Sakura Con 2011: Tiffany Grant Interview

This interview was recorded on video by Nico Nico, who have recently launched their U.S. site. If anyone has found the video, please let us know and we will add the link!

To start things off, Nico Nico asked Tiffany to record a message to anime fans in Japan. Tiffany said that she send warm wishes and prayers. She also wants to send love to all anime fans, as it allows her to continue doing the work she loves.

The last time Tiffany was at Sakura Con was in 2000. She said it seemed like the 2011 convention was twenty times larger, so it's a huge difference from before. She also said she was very impressed with how well run and well organized Sakura Con is.

When it comes to cosplay, Tiffany is always excited to see fans cosplaying the characters she's played, especially Asuka from Evangelion. Fans can also see pictures of Tiffany cosplaying some of her own characters in the photos on her website.

Tiffany said that her most "famous" line would have to be "what are you – stupid?" from Evangelion. Fans can hear voice samples on Tiffany's website here. She really liked that Asuka is a multi-faceted character and commented that the studio atmosphere is different for more serious scenes.

When preparing for a new role, Tiffany said she clears her mind and tries to start fresh for each role. She also listens to the Japanese performance to see how things were done, before recording in English. Her performance is informed by the original video as well as the director's input. She also noted that she often goes with her gut instinct of what feels right for the scene.

Tiffany has a background in theatre, even from the time she was a little girl. She has now been voice acting for over seventeen years. One of the reasons she got her first voice acting job is that she was an actor, so she got called to the audition. She was new to anime at the time.

She always had an interest in voicing, particularly mimicking voices and accents. Even as a child she made the connection that actors played the voices of cartoon characters. She wasn't originally sure how to get involved in voice acting, but when that first audition for a voice role came up; she went for it. Tiffany said she has been able to do a huge variety of characters because she does voice acting for anime. She loves her job and especially likes playing critters who make silly sounds.

Tiffany said that she finds voice acting is a very broad style of acting that is dramatic and requires projecting, which is similar to theatre acting. However, if being physical in a voice acting role, an actor needs to be conscious of the microphone placement.

Does Tiffany watch anime for fun? Sometimes she does. She said that she enjoys Miyazaki films and also really liked watching Fullmetal Alchemist. When watching anime, she doesn't tend to think that she'd rather play a character that has already been done, she just tries to enjoy watching it.

As a big Hello Kitty fan, Tiffany is always wearing something with Hello Kitty on it. At the interview, she was wearing a ring, watch, and had a bracelet charm that were all Hello Kitty related. Aside from Hello Kitty accessories, she was also wearing little Asuka earrings!

The manga series Gunsmith Cats: Burst! – which was the sequel to Gunsmith Cats – ended its run in North America last year, with the final volume being published in April 2010. Tiffany said that she hasn't read any of the manga volumes (of either Gunsmith Cats series, but she heard about how popular they were and that the series was a longer one. Tiffany played Becky Farrah in the OAV series of Gunsmith Cats and said she would love to play the role of Becky again if there were more episodes were made. She also said she found that character was the most like herself. On her website she even says that the voice of Becky is very close to her natural voice and she includes a clip of the "no pizza, no Chinese" line in her vocal samples.

Here's a fun fact for Moon Chase readers: Tiffany played the same character as Kotono Mitsuishi in Blue Seed. The character was Kome Sawaguchi. Tiffany said she was excited to be able to meet Kotono at Sakura Con too!

In closing, here's a little information about a charity effort that Tiffany participates in: Voices For is a group of pros, mainly in the voice acting industry, that makes albums for charity. Tiffany has contributed to both albums which are currently available. More details about the charity effort are on the Voices For site.

Image credits: photo from Sakuracon.org, image of Becky from sandarsdimension.com