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Aired: October 21st, 2010
J. Michael Tatum and Ian Sinclair are a comedy team. They’re obvious fans of the series and they love fooling around with the crowd. Before the screening began, they started taking funny pictures with each other, ballroom dancing…the hilarity was endless.
Before the screening, they announced that Becca made a special introduction for the fans as well as the music video for ‘I’m Alive’…but since the video format wasn’t working, it will be placed online. They introduced director Ian Sinclair and Sebastian’s VA, J. Michael Tatum.
Sinclair: We’re so stoked that we can barely wait to watch the two episodes. Let me tell you this is sooo exciting.
Tatum: I love this show. It’s so good! I haven’t been able to talk about this show since I started, so forgive me if I just keep going-it’s so good! I love the Japanese, I love the manga, it’s so good!
They presented the first two episodes which was good. Ciel’s voice was spot on and though Tatum’s voice took some time to get used to, it was well done. Everyone pointed out that Bardroy was suppose to be American…but I guess he spent some time in England so he developed an English accent as well. Definitely not a bad dub at all so I’m very happy with it. Strangely enough, instead of ‘Yes, My Lord’, much of that special line changed to ‘Yes, my young lord.’ We’ll see how it is in future episodes…. (Even the first Q&A addresses that.)
Q: In the video, you say ‘Yes, my young lord’. Can you just say, ‘Yes, my lord’? Please?
Tatum: *as Sebastian* Is that an order?
Q: Yes, that’s an order Sebastian!
Tatum: *as Sebastian* Yes, my lord.
Q: Do you guys have any funny or interesting stories when recording the show that you’re willing to share with us?
Tatum: There are tons! Watching the two episodes personally-Monica Rial [Mei Lin] recorded first-before I did anyway-so every scene she goes ‘Yes, I did!’ I heard her in my preroll. And Monica is so talented and so wonderful and totally not like that in real life: that crazy, spastic person. So hearing her do that was hilarious. It was very hard to be composed and not go ‘Yes, I *snickers*’. There is alot of tracks wasted on me going ‘Hehehehehe…sorry, do that again.’
Sinclar: There were tons of takes where you would do the absolute perfect read just so ‘Sebastian’ and then I would go ‘yeah!’ It would be heard in the booth, from outside of the booth. *facepalm* ‘So we have to take that again….’
Tatum: And we would get to a point between Ian and I had such a great rapport. Ian is a fantastic actor and let me just say, no one has any right to be this talented their first time, out of the gate, directing a show. But this man is inconceivably talented…ah..I love you.
Sinclair: Get this on camera! This is awesome!
Tatum: There is proof of this now, I’m commited to this. But it’s really wonderful. Ian and I have such great rapport over this over this show and we do! I’m a huge fan of this property. We get this sort of swagger of being Sebastian in the booth. And in between takes *slips into Sebastian voice* So what do you think of, Ian?
Ian: *as Bardroy* Oh, that’s fine! I want you to do that again, I can really feel it though.
Tatum: *as Sebastian* Oh, I’ll do it again. *normal voice* And I’ll say it in a really good context and then we break character and totally crack up. If we have an 8 hour day (which is common for this show, an 8 hour recording day,) you have to love what you do. If we do it for 8 hours straight, we get loopy. The engineer would say ‘Wow, it feels like we just got back from a camping trip.’ So we have alot of camping trips on this show. There are lots of funny moments, too many to rate. Many of them dirty too and I can’t…. *shakes head* I get lewd in the booth. I don’t take off my clothes or anything, but I make very foul jokes. It’s a great way to relieve the tension of playing a charcter that just doesn’t do that kind of thing.
Q: Just share one!
Tatum: I think it was after the dinner line…no it was another episode. We were talking about chess piece metaphor which comes up later on and is one of my favorite Sebastian monologues. I totally broke character and said ‘Two nuts was walking down the street and one of them was salted.’ You know, stuff like that to be totally stupid and random and that’s probably the cleanest I ever got.
Q: Did you know before working on this project just how popular this series and especially Sebastian is?
Tatum: I had an idea. I was really excited before I knew how popular it was. Because it was Britain and where it as set. I love the whole Faustian pact kind of story where a character makes a desperate attempt to sell their soul which is a pretty dramatic thing to do. I thought that was really cool, something with alot of meat to it. Maybe when I was contracted to it when I realized how popular it was. And it made me want to do it that much better because it’s a great show and it has the audience it deserves.
Sinclair: The producer Colleen Clinkenbeard casted me and I came in my first day for Bard and she said ‘You want to direct?’ Yeah, okay. So I went and I obsessed. I read manga, I watched all the Japanese, I went to all the fansites. I just went crazy for it. And you can imagine when I came in to direct him, I said ‘You have no idea dude.’ This is everything you could ever dream of. And its so appropriately him. I have no idea who else could play Sebastian. It’s so perfect that it’s wonderful. I’ll gush, I will!
Q: [Ciel cosplayer in English accent] It seems that I have a problem.
Tatum: *as Sebastian* What would that be?
Q: Can you put on my shoes? It’s an order.
Tatum: *as Sebastian* Hold this for me Bardroy. *slips off the stage as Ciel sits upon the stage placing sneakers next to him* *Tatum kneels as he puts one shoe on and followed by the second one* [Me: My only concern is…I hope the cosplayer anticipated this and have clean shoes/socks. XD] *Tatum finishes with a bow and throes of screaming fans fainted* *normal voice* That was ridiculous…and awesome at the same time.
Q: Well in that case, this is an order. Can you fix my bowtie?
Tatum: Hold on. *steps off stage and straightens the tie as well as dusts off the shoulders*
Sinclair: Every Ciel is getting up.
Q: When I went to Canada this summer, I was luckily able to find the French edition of Black Butler. So I would like you to read a certain line-I think we all know very well-in your best France impression of Sebastian.
Tatum: Oh my god…. I’m going to butcher this, just so you know. ‘Je suis un diable…de majordome’. [I am one hell of a butler.] *fangirls explode once again*
Tatum: I texted Brina Palencia who plays Ciel and what a fantastic job she’s done. She wanted me to tell all of you, she was really sorry she couldn’t be here. She was really looking forward to this and unfortunately, certain circumstances beyond her control swept her away. Actually I lied and told her it was next weekend. *audience laughs* I’m kidding. She really is here in spirit and she tells me and I quote “She is so sad that she couldn’t be here with you guys. She loves Ciel and hope that you love him, the performance of the finished product as much as she loves the character. And if Ian is wearing a pearl snapped shirt will you scream obscenities at him and rip it off-no! Sorry that last part was for me….
Q: I really like Baccano! dub. I know you reserched alot for that series, what did you research for Black Butler? Did you watch ‘My Fair Lady’ 10 times?
Sinclair: I obsess over BBC moreso than normal. Anything British. I spent summers in England and he had a tutor.
Tatum: When I was really young, I had a horrible stutter. And I’m from Texas so everyone in my family sounds like they’re from Texas except for me. Because I had a voice tutor from Britain. That’s why I don’t have a Texas accent. And so when they ask ‘Do you want to do a British accent?’ I’m like yes, yes, please yes! I would walk around the house with 19th Century drawing room literature, talking out loud, reading Eliot novels, Sherlock Holmes or something like that. I’m a complete Anglophile. I love all things British, particularly from that era. So it’s one of the reasons I feel so lucky to be working on the show. It wasn’t so much that I did research since I kinda felt like home in the material already. Because I grew up-not in Victorian England-but would totally have loved to. So literaturally speaking, I grew up in Victorian England if that makes sense. Me and Victorian England are tight.
Sinclair: We ended up talking in that dialogue like-
Tatum: The rest of the studio hated us.
Q: I just want to ask about Grell? Who will be doing his voice and will he be as brillantly flamboyant as the original?
Tatum: Oh yeah.
Sinclair: Daniel Fredrick. He is a really good actor in Dallas. This is first thing and he came in and he was amazing. During the audition process they were like, ‘Do Chinese, do Indian, do this, do this.’ And he was just amazing. When he is with Madam Red and pretending not to be…as crazy as he is. He is subtle and everything but by the time he is… *audience laughs* He is crazy!
Tatum: My eyes were the size of dinner plates when I heard him the first time. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? Who is that? I want to him!’ He is someone you’ll be hearing alot of because he is amazingly talented.
Q: So Sebastian went out of his way to meet Grell…you’re telling me that the voice actor for Sebastian want to meet the voice actor of Grell.
Tatum: Yes he did. *audience laughs* Oh…that is how rumors get started.
Q: Everyone knows that you also do the voice of France in Hetalia, which one do you enjoy more. Being France or being Sebastian?
Tatum: France is alot of fun and Hetalia is a really fun show. Because it’s an ensemble piece, they’re roller coaster rides and I love them. It’s hard to pick a favorite. But playing Sebastian in a show that is set in a time period that I know like the back of my hand. And it’s based on a myth that I love and know like the back of my hand (that I should really paint a pentagram on or something.) Playing Sebastian is the most rewarding of the two. France is really broad and really funny. As an actor, I wouldn’t say there isn’t alot of meat in that role as it’s really funny. But it’s comedic. There isn’t as much to play with. There is alot of subtly, alot of wonderful subtext in a property like Butler, which makes an actor just froth in the mouth at the chance to play a role like that. So I would have to go with Sebastian.
Q: While doing the anime, are there any favorite parts you like over anything else?
Fangirl: Corset scene! *fangirls screams*
Tatum: How did you know?
Sinclair: I didn’t warn him at all when he came in. I was just like, ‘Let’s just watch it in Japanese first.’
Tatum: And my face was just… *big grin appearing* There is a window between me and Ian and I went, ‘No way! There is no way! Are you kidding me? I get to do this?’ *laughs manacially* There is alot of stuff, so hard to pick. In every episode there is this Sebastian moment which I’m like ‘Hehe…here it is.’ My favorite moments are dramatially when he and Ciel are having this back and forth with Ciel needing to grow up. And what that means for him. And the fact the Ciel knows that he needs to grow up, but at the end he’ll just forfeit his soul. A great metaphor for life in modern times, but Brina is sooo good that playing off of these wonderful scripts and other performers that are top of their game. And a great director…any quieter moment admidst the manic energy and get into the dark and even a little sad. Those are my favorite moments. When Sebastian shows the tiniest trace of emotion.
Sinclair: The whole booth will go silent. For me? I don’t know. Because I’ve been a voice actor for 6 years and now that I can try on the directing hat, I can experience those moments with each actor. The moment with Soma when we got the Indian prince in was amazing. Chris Ayres rocks. His dialect was awesome. Patrick Seitz is Agni and it’s just amazing. I remember crying from laughing so hard when Monica was just running. For no reason, added a stumble in there. I was just crying.
Tatum: It’s a show full of awesome moments that it’s hard to pick. So…all of them.
The girl who asked the last question presented her cape as a gift to Tatum. Of course, he had to wear it and the back saids, ‘I love Sebastian’.
Sinclair: Thank you so much! This is my first panel ever. You guys are amazing, and you are amazing fans. I can’t wait for you to see it. I obsessed about the show for so long. So I want to come out and see you guys more. You guys rock! Thank you!
Tatum: Ditto! We’ve been so nervous about this day. This is baby, this is our child…so much a part of us that it’s like asking how we feel about our hand or foot. It’s who we are now, it’s been eating it, sleeping it, breatheing it and to see guys are so enthusiastic about it and so sensitive to what we’re trying to do with a show that is impossible to improve on because it’s so wonderful already. It means a great deal to us more than you’ll ever now. He may be the best chef in the world and I may be one hell of a butler…but you’re all one hell of fans.
That last line by Mr. Tatum was awesome. *applauds* Is great to see that they’re such fans of the series…as much as the fans themselves. Dvds release are 1/11/11.
Watch this Episode Now
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