A Career That's Reached Drinking Age: An Interview with Voice Actress Caitlin Glass

Caitlin Glass is a voice actor and ADR director that has been in the anime industry since 2004. She is probably best known for portraying characters like Mina Ashida (My Hero Academia), Damian Desmond (Spy x Family), Vivi (One Piece), Vados (Dragon Ball Super), Saki (Zombie Land Saga), and Miria (Baccano), just to name a few . She can also be heard as the voice of Cammy White in the Street Fighter series. Beyond voice acting she's very active as a director for Crunchyroll (formerly Funimation), and her credits there include Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Fruits Basket (2019), One Piece, Love Live! Sunshine!!, and many more. We were lucky enough to catch up to her recently at Anime Los Angeles, and we discussed their various roles, plans for the future, and the differences between directing and voice acting. Fans of Caitlin, or those who are discovering her for the first time, will want to read on and check out her social media via the links at the end!

A-to-J: Thank you for the interview.  Can you please introduce yourself?
Caitlin: Sure, I’m Caitlin Glass. I’m a voice actor and an ADR director for Crunchyroll, as in that’s where I direct, but voice acting I do all over the place, in both anime and video games. I’ve been doing it for about 20 years. Most people know me as Winry Rockbell from the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise or Haruhi Fujioka from Ouran High School Host Club. Currently, I’m Mina Ashido in My Hero Academia, Princess Vivi in One Piece, Damian Desmond in Spy x Family, and video game-wise Cammy White in Street Fighter.   
A-to-J: Yes, quite the prolific actor.
Caitlin: [Laughs] Thanks.

A-to-J: Speaking of that, last year, you played two video game characters: Returning as Cammy in Street Fighter 6 and Higan in Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless for the first time. How does your approach differ from the well-loved, well-voiced Cammy to a new character like Higan?
Caitlin: Well, with Cammy, I’ve been playing her since 2007 and there’s a team of people that I work with that have always been there. The director has shifted, but the producer is always there. Capcom reps are there, and it’s just nice to come back and revisit the character however many times now. Technically it’s like the third game, but there were also some other iterations of Street Fighter IV, so I feel like I’ve probably recorded for Cammy just, I don’t know, maybe 10 times or less over the last 10 years or more. Anyway, that feels like kind of a reunion. This time, in Street Fighter 6, Cammy has grown a lot. She got the redesign that everyone knows about. I didn’t know until we started recording and they’re like: “Hey, we’re going to show you what she looks like.” I’m like: “Oh my gosh!” I couldn’t believe it. I was so excited. I’m like: “My baby girl’s got pants on!” I don’t know! We have very good rapport with one another after all of these years. They could say: “Here’s what the line’s been adapted as,” and if I felt that it was really strange for me, like I felt that it was out of character, they’re open to me going: “Can I say this instead? Or do this, that, or the other?” You know this or that Britishism that we wanted to add or something. We have that type of working relationship.
Higan was brand new and I had a lot of fun when I auditioned for it. And, I’m like: “This is crazy, and I don’t really play this type of character so whatever, here it is.” And of course that’s what I was cast as. It was different. I was working with a director I hadn’t worked with before, but the method of recording when you’re localizing a game from Japanese to English is very similar to doing anime. Even working on Street Fighter, it’s the same: I listen to the Japanese seiyuu [voice actor] and then, I do Cammy’s version... the English Cammy’s version, my version. So Higan was the same way: we’d listen in Japanese and then, I’d do my take over and over. She’s just a lot more boisterous. [Laughs] A lot more boisterious.

A-to-J: You’ve tackled, as you mentioned, so many different voices from young snobby boys, to vicious fighting femmes, do you have a favorite type of character to voice?
Caitlin: Oh, man. Do I? Nowadays, I just like to do any acting at all. I feel like I’m chained to the director’s chair most of the time so, any time I get to voice act is a dream... I don’t even know. Like, I’m flabbergasted. I feel like I should be able to say: “Yes, it’s this type!” but it really isn’t. I just literally do enjoy any time I can be in a booth and be anyone at all. Very energetic characters are always really fun and wacky, and there’s a lot of that in anime. But just the opportunity to be spontaneous is wonderful, and that’s what it’s like when you’re dubbing anime. You know you see it for the first time; that’s when you’re reading your line for the first time is when you’re watching in Japanese and then, a moment later, I’m going to perform it. And that’s just fun. I don’t think twice really about what I’m going to do, just whatever comes out, and then we work with that. So whether I’m playing a really evil villain or an awful person, which I’ve done in the last few years, or somebody who’s just crazy or somebody whose voice is a lot like mine but they have a different life than mine, that’s fun to be someone else for a minute. That’s great, and I care what type of character they are.

A-to-J: That’s awesome! Thank you, and on that note, between voice directing and voice acting, you’re hearing and doing all of these voices all the time. How do you separate from that and just hear your own self think?
Caitlin: Hmmm. How do I? [Both laugh] A lot of what I do as a director, I’ve put in so many hours on it that I just kind of do it. I don’t know. I just go into work mode and I don’t really think much about hearing. There are times where I really get into a good rhythm, where I kind of marvel at how I’m doing one thing, hearing another thing, talking to an engineer, like the multitasking aspect of directing cam be pretty intense. When you get into a rhythm of it, there are times where I’m like, “This is wild that I’m doing 48 things at once, but okay. Here we are.” I’ll say after a day of that and then step into the booth at night to play, say Damian in Spy x Family for example. It’s so great because when you’re an actor all you have to think about is the one character you are. When you’re a director, you’re thinking about the character you’re directing right now, all of the other characters in the scene with them who may or may not be recorded yet, and then you’re also dealing with the other things that just go with the job of directing. So you may be over here in between takes working on another show or sending an email. There’s just so much more. Doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Like the challenge is great, but it’s great to get into the booth and just be like: “It’s just me and Damian for the next hour. Awesome! Great! Let’s do that.”

A-to-J: As you’ve mentioned, you’ve played some very well-known characters in popular shows like Damian in Spy x Family and Mina in My Hero Academia. What’s a character you’ve voiced that you don’t get asked often about but just love talking about?
Caitlin: Oh, man. I feel like I know what this is but I can’t think of it.
A-to-J: I know you really love Cammy, but I know people ask about her a lot.
Caitlin: I do really love Cammy especially now. I feel like it’s taken all of this time of playing her and she’s just really exploded in popularity this year with Street Fighter 6. It doesn’t hurt that we were named Fighting Game of the Year [By the Game Awards]. Hooray! So there’s that. Hmm... I just like it when people find the underappreciated show. It isn’t so much like how much effort I put into it, how big or small my part was in it but just the show that’s just like: “Oh, you watched that and you liked that? Thank you so much!” It’s really easy of course for fans to get into the big shows, and they’re big and good for a reason. So everyone knows My Hero Academia, and Demon Slayer, and Jujutsu Kaisen, and all of those. But at the same time those are being made, dozens of other anime are being dubbed with just as much effort and love and care by everyone involved, so it’s really great when fans come up and they wanna talk about, you know The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague, or something which was a show I did just a year ago. As everybody kind of reminisces on what they did the past year when, you know, the year wraps up, I’m like: “Oh! That was last year. Man, I loved that show!” Talk about a respite from the busy day to step into the booth and be this office worker who is literally just my voice. It was so fun because it turns out she and I, Komori, have a lot of things in common.  

A-to-J: Is that fear of thunder?
Caitlin: No, I don’t have that, but stuff like the toy collecting and the theme park going and all of that. I just had the best time with our director Michelle Rojas and our engineer. So anytime people just pick up on a little thing like that, it’s like: “Ah, man. Thank you so much for watching.”

A-to-J: That’s awesome! It is the start of the new year, what are you looking forward to most professionally and then personally for 2024?
Caitlin: Professionally, I’m looking forward to most the release of Solo Leveling which is the show that I’m currently directing based on a popular WebToon and manhwa of the same name. Super popular, very highly anticipated anime coming out. Let’s see. It comes out... umm... tomorrow. Tomorrow! Check that out! [Transcriber’s Note: This interview was conducted on Jan 05, 2024. Solo Leveling is now available on Crunchyroll.] 
A-to-J: Check it out!
Caitlin: So, that’s pretty great and I’ll be working on that for the foreseeable future, and that’s probably my biggest thing this year directing-wise. Acting-wise, I look forward to whatever acting work I get. Right now we’ve still got Damian going on, and we’ve got the Spy x Family movie which will be really fun to do. But otherwise, I don’t know from season to season what I might be cast in. I just look forward to auditioning more and trying to get in more stuff. I’m still a working actor who has to grind like everybody else. I guess those are the professional things. Personally, I look forward to maybe getting to travel not for work. My husband and I were just talking about that last night. I do a lot of convention going, and it’s fun and it’s all part of the job, but I realize that I’ve got like there’s this little chunk of time. I’m free; you’re free, and I don’t have a con. Maybe we should go somewhere that isn’t Disney or a con. We like Disney a lot, so it’s really hard when we have a break to go somewhere that isn’t there. Yeah, that’s it.

A-to-J: Thank you for that, I really appreciate your time. Do you have any closing messages you’d like to give to your fans?
Caitlin: Oh, wow. Sure. Hi, fans! Thank you so much for your support over all these years. 2024 actually marks the beginning of my 21st year of voice acting, as I started voice acting in January of 2004, twenty years ago. We’re entering into year 21 where my career becomes of drinking age, so bring me drinks. No. Just kidding!
A-to-J: [Laughs]
Caitlin: Just joking. For real though, thank you guys so much. I don’t think I could have ever imagined when I began this twenty years ago that it would be what it has become, not just for me personally, but just for everyone, like how anime in America is what it is now. It’s wild, and that is thanks to all of your support. Thank you so much. Thank you for supporting dubs legally. Thank you for going to movie theaters, and seeing anime in movie theaters. Keep it up. We appreciate you very much, and... That’s it. That’s all I got.  

A-to-J: Great! Thank you so much for your time again.
Caitlin: You’re welcome.
A-to-J: This has been Caitlin Glass! Yay! [Claps] Thank you!

​We'd like to thank Caitlin Glass for the interview and we strongly encourage everyone to check her out via the links below. As always, keep an eye out for more from Caitlin in the future! Also, special thanks to Anime Los Angeles for this opportunity!

For More Information on Caitlin Glass:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caitlinsvoice
X: https://twitter.com/caitlinsvoice
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caitlinsvoice
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@caitlinsvoice7941

The above interview was conducted by Megan Smith. Video, transcription, and editing by Jeffery Kelly. Additional editing and assistance by Manuel Figueroa.