INTERVIEW: Jessica Calvello reflects on giving voice to Hange Zoë in ‘Attack on Titan’
Image: Attack on Titan’s final season premieres today, Dec. 6 on Funimation. Image courtesy of Funimation / Provided by press team with permission.
Attack on Titan, the hugely popular anime series based on the best-selling manga by Hajime Isayama, has been a central property for Funimation, and now the streaming service is prepared to launch the series’ final season. The first episode is expected to drop today, Dec. 6 at 3:45 p.m. EST (12:45 p.m. PT).
For those unfamiliar with the anime or manga series, Titan depicts a dystopian future when humans are forced to retreat behind the imposing walls of a city complex in order to stay away from the destructive Titans, according to press notes. The Titans’ sole objective is to penetrate this fortress, so humanity needs some guardians. And they come in the form of the Scout Regiment, who bravely stray beyond the city’s walls to take on the monsters.
The final season, which is first released in Japanese and then receives an English dub version, finds the character of Eren still missing, and the Scout Regiment making it all the way to the shoreline. And the stakes have never been higher, mostly because the Marleyans and Eldians are preparing for all-out war.
Jessica Calvello, an accomplished voice actor, plays Hange Zoë in the English dubversion. Hange is a leader of the resistance and a pivotal character in the overall narrative. For Calvello, voicing this beloved character during a pandemic is particularly poignant.
“It’s so similar to Attack on Titan,” the voice actor said in a recent Zoom interview about living during COVID-19. “Nobody is safe, nobody.”
Calvello counts herself a fan of the original Japanese version, which finds Romi Park voicing the character.
“So I actually had watched the entire first season just because I kept hearing the buzz,” she said. “I was like, what is this show you’re talking about? … I started watching I think episode six and then grabbed the other five of course and then continued on with the show. I mean, wow, I thought it was amazing, crazy plot line, interesting characters. I also like the sepia look … which might sound like an odd thing to say. I fell in love with it immediately, and I really was hoping to be part of the dub. I didn’t even know who had the rights to it. I didn’t even know if there were auditions coming up. I knew nothing about it. I just knew that I really, really loved this show, and I zeroed right in on Hange.”
When Calvello started asking around to see if a dub version was coming, she was pleasantly surprised to hear about auditions for a variety of roles on the show. She remembers the Attack on Titan audition package that arrived at her home included a synopsis of the show, character descriptions and pictures.
“Like I said, I had already seen the first season, but it was also good to read, hey, this is what we’re looking for,” Calvello said. “They’ll tell you what kind of a range of voice they’re looking for — high and light, or medium to rich, dark, deeper tone, whatever. I had a good idea. I had seen it, but it helped to just read everything for what the studio was looking for.”
After she landed the job, she went into the studio sessions and was open to being directed. Given its history, she wanted to stay true to the character and the original Japanese version. Because the animation is already complete by the time she does her work, and because she’s adding a dubbed audio, there is not much creative license or freedom.
“It’s not like I can experiment with throwing in a different line, or, oh, I want to scream a little bit more,” Calvello said. “Nope, sorry, the character is done talking. So you are really within the confines of what the project is, but you can still have those creative juices flowing and hopefully work with the director — in this case, Mike McFarland — where he wanted to take Hange and how that aligned with his vision for the rest of the show.”
Because Calvello had seen the original first season before she laid down her dub tracks, she knew all about Hange’s antics and also the dark moments that the character must endure.
“Hange’s got super-crazy moments,” she said. “We watch the line in Japanese first, and then we record it in English. So, yeah, I definitely hear the Japanese first, whether I’ve seen the whole season or I’m going in cold, which I did for season three. I just went in cold. We watched the line delivered first by Romi Park, who is the O.G. Hange, can never in my wildest dreams even come close to comparing with that amazing talent. Then I do my best to deliver that line in English.”
When the coronavirus pandemic hit in March, Calvello was better prepared than most people for the prospects of working at home. She has had her own recording booth for nearly seven years, and depending on the anime/animated company she is working for, she has often utilized this at-home studio.
“I’ve been working out of my own booth for a while, so I’ve been lucky to be able to partner with a number of different companies and be able to record shows out of my space,” Calvello said. “With the pandemic, that is what everyone is now confined to. I mean, there are still studios that are still having people go in and whatnot, so I’ve done both pretty much my whole life. Obviously now times are different, so I’m mostly here.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbx.com
Attack on Titan: Final Season will begin streaming on Funimation today, Dec. 6. Click here for more information.
