Johnny Yong Bosch may be more widely known as the second Black Power Ranger, Adam Park, from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, but since then, his career has exploded in the realm of voiceover acting with over 360 credits. His most notable roles include Vash the Stampede from Trigun (his first anime character); Renton Thurston in Eureka Seven; Genma Shiranui, Sagi and Akio from Naruto; Bishop from Blue Dragon; Lelouch Lamperouge from Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion; Noby from Doraemon; Artemis from Sailor Moon Crystal; and Tompok from Disney’s The Lion Guard.

Now he has voiced Nine, the lead villain in the feature film, My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising. Nine’s purpose: to acquire a cell-regeneration “quirk” to better control his nine powers—including weather control—and reshape a parallel Earth to be ruled by superpowered beings. In a phone interview conducted Febuary 24th, 2020, Bosch told me how he acquired the role.

Bob Miller: So Johnny, how did you transition from live-action to voiceover?

Johnny Yong Bosch: Oh, that’s a long story. (chuckles) Really short version is, I was working on a film with the Japanese stunt team, Alpha Stunts, and [director] Koichi Sakamoto, after Power Rangers. And the audio was messed up. It didn’t work for whatever reason. And so, I had to go in and dub myself. And as I was dubbing myself on this film, the producer walked in, heard my voice, and thought I had a decent hero voice, and asked me to come audition for Trigun.

I basically booked that role of Vash, and that opened the doors for me.

BM: Did you learn voiceover on the job, or did you have any formal training?

JYB: Yeah, I landed an audition, and then that was it, on the job. I didn’t go through any voiceover classes, or anything like that.

BM: Okay. How does your background as a martial artist help you in voiceover?

JYB: Well, I don’t know. I guess there’s a lot of timing involved. Definitely when it comes to shouting and fight call-outs and things like that, it comes super-natural for me and any martial artist, and diaphragm control, sort of, at times.

BM: How did you find out about the role of Nine for My Hero Academia?

JYB: I was sent an audition from Colleen [Clinkenbeard], who directed along with Monica [Rial]. They emailed me an audition, and it was kind of like a last minute audition. They’re in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and I was filming in Houston. I was at this Airbnb, and I recorded the voiceover—the audition—in my closet. And then I sent that in that evening to them—I MP3’d it to them—and I booked that role. She [Colleen] said that she liked it, but she wanted me to pitch lower and maybe not as energetic, at least not until the end.

BM: So once you booked the role, did you have to record at Funimation, or did you do it out in Los Angeles?

JYB: No. There’s another studio in Houston that they occasionally use. I was actually able to go in and record while I was on location in Houston.

BM: What’s the name of that studio?

JYB: Space Cowboy.

BM: Okay, so when they sent you the audition, did they send you an image of the character?

JYB: I think they did actually. Sometimes they do; sometimes they don’t. But I think for that one, I believe they did.

BM: Okay. So you had an idea of where to pitch your voice then?

JYB: I don’t really recall exactly, but they usually give you an age range. And so, you kind of go by that. If they say, “He’s about 20, or 30.” Then you kind of find where that’s going to be.

After I sent that audition to her, [she said], “I liked what you did, but I want to bring his energy and his pitch down a little bit when we do the actual session.”

BM: Did you listen to the Japanese soundtrack to base your performance?

JYB: No. I mean, we do preview it, a lot of times, for timing. But I mean, I just based my voice off of the audition and off of what Colleen and Monica where they wanted the character to be. Because you got to think about this, I’m coming into a series that I know nothing about. They had to fill me in on some history and give me some details of my character, so I just trusted them entirely on that.

BM: When you saw Nine in action, and you had to kind of replicate the grunts and the screams, or whatever he was doing, because he was a very physical character. Right?

JYB: He can be. He’s definitely very powerful. A lot of the stuff that I did, he was very in control of things, until his energy had run out. It was like, you can hear in his voice that he had control, and these kids were too weak to fight him. You know?

BM: Right. Well, I noticed that the character was wearing a mask. It sounded as if you’re recording with a mask on. Is that the case?

JYB: No, no. They did some effects over it, so that it would feel like it was going through a mask. That was all done in post after I had already laid-in my voiceover.

BM: I see. It sounded authentic.

JYB: Yeah. (chuckles)

BM: Now, with the angst that your character goes through, do you maintain that attitude throughout the recording session, or are you able to turn off the performance off-and-on, off-and-on like that?

JYB: Personally, I like to stay in character and then get through. For me, it just helps me to isolate and focus on what I’m doing. It depends on the project, but this one, definitely, I tried to stay in character as much as I could, so that I wouldn’t lose track. If, in between every single line, you started making jokes about stuff, then that might lighten the attitude of your character.

And so, I was pretty much just paying attention to what was going on and just going through the film.

BM: With a lot of shouting that your characters do, how do you protect your voice?

JYB: You know what? It’s just years of doing it and just knowing how to control it. And how to scream and shout and not burn yourself out. There was a bit in there, but it was still within a reasonable place where didn’t kill me.

BM: Do you do any warmup exercises?

JYB: For that one, I did not. I did not do anything, because… again, they wanted him in kind of a lower in-control register. I just put him in a certain place, and I left him there. It’s kind of like an early morning kind of voice. So I didn’t really need to warmup for that one.

BM: How did you approach your performance for Nine?

JYB: When you’re playing a villain, you have to find a way to … Villains shouldn’t think … They’re not just bad guys because they’re bad guys. They have to believe what they’re doing is right and best for not just themselves, but for, whatever, the majority of the people that they care about.

He’s got his own crew and these other people that he’s with. And so, for me, it’s really just kind of believing in his goal, acquiring these quirks. He didn’t want to kill anyone; he just wanted to take their quirk, take their power.

In that sense, I try to see him as not really a bad guy. He’s not going about things that are beneficial for everyone, and at times, he may be even selfish. But yeah, you just kind of have to look at it—or I did, to look at it as like—he’s not really a bad guy. He just sees things differently.

BM: That’s very interesting. Well, how would you regard your performance of Nine compared to all your other characters?

JYB: He’s definitely different. I saw the final film at the screening. I enjoyed it; I was entertained the entire time. Personally, when I watch the films, I start thinking about, “Why didn’t do it this way?” Or, “I should’ve done this, or I should’ve done that.” But this time, I was able to actually just kind of get lost in the film.

But as far as compared to my other characters, I think he’s definitely one that I would put at the top as enjoyable to do and fun to watch.

BM: So would you say he’s one of your best performances out of all your characters so far?

JYB: I don’t know. It’s hard for me to say something like that. I try to do my best in every single thing that I work on.

BM: Sure. Did you expect his fate at the end?

JYB: Yeah, (chuckles) I kind of did expect it to end that way for him, but I still had a good time.

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My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising is now in general release in the U.S. and Canada. It’s Rated PG-13.

Special thanks to Steven Kunz, Rogers & Cowan PMK.