Interviewing The Cast Of ‘Dragon Ball Super: Broly’: Ian Sinclair- The Voice Of Whis
This is part two of our interview series.
Click here for our interview with Sonny Strait, the voice of Bardock.
Dragon Ball Super: Broly, the continuation of the DBS anime that re-imagines the fan-favorite villain from the perspective of series creator Akira Toriyama, will be releasing in theaters nationwide on January 16. To count down to the release of the film, we will be posting a round table interview conducted alongside Sean at VRV, with voice actors from the movie each day leading up to the release date, culminating with a full review of DBS: Broly itself!
Next up, is Ian Sinclair, the voice of Whis. As the angel and overseer of Beerus, the God of Destruction, Whis is seen as the mentor of Goku and Vegeta as the seek to obtain greater power against opponents from the multiverse. Often sarcastic and carefree, Whis has brought a fresh, humorous take to the series after being introduced in the Battle of Gods revival, becoming one of the more beloved characters in the series. Ian can also be heard on popular shows such as Attack on Titan, One Piece, and as Juzo Sakakura in Danganronpa 3, which is a personal favorite of mine.
Sean- Whis usually takes an outside role with things as an observer. There’s a rumor that he actually has a fight in this movie, so what was it like voicing the character in action when he’s normally having to step back. Or can you not confirm anything…
Ian- *Using his Whis voice* Umm… I can ask YOU questions! How do you think Broly vs. Whis would go down?
Sean- Honestly, I think he’s even gonna have a little bit of trouble. Like, he’s gonna be confident, and then be like, “oh crap!”
Ian- Oh! You think he’s gonna have trouble?! (Laughs) That’s my answer!
Josh- I would think Whis would beat him pretty easily!
Ian- Yeah! You’d think that, wouldn’t you? A Saiyan, that’s cute. A Saiyan’s gonna hurt an angel, that’s ADORABLE! (Laughs)
Sean- What can you tell us about his role in the movie?
Ian- Whis’ role in the movie… What can I tell you? How can I… I feel like Whis and Beerus are now…
*Switching back to Ian’s normal voice* I’m just gonna go ahead and preface this. So it’s really hard for me to understand the Whis [character] from an outside point. I can understand Beerus, because I’m like, “Okay, he’s the new guy that [Goku] is going up against.” I can look at him like a Cell, like a Buu, but instead this one became a friend. So it’s almost like a Vegeta kind of thing, or a Piccolo, but I have NO concept of Whis because he’s me in a weird way. But Whis and Beerus I feel are now friends and part of the group, and they’re all there to you know, train and do stuff like that. I can’t spoil, so I’ll say they’re part of the gang!
*Using Whis’ voice* But again, my response to if Broly can give ANY. PROBLEM. TO WHIS… Hold on, let me grab the microphones… Ha. Haha. Haha. Hahahahahahaha. Oh, that’s cute! Just getting that out there, just getting that out there.
Sean- I’ve been asking this to everyone. The animation looks amazing…
Ian- Oh god, you have no idea!
Sean- Was there any point where it was just too hard to record because you were just taken aback.
Ian- No, actually I was recording animatics. Most of my stuff was recorded fairly early on in the process and the big fight stuff and the stuff where you can tell that all the crazy amount of money and time and effort got put into it… Those I didn’t see until after the fact, so most of my stuff was mostly animated.
Sean- And that’s new then for you guys, accessing the storyboards.
Ian- Damn right! Normally the thing is completely done and they just pitch it over to us. So that was different. It’s stunning though, dude, for real. All interviewing aside, the fight in this is so dope! Like so dope! It’s everything that you’d like! You’re like, “ahhhh!” and then they bring out Gogeta and you’re like, “Agggghhhh!” It’s genuinely one of the dopest fights you’ll ever see or that you have seen so far in Dragon Ball, and I include the Jiren fight in that. This is at least that level. AT LEAST!
Josh- That’s really exciting because the Jiren fight was incredible!
Ian- It was incredible! It was one of those things where you’re like, “You have so much money! You animators must have spent so much time on this!” Because it’s just so crisp and SO good! But oh, this movie! My jaw literally dropped and I went, “Oh my god!” when I saw it the first time.
Josh- With Whis, one of my favorite parts about the character is all of his different interactions with everybody and how playful and teasing he is with everybody. What are some of your favorite interactions that you’ve had as Whis?
Ian (Whis?)- Well, my absolute favorite is when Goku finally comes up to the planet to train with Whis and Vegeta, and Whis goes, “You know what might be fun? If we sparred today! We haven’t tried that yet!” And Goku goes, “You haven’t sparred with Whis yet? That must mean you’re not strong enough!” Or something like that. And I go, “But to be fair Goku, neither are you.” And [Goku] goes, “I’m not strong enough to fight you?” And I go “Ohoho… No…” And MAN, just to say that to Goku is just a trip dude!
Sean- As somebody [who gets to be] sassy with all your favorite characters…
Ian- Ughhh! And just… I don’t know if it’s because of how Super has written Goku, but I get annoyed with Goku at this point, and I never did as a kid. He was always like my super hero. But now I’m such a Vegeta fan! And like, Goku will just be like, “Can I train? Can I train?” I’ll be like, “Oh my god! He’s annoying!” And the director will be like, “Yeah! Use that!” And then there’s that scene where I’m doing shabu shabu and he’s like, “C’mon! C’mon! C’mon!”
Sean- Goku’s the [guy] for dog lovers and Vegeta is the guy for cat lovers.
Ian- Okay. I would have said that up and through Z. Here’s my biggest thing, and I can say this… The difference in Super for me and the biggest difference I see in Goku is that in Dragon Ball and in Dragon Ball Z, Goku saved us. Goku saved us from Cell. Goku saved us from Vegeta. Goku saved us from all these people. In Super, Goku is picking fights. He’s not saving us from something that’s coming for us. He’s literally just picking fights! With gods! (Laughs) He never did that in Z, he never did! But in this one he’s like, “Oh cool! You’re a God of Destruction! Do you wanna fight? Oh cool, you’re the greatest assassin! [In reference to Universe 6’s Hit.] I’ll pay you to kill me! Oh cool! You’re the God of Everything! Let’s fight!” Like, it’s just… It’s different. And so my patience with Goku is just that like… “Oh my god, this annoying little monkey boy who won’t… He’ll just fight, fight, fight! But the fun thing is that he makes my other little monkey boy train harder. Not like that other little monkey boy. I think he’ll be a great Destroyer one day.
Sean- Is Whis’ relationship kind of just like a married couple?
Ian- No, it’s his cat! (Laughs) I get asked that all the time, like “Are you related to him?” I don’t put any sexuality between them. I am not speaking to either of their sexualities. I would not DARE say what either of their sexualities are. That’s not my place to say it. But I will say, it’s his freaking cat! It’s his cat! (Laughs) And you know what? Anthropomorphic, whatever your kink is, that’s fine. But it’s his cat! And that’s how I feel about it, so no. He has an angry cat who likes to break stuff and sleep and eat. And he maintains that cat. But I think there have been a couple of times in Super where Whis did say, “I’ll train you if you become a Destroyer.” So personally, I’m waiting for that kind of stuff to happen. I’m waiting for some sort of Vegeta versus Beerus fight. Which will go down the second Vegeta finds out that Beerus ordered the destruction of Planet Vegeta. Just gonna throw that out there. Which is mentioned in Super, I’m not making that up!
Josh- It’s been stated how strong Whis is. We haven’t really seen him fight at all except for the brief sparring which barely counts or when he knocked out Beerus at the end of Battle of Gods. Can we expect to see Whis fight anymore, even beyond this movie? Would you like to see more Whis in action?
Ian- I would love to! I would actually like to have to go through the acting problem of trying to figure out what it sounds like when he’s… Exerting himself, or like, trying! Cause he just doesn’t! He doesn’t try! Genuinely, and I’ve talked to the other people who play the angels. We view everyone else as children. Little bitty children having their little bitty fights. It does not bother us. So there’s no one really that would give Whis even a slight problem. Okay, Grand Minister. My daddy could spank me.
Josh- Do you think a sparring contest against Vados might be in order?
Ian- You know what? Yeah, sure! Everybody brings up the Vados thing, and they’re like, “You know she said that.” And I go, “You know what? My sister used to beat the crap out of ME when we were kids, and I’m bigger than her now!” Just because you beat him up as a little kid doesn’t mean anything.
Check back tomorrow for our interview with Jason Douglas, the voice of Beerus.
