Interview with Richard Epcar & Ellyn Stern, Part 2
Interview with Richard Epcar & Ellyn Stern, Part 2
Continued from Part 1 of the Anime South 2006 interview.
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 excellent 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)