Nightfall, Bond & Dmitri English Voice Actors On Spy x Family CODE: White And Breaking Into The industry

One of this generation’s most accessible animes is finally getting a standalone film called Spy x Family CODE: White, coming to a theater near you. The talented actors behind the voices for Agent Nightfall, Mr.Bond, and one of the film’s quirky villains, Dimitri, talked to Screen Rant about its April 19 release date and more.

Spy x Family is an anime that may focus on comedy, but it expertly tells a story with heartwarming moments, thrilling action, and superb dramatic irony. It centers around an adorable and telepathic orphan named Anya, who was adopted by an undercover spy and one of the world’s greatest assassins. She’s the only one who knows their secret lives and does everything she can to keep the family together.

The franchise’s first film, Spy X Family CODE: White, is a compelling standalone story that does not require watching the anime’s two seasons to enjoy. It features many of the series’ beloved cast reprising their roles. Lindsay Seidel’s Agent Nightfall, Tyler Walker, who works as the series’ Script Supervisor and voices the family’s clairvoyant dog, Mr. Bond, and one of the film’s new characters, Dimitri, voiced by Phil Parsons, all sat down with Screen Rant to talk about the movie and provide some insight into what it takes to be a voice actor in 2024.

Tyler Walker On Bond Having A Lot To Say Without Any Words

Tyler, you voice the wonderfully adorable but formidable Bond. While Bond doesn’t have any words to say, he says a lot. How do you create a character able to say so much with so little?

Tyler Walker: He’s very expressive and being a clairvoyant he understands things a certain way. You get glimpses into his mind like what he thinks Loid does for a living is hunt leopards and stuff. But you get to see how his brain is working. Honestly, I think of two dogs that I had Bayou and Cosmo, a pitbull and a catahoula, Bayou had a very formidable and mighty bark, like a “Bahoo!” While Cosmo did a lot of the “Arrrou” like Bond does. So I tried to think of them, how would they approach the line?

When we’re tracking, we have the Japanese interpretation so you can see what they did and how you can measure yourself and can align more closely with it or take a different direction. In Spy X Family Code: White he does some stuff. And he had some complicated “borphs” and articulate vocalizations. It’s a great role. I mean, who wouldn’t want it?

I was able to watch Spy x Family CODE: White with my 12-year-old son. It was his first experience with the series, and he loved it! Especially the dynamic between Bond and Anya Forger.

Tyler Walker: You mentioned how the series works for a wide audience and I think that’s because it’s wholesome enough for kids but it’s got some real action behind it. It’s got a Cold War aesthetic that a lot of American audiences are familiar with. It’s got the spy genre stuff as well as great action, and the movie really embiggens all of that. As the series script supervisor, I think it will work really well as a theater experience.

Spy x Family’s Cast On Using Real-Life Experiences To Fuel Their Performances

Phil, you play a villain in the film. I’m curious about what it’s like stepping into an established world like Spy x Family? And how did you find the voice for the character?

Phil Parson: I was directed to play him with malicious intent, but low competence which I’ve really been preparing for that my entire life. I bumbled most of my goals so it was a bit of typecasting, I’ll own that. Since I wasn’t part of the show, I was coming in fresh. It was like doing any new show where the director calls you and you know what you’re going to be doing and you find that voice in a couple of minutes. You try something and if director doesn’t like it then you go with a little higher [pitch until you get it]. And I don’t think we’ve lumbered with it for more than 10 minutes or so and kind of went with it. But it’s fun to play characters like that. I love a flawed villain.

Lindsay, you reprise your role as Agent Nightfall, who seems obsessed with taking over Yor’s role as Loid’s fake wife. However, that would also mean she’d have to become Anya’s new mom. How do you anticipate their relationship would go?

Lindsay Seidel: Oh gosh, I think that would be very entertaining to watch and to see how that would play out. Coming from the perspective of someone who is a mom in real life, I have a two-year-old little boy, and I really cannot picture somebody like Nightfall being a mother. From what I’ve been able to see, so far she has no motherly qualities about her. There’s not a whole lot of warmth there. I don’t really see a nurturing side that she’s at least shown us so far. So it would be, I think, pretty crazy to watch to see how that would unfold, to see how she would even try to attempt that and try to make it work.

It would be hilarious to get to see that. That’s something that I feel like this series and the movie does just so well. It has this perfect combination of action and suspense but then the comedy aspect of it is just “chef’s kiss.” I think it’s funny for adults and it’s funny to kids. It’s hilarious and it has just the right level of charm and silliness to it.

Stories The Cast Of Spy X Family Want To Explore

It’s a great series for newer anime viewers to try because it nails all of those things so well. Next one is for Tyler, if you were in charge of the story, what about Bond would you like to see explored further?

Tyler Walker: His origin story. He seemed to have been lab grown or been experimented on, but I’d like to see a comeuppance arc. There is a bit of that in season 2 [of the Spy X Family anime] in a very fun episode, and that was the most I’d ever recorded [for Bond] until the movie. It was four our five hours of recording those dog noises, which recording those for that long is a real thing. I would like to see more of his backstory and for him to do a bigger rescue [of animals being held captive].

Phil, you also voiced Dragon Ball Z‘s Nappa who has been far gone from that story for a while. However, over the years he’s become a sort of cult-favorite character. If he was resurrected in that series, what sort of story would you like to see him embark on?

Phil Parson: I get a lot of fans tell me that they should have figured out a way to bring [Nappa] back. He did appear for a second in one of the now non-canon series, but was immediately killed again by Vegeta. I think it’d be interesting if he tried a redemption arc. You know, since his old Prince turned good, he would try to follow suit or even maybe pretend to be redeeming himself while plotting his revenge against Vegeta. I think there’s a lot of ways that could have gone with that. I think TeamFourStar nailed it.

As the voice of the obsessive Agent Nightfall, what do you think it would take for her to give up on her quest for Loid’s affections?

Lindsay Seidel: With the level of passion she has, I can’t really imagine anything getting in the way of that, or anyone being able to convince her to not go after it. She’s, I think, as obsessed as one could be, and that seems to be her only motivation. So I can’t even imagine what would convince her to stop.

Insider Info On How To Get Into Voice Acting

There are a lot of people who’d love to become voice actors. What advice can you give someone trying to break into the industry in 2024?

Lindsay: It’s tricky because I started acting professionally when I was about 10 years old. The anime stuff specifically I started doing a little over 15 years ago and Tyler was actually the first director at what was then Funimation to cast me in an anime show. And look at us now! It was a very different world back then. The way to get your foot in the door and get your start back then was just very different. Now, it’s a lot more competitive. Now a lot more people are trying to get into it.

[My] main piece of advice I can give people who are starting out from scratch is to take acting classes. Those classes don’t need to be specific to doing voiceover. I have no formal training in voiceover at all, but I have lots of training as an actor, but all of my training was specifically for acting on camera for live action projects. I took classes and workshops and all that for many years. The skills translate over because voice acting is acting.

I think the main thing that directors care about is that you are a trained actor. The specific little nuances that apply when you are in the booth recording are in place when you’re on stage, or doing theater, or in front of a camera doing something for live action. The voiceover specific things that you have to keep in mind aren’t too difficult to learn on the job. What the director cannot teach you to do on the job is how to act effectively and how to give an engaging, entertaining, organic performance. So the main thing is to first get your training as an actor.

Tyler Walker: Getting some acting chops and learning about that [is important]. Knowing what you sound like and what you’re capable of at any point. People grow and can do things that they didn’t think they could do, but [it helps to] know what your niche is and [figuring out] what or who you can sound like. Taking classes, getting a demo together, really knowing what you sound like and what you’re good at and going for those roles. Try to get the roles that you think you’re voice is going to be able book.

Phil Parson: I recommend that you get a time machine and really cozy up to Christopher Sabat. For me, it was a job that came up after I’d been professionally acting for years. I did a lot of live stuff, improv troupes, and one man comedy stuff. I think, like Lindsey said, any acting training [is helpful], and don’t worry about focusing on voice acting. Improv classes, for example, teach you to think on your feet, make quick decisions, and come up with characters, and create a storytelling reality on the spur of the moment, and that helps you when you go into a booth. Because there are times when you don’t know what you’re going to be doing, and you have to create something in minutes.

You’ve all helped voice characters in video games, movies, and series. What is a project you did in the past that you thought was phenomenal that didn’t take off as well as you hoped that you think more people should check out?

Tyler Walker: One that I felt I spent a lot of time and energy on that no one ever knew about was with Lindsey here working on was the anime
Shangri-La
(2009). I loved that show. It was so complex and there was all these different factions and it’s take on feminism was really important, it just had so many interesting aspects to it. Me and the other scriptwriters really, really worked hard and the directing was difficult and nobdoy saw it.

Lindsay Seidel: That’s what I was going to say! Shangri-La was the first one to come to my mind, but I will tell you Tyler, if it makes you feel better, I do once in a blue moon, have somebody bring my it’s DVD at a convention so people have seen it, but not that many.

Phil Parson: I’ve even signed one for that series, but I don’t remember what small part you hd me play in that, but somebody happily had their DVD for it and had your signature already on it. But I was in one called Blood Blockade Battlefront. It was a good one, and my understanding was the manga and anime were really big in Japan and for whatever reason, it did not catch fire here [in the States]. But sometimes, like Kindsay was saying with Shangri-La, I will come across fans who are ravidly enthusiastic about it, and I’m glad to see that.

Tyler Walker: Another big one is Fairy Tale, which you know, people are saying that there’s going to be a sequel series coming any day now, so keep an eye out for that.

About Spy x Family CODE: White

He’s a spy. She’s an assassin. Together, Loid and Yor keep their double lives to themselves while pretending to be the perfect family. However, their adopted daughter Anya, a telepath, knows both of their exciting secrets unbeknownst to them. While under the guise of taking his family on a weekend winter getaway, Loid’s attempt to make progress on his current mission Operation Strix proves difficult when Anya mistakenly gets involved and triggers events that threaten world peace!

SPY x FAMILY CODE: White is the first film installment of the popular television series – delivering an original standalone story featuring secret agent Twilight, his deadly assassin wife Yor, and their telepathic adopted daughter Anya in an all-new mission. Based on the widely acclaimed Harvey and Eisner Award-nominated manga written and illustrated by Tatsuya Endo, the television series SPY x FAMILY originally debuted on April 9, 2022 and was quickly embraced by fans across the globe. The first two seasons are available on Crunchyroll.

Check out other Screen Rant interviews with talented folks who help bring anime to fans:

Spy x Family

Created by Tatsuya Endo, Spy X Family is an action-adventure comedy anime that follows the misadventures of a found family with unique quirks. The story follows spy Twilight (known as Loid Forger), who, while on assignment, builds a fake family to get closer to his target. Unbeknownst to him, his new family carries their quirks. His wife, Yor, is a kind but deadly assassin, while his daughter, Anya, has telepathic powers – and is the only one who knows their secrets.

Cast

Takuya Eguchi , Atsumi Tanezaki , Saori Hayami , Alex Organ , Megan Shipman , Natalie Van Sistine

Release Date

April 9, 2022

Seasons

2

Writers

Kazuhiro Furuhashi , Ichirō Ōkouchi

Directors

Kazuhiro Furuhashi , Takahiro Harada

Creator(s)

Tatsuya Endo