An interview with KOTOR's, Juhani
By TF.N Staff Editor, Jeff Yankey
1. How did you start your voice acting career? What does someone have to do to get in the door?
I can only say how I did--which started with a lot of classes. I really loved it immediately, and would have done it for the fun of it anyway, but with classes and a LOT of tenacity, I started seeing progress. I eventually took a class with agents as guest directors, and harrassed this one poor agent til he agreed to sign me. He kept putting me off but I called him over and over until finally I called on my birthday and said "Hi Greg! It's Courtenay, and it's my birthday!" He grudgingly took the hint and signed me :) But it took another 2 years of classes, a string of lousy agents, and a move to L.A. to get me working. I still take lots of classes and workouts and am not anywhere near the level I'd like to be--but I am happy and grateful where I am!
I actually started pursuing voice-over as a career when I moved back to San Francisco after "Tales from the Crypt". I wanted to go to theatre grad school in NYC (the school will remain unnamed). They turned me down to my face at the audition--said my voice had damage, no range, and no projection. They wouldn't even consider my application without a doctor's note-that night I went crying to one of my teachers at A.C.T., and she said I should look into voice-over classes...I started studying with Taylor Korobow at the Voice Factory in San Francisco and loved it, when I booked the first audition I went on, I figured it was a sign that I could do this stuff.
2. What did you do before voice acting in KOTOR?
I moved to L.A. about 8 years ago and worked on "Tales From The Crypt". I had never heard of voiceover before until then. I did post production work as a production assistant and one of the directors suggested I try to loop a character played by Perry King who was a transvestite because my voice was deep! They actually ended up going with a man, but that was my first taste of v/o!!!! I've done mostly commercials, some bad independent movies. Local plays in SF and LA...a short stint doing promos on NBC...
3. Were you a Star Wars fan before you made the game?
Ok, don't kill me for this, but I am a purist--after the 3rd one I stopped watching the movies. I was so in love with Han Solo when I saw the first one, it was my favorite! I saw it 11 times in the theatre. Once he and the original cast were out, I had discovered punk rock and sort of lost interest in favor of that. I saw the latest one though...
4. You worked at Skywalker Ranch before working on KOTOR. Tell us about your experiences working there.
I used to go out there and teach a lunchtime boxing class at the gym there 2 days a week. Mostly office girls would come in and work out with me-we had a great time!!! It is a beautiful location, with great facilities. My favorite part was driving in through the trees while fantasizing about having meetings with George to discuss movie scripts--I didn't get to discuss KOTOR with him but maybe eventually something else will come up :) I also liked eating lunch there--it's so pretty and green, and they have Star Wars stuff in the lobby, and good food!!! I left when I moved back to Los Angeles.
5. How did you get selected for the voice of Juhani?
I auditioned at my agency in the booth there. It was fun, but I remember joking around, saying to the engineer "I hope I don't book that one--there's NO way I can do that accent for 15 hours!!!" Of course, I was thrilled when I did get it but terrified too! I have, of course, perfected it now and could do it all day long LOL!
6. Tell us about the accent for Juhani. How did that come about?
The audition description asked for a NON-British accent...I do a few, but I thought Aussie wouldn't be right, and thank God I did not do Irish, because KOTOR's director is Irish and it would have just been weird...so, I had been hanging out with a girlfriend who is Polish and Hungarian or something, and she has this crazy accent like Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle but sexy, so I thought I would do her as a lark-never thought I would book it! Is that bad?!?
7. What other actor did you enjoy working with the most?
I actually worked alone in the booth--I did meet Cat Taber (Mission) on her way out as I was coming in, but all the lines are done wild (without the other actors). It was the longest script I had ever worked on like that, but the director (Darragh O'Farrell) is so fun and great, it was really smooth.
8. Have you played KOTOR yet? Would you play light or dark side first?
No, haven't played it yet-can you believe that? I tried to talk the guys at Best Buy into opening one so I could play it there on the Xbox, but they wouldn't. Whatever. I am so bad at games these days that I would probably die a million times before I got to Juhani! But, I would definately play the dark side first! Yeah!!!
9. What are you plans after KOTOR?
Sadly, it IS after KOTOR for me, hopefully Juhani will come back in a sequel!!!
I am waiting for the release of 3DO's Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse cd-rom, in which I play a hooker named Jesse who has to try to save the world...I am doing a short film called "Ruminating Neitszche" this month which will be going to festivals next year (I play a coked out wife from hell). And I am heading to NYC in December for some vacation time! WOO HOO!
10. Any chance of being in KOTOR 2?
Sure, I am available if they'll have me back!
11. Any plans to be at Celebration III?
I would love to be there! I have a girlfriend who is a huge Mara Jade fan, so we'll go together. Plus I have to meet the ROCK STARS behind theforce.net, especially Spell and Jeff!!!!!
12. Tell us about the gym you started.
When I lived in L.A. in '95 I went through a horrible break up with a boyfriend, you know the kind where you can't eat or sleep or anything? I started manically working out, and read an article about some girl boxer in NYC--some little blonde girl--I remember thinking, "She's not so tough-I could kick her ass." (I know, how trashy, but it is the truth!) It gave me the idea to check out boxing gyms, and I found this great dirty little gym in Venice. It was called World Karate Training Center, and the two owners took me under their wings and trained me in boxing and kick-boxing. When I moved back to San Francisco, I started taking one of the earliest boxing workout classes to keep in shape, and the instructor approached me about teaching some of his classes. He trained me to teach and we taught at many gyms in SF. Eventually we hooked up with some other people who invested and we started Gorilla Sports--a boxing/kickboxing/spinning gym. That eventually took off and I believe was recently bought by Bally's, which sucks.
