Crispin Freeman

@CelestialOuroboros lol XD

I am really looking forward to hearing Crispin Freeman reprise his role as Kirei Kotomine in the Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feels series whenever that finally gets dubbed. Especially considering how Kirei gets shafted hard in the Unlimited Blade Works route and that Kirei really gets to shine in the Heaven's Feel route. This will be Crispin's time to shine as the older version of Kirei. Having seen the first movie already in Japanese and how great Joji Nakata is in the role, Crispin has big shoes to fill but I know he will nail it, he nailed Kirei in Fate/Zero but now we're getting to some of Kirei's finest moments and I look forward to hearing how he pulls it off.

It's also cool that last year in Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, he got to reprise his role of Speedy/Roy Harper from Young Justice as a nice little cameo/fan service for YJ fans and I can't wait to see Crispin return to the role for Young Justice season 3.

Happy Birthday Crispin Freeman!

@Shaun Ince That's such perfect casting & I'd love to see Crispin as more of Loki. To be honest (raises shield) I find him a more natural fit than Troy Baker or Graham McTavish (very good, but probably too old-sounding).

@Troodon2 He was originally going to give him a Romanian accent but the voice director felt that it was too corny, though he does give his Vlad Tepes III form a Romanian accent.

@Domayv And a normal, American accent is less corny, how?

@Troodon2 Crispin Freeman doesn't really have an "American accent". His acting training has helped in remain rather accent neutral when he needs to be.

The director Taliesin Jaffe simply felt that Alucard needed to sound far different to those around him, to really emphasis the difference between him and all others.

@Jared Delgado I'm a straight male and even I admit he's a hella attractive man.

@Morgil Yes, he has. Crispin Freeman mentioned a couple times on his podcast that he used to do ADR scripts for the Pokemon anime.

@ScottMyers He also mentioned that, after asking the dub producers several times to unionize (as the show had made it insanely big, beating out almost all other children's shows), so that the actors might be able to use their work on the show to support their children & save for retirement (& New York has outrageous living costs!).

As most people know, the pay for anime dubs, essentially due to it being foreign-produced & only paid for by small companies...isn't a lot. & for most shows, it's pretty fair, seeing as anime's content is generally pretty niche.

* However, Pokemon (as well as DBZ & a few other shows) is a major, major exception, & I suppose he felt that...this was an opportunity that wasnt being used properly.

Unionizing here could have given a decent amount of residuals to the VA's in question, especially seeing that the *session rate* was still extremely low.

However, 4Kids refused, & alongside the "faithful dub vs joke dub" issue, this led to Crispin straight-up resigning from writing for Pokemon's dub.

He was just one guy, doing the only part he could. & this is one of SEVERAL times that Crispin has spoken about & shown his appreciation & passion for the recognition of anime to be taken seriously & treated no worse than other mediums.

It's also why he's one of my favorite people, period.

@huzaifa_ahmed This is fascinating information. Thanks for that.

Crispin's always been pro-union, and I love the original Pokemon cast. Shame they didn't unionize, although I suppose that in the end, that would've sped up the inevitable recast...

I love Crispin's work in the booth but I also respect the man's seriousness and professional attitude. He's an actor's actor. Wish we saw more like him nowadays.

@huzaifa_ahmed
FWIW, I think Crispin Freeman was one of the best writers to work on the Pokemon English Anime dub: he actually managed to write dialogue in a witty way, but also in a way that wasn't obnoxious and avoided pitfalls like slang, alliteration, rhymes, etc (a very notable problem with the current dub's script writing, IMO).

@GreenGoblin75 That picture is several years old, but he still looks more or less the same despite being in his 40's. Yuri Lowenthal is the same deal & he's older than Crispin Freeman by a year.

@Joel the Pokekid He used to live in New York and then he moved. He was only there for a relatively short part of his anime/dub career. Liam O'Brien was similar, actually.

@Joel the Pokekid He left New York for Los Angeles because there was more work there.

@Nightmare Crusher @NCZ Understandable. Now most NY voice actors only work on the new Pokemon dub ever since 4kids went bankrupt. I'm happy he went to LA. If not, I wouldn't get to hear him as Kyon.

@Joel the Pokekid
As well as the newer Yu-Gi-Oh dubs, both of which I personally find horrendous and terrible in quality. I feel like almost all of NY's good voice over talent has either moved away, retired, or is gone now- it's sad.

@Dr.Who There's several actors there that are also just underused now. Like Lisa Ortiz. I hear her main priority right now is directing Pokemon episodes, but I just wish she would be in more dubs besides the occasional new Queen's Blade, Ikki Tousen and Slayers.

@dcmarvelanime freeman's a union-only actor, and mike primarily does nonunion productions. So that's not going to happen unless freeman goes FiCore.

@Pokeshipper9000 Well, you're right. The character has just been uploaded.

@Jared Delgado Yup, just saw that. Pretty good! :)

In the past year I finally got around to watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Crispin Freeman's performance as Kyon was by far the best part of the dub. Both he and Tomokazu Sugita rock this role and personally I feel Crispin gave one of the best performances of his entire career as Kyon in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie, he brought so much passion in just about every line in that movie from beginning to end. I was very impressed. Kyon's definitely in my top five favourite roles of his for sure, where though in order I'm not sure?

I also finally saw watched Hellsing Ultimate back in October and his Alucard did not disappoint. He was the perfect blend of terrifying and being gleefully hammy and over the top. I totally agree this is one of his all time best characters, a truly epic vampire.

He was also great as Mr. Maheswaran, Bullseye, Punisher, Ghost Rider, Titanium Man, Winter Soldier, Pyro and Agent Venom (well so far he's maybe the most fitting voice for the character).

His Winston in Overwatch is also no doubt also an interesting upcoming new role for him. He sounds fantastic in the trailers I've heard him in thus far.

I really love that he's been doing more major anime roles again between reprising as Shizuo Heiwajima, Kyon and Kirei Kotomine. He still does a great job with these roles even after all this time. I hope we get to see more unionized dubs this year and in the years to come.

Happy Birthday Crispin Freeman! Definitely one of my all time favourite VA's whether he'd be in anime, video games or western cartoons.

@SteelEthlan Recapping: It's no brainer that he's excellently skilled at vocalizing anti-heroes that i could never recall.

@HienFan He looks quite a bit younger than he actually is. 42 isn't old by any means, but he looks a lot younger.

@Polyester Funk He looks like a college student to me

@TheVengeanceKnight Yes

@TheVengeanceKnight http://youtu.be/KPnGzMKALDs?t=1m32s

@TheVengeanceKnight Loki always demands the best of the best for himself.

@DreamMaster08X Well played.

@Music Meister Both also voiced Loki...

CONSPIRACY!!!

@Lion's Edge Actually, no. One voiced Loki, the other IS Loki. ;-)

@TheVengeanceKnight ...You know what I mean. XP

But that was fairly funny, I must concede.

@Mr.greed How do you know?

@Aussieroth At least he got to be Rude and Setzer.

@Aussieroth If he used a slightly deeper variant of his Itachi Uchiha, then he'd nail it. I heard he did an audition for Sephiroth and you've heard his rendition. Where can I find this?

@Galactic_Cyrus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9AYcwsaiIA 6:00 he's not even trying and he's still perfect for the role.

@NCZ perhaaaaps but he still should've been Sephiroth.

His Setzer was fascinating though.

@Aussieroth Ah, exactly what I expected to hear: a slightly deeper variant of his Itachi Uchiha. And not too different from Newbern's take in AC. Which means he'd be perfect.

Aside from Sephiroth, Setzer is the only FF character I think his voice is just perfect for. His Rude was great too, but is it just me or did he sound like Kevin Conroy with that voice?

@Galactic_Cyrus Honestly, I think George would've been better for Setzer (or even Vincent for that matter) and... yeah you heard, a slightly deeper or rather "huskier" itachi.. it could have been perfect.

Rude... yeah, but it was basically another version of Freeman's Alucard. Again: Miscast. In my op: Rude should've been voiced by Phil LaMarr.

@Aussieroth George would've worked, but I always hear Crispin's voice like he has in the Holland Novak clip for Setzer. For Vincent, I can't imagine George at all. I liked Steve Blum in the role (in AC at least), but I'd rather it be someone like Robin Atkins Downe doing a Vincent Price-styled voice. (The character's name is VINCENT and he turns into horror creatures: it's the only type of voice I could ever hear for him!) And yes, that voice would have been a perfect fit for Sephiroth.

It's his Alucard minus the scariness. Phil LaMarr would be great, but thanks to Crispin's take, I can never get the Kevin Conroy-esque voice out of my head when I think of Rude's dialogue.

@TheVengeanceKnight *"by Crispin Freeman", I mean. GAH!!! -_-

@TheVengeanceKnight
Itachi Uchiha, Winston, Breakdown, Winter Soldier, & Scott Lang.