1 on 1 Vic Mignogna of Fullmetal Alchemist (INTERVIEW)

During Otakon, FanBros got the chance to sit down with Vic Mignogna. Many people wouldn’t recognize the name, but they would definitely recognize his voice. Vic has worked on One Piece, Trinity Blood, and World of Warcraft. But the work his most notable is that of Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist. Vic recalls how he got in the industry and what he does when he’s not portraying some memorable characters.

Jason Payne: A lot of people always ask this– How did you get into voice acting? 

Vic Mignogna: I got into it almost 20 years ago, when anime was very small and much more of a little niche sub culture. So I was fortunate enough to get into it when I did. I was living in Houston, Texas when I was encouraged to audition for a little studio in Houston of all places called ADV films. I was told they bought these Japanese animated shows to dub them into English and they were looking for actors. All I heard was “they were looking for actors” because I had been acting since I was very young. I did a lot of stage plays, musical theater, and some on camera stuff. So I went and auditioned because I love acting and I never really imagined that anything would come of it. I did this character Vega in Street Fighter 2. Well I thought that was fun and I left that afternoon. Then a couple of weeks later they called me back and asked me to do another show, and then another, and another. The business kept growing, the industry was growing. I was just blessed enough to be in on the ground floor when it was growing. That’s how I got started and I guess that’s why I’m still around years later.

Because the animation is based on the Japanese language, how do they get the timing down during the dubbing process?

I tell you something, that’s the hardest part. There are a lot of good actors and there are a lot of good lip syncers. To be able to do both is where it gets a little more tricky. That’s the hardest part of animation voice acting. Delivering a believable, entertaining performance with the established mouth movements of the character. What I have learned is that there is almost a rhythm to it. I can’t define it or explain it. Almost every good voice actor I know who was good at matching lip movements has a musical background. Either they sing or play an instrument. There’s a musical quality to it and I can’t quite put my finger on it. But those people are really good at sensing and matching the mouth movements.

Most people don’t know that you’re into music and do soundtracks. 

“Into music” would be an understatement. I’ve been voice acting for 18 or 19 years, and I’ve been singing and producing music for twice as long. Music was one of my very first loves. Played the piano, produced dozens of records for myself, other people as well, and I have six albums on iTunes. About 10-12 years ago, I was working in an anime called One Piece. And the director said
“Hey, don’t you sing?”
“Yes!” I replied.
“You want to do an English version of this One Piece theme?”
And I’m like “Sure!” And I did another One Piece theme, and a third. Then I did a Fullmetal Alchemist song, Dragonball Z Kai, and Dragonball GT.
And I was so excited that my voice acting and musical background finally came together. Music is a very big part of my life. I wrote and produced pieces of music for radio commercials, TV spots, documentaries, you name it. I’m very much into music.

Vic Mignogna’s most recent available work is a Stan Lee creating titled The Reflection.

Check out the trailer of the series below and be sure to check out more from Jason Payne right here on FanBros.com!