Anime North 2010 - Chris Ayres Press Conference

Trinity Blood was one of two shows (the other being Speed Grapher) that made Chris want to work for FUNimation. He enjoys playing villains, and this works will with his ability to lower the pitch of his voice while keeping a broad vocal range.

When it comes to voice acting, he says that generally it's not a good thing to get into too much of a pattern when portraying a character. However, a singsong type of pattern worked well for the arrogance of the Isaak Fernando von Kämpfer character in Trinity Blood.

When Chris and his brother, Greg, both have roles in the same show, Chris tends to play villains to the character his brother is playing more than allies. However, the reverse has also been true, where Greg has played a villain to a character Chris is playing. Chris said that he just gets excited whenever he gets to work with his brother, so it doesn't matter if they're playing characters who are not allies.

Chris noted that the voice patterns for himself and Greg are actually extremely similar, just that Greg's voice is higher and Chris's voice lower. They have yet to play brothers in any show, but they have played cousins before.

When asked about Ouran High School Host Club, Chris said that he doesn't think he could have played the role of Hikaru Hitachiin (his brother played Kaoru, who was a twin) because the role required a higher register. Higher voices are more difficult for Chris to play because he needs to concentrate more to maintain them and thus has a smaller vocal range to work with. However, he can easily lower his voice and maintain a large vocal range.

Mock Combat for Cosplay, a workshop series that Chris leads was started after some indirect encouragement from a colleague. Chris said that, because of his theatre background, he finds it odd when fans spend lots of time on preparing their costumes for cosplay and then rush the presentation. He thinks that the time spent on costuming and presentation should be more equal. Mock Combat for Cosplay is intended to help cosplayers work on combat skits to present their costumes and "anyone else that is interested in putting together fight work that is not only great looking but very safe for all parties involved."

In his spare time, Chris likes to read and has over 4000 DVDs. He describes himself as a horror junkie, but he also really likes comedy and improv. He says that lots of voice actors enjoy anime too.

Chris advises that if you want to get to know a voice actor better, if you can find something that they really like you can see another side of them if you can geek out together about a common interest. Chris's guilty pleasure is Neopets. His brother had initially suggested it to him and Chris thought it was just a silly site for kids, but Greg encouraged him to take a look at the Flash games, which Chris really enjoys. Chris says that he has over 7 million neopoints in the bank and is trying to get 10 million neopoints because that gets the best interest in the National Neopian bank.

On a side note, Moon Chase readers may be interested to know that I co-run a Sailor Moon themed guild on Neopets with another Moon Chase staff member. You can check out the Guardians of the Moonlight Guild if you are a member of Neopets. I'm Lanisatu over there, the other Moon Chase staff member is Firebal4. It's quiet now, but don't be afraid to start chatting in the forum :)

Chris also says that he likes the game Plants versus Zombies. He mostly enjoys combat games and RPGs. He said he can't really play motion simulator games because they give him motion sickness.

As an ADR Director, Chris says that his primary job is the stewardship of honouring someone else's creation, what they were trying to say, and their goals. That way, you can serve the story, fans, creators, licensers, et cetera. As a director, Chris only worries about being true to the spirit of a show. His advice, if you would like to become a director, is that communication is the most important thing. He also said that he learned the most from working with great directors (for good examples) and horrible directors (for examples of what not to do).

Interested in reading more about Christopher Ayres? Check out his website, his fan club Sippy Cups O' Doom, and the SippyCupO'Doom Yahoo group.

Stay tuned for the last of our Anime North convention coverage tomorrow!