Toon-In-Talk Episode 12: Interview with Veronica and Raina Taylor

Hello and welcome to twelfth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Whitney has a treat for all listeners today! Not only does she interview the fantastic voice actress Veronica Taylor, famous for her role as Ash Ketchum on Pokemon, Astroblast, Welcome to the Wayne!, and Mofy, but she speaks with Raina Taylor. Raina is Veronica’s uber cool daughter, so this episode is a first for the show: a mother-daughter interview. Veronica discusses her career and Raina shares her input on having a voice actress mom. Show Notes For the first time ever on the podcast, Whitney interviews a mother-daughter duo! Veronica has always been an actress and went to college for acting. Raina was never starstruck having her mom being a recognized voice actress. It was very normal for her, although they do funny voices around the house all the time. Veronica’s first go into voice over dubbing for anime. Her first big role was Amelia from Slayers, then she became the voice of the kid who has to be the very best: Ash Ketchum from Pokemon. Veronica loves acting, no matter if she’s dubbing or voice over in English. She wants to make the character come to life. Raina thinks her mom does an awesome job every time and Veronica likes having Raina help her practice. She got the role of Ash, because the same production company that distributed Slayers in the US also had the license for Pokemon. All she knew about the series is that one episode gave kids seizures in Japan. Raina is very down to Earth when it comes to being the daughter of an iconic character. It’s also great to make her laugh. Whitney thinks Ash’s Pokemon trainer skills are lacking, but Veronica begs to differ as he follows his heart. The differences for voicing Ash in a movie and in an episode is that for the first few movies it was in an actual movie studio and the sessions were bigger, but later they were similar for recording episodes. Veronica and Raina both voiced the Pokemon Sentret, while Veronica also did Diglett and a few others. Raina and Veronica were both in the movie The Boy Who Wanted to be a Bear. She remembers her mother read the lines for her when they were in the studio. This happened when she was a very young, so spends a lot more time reading than behind the mic now. Raina is a John Green fan! Raina’s favorite Pokemon is Charmander and Evee, while Veronica likes Pikachu, Lapras, and Treecko. While they think Jigglypuff and Mr. Mime are weird. She was the voice of Ash for eight years before Pokemon USA replaced the cast with new people. Veronica’s favorite memories associated with Pokemon is that she was pregnant with her daughter during the first season and she so happy to play such a positive character. It’s not hard for her to transition between characters as long as she has a solid hook in the character. Raina loves that her mom plays a cute little bunny character. Raina doesn’t want to be a voice actress, but she wants to do something related to the arts or an accountant. Veronica is evading her taxes! No, they both declare peace and to eat healthy!