Getting to Know: Darren Dunstan and His Many Talents Part 1

When I first met Darren Dunstan it was at the premiere for Yu-Gi-Oh 3D: Bonds Beyond Time. Initially, I had no idea who he was, nor have I ever taken notice to the voices behind Yu-Gi-Oh. At the premiere, he was standing besides a table that had a paper stand up with his name and the words “Pegasus” and “Voice Director” on it. After I spoke to Dunstan, I thought he would make the perfect interviewee.

Dunstan was born and raised near Toronto, Canada. His ancestry is British with a little bit of both Irish and Ukrainian. He is 35 years old and has been living in New York City since 2000. He is a singer, actor, voice actor and voice director. Isn’t he quite talented in the performing arts realm? Oh, did I mention that he is also a pianist?

Voice Actor

Let us begin with his career as a voice actor. Dunstan studied theatre and music in college and in graduate school. So, his initial performing arts background was not in voice acting. However, his theatre background taught him to “make immediate and strong acting choices, which is necessary in v/o (voice over) where you don’t necessarily get a script in advance.” Basically, actors have to interpret the lines faster and present the emotions of the character that they are portraying through their voices.

Even though his theatre background assisted him in his voice-acting career, there is one important lesson that he learned as a voice actor. It was at his very first voice over sessions for Yu-Gi-Oh. With the help of Eric Stuart, the director, who provided a lot of tips, helped Dunstan with his ability to change his reading pace quickly, keeping an eye on the screen to match the picture shown, and basic microphone technique. “I’d never done it before, so there was a really quick learning process.”

Besides Yu-Gi-Oh, Dunstan has done voice over for Chaotic, which is a Danish animation, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Chaotic was animated in two different countries. Season 1 was done in Canada, while Season 2 and 3 was animated in a different style in South Korea. With Chaotic he had the opportunity to observe the animation process, which is “more than any other.” For him, this “was really interesting…seeing colours being chosen, hairstyles being changed, seeing the evolving details of all the creatures, not to mention all the card play details.”

Comparing to his involvement with Japanese animation, it is a little bit different. Since the animation is already completed, the voice actor would be dubbing or be part of the automated dialogue replacement (ADR) process. This is in contrast to a “prelay” environment, which means that the voices are recorded first and then followed by the animation done to those voices. According to Dunstan:

“In Yu-Gi-Oh, often an actor’s emotion is dictated by what the character is doing on the screen. If Pegasus looks stern and angry, it won’t make sense for me to act flip or coy or subtle. I need to match my emotions to the animation. This can sometimes be confining, but is usually a fun challenge.”

© 2011 Linda Thai

Photography by Linda Thai

Stay tune for Part 2 of the Darren Dunstan interview!