If you have watched a dubbed anime you have probably heard some of the same voices in most of the popular anime. This is predominately due to how anime started and grew in America. Over the last decade, anime has gone from a niche trend that certain people enjoy to an almost culturally accepted norm. In anime, names like Chris Sabat, Vic Mignogna, Johnny Young Bosch, Tia Ballard, Nolan North, Tara Strong, Yuri Lowenthal, Frank Welker, Billy West, Mel Blanc, Mark Hamil, Steve Blum, and John DeMaggio names come to mind when talking about voice acting; however, this one name that some overlooked despite the magnitude of roles he has been a part of. We are talking about John Swasey.
For those who do not know, John Swasey has voiced 408 different characters in 298 titles. At Ohayocon 2022, we had the opportunity to speak with him. With My Hero Academia coming back for its 6th season, All for One’s voice actor should make a return appearance. Learn about his experiences in the industry
Introductions
Matt: Hi my name is Matt.
John: Hi I’m John Swasey, a voice actor based out of Houston, TX. I’m the voice of All for One from My Hero Academia, Crocodile from One Piece, Hohenheim from Fullmetal Alchemist, Lord death from Soul Eater, Undertaker in Black Butler, and a host of others.
Intro to Acting
Matt – So what got you into voice acting?
John Swasey- I’ve been an actor for about 30 years and about seven or so years into my career, I was asked if I wanted to audition for this thing called anime. I was like what’s anime, they said it’s Japanese animation, and I’m like, I don’t speak Japanese. They say no no no, we dub it into English. It just happened to be, it’s a cliche, but being in the right place at the right time.
I live in Houston, a company in Houston called ADD Films which is now called Sentai was doing this thing called anime and I started doing it and for the first few years I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, I knew what I was doing as an actor, but I didn’t even understand what anime was, why does everybody have blue hair? I don’t understand. And after a while, though I went whoa this is kind of a thing. And then ADD turned out to be the #1 producer of anime in North America, then Funimation came along, and OkraTron 5000, Rooster Teeth, and Gearbox. The whole thing just exploded, I was able to be very fortunate to get in on the ground floor basically.
One Character You Have Always Wanted to Voice.
Matt – So you’ve voiced a lot of characters, but is there one specific one you’ve always wanted to voice? That you didn’t or you auditioned for it and didn’t get it.
John Swasey – Basically. It is really, you know, it’s always a bit of a disappointment when you audition for something and don’t get it. But I’ve done this long enough that and I, you know, I believe in a higher power, and thank I just think, “you know when you don’t get something that’s really kind of a reason for it and it’s maybe so something else is going to come along. There have been times when you audition for something and you don’t get it and then something else comes along and it’s like, look I would have gotten that. I wouldn’t be able to do this and that character just died, you know. I didn’t know that but it did.
So, I don’t, there’s really nobody that I go, “I wish I would have gotten that role” or anything like that. I feel very fortunate for the roles I’ve gotten and I’m very grateful to the directors and the studios that have hired me and trusted me to bring life to their property. So, yeah, there’s no regrets on my end.
Someone you wish you could work with
Matt – I know you guys don’t play off of each other in the booth, but is there one you wish you could work with directly?
John Swasey- You know, that’s an interesting question. We don’t, we record solo, and a lot of times, we don’t get a chance to interact and so it makes the acting very difficult sometimes. As an actor, what I like to do is, you know, I’ll try to read the lines that are ahead of mine coming up, so I can get an idea of the context. But the closest thing we really have to that is if you’re one of the last actors coming in, everybody else is already in place. So you can kind of play off of those performances. It’s not really playing off each other in the booth. And what we do, there’s really no way to do that because we’re actually syncing to lip flaps.
So there’s no. Your Instinct might be to interrupt you but you can’t because that character doesn’t interrupt on camera. So yeah, I mean, I’ve just grown so accustomed to this. I just had even projects I’ve done on my own, we do it one at a time and put it together. Now, what we can do is we’ll put it together and then go you know what, I need to bring you back in because the way you read that one line doesn’t work with the way; it doesn’t sound like the right context.
Voicing a game character
Matt – Is there a game character you wanted to play?
John Swasey – You know, all of them. Again, that’s another one where Borderlands 2, I really wanted to audition for Handsome Jack and Jamie Clark got it. He’s a magnificent actor and did an outstanding job with it and a hell of a human being to boot. But you know, had I gotten that, I would have got to do something really fun like Salvador. Video games are a lot of fun. I’ve always enjoyed the video game world. I wish I could do more of it.
Do you play video games?
Matt- Do you play video games in your free time?
John Swasey – I do not I’m not a gamer. Matter of fact, last year during the pandemic FUNimation had an online convention they did. And as part of the thing, they wanted to have a battle between AlMight and All for One in the game. And I said, okay. And I concocted a plan where my son because they had sent me a headset and I could control the video, and my son sat below the camera line and I had an unplugged controller. He was actually playing the game and every now and then he would go Dooh!, and I’m like shut up. Don’t say that. Anyway, I ended up getting my butt whooped.
Matt – So since you don’t really play games. Does he have a favorite Pokemon or villager from Animal Crossing?
John – He’s he’s really into Pokemon. I don’t know if he doesn’t, he might, I don’t know.
Cats vs Dogs
Matt- Cats or dogs?
John – Dogs
Matt – Did you previously have one? If so, what type?
John Swasey- Yeah, my last dog was a walker coonhound. Unfortunately, he had developed a brain tumor and we had to put him down after almost 6 years. That was really sad, but, my favorite dog breed of all time is black labs. I love them. I had one in college and then afterwards, and my wife doesn’t want me to get it one again because she was like, it was a girl, dog. My wife swears to this day that, her name is boo, she hated my guts because I was The Other Woman in your life. She was a dog! Like I know.
An Obscure Fact
Matt – An obscure fact people wouldn’t know?
John – I am related to John Allen Swasey who was a captain of the Mayflower. Not like the voyage that brought the pilgrims over. But on a subsequent Voyage, he kept it.
Favorite Recreation activity
Matt – Favorite recreational activity?
John Swasey – Legal or illegal? I’m kidding.
Matt – I mean it could be something illegal here, but legal there, so you never know.
John – That’s true. That’s true. No might my favorite thing is recreational activity is playing my guitar.
Matt – Is there any specific band or favorite song?
John – Oh, yes. As you can tell here, maybe not based on my mask. I’m a huge Deadhead. I love The Grateful dead, that all things, jam band.
One Voice Acting
Matt – One voice actor you look up to?
John – So yeah, one voice actor. I look up to either.
Matt – It can even be from the old talkies.
John Swasey – So, there’s so many. I mean, Mel Blanc, obviously would be a kind of a go-to. Mike Henry from Family Guy and I say and Seth MacFarlane. I actually lived in LA for a while. I got to know Mike Henry and become friends. This was before he even did Family Guy and he’s super talented and super reserved and very low-key. Super nice guy and I just love the characters that he comes up with. He’s very very creative.
Matt- My biggest problem is when walking around and they don’t know who you are. You could walk up to somebody and you wouldn’t necessarily know. That’s actually how I met Chris Sabat. We were waiting in line at E3. We just started talking and I go your voice sounds familiar but I don’t know who you are.
John – I won’t speak for All actors, but I know a lot of actors they say like, oh, I love doing this because I’m not recognizable, loving was like, You know, just a very nature that you’re an actor means you’ve got a level of insecurity and you need praise and adoration. And so when people recognize you, it is a pretty cool deal Especially when your wife is standing there, and your like, HA! told you I’m a big deal.
Socials
Matt – That’s all my questions. Are there any socials you’d like to plug?
John Swasey – Yeah, come visit, me on Instagram, Twitter, Voices of John Swasey on Facebook, or just my Facebook. I’m one of the people that never separated my personal from my work and it’s just like blew up and I don’t have the time to go through it now and separate it. So come friend me, but I will tell you straight up. I’m horrible about responding. I will respond, you know if I can and I don’t always so keep trying. Thanks so much for having me.
