Epcar started off in Los Angeles with ambitions of becoming an actor. Fate had other aspirations for him. “I came to LA to become an on-camera actor,” confesses the Colorado-born man after a quick quip about originally wanting to become a gynaecologist in Beverly Hills. “I was in a lot of soaps, a lot of TV shows. I did a lot of films, [but] I kind of fell into this [voice acting] in a way. My wife [Ellyn Stern], who was my girlfriend at the time, was working on a film and they [the directors, producers, etc] were working on another film and they weren’t happy with the way the actor sounded and they wanted her to replace the voices. They asked her to come in and she asked if she could bring her boyfriend – me – with her. I showed up and I got the lead in this thing. I took to it like a duck to water and they were very happy with me that they started giving me more projects; and then from that I fell into [dubbing] Robotech,” explains Epcar fondly.
Robotech is an anime that depicts the tale of an alien spaceship that crash lands on Earth. The sequential events that unfold from this moment fuel three destructive interplanetary wars and a hell of a lot of character development. In the English dubbed version, Epcar portrayed Dixon, a gregarious self-dubbed ladies man who dies an unfortunate, yet heroic, death. This role was the break into the dubbing industry that the actor needed: “I started doing a ton of anime. I started doing Ghost in the Shell, Bleach,” and he even played a part in the well-loved slice-of-life anime Lucky Star as Tadao Hiiragi, the father of everyone’s favourite purple-haired twins, Kagami and Tsukasa.
This isn’t all that Epcar has done, though. Epcar is renowned as one of the ‘hardest-working actors’ in the industry – he’s given voice to over 400 hundred characters in animation, film, television and gaming since his acting debut 30 years ago – and he sure lives up to that title with three Batman games currently featuring his voice: Infinite Crisis and Injustice: Gods Among Us as The Joker and Batman: Arkham Origins as Judge Harkness, John DiMarcco and S.W.A.T. Officers, and the recent announcement that he will be portraying Raiden in Mortal Kombat X.
When we talk, he adds that he has just spent the entire day being interviewed, is preparing for three jobs tomorrow and is going to a convention the day after that; while simultaneously organising his luggage for Supanova in a fortnight. Please note, that Epcar is doing all of this while recovering from knee surgery earlier this year, an operation which promises some nasty and impressive scars.
“I’m not one of those guys. I don’t want to do that thing where people post their scars on Facebook. I think it’s a bit much, you know,” says Epcar, exhaustion tinting his voice. “I’ve got people [physiotherapists] coming to the house and working me out. I’m actually walking okay. It’s just painful. That’s the only thing about it. The other stuff is fine [physio]. It’s just the constant pain, which I’m hoping is going to go away at some point.”
Despite the pain, the American is dedicated to his craft and is very excited to come to Australia this April. “I’m really looking forward to it. The last time we were in Australia was 2007. That was eight years ago, so there’s a huge [amount] of work that I’ve done since then,” over 30 titles, including stints in Nickelodeon favourite The Legend of Korra and Lupin the Third: A Woman Called Fujiko Mine). “It’ll be fun to see the fans and talk about the new stuff with them. We [Richard and Ellyn] had such a great time last time in Sydney, which is such a gorgeous city and we’re really looking forward to seeing more of Australia. We’re looking forward to seeing Melbourne and we’re looking forward to seeing the Gold Coast. We’re [really] excited about it. Ever since we went in 2007, we said ‘I hope we get to go back at some point’ and here we are: we’re coming back. So I guess it all worked out.”
BY AVRILLE BYLOK-COLLARD
