ReVA interviews Caitlin Glass (Rebuild-Maya Ibuki)

By V On October 14, 2011

I had the opportunity to interview the wonderful Caitlin Glass, voice of Maya Ibuki in Rebuild of Evangelion.

*General background introduction: how did you first get into voice acting and what were big steps along the way?

I started working for FUNimation in January of 2004 after an impromptu audition while on a tour of the studio. I was months away from finishing my degree in theatre and had been acting from a very young age. For a few months I just did bit parts until I was cast as Hiyono in Spiral. From there I went on to play Winry in FMA, Triela in Gunslinger Girls and Takane in Burst Angel.

*Are you a freelancer or does your contract tie you to FUNimation?

I am technically freelance. I sign a new contract yearly with FUNimation, but it doesn’t bind me to work with them solely. The contract just covers things like wages and confidentiality.

*String of related questions: The big thing we’re really concerned about is that you moved to Madrid, Spain; how does living in Europe affect your work schedule for FUNimation? Are you still an active voice actor, or are you just finishing up the roles you originated as special cases? (i.e. FMA: Brotherhood, the next Gunslinger Girl, but not starting any new projects?) Have you “effectively retired”? Will you still go to anime conventions? Is it true that you have a home studio for recording? Did this significantly complicate your ability to record for Maya in Rebuild of Eva 1 (and 2)?

Since moving to Spain, my voice work at FUNimation and elsewhere has in essence stopped. Not permanently though, so I guess it’s more like a hiatus. Before I left last February we recorded everything we possibly could on Brotherhood and then planned to use my home studio for the rest. It worked out that I came back to the States last summer for some conventions so we didn’t have to use my studio. I was able to complete Brotherhood while I was home, and before everyone else! In the fall I made another trip back, again for conventions and was able to get Eva 2.0 recorded. So no, I haven’t retired, really. I’ll continue to maintain any current roles that may pop up in sequels and things, and I won’t be living abroad forever! I’m definitely still available for conventions, if the con doesn’t mind flying me from Madrid!

*Why did you move to Europe, and what have you been up to?

My husband and I moved to Europe because we wanted to travel and decided that teaching English would be the best way to do that and sustain ourselves, too. We came to Madrid in March to take a certification course. We only planned to stay for the month of the course, but fell in love with Spain, so we stayed! Eventually we’d like to teach and live in other countries as well.

*What is the anime scene like in Spain? (do they dub that much stuff into Spanish/Catalan that people on the street know what “anime” series you work on are, comparable to the level here, or is it practically nonexistent?)

There is anime in Spain! We don’t have TV at home, so I don’t know what exactly is on, but I do know that it is in Spanish, certainly. When I talk to my young students about my other job as a “dobladora” they always know what Dragonball Z is but that’s about it. Young kids here watch Bakugan a lot, and play Pokemon. I think they watch Powerpuff Girls Z also. There is an anime culture and even conventions, but I usually don’t find out about them until after the fact. I saw a kid with a One Piece backpack once, and another guy with a Naruto headband on- in the Metro no less! Manga is popular also. I have a feeling that a lot of anime watching is done illegally online (just like in the U.S.!) since a lot of media is watched that way here.

*How did you get the part of Maya Ibuki? What was your audition like?

I don’t really remember! I’m not sure I auditioned at all, I may have just been cast cold.

*One of our friends was at Animazement 2009 in North Carolina, and they said you literally got a text-message in the middle of your panel (at the same time the English dub cast was being announced the same weekend at Anime Boston) saying that you were cast as Maya, and it seemed like you weren’t really sure who that was; how did this work out exactly? I.e. did you read off some audition lines earlier, but weren’t sure who Maya was, then later they said you got the part?

I’d seen the original Eva before, but it had been many years earlier, so I just couldn’t recall the character. Once we got started and I saw her on screen, I remembered. As far as the casting goes, you’d have to ask the director, Mike McFarland. Sometimes with supporting roles, a director can cast an actor based on their previous work, which must have been the case here.

*Had already you seen the original series at any point between when it came out in 1997 and when work on Rebuild started?

Yes, I’d seen the series in the early 2000’s sometime.

*How did you first hear about Rebuild of Evangelion?

Um… I don’t remember. I may have read about it online or in a magazine with regards to it in Japan. As far as FUNimation’s involvement, I think McFarland told me.

*What kind of instructions and coaching did ADR director Mike McFarland give? What was it like working on the project?

Usually I had to sound military and intense, and whatever I thought intense was, Mike needed it 3 times that! It was really cool to be a part of a show so legendary though. I loved working on it. Mike let me hear what the other actors were sounding like- Spike, Alison, etc. We were kind of geeking out about it all.

*How did you prepare for the role? That is, did FUNimation make you sit down and watch the original series (if you hadn’t already)? If they did, were the instructions to also watch the aptly named finale movie, “The End of Evangelion”? (Maya gets a lot to do in that)

As voice actors, we are generally told not to watch any preexisting material, be it in English or Japanese. Because everything we do is timing-related, it is important that we don’t begin “deciding” in our mind how we want to deliver a line. Watching material ahead of recording can cause an actor to get in a rut, unable to move out of the delivery they first imagined and into what the director wants and what will fit the flaps. Luckily for me, it had been some years since I’d first seen Eva, and I didn’t know at the time I’d be playing Maya in the future, so I hadn’t been practicing!

*Brina Palencia said that she had never seen the original Evangelion series when she was cast, so while she did sit down and marathon the original series subtitled, she made it a point to never watch the original series’ English dub: the reasoning being that as opposed to trying to match the original, they were trying to do an independent take on their own. Did you also do this?

Nope! I’m not surprised that Brina did a marathon watch though, despite my answer to the previous question regarding this. She had to take over a very important character of a very well known and loved series, so the pressure was on!

*Conversely, if you already just happened to have seen the original dub in the past 15 years, how did you try to handle stepping into a previously established role?

I didn’t worry about it too much. Like Brina mentioned, we weren’t trying to recreate. And I had faith that if the director chose me, he must think I’ll be able to pull it off.

*The problem with playing Maya Ibuki is that by Rebuild, she’s basically Evangelion’s “Other Darren” – the character that gets recast all the time, and each of them had significant screentime
– a few Eva roles got recast once or twice, or someone new read lines in a compilation movie, but Rebuild-Maya is now the fourth major iteration of Maya (the others were Kendra Benham in the TV series, Amy Seeley in End of Evangelion, and Monica Rial in the director’s cut episodes). How did you approach playing a character who has had so many alternate English voices before? (of course, if you’ve intentionally never seen the English dub in any form, this is a moot point).

I didn’t realize Monica had played Maya as well! How cool! Again though, I didn’t worry at all about what Maya used to sound like. We were starting from scratch with her, as far as I was concerned.

*We were very impressed with how you had Maya’s tone drastically shift between public and private settings; i.e. when only Misato and Ritsuko are around and they’re not in front of the full command crew Maya suddenly starts showing a lot more emotion and concern (when Shinji is in VR training and she’s worried about him, when they’re surveying the damage from a plane and she says it reminds her of Second Impact). What kind of thought went into this, and will we see more of this in Rebuild 2?

Well, she is a person, not a machine! Also, there is only so much the audience can take of those super-intense reads. But the decision wasn’t really mine. I take my acting cues from the animation itself, the Japanese voice actress and my director.

*One of the things I personally regret is that a lot of the material that was covered in the middle arc of the original series had to be cut for time from Rebuild 2. I agree that it helped the flow but a large amount of the character development for the secondary characters happened in those more standalone episodes. Maya’s bigger episodes were 11, 13, and 14. Do you still try to “keep in mind” material from these episodes that got cut? I.e. that Maya likes reading light novels, hangs around with the other technicians, is awe-struck with how they’re “living in the city science built!”, and how she morally disagrees with what Ritsuko is doing but can’t bring herself to outright refusing to carry out Ritsuko’s orders? How are you dealing with that quite a few of Maya’s character building moments from this part of the series had to be cut for time?

Honestly, it was so long ago that I saw the original, I didn’t even remember that stuff until I read it just now. I hope that doesn’t break your heart! But really, I’m just happy to bring the character to life in whatever scenes I’m given. Who knows, maybe some of that other stuff will get worked into the newer rebuild movies.

*In the original series Maya never exactly walked around holding a sign announcing this (who does?) but Maya is actually a lesbian, and has an unrequited crush on Ritsuko. Have you kept this in mind or tried to convey in some way that when Maya is talking to Ritsuko she is “in awe” of her?

Maya’s “awe” of Ritsuko is pretty obvious to me, regardless of her sexual persuasion, so it definitely plays a part in bringing her to life.

*Would you say that Maya is the Smithers to Ritsuko’s Mr. Burns?

Haha!! Pretty funny… but no,

*If you actually break down the amount of dialogue each character gets in Evangelion, Maya actually gets something in the area of a fifth of all of the speaking lines…its just that a lot of them are “technobabble” things heard in the background. How much time did you have to spend recording? How did you handle all of the convoluted technobabble lines? (did you ever trip up?) Was it ever difficult to “sell” some of the technobabble lines emotionally? i.e. to shout “The Eva’s AT Field just fell 15%!!!” and sound genuinely scared? Or have you had experience selling the urgency of wacky lines before in past series you worked on?

Some of the lines are a little convoluted, sure, but it’s quite fun to shout them! The nice thing is that while there are a lot of those lines, many of them don’t have lip flaps to match, so the recording time is shorter.

*As you’re one of the FUNimation regulars, do you encounter the other Rebuild of Evangelion voice actors often, at the office or on the convention circuit? (well, when you’re visiting the United States to work at FUNimation HQ).

When I was still in the states, I would see many of them everyday, if I was directing. Others, not as frequently because they didn’t live in Dallas, like Spike for example.

*Overall, what were the scenes from Rebuild of Evangelion that you enjoy the most?

Do you mean my scenes? Because I haven’t had a chance to watch my dvd of 1.0 yet, and I obviously haven’t seen 2.0. I really do like yelling technobabble… so that is like, 90% of each movie!

*Do you enjoy Doritos?

You know what, I do, but since moving to Spain we’ve become addicted to ham flavored potato chips. Ham is big here. Sorry, Doritos.

*God’s in his heaven?

Which means he must be in Texas! (and all is right with the world