Interview with Colleen O’Shaughnessey

I was luckily enough to get a quick interview with Colleen O’Shaughnessey!

Colleen O’Shaughnessey has voiced several characters over the years from Anime to Pixar films.

O’Shaughnessey is most known for voicing of Sora Takenouchi from the Digimon brand. She first voiced Sora back in 1999 in Digimon Adventure 01. Colleen then she reprised the character in the new six part movie series Digimon Adventure Tri. from 2015 – 2018.

Some of the other characters she has also voiced are Polly from the Kids from Room 402, Tails from Sonic Boom animated series,  Jazz Fenton from Danny Phantom, Wasp from Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers as well as additional voices from Pixar films such as Cars, Monster University and Toy Story 3!

The first question was about how would someone get into voice acting and what made you wanting a career in the voice acting industry.

Q1 How did you get into voice acting?

I was at the University of Michigan for Musical Theatre and my dance instructor overheard me goofing around with one of my classmates and said, “You need to do voiceovers!”  Although I had always been an avid watcher of animation, it was the first time I had heard the term ‘voiceover’.  It hadn’t occurred to me that it was somebody’s job.  So, I did some homework, discovered the place to do it was Los Angeles, took a chance and moved there.  I continued taking acting classes and asked anyone who knew anything about voiceover for advice, put together a demo, got an agent and started auditioning.

I then went on about what was your most memorable scene in Digimon voicing Sora.

Q2 What is your most memorable scene in Digimon voicing Sora?

I can’t think of a specific scene (it was a long time ago), but I do very much remember the experience of recording the series, especially the beginning.  The most memorable thing for me is that I

really didn’t know what I was doing.  It was my first experience with anime and dubbing, so I had to learn on the job.  The sessions were only 2 hours, but I was exhausted afterward from being so nervous and having to concentrate so hard on figuring out how to watch the screen & match the sync, read my script & act the scene, and listen for the beeps & start at the right moment all at the same time.

I then asked Colleen what it was like going back voicing Sora after 15 or so years later compared to voicing other characters.

 

 

I then asked Collen what was her most memorable character away from Digimon

Q5 Stepping away from Digimon who is your most memorable character you have voiced apart from Sora?

Most memorable for me would be Polly from the “Kids from Room 402”.  She was my very first show and holds a very special place in my heart.  I absolutely love Jazz, Wasp & Tails, though, too.  I think every character I do is like a little piece of me, so it’s hard to play favorites.

The last question that I asked Colleen was if you could be one piece of advice about becoming a voice actor what would it be?

Q6 For someone who wants to get into voice acting what is the one thing that you would recommend to me?

Think in terms of creating characters as opposed to doing funny voices.  Take acting and improv classes.  Make strong choices.  Remember that auditioning is part of the job.  Always give them your absolute best, because you may not be right for this particular part on this particular show, but you might be right for the next one.  And they will remember. (sorry, that was more than one thing 😉 )