Treasure, Not Trash: Gachiakuta English Cast Interview- Bryson Baugus & Christopher Wehkamp
GACHIAKUTA
In a floating city where the rich discard their waste—and people—Rudo is framed for murder and thrown into the Pit, where a hellscape of mutated trash beasts dwell. To survive, he must wield a new power and join the Cleaners. Rudo doesn’t just aim to battle monsters, but the corrupt who cast him into Hell.
I had the opportunity to interview some of the main cast for the English dub of the hit anime series, Gachiakuta (Streaming On Crunchyroll). Talking to Bryson Baugus (Rudo) and Christopher Wehkamp (Enjin) was a real treat. Read on for an excerpt, and check out the full interview in the YouTube player below.
WHERE DO THE VOICES COME FROM?
KYLE MALONE: Where do your guys’ character voices come from? Every voice actors, just like every other actor, get to pull on different experiences, people you know, things like that. But where’s Rudo’s voice come from?
BRYSON BAUGUS: I come at a lot of my character voices from a technical aspect. I have a theater background, and I kind of identify elements of their personality and elements of their upbringing, or their surroundings to try and incorporate that into how I tend to tackle a character. So, like with Rudo in particular, he’s designed, he’s got this sort of grungy, kind of downtrodden look to him. He’s been raised in an area where he’s just constantly rejected, and so, like I feel whenever he’s not angry or lashing out or shouting at anything, he tends to keep more to himself. He kind of just like closes in on himself and he doesn’t really project too much. And I feel like having that more rough surrounding he’s surrounded by a lot more dirt, dust and grime and stuff. So that kind of gets into the vocal cords and it can give you a little bit more of like a rougher texture to it. So that’s just kind of from the technical side of things how I explore, just different voice types and stuff, and that’s kind of what I went into my audition with for Rudo.
THEMES IN GACHIAKUTA
KYLE MALONE: I want to get some thoughts on the story and themes that you guys are running into in this world. We live in a very disposable world. In real life, we’re almost encouraged to buy new TV’s, cell phones, gaming systems every year, every couple of years, and you can’t see this show and not feel that there’s some things being said there, right? But it’s not just objects, there’s the theme about people being thrown away, how disposable relationships can even be. How how do you guys relate to that story? What are your thoughts and feelings on it?
CHRISTOPHER WEHKAMP: You’re right on. I mean, for me it’s like, I love the fact that this is a show that’s making it cool to have a band T-shirt for 15 years, because maybe it imbues it with a special power. Like I love that, you know, I love that because that’s kind of how I am. That’s personally, that’s how I’ve been. I do tend to hang on to like toys for my youth that I’ve been able to keep, and I do think there’s something really valuable in keeping things for a long time that mean something to you. And yeah, I mean, I think a disposable society where things get discarded does seem to be pulled from from our headlines, from the real world right now, but I also think that the world that’s being created is still such a mystery. I hesitate to really land on any, certainly there’s some themes on the surface, but I think there’s a lot going on in this story that still has yet to be revealed. There’s so many fun theories that I have, just only about my own character, you know, much less the whole like world at large. I do feel like I’m super duper interested in learning what’s underneath. Like what is, what is the ground of this story, you know, so to speak.
EXCERPT QUOTES EDITED FOR CLARITY AND BREVITY
Have you seen Gachiakuta? If so, who is your favorite character? Let us know in the comments below! Also, don’t forget to subscribe to The GenreVerse for anime reactions, reviews, and other geek/pop culture podcasts and content!
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