Most people know Chris Rager as the voice of Mr. Satan or Hercule from the hit anime series, Dragon Ball Z. He has provided his deep voice for many movies, TV shows, and video games such as Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Zampano), Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie (Ibachi), and Smite (Bacchus). The native Texan made an appearance at Alamo City Comic Con 2016 in San Antonio, TX where he was kind enough to sit down with me for an interview in the middle of the chaos of the convention.
GC: How did you get into voice acting?
CR: It was really just a long list of audition being an actor. I went to acting school, did theater, and ultimately got an agent then went on some auditions and voice acting was just one on the list of many auditions. I kinda found a niche and I’ve been doing it ever since I booked Dragon Ball Z in 1999.
GC: At what point did you realize that the Dragonball franchise had become a phenomenon?
CR: It was probably a couple years after I started doing Dragonball. Score Entertainment brought some of us in because they had made a card game and a card collector series on the show. They asked us just to come in and sign our autographs and paid us a fair amount of money so and I was like “Wow! Really? Are people really going to give me money for my autograph?” This was when I started to realize that maybe this was something bigger than what I imagined.
GC: Since you voice the Hero of Earth has it enticed you to learn martial arts like the character you portray?
CR: Well I’m actually more of a zen master [at] martial arts in my mind. I can karate chop you with my mind. That’s how good I am.
GC: Mr. Satan appears on Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 which just released this past week. Can you tell us a little about it?
CR: I think it’s a great game. I definitely think they upgraded it from the original Xenoverse game. Some of the mechanics and everything that from what I’ve seen and played a little bit aren’t as wonky as the first one. I think it’s a lot more fun. It’s a little bit bigger of an open world. I think they cleaned up a lot of the things I had a beef with when I played the first game.
GC: What advice would you give to someone who has an interest in voice acting?
CR: Don’t do it! Leave all the acts and parts for me. No one else needs to get into voice acting we’re all full here! (Sarcasm)
GC: Who is your voice acting hero?
CR: That is a tough one to say. Of course I grew up with Mel Blanc when I was a kid, but as things progressed in the world you have Billy West who is fantastic. Seth McFarlane is great too. There is such a laundry list of people I try to look up to.
GC: What kinds of voices do you wish you could do, but you can’t?
CR: I think to myself if there’s a voice I can do it. Unless it’s a very feminine voice, so I guess all female parts are out, but I wouldn’t put it past me.
