MomoCon 2015: Sarah Anne Williams

During MomoCon, voice actor Sarah Anne Williams, known for Skullgirls, Sword Art Online and Kill la Kill, fielded questions regarding her love of Let’s Plays and working within the industry.

Williams remains humble despite her growing success and says that she still doesn’t think she is destined to make a living in this career path. “I’m always surprised to see a decent crowd for the autograph session.” Williams calls out that patience is a virtue, and you really do need it in this job.

Even though she does voiceover work for anime, games and the web, Williams still appreciates commercials and the work required to create them. Some peers will passover commercial work because they think it’s too remedial, but Williams says that they can still be fun and offer different approaches –  commercials are where she trained for the work she does today.

Williams admits that voice actors don’t have any additional insight or hidden factoids about the character’s past. “I just know what everyone else knows. I don’t help write or build the lore.”

While recording, Williams never worries if characters will sound too similar or overlap. The focus is always on finding the right voice for the character and its up to the director to ensure that everything meshes well within the universe.

Regarding the future, Williams think’s that it would be interesting to do the voice of an action figure or a doll. This way her voice would come out when kids are playing with their toys. She would also like to try and do more audio-books, even though they can be a thankless job. The actor is required to sound the same for hours, even though they get more tired as the day goes on.

Speaking of being tired, Peacock (from Skullgirls) physically hurt the first time Williams was done recording her voice. Today, she loves the character and knows how to better place her within her vocal cords so that it doesn’t end up hurting.

Now that she’s finally made it, Williams is starting to pursue other hobbies and support creatives within the YouTube and Let’s Play community. Recently, she worked with Random Encounters on a PaperBoy Musical Parody which was a unique experience and one she hopes to repeat. One Let’s Player that Williams calls out is the Krillin personality who is able to stay in character during their entire session, which as a voice actor she can appreciate the talent involved.

For more coverage on voice actors, the gaming industry and creators behind your favorite anime shows check out the MomoCon coverage for this year and attend next year.

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