You may not know his face, but you definitely know his voice. Quinton Flynn is an accomplished voice actor who has lent his talents to various television programming. For anyone who doesn’t know Flynn, he is famous for providing the voices of characters such as Axel in Kingdom Hearts and Raiden for the Metal Gear Series, both being some of the best video game series of all time.
We all know about Flynn now because of all his accomplishments, but most fans don’t know that his career started with a little rock music and Porky Pig. Flynn was a graduate from Kent State University with a cousin who had vocal dreams of being a heavy metal rock star. Because of that dreams, Flynn moved to California to help out.
“I said, ‘Well, I’ll help you move and I could use a vacation,’ Flynn told Nerd Reactor and other reporters during the interview. “For me, it turned out to be a permanent vacation.”
After moving to California, Flynn decided to take voice acting classes to improve his craft. This wasn’t his first time doing voice work since he had previous improv experience. When taking the classes, Flynn primarily focused on animation specifically, and coincidentally, this was the same class that Bob Bergen (Porky Pig) was attending as his classmate.
“After moving to Los Angeles, California, I took an animation voice over workshop with a guy named Bob Bergen,” Flynn explained. “Bob Bergen today is the voice of Porky Pig and he was great. It was my first workshop specifically for voice over acting.”
Because of this, Quinton Flynn found his love for voice acting.
“Here was a guy that was bringing it together and showing me, in terms of acting, how to create a character and how to lift the words off the page and make them real as you’re reading them […] So there’s a whole rhythm to it and there’s a musicality in addition to the acting.”
When reporters asked the question about what is his secret to bringing characters to life and how he trained for it, the answer was not so simple.
“Thats a good question[…]” Flynn says, “Maybe it came over time? I can certainly do many impressions. At the age of eight, my friend Bill Russ, who is a stand up comedian out on the road in Los Angeles, we would make lists of impressions and we would watch impressionists on T.V. and do impressions of impressionist’s impressions […] and soon it was rapid fire and I’ve just gotten into the habit of doing that from doing improv and stand up and watching Robin Williams and impersonating entertainers such as Christopher Walken and Sir Paul McCartney.”
Flynn continues, “Part of it is being free.” “I think over the years I’ve gained more freedom and the capacity to play. As children we played and we never thought about playing. You go, ‘Okay we’re going to do cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians or Star Wars or doctor and nurse’ or whatever it is and you just go. You wouldn’t think. You’d just go ‘Yes!’ You just start playing. You wouldn’t go, ‘Oh, what’s my motivation?’ You just imagined it. In your head it’s all there.”
Because of this particular mindset, Flynn was able create many characters with many different voices, but he did entertain us with a few characters that are his favorite.
“Axel […] he has an added edge to him. When he asks you a questions and he says, ‘Do you see the sun setting before you?’ or ‘Got it memorized?’ and people immediately flash on to the character! They see red hair and the green eyes and him pointing to his head. That, Raiden, and Reno are the closest to my voice. The real me.”
When asked about his role as Axel in Kingdom Hearts 3, Flynn did confirm that he has not been contacted as of yet for the role, and he is hopeful and excited to work on it when it does come. With this said, unfortunately, that the rumored April 2017 release date could be wildly optimistic and highly unlikely.
from Nerd Reactor
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