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Interview with Richard Epcar & Ellyn Stern

At Anime South 2006, I was privileged to have a sit down with Richard Epcar and Ellyn Stern in the hotel's restaurant after hours. This husband and wife duo turned into one of my most unique interviewing experiences yet.

Anna May - A lot of anime fans are aware of your voice acting work, but maybe not some of the other projects you’ve been involved in. Can you tell us about your on-camera work in both movies and television?

Richard Epcar - I’ve done soaps, I was on General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, Santa Barbara…I was a semi-regular on all those shows and did some guest star and co-star parts on different prime time episodic shows like Who’s the Boss, a Columbo movie…I was in a movie called The Memoirs of an Invisible Man with Chevy Chase and Daryl Hanna. I played one of bad guys, Sam Neill, he was our boss, he was great. Ellyn and I just did a play together, we did Neil Simon’s “Rumors” in the theatre, it was a huge hit, at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills. We sold out every single show, had rave reviews mostly for Ellyn and I. It was a lot of fun. So, we do plays, we do television, we do films besides the anime voice-over stuff, plus I also write and direct. I’m directing a lot of games and I’m directing a lot of original animation, also. I just have a movie that’s coming out “Shark Bait” with an all-star cast. We had Rob Schneider and Freddie Prinze, Jr. that I directed and I’m directing a lot of games now, which is a lot of fun and doing a lot of voice work in games as well.

Ellyn Stern - I’ve done a lot of movies. I, too, was a regular on General Hospital, I was on Days of Our Lives and Santa Barbara, I had recurrings on those as well. I was on St. Elsewhere, I did a movie called “The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox” with George Segal and Goldie Hawn. I did a movie called “Jessi’s Girls” with Rod Cameron…that was a western. I did a lifetime of work and try and remember it…(to Richard) Honey what else have I done? I forget. I did a movie called “Fear City” with Jack Scalia. I did a “Charlie’s Angels”. In this last year, I’ve done five plays. Right now I’m about to do the role of Jacqueline Kennedy at the Music Center in Los Angeles at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. (Richard does “Kirk Douglas” impression, then Ellyn goes into Jackie Kennedy voice) “And Jackie…I’m going to do her” (Ellyn quickly resumes her own voice) Richard and I were just in “Rumors” by Neil Simon, it was a huge, huge hit. I got outrageous reviews on that. One review said I was so off-the-wall I should be committed.

Richard Epcar - We were on “Clean Sweep” together.

Ellyn Stern - Everybody has seen “Clean Sweep”. That has aired more than any tv show we’ve ever done. Actually, what they did was come into our house, they took two rooms of house out, threw them on the lawn and I said, “Oh my God, I can’t believe this is all our stuff” at which the moderator said to me (changes voices), “No Ellyn, that is not all your stuff, that’s only from two rooms!”.

Richard Epcar - (laughing) It was brutal.

Ellyn Stern - Anyhow, we were forced to throw away stuff and revamp and those two rooms got dressed in early IKEA, a lot of which broke. But, it repainted the walls and forced us to unclutter, which is a process we’re still going through. They said to us when they first came to the door, “Can you two have clutter?” I said, “Done.” They said, “Can you two have arguments?” I said, “Done.” They said, “Can you two be funny?” I said (turning to Richard), “Honey, can we be funny?”

Richard Epcar - No.

Ellyn Stern - No, so we tried. Anyhow, it became their favorite episode. Richard and I first met, I was in a repertory theatre company. I was doing Sally balls and caberet and they said, “We need a leading man for you” and so they started auditioning and the company manager peeked her head out through the curtains and said, “Ellyn, I think we’ve found one. This one’s going to be good for you”. She meant for my leading man, but it was very auspicious, because here he is.

Richard Epcar - Where?

Ellyn Stern - …twenty-six years later and we were together after two months meeting. Richard says I just wanted his brown towels, I keep telling him I hated the color brown.

Richard Epcar - No, she wanted ‘em…

Ellyn Stern - But somehow it worked, it stuck. We’ve got two children. We’ve got a 19 year old daughter, we’ve got a 23 year old son who’s a drummer. I mean, a career is something…it’s like I don’t have my IMDB (Internet Movie Database) or my resume’ in front of me, you can check that out, but…

Richard Epcar - There’s not time enough to list all that other stuff.

Ellyn Stern - Which other stuff?

Richard Epcar - Anything you’ve left off the, uh…

Ellyn Stern - That’s true, that’s true. But anyhow, what I wanted to say is that, in the course of a career, which hopefully Richard and I do have…

Richard Epcar - The tinkle of silverware right here…

Ellyn Stern - Don’t touch…um…the thing is about working, continually working. I’m always doing some animated project. When Richard works, I work. We’ve got careers and we keep working and it’s wonderful and that’s what a life is about.

Richard Epcar - (sounding exhausted) Working…and working…and working…and working. (now revitalized) Oh sorry, I had a little moment there.

Anna May - (laughing) I’m wondering how I’m going to type this up.

Richard Epcar - You know, you were wondering how you were going to type this up, we had an interview in I believe it was St. Louis and there was about six of us in a room together. We had Chris Patton and Monica Rial, and me, and I think Mike McFarland…a few of us were in this room getting interviewed and there was like 20 guys from some press corps. When I actually read the interview, the whole thing was completely convoluted; we were all misquoted and was just a big mess. You know, and I’m wondering how they could do that, ‘cause they were recording it.

Ellyn Stern - Is that important?

Richard Epcar - (sobbing) It is to me!

Anna May - You’ve both done so many different roles in so many different mediums. What are some of the differences in the mediums, which do find more enjoyable and which is just more challenging?

Richard Epcar - I’ll go first because Ellyn will be 20 minutes…

Ellyn Stern - You’ll be 30…

Richard Epcar - Well, they all present their own…

Ellyn Stern - (interrupting) Are you done yet?

Richard Epcar - …their own challenges because…(to Ellyn) Do I have to put you in the cage with Tom Bateman? (laughs)…Okay, enough of that…they all have their own challenges. On-camera, obviously, you’re acting with your whole being and you’re portraying a character with your whole body and you’re projecting a character, so you’re moving and you’re being that character. Whereas, when you’re doing voice-over, you’re basically using your voice, but, you know, you still use your body and you still get into it in a different way. It’s a really kind of different acting. It’s almost like the old time radio shows. However, some of this new stuff is very natural, so you can’t get very broad and big with it. You have to be very natural and real in some of these new cartoons and they’re wonderful and I love that. But I also love being broad and big. I’m very fortunate in that I love all of it, all aspects of it. I’m being clocked here, so I’ll turn it over to Ellyn.

Ellyn Stern - Everything is acting, whether you’re doing and anime role, whether you’re doing a live action role…(distracted by Richard)…where you’re just using your voice.

Richard Epcar - (interrupting) What is this? Is this acting? Am I acting now? Is that acting?

Ellyn Stern - Honey, I think that’s quite a bit too much.

Richard Epcar - But is that acting?

Ellyn Stern - Go away!

Richard Epcar - No, is it acting? Yes or no.

Ellyn Stern - No.

Richard Epcar - But you just said everything’s acting, so this must be acting ‘cause you just said everything’s acting, so this must be acting…sorry.

Ellyn Stern - Ignore the man behind the curtain. I mean that, whether you’re doing voice acting or whether you’re doing on-camera acting or whether you’re doing stage acting, it’s all acting and you have to create a character. What I hate, as a actor and as a director, is working where it’s only the voice that’s involved. (Richard does something to make Ellyn, Anna May and himself crack up)…Go away! Go away!…I hate when actors just use their voice for anime because it has to be the whole character. Even with cartoons, you have to be almost like a spirit that invades the character you’re doing…breath when that character breathes…

Richard Epcar - I don’t want creatures invading me, thank you very much…

Ellyn Stern - Honey, based upon what I just saw, I think a lot of the characters invaded you more than I want to say. (turning back to Anna May) But, you have to be an actor whether you’re doing it onstage or on-camera or on film and the difference is how you apply it. And of course as Richard was saying, if you’re doing it on-camera, your appearance is important, the way you dress is important, your mannerisms are important, for each character your movements are important. Even so, especially in voice, like I have a particular thing where my voice tends to be a little slower. When I’m doing some characters, I have to stop doing it slow valve, I have to do very, very fast talking, I have to drop the slow valve. You have to catch the rhythm of the character you’re doing. I’m about to do a stage play where I’m doing Jacqueline Kennedy (goes into Jackie’s voice)…and she talks very much like this...and she goes, When Jack and I were at the White House and it was a wonderful time in our lives…(resumes her own voice) and she’s very much like that.

Richard Epcar - (interrupting) No, please, do all of act 1.

Ellyn Stern - Honey, shut up. So, stage is different because it’s a little bigger and you’re reaching an audience which is farther away. When you’re doing film and when you’re doing on-camera, for anime or cartoons, it’s closer, you don’t have to be as “big” unless the character you’re doing is very big. Does that answer?

Anna May - Yeah, I think so. Mr. Epcar, you’ve been involved in directing a number of foreign language dubs. You’ve directed dubs in Brazilian, Norwegian, Dutch, German, Polish and Hebrew. Do you actually speak any of those languages?

Ellyn Stern - He barely speaks English.

Richard Epcar - Thank you, honey, that’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said. To correct you, I have supervised English movies into dubs of those languages. And to answer your question, no I do not speak those languages, I’ve supervised all over the world for Dreamworks and Universal Pictures and they hire me to supervise dubs of our movies into their languages. When we’re in these countries, they have directors that speak those languages and they direct the actors in those countries. I just basically oversee the whole operation and work as a liaison between the studio and the studio in the foreign country. I have actually directed a lot of foreign films…German, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, Italian, Polish…into English, where I get translations of these movies and I adapt them into an English script and then I bring the actors in and dub the movies so it looks like the actors are speaking English. When I’m done with it, hopefully if I’ve done my job, you’ll forget that you’re watching a dubbed movie and it’ll appear as though the actors are speaking English. I worked on some really nice movies like Cinema Paradiso, which Ellyn had the lead in.

Ellyn Stern - It got an academy award.

Anna May - Of the multitude of roles you’ve voice acted, do you have a character that’s particularly close to your heart?

Ellyn Stern - I loved “The Widow of St. Pierre” we were just talking about that one with Juliette Binoche. I just thought the character was beautiful. I think I relate more to live action movies that I’ve dubbed as opposed to cartoons. Even as much as I try to make the cartoons three-dimensional, they’re not, you know, by virtue of the fact that they are what they are.

Richard Epcar - What about the CGI ones? They’re three-dimensional.

Ellyn Stern - I’ve directed a lot of games that you get to have fun also. It’s so hard to pick a favorite role because, whenever you’re doing a role, you submerge yourself entirely into it and you become a part of it. And so I think your favorite role is generally what you’re doing right at the moment. Don’t you think?

Richard Epcar - Yes.

Ellyn Stern - That was quick.

Anna May - That's the shortest answer of the night.

Richard Epcar - But, I have an answer to that too. I was just answering your question.

Ellyn Stern - Oh.

Richard Epcar - (to Anna May) Now to answer your question about my favorite character, what was the exact…?

Anna May - Do you have a character that’s particularly close to your heart?

Richard Epcar - Yeah, I have several and it’s hard for me to name just one. But several come to mind immediately: Batou comes to mind because I love him, I love that character so much, I love it. You know they asked earlier what character was closest to me and I said Jigen, but actually Batou is this big, burly guy that doesn’t take crap from anybody, yet there’s a real soft, mushy side to him and he has a really good sense of humor and he likes to fool around and make jokes and that’s a lot like me, too. So, I relate to that a lot. And I do like Jigen, he’s another one. He’s got a very dry, sarcastic sense of humor and I do too. In Xenosaga, I mentioned the Ziggy, Ziggurat 8, because he has this pathos about him that’s so much fun to play as a actor. I’m trying to think of another, there’s so many, the list just goes on and on. I also like playing this new Robotech movie, the Shadow Chronicles. I play Capt. Vince Grant in this and I just love it because I’m captain of a starship and it was so much fun to do that…you just become this character and a captain on a starship and what a wonderful thing that is. So it’s fun, I like to play characters like that. I play generals and captains and people of authority and cops, so that’s fun and I get to play some crazy, zany characters too.

Ellyn Stern - I just wanted to add that I do so many thousands of voices and I generally get given all the roles that nobody else can do and I’ll get roles that are really far out.

Richard Epcar - (interrupting) It’s known as type-casting.

Ellyn Stern - Thanks, honey.

Richard Epcar - I should know I cast you.

Ellyn Stern - That’s true. In MAR, that’s the new cartoon series that I’m doing right now, I’m doing Jack’s mom and she’s just really a nutball of a job. (looks at Richard) Don’t say it! Do not say it. Like when I did Haraway in the Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, she’s just real dry and very underplayed.

Richard Epcar - Who was your director in that?

Ellyn Stern - I think it’s the guy next to me.

Richard Epcar - And how did you find him, did you enjoy working with him?

Ellyn Stern - I looked in the bed.

Richard Epcar - I don’t think we recorded that in bed, honey.

Ellyn Stern - No, no no no no no.

Richard Epcar - Did you enjoy doing that project?

Ellyn Stern - I did, I loved it, I loved it. I had an excEllynt director and the thing I loved about Ghost in the Shell, working on that was, it was very natural and I do like working very natural. That’s always appealing.

Anna May - Well, not every role can be natural, so what role has been the most difficult on you vocally?

Ellyn Stern - When we were first…(Richard hand gestures mockingly)…What? I haven’t had it for a second. Honey, hands to yourself…I may have to tie them back. When we were first dubbing, we got all these movies from Thailand, those movies were horrible on the vocals because you had to scream all the time. Everybody was beheaded or chopped or there was something going on and I think those were the most difficult. As Richard and I were saying earlier, we would start working at 11 o’clock, then your call time would be come in at one. You know, it’s 1 o’clock and you’re doing coffee and trying to stay up and you work ‘til like three or four in the morning and to scream all night…okay, here comes this scream...and so, those were the most difficult, wouldn’t you agree honey?

Richard Epcar - Yeah.

Ellyn Stern - I really think those were the most difficult, those Thai movies.

Richard Epcar - I don’t know, as far as cartoons, the most difficult one was when I did Fighting Spirit and I did Kamogawa and I did the voice like (goes into voice) “C’mon kid, you gotta fight this guy” and one day I had to do 14 ½ hours of that straight and it just toasted my throat. But it’s hard sometimes to do that. We do a lot of looping as well, which is a background wall for big movies. I worked on Gladiator and it was three days of screaming and it just kills your throat, so it’s tough. I also wanted to mention, we do diverse things. I just finished directing this game for the WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2007. They’ve just asked me to come back and do Smackdown vs Raw 2008 to direct that…

Ellyn Stern - More smut.

Richard Epcar - …and it was an interesting thing because I had to direct people who weren’t necessarily actors and we had this million dollar recording studio on wheels, this mobile recording studio, and we would tape all the different venues where the superstars of wrestling were at the arena and record them for this huge game for EA. It was just interesting and I’m doing a lot more games and people are asking me to do more and more games, which I’m kind of glad about because it seems like that’s where everything’s going right now, to the games.

Anna May - Do you prefer acting or directing?

Richard Epcar - I like ‘em both a lot. My ideal thing is when I’m directing myself, to be honest with you, and not to sound like a schmegaggy or anything, but I really am my favorite director just because I really know what I want and I know what I want to do…

Ellyn Stern - He always does.

Richard Epcar - …and I work well with myself, I really do (Ellyn begins laughing, Richard chuckles), I really do, I work well with myself and it’s like, so many times you go into the studio and there’s nothing worse as an actor to have somebody you feel misdirecting you, to do a character you know in your gut is not the right way to do it or you feel like, “I wish you’d let me do it the way I want to do it”, you know what I mean? So, when I work with myself, it’s much easier, but I’m happy to work with a lot of directors, but it’s really easier for me in many ways…

Ellyn Stern - I help you.

Richard Epcar - Yeah, you do. Ellyn’s an excEllynt director, she’s directed a lot of games. Do you want to answer the same question?

Ellyn Stern - I always love to act, that’s my first love. And them directing came about and it’s a whole different kind of thing because you’re helping somebody else perform. If you excel as a performer and you know what it takes to excel as a performer, then you know what it takes to help somebody else excel as a performer. And, so even when Richard and I were working together, like on Rumors, Richard and I work really, really well together…we have good chemistry together…he would ask me for my opinion on what he was doing and I would ask him for his opinion on what I was doing and, likewise, when he’s in the booth I’ll come in and I’ll start directing him (Richard says something unintelligible)…well, honey, sometimes you need it…(Richard bursts out laughing).

Richard Epcar - Let me just also say about that, taking this away from my wife, the main difference too, is when you’re an actor basically you’ve got control over your performance, kinda, but when you’re a director, you’ve got control over your vision. The whole project is kind of your vision, which is kind of nice, especially if you’re a control freak like me, then you can basically oversee the whole project instead of just being a piece of the puzzle, see what I mean?

Anna May - Ms. Stern, I have a question for you specifically. The two of you have worked on numerous projects together. For example, your husband was the voice director for Shadow Hearts 2 in which you played Veronica Vera and various other roles. Is it an advantage or disadvantage to work with a director that you have to go home with at the end of the day?

Ellyn Stern - You know I think…

Richard Epcar - Be careful how you answer this.

Ellyn Stern - I think it’s an individual thing. Richard and I work well together. I love working with Richard. He is my favorite leading man, he’s my favorite director and he’d better say the same about me.

Richard Epcar - You are my favorite leading lady…okay, take the gun away!

Ellyn Stern - But we really do, I mean we started out working together and we just understand each other’s chemistry, we work off of each other. When we did that episode of Clean Sweep, they air it like every other week; they say it’s their favorite episode. But we do enjoy working together and he understands what I need and I understand what he needs and we feed off of each other. So, for us, it’s definitely an advantage.

Anna May - I like to end the interviews the same way as they do on Inside the Actor’s Studio with the Bernard Pivot questionnaire, only I replaced “What’s your favorite curse word” with something a little more family-friendly because I know Mr. Epcar is just going to run with that one. First of all, what is your favorite word?

Ellyn Stern - Yes. My favorite word is “yes”, because unless I hear “yes”, I can’t run with it. I really pass on people and situations that say “maybe”, “if”, and “no” to me. I run with people and situations that say “yes” because that helps me to have a moving-on, creative relationship with myself and others in the world.

Richard Epcar - I don’t know if this is supposed to be relating to what we do, is that what you’re…

Anna May - What is your favorite word…any word.

Richard Epcar - Kindness, I like “kindness”, I like people to be kind to each other and to be sweet to each other and to treat each other well and with respect, so that’s my favorite word.

Anna May - What is your least favorite word?

Richard Epcar - I know what hers is. You go first.

Ellyn Stern - Nice. I hate the word “nice” because…

Richard Epcar - I say, “You look nice” and she goes to the moon, she acts like I called her Hitler or something…

Ellyn Stern - I don’t like the word “nice”, it’s like, “Did you like that? It was nice”. I don’t like patronizing things and “nice” to me is one of those middle of the road words that’s non-descriptive and doesn’t make a strong choice and I like things that make strong choices…”yes, no”…it’s one of those “maybe” words. “Nice”…you look “adequate”…you look “pleasant”…”cordial”, they’re all words I hate because they’re polite words that don’t mean anything.

Richard Epcar - It’s not one word, but there’s an expression I really hate, it’s when people say, “My bad”. I hate that expression, it makes me crazy…because it’s like they could run you over with a car and (shifts voices), “Oh, my bad” and then they walk away like it excuses everything. I don’t know, it just sounds idiotic to me.

Anna May - What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

Richard Epcar - Aside from money? (laughs) Um, I think when it comes to portraying a character, if there’s a hook that I can hook onto the character, there’s something about that character I can grab onto and something I can relate to, something I can plug into, then I can go ahead and become crative with that character. What was the other part of the question? What turns me on spiritually is kindness. It doesn’t have to be a deity, it doesn’t have to be a religion, it doesn’t have to be any of that stuff. Just people being thoughtful and kind and respectful to other people. That gets me happy and turned on and all that.

Ellyn Stern - Passion. I have to have passion for what I’m feeling, for what I’m doing. It goes back to my thing about “nice”. I can’t go with “nice’. I can’t go with “pleasant”. If I’m going to go into a role, if I’m going to fall in love, have a relationship, have children, be committed to a role, I have to put 1000% percent into what I do. Spiritually, I have things that I do that, for me, really brings me serenity, really brings me peace. I do yoga. I do it everyday. That brings me into harmony with my body. I’m also a vegetarian, I have been for years. Now, I’m sure all the readers are going to say, “She’s so “L.A.” I guess I am in that way, but I do look at what I put into my body because what I put into my body is what I am. And so, that very simply is the way I lead my day, the way I bring serenity into my heart. What I want is serenity is in my home and in my work environment. If I bring the serenity of who I am into the moment, then hopefully that happens.

Anna May - If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would it be?

Richard Epcar - Wow. If I could meet someone I’ve never met before, but I could meet living or dead. I feel like I’m brain dead, I can’t think of anything…I’m so exhausted. I’m trying to think, who would I meet? I’ve got a real desire to meet Abraham Lincoln. I’d like to sit down and talk to him, actually. I’d like to talk to Walt Disney, I’d like to talk to John Kennedy, I would like to talk to…there’s a lot of good ones. Well, that’s about it.

Ellyn Stern - It’s very hard to narrow it down to one. I’d love to talk to Jacqueline Kennedy, Katherine Hepburn, JFK, Bill Clinton…Hillary Clinton.

Richard Epcar - (Richard does Bill Clinton impression) I’m not dead.

Ellyn Stern - (does outstanding Katherine Hepburn impression)

Richard Epcar - She’s dead.

Ellyn Stern - She’s dead all over.

Richard Epcar - Yes.

Ellyn Stern - I love historical people…Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Mozart…

Richard Epcar - You know what I want to say to you? (makes four wretching noises)

Ellyn Stern - I’m a researcher and I search historically, I’d love to meet my ancestors who were my great grandparents and get to know who they were because that’s part of my history.

Anna May - What sound do you love?

Richard Epcar - Cha-ching!

Ellyn Stern - (makes kiss sound)

Richard Epcar - That was the shortest answer you’ve given all night.

Anna May - What sound or noise do you hate?

Richard Epcar - (makes flatulent sound)

Ellyn Stern - Screaming.

Anna May - What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt?

Richard Epcar - You mean besides a Beverly Hills gynecologist? If I was not an actor, there’s aspects of law that kind of interest me, but I think if I couldn’t be an architect, which I’d find really interesting to design buildings and all that, I think I would to, if I had the time and wasn’t acting, I’d like to buy houses and fix them up and turn them around. I’d really like to do that. I think that would be a really fun thing to do.

Ellyn Stern - I wear a lot of hats in my life and I do a lot of things besides acting. I write, I write screenplays, I write children’s books, I sing, I do genealogy, I love discovering the past and I think I’d love to do archeology or law.

Anna May - What profession would you not like to do?

Richard Epcar - I would not like to be a male nurse and clean people up…wipe their butts.

Ellyn Stern - Accounting. I am not a mathematical person…

Richard Epcar - I’ll vouch for that.

Ellyn Stern - I absolutely scream when I see numbers. I am much better at it today than I used to be. For me, it’s dry. It has no heart, it has no passion.

Anna May - And as the final question from me, when you arrive at the pearly gates, what would like God to say to you?

Richard Epcar - I would like God to say to me, you tried and you did a good job and you helped people and you were kind to people and you tried to help people and open the door for them when other people closed the door. That’s what I would like Him to say.

Ellyn Stern - I would like God to say, you walked in integrity and truth and where you lived, you made a difference.

If you're going to be attending Anime Express 2008, be sure to stop by and see Richard and Ellyn at one of their panels throughout the weekend.

~Ashley Clark (Anna May Belle)