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The Boy and the Beast's Hosoda Explains Why Doesn't Cast Many Pro Voice Actors

Director Mamoru Hosoda's films, from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars to Wolf Children and The Boy and The Beast, notably do not feature professional voice actors in many of the main roles. Instead, these films might star live-action film actors, such as Aoi Miyazaki (Wolf Children's Hana, The Boy and The Beast's young Kyuta) or Shōta Sometani (Wolf Children's Tanabe-sensei, The Boy and The Beast's teen Kyuta).

Hosoda addressed this during a Q&A session along with director Hirokazu Kore-eda at a Waseda University lecture on Saturday. "Popular voice actors have schedules that are difficult to work with," he said. "There are a lot of people who say 'Hosoda looks down on voice actors', but they [voice actors] have full schedules, so I can't use them."

Hosoda's approach to recording sessions may account for his difficulty scheduling voice actors: he insists the whole cast be present. "Pro voice actors have the skill to record their lines separately," he said, "but if it's done that way they can't work off each other's performances, and you always end up with bad balance. It's definitely no good if you don't record all the lines at once."

Koreeda asked Hosoda what he looks for in a voice actor, and Hosoda responded that actors, voice actors, and stage actors all audition, and he tends to choose based on their ability to show restraint.

"Actors like as Aoi Miyazaki and Lily Franky, they have the same taste as I do," Hosoda explained.

Source: Cinema Today (壬生智裕)