GEEKPR0N’s Q&A with Scott McNeil
By this point, actor Scott McNeil is pretty much part of the scenery when it comes to the nerd sub-culture in the US and Canada. Originally born in Australia, his family moved to Canada when he was a child and from his youth he dived face-first into acting, and has been acting since the late 1980’s and continues to work today. He has more than likely provided voice acting in at least half of the things that defined your childhood, including ReBoot, Beast Wars, Dragon Ball Z, InuYasha, and X-Men: Evolution. He has also been featured in live-action roles for film and television such as Supernatural and Psych. It’s also worth noting that he has an incredible force of personality that has long since established him as a fan favourite. GEEKPR0N had the privilege of an exclusive Q&A with Scott when he appeared at Anime North this weekend as a guest.
How on earth do you keep up these amazing levels of energy as you’re getting older?
I run on pure adrenaline and I just suck the energy out of everyone at a con. I’ll go to an event with twenty-thousand people going “wooooo-hooooo!” and I think, it’s mine! These kids’ll draw the life outta me, and I love them for it.
Do you have any dreams projects you’d love to do as an actor?
I have my ultimate dream project which I am now working on…but it hasn’t been officially announced yet. But as someone who is a gamer myself, there’s a particularly wonderful franchise that I’ve been playing for, oh, say, nine years, that I am now, maaaaybe in possibly, but I can neither confirm nor deny these particular rumours. But my inner geeky fanboy is going crazy right now. I’m trying to be professional, very glad, but on the inside I’m going, “Oh my god jesus christ I can’t believe I’m here!!”
Who inspires you?
As far as influences, it’s no secret that I think the greatest voice actor to have ever graced this planet is Mel Blanc. It’s because of the soul that he imbues and infuses his characters with, is what I have always aspired to. You can do three thousand two hundred twenty seven voices, but you have to act. So when my therapist tells me that rabbits can’t talk, I know better! The reason I became a voice actor is another actor named Paul Frees, who was in everything! But, I was in Disneyland when I was twelve years old, obsessed with Disney, and I found out that the “Welcome Foolish Mortals!” voice at the Haunted Mansion was also the Pillsbury Doughboy. I thought, “I’m not alone! Other people hear the voices too!”. I think you need to continually aspire, I’m inspired by the people I work with back in Vancouver. I’m inspired when I come to a convention! I feel like in some existentialist way, I do voices for a living, I’m not changing the planet, I’m not doing anything! But at these events I get an incredible rush of energy, and I hear great stories about how my stuff can effect people in a way that’s surprising.
Why do you think that acting, performing arts, and even anime and cartoons are important for young people?
I’ll tell you what, if I didn’t spend my days in small padded rooms screaming, I’d be spending my days in small padded rooms screaming. But that is a question I’m constantly getting re-educated on myself. Because generally in the voice acting world, anime dubs are a secondary thing, you’re just going into a booth by yourself and acting with someone else’s lip movements. And it wasn’t until I started going to conventions til I started to realize that there was this breadth of fandom, and I’ve heard some pretty significant stories from people I’ve met at conventions about how they’ve utilized anime to get through things, and it’s powerful. Older Saturday morning cartoons used to be about saving the world in 22 minutes and selling some toys! And cartoons today have a little more depth, you have over-arching stories and you’re not trying to solve all the world’s problems in one episodes. And other than that I just don’t have other appreciable life skills. I mean, I can cook…?
If every single one of your characters got into a huge battle, what would happen? Who would win?
Now you have some idea of what it’s like inside my head every single day. Who would win? I think Hermey the Elf from Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys, I always thought that he was kind of a Super-Mutant. Or maybe Wasabi from Sushi Pack, he’s a tiny little blob who doesn’t even speak.
You do film and television work as well, how do you find it compared to voice acting?
It’s a lot more sitting around doing nothing. I really enjoy doing it, though it’s a different form of acting. It’s sixteen hours a day to get maybe ten seconds of footage. The Supernatural episode I was on, they cut every bit of dialogue that I had. I die a lot on camera, I’m really good at it! It’s how I choose roles now. In Psych I was stabbed viciously in the back by Christopher Lloyd. I’ve been cut in half by a broadsword on Highlander, and I did an episode of Primeval where I got eaten from the inside out by hoards of beetles. It’s a career choice, it’s what I specialized in when I studied theater.
With his array of wacky voices and quirks, McNeil is practically the patron saint of ADHD, but we love him for that very reason. We’ll be sure to continue following his career with baited breath.
