Slayers NEXT Cast Interview This videotaped interview can be found on the Slayers NEXT DVD Collection, available in North America from Software Sculptors. It features Lisa Ortiz (Lina), Crispin Freeman (Zelgadiss), and Veronica Taylor (Ameria). Please do not copy the contents of this interview to any other website. I copied it all down by hand straight from the television. You may, however, quote one or two lines for good purposes. I edited the interview so it makes more sense. Before, I had every single "umm" and "err" written down, but not anymore. There is a review of this interview in the Reviews section of SU. The Slayers Live! Interview Lisa Ortiz: I am Lisa Ortiz, and I play Lina Inverse. She's got a lot of attitude and she's fun- I hang out with her. I do, as a matter of fact. She's spunky, she knows what she's doing, she's in control, she's intelligent, and she's got red hair, and I dig that. Because, well, you can't see my highlights, but they're there and they're an homage to Lina. There you go. Food is a huge part of-- Interviewer: Yeah, let's get into the food thing because I think just about every episode in Slayers NEXT opens in a restaurant somehow. LO: *laugh* With them eating. I: Yeah. LO: She's a hungry girl; she's a growing kid- you need a lot. Um, yeah! She's actually, I'm very pround that she, you know, represents a good role model for healthy appetites all around the world. And you know, kudos. Kudos to Lina. That's what I say. I: What's that like recording one of those scenes where you're supposed to be stuffing seven turkeys in your face? LO: *eating noises* Yeah, what's exactly what it's like. And I'm SO GLAD that I've demonstrated that for you! That's part of my joy; my love for Lina is that I'll pretend to eat in the middle of air. It's great fun. I: *laughs* Looks like fun. So when you're going in for a recording session, how do you prepare yourself? LO: I do warmups. I do warmups before I get there. I'll stretch out. I'll stretch through the session, sometimes, depending on how I am, I'll be stretching throughout just to like, loosen things up, and I'll do a lot of vocal exercises. And I used to, in some of the other stuff, whenever I recorded in the beginning I would always hold the back of my head or find her voice and say "Gourry" or something or *Lina voice* "Gourry!" But then it gets easier as you do it, but I always warm up and do vocal exercises and stuff and make a really annoying sound so that I can get up into her high voice. I was in the studio today, so I sound very Lina-ish speaking, but my voice is actually a lot deeper than hers. So I have to make it bigger. Veronica Taylor: I'm Veronica Taylor, and I play Ameria on Slayers. Ameria... she is, I would say, the essence of energy. She's all for truth and justice and she's a great character to play. She always has something going on; she's a little bit ditzy, but she's solid on her commitment towards pursuing justice, you know, I think. Crispin Freeman: I'm Crispin Freeman, and I play the voice of Zelgadiss Graywords. Zelgadiss initially entered the series looking like a bad guy. He was a servant of Rezo, the Red Priest, who had initially looked like a good guy. Turns out Rezo was not so good. He has some secret agenda. Zelgadiss is a chimera; he is actually made of stone, which is why he has the rocks on his face; and his hair is wire; and he was not always this way; he was normally human, but he asked for power, and be careful what you ask for because you just might get it. Rezo granted him power, and made him more powerful by turning him into this chimera, this stone creature. So now he's rather imbittered and upset- he'd much rather be human than a chimera, but he's kind of stuck with his blue skin and purple hair. He was more contained in the first series. In the second series, in NEXT, he becomes much more mercenary. He's much more obsessed with becoming human again. Probably because there is this object, the Claire Bible, that supposedly will turn him back to normal. And so he really becomes much more self-centered, I think. VT: I think there is some attraction between Ameria and Zelgadiss. I don't know if Ameria would actually admit it to anyone or not; maybe she doesn't really know. I think she likes him. I mean, I don't have the inside scoop on where it's all going, but yeah, I think there's definitely something there. I: Would you like to see them get together? VT: Well, you know, you gotta have that tension there. I guess maybe a little close, but no. I'd rather have that suspense. CF: One could argue that the best way to ensure a good pair is to ensure not necessarily compatibility, but complimentarity. They compliment each other, as do Lina and Gourry in a sense. Zel can be read as a very self-centered individual, who is only concerned about the bottom line, which is trying to turn himself back to normal. Ameria is exactly the opposite- she's completely obsessed with a sense of justice to the point where she's very willing to sacrifice herself, and anyone else around her, in order to make sure that justice is served. Opposites attract. But it's the same reason Lina's gotta have somebody to beat up on- who else but Gourry? I mean, that's the way it works. LO: Aw... Lina loves Gourry. But she doesn't wanna talk about it. She and Gourry have this great thing going on, because she started off kind of trying to prove to him that she was a tough girl and that she wasn't a little kid. Well, they've gotten closer to each other over the time. As it gets further on, she just feels very protective of him, which she should, because he's an idiot. You know, she needs somebody to look out for him. I mean, that's just my personal opinion, but... I: Is it more of a brother-sister thing, or is there something else going on? LO: Well, you see, I think it started off where he was just this annoying guy, and then it got kind of got very friendly, and you know, I think there's a genuine affection there. I think she likes him. A little bit, but she'd never admit that. Oh yeah, they get along very well. She and Zel... it's really weird because I think Zel is kind of the shoulder that she leans on sometimes, because he's the only other pserson who comes into things intelligently, when they go into things. Because Ameria's just like *high pitched voice* "Yeah! Let's go into battle and fight!" and she's all about justice, so she goes crazy. But yeah, so that's it, but Zel's kind of like the rock and Ameria is just.. she's always happy to see Amelia whenever they're separated, but whenever she's there, they're kind of on opposite sides of each other, which is kind of funny. CF: This scene we're going to look at I thought was particularly interesting. It's the singing scene where Ameria and Lina try to cast a spell by wearing these cute little outfits and singing this little spell song. But they don't know the song, so they have to get Zel to sing it to them so that they can learn it and cast it at the same time. The problem was, what was interesting about the recording of this, was that Lisa here got to record the song first, and you had the tape? LO: Yeah, I had the tape in Japanese, and I had the animation- I got to look at it, and I got to learn kind of what could have been Japanese, *laughs* but instead was what I learned. VT: Your own version. CF: Exactly. LO: My version! CF: So then you went in and recorded the whole song. LO: Right. I recorded the whole thing in clips and then I think... VT: Then I went in after that and just followed you. LO: Then Veronica went in afterward, yeah. CF: And then of course I had to come in after both of them and act like I was teaching them this song that they had so masterfully performed. LO: *laughs* Hey, we were GREAT! CF: That wasn't sarcasm, what are you talking about? LO: And of course in true Slayers style, we thought we were doing it for absolute power or some wonderful thing that was going to happen, and it didn't quite work out that way. LO: Thanks to everybody for watching and keeping Slayers going on, because without you guys, I don't have a job. |