitar so there’d be a little Guitar Hero mini game thrown in there. Then the whole point of Korean barbecue is you have to cook your own food, so that would be the final level, you and your friends have to cook your own Korean barbecue. And that’s basically my life in a video game.

DreamWorks Trollhunters Defenders of Arcadia review by Con CLICK HERE!!!