Sean Marquette Relays His Experiences Voicing “Ultimate Spider-Man” and “Kingdom Hearts II”

by Louis Bedigian

“You definitely have to over enthuse, or overemphasize certain parts of a line or certain reactions or feelings of a line to really make sure the audience understands what's going on.”

It doesn’t happen very often, but every once in a while a game with high-quality voice acting comes around. Games like Metal Gear Solid, Kingdom Hearts, and even Shrek SuperSlam have believable actors that recited their lines appropriately for whatever message the story was trying to convey.

Last year Activision released Ultimate Spider-Man, the first game to tackle the new comic’s storyline. When it came time to choose an actor to play both Peter Parker and the web-slinging superhero, Activision needed someone who could become the ultimate hero without sounding like a brute. They found just what they were looking for in actor Sean Marquette, star of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends on Cartoon Network. Sean has done a wide range of work in the entertainment industry, from commercials and cartoons to major motion pictures including Seabiscuit, Surviving Christmas, and 13 going on 30.

Regarding his first video game, Sean commented, “They wanted Ultimate Spider-Man to be as realistic [as possible] toward the comic book rather than the movie. That's why Spider-Man's only a teenager, still in high school. That's why they use cel-shading and gave the game a real comic book feel. They wanted everything to reflect the comic book itself." 

Sean informed me that you’ll be able to hear him in Kingdom Hearts II later this year. Beyond that, who knows? He could be working on another Spider-Man game…

You've acted in several successful movies, you've played one of the most important comic book character in a video game – how did this all happen? Where did you start, and at what point did you become a working actor?

Sean Marquette: To be completely honest there was never a definite point when I started. I was a kid when I started, I was about four or five. It was really my parents who did everything for me. I do know that my older brother did modeling. When we were all kids my mom put us in modeling in Texas. Through modeling we met an agent, and that agent turned into another agent, and another agent, and over the years I've been switching around. First it starts off, you kind of go to commercial auditions every now and then. Circle your TV auditions, and then movies, and it evolves into voice.

It's all about finding the right representation. When I was four or five I had like a basic agent. The first thing I did was a soap opera. I did that for about four years. That was a good move for the career which helped me get to another agent who controlled commercials, theatrical and voice-overs. Growing up I guess I always did voice-overs, it's more... It never seemed that important. I didn't voice-over audition as much other auditions. But there were definitely a lot of voice-overs, cereal boxers and stuff. My older brother did a lot of jingles when he was younger. A lot of singing for commercials and such.

For pilot season my older brother would go out to California, and after a few pilot seasons we kind of decided that that was where the better business is. We moved out there when I was about 13. Since then I've been doing a lot of voice work, and I think [now] that's where I really like to do business. Growing up I think I enjoyed being a character more than having to act on screen. I do a Cartoon Network show as well. I auditioned for that when I was 15 and I've been doing that ever since.

That kind of gave me a boost in the voice-over division of the acting business. I [also] auditioned for Spider-Man. At the time I auditioned I didn't know if it was for a video game or exactly what it was for. But when I auditioned they did say, "Oh he was great, he sounded like we want him to." They called me later and filled me in on what I was going to be doing. When I heard I was going to be doing Ultimate Spider-Man, that was like 'A+ for me!' I really like Spider-Man. 

They liked your voice the way that it was from the start? Did they direct you at all?

SM: The only thing I asked when I went in was, "How old do you want this character to sound?" At the time my voice had changed not too long before the audition. For the show I do I play an eight-year-old boy, so I didn't know if they wanted me to sound my age (15 at the time), or 10. They said, "Well, we want Spider-Man to be kind of young. Keep him in the 13-14 sounding area." That's about it. Other than that the only direction of the game was that they said Spider-Man himself is really sarcastic. He's cocky and he's confident, and a really fun guy, whereas Peter Parker is more of a shy, sensitive [guy]. The complete opposite of Spider-Man.

How long did it take to record the voices for Spider-Man?

SM: It really depended. For the audition you only get like a paragraph of something to say, a sample for them to work with. When they brought me back to record for the video game, we recorded in four-hour sessions, which is the max limit you're allowed to record under the rules of SAG (Screen Actors Guild).

There was a lot of stuff to do. When doing a video game it's not just a script that you have to record and a storyline. There's also all those little things, like when you're webbing around you get all those gasps and noises swinging through the air, and fighting bad guys, and the cheap little comments when you're doing something. All the kind of stuff Spider-Man does.

That all took time, especially since the first time I went in they had the first three storylines. Where you face the rhinoceros, and the beetle, and the first bad guy. Then they kind of recorded background noise for when you're swinging around, you know, [imitates Spider-Man] "Waaah, waaaaaaaaaah!" It all takes time. It's not just, "Read this line. Okay, it's recorded, that's it." They always want a variety [of styles for each line] so they can choose which one sounds the best for the video game.

Also, sometimes when they're doing the lines, they just don't sound right. They had to re-edit some of the lines they had written. That was a blast because Brian Michael Bendis, the guy who writes the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book, was actually in the booth working with us. He's a genius! He was hilarious. Some of the stuff he wrote in-studio really made a difference in the game.

What ended up being the hardest part?

SM: In voice acting there's nothing really too hard. I guess you could go for something being the most time-consuming, and that would be the random grunts, kicks, and punches, things like that that had to be done. Once you're swinging around the web, you can hear all the screams and yells that Spider-Man does, and that stuff took a while. It was a lot of screaming and yelling into a microphone. I'd have to heighten my pitch on one scream and lower the tone at the end. There were a lot of weird touches to make it sound authentic as if I really were doing it.

In general, did you have to say your lines with more excitement than you would in a live-action scene? I've heard other voice actors say that you can't get recite the lines as they're written in the script, you have to over-exaggerate or it doesn't come out right in the character.

SM: That's true to a certain degree. There are some things that you do have to over-exaggerate because... Well, let's say you're working on camera and you say something pretty plain. You can look at someone's face and see their facial reaction. Whereas in a video game, in this video game, you don't get to see Spider-Man's face every time he talks. You definitely have to over enthuse, or overemphasize certain parts of a line or certain reactions or feelings of a line to really make sure the audience understands what's going on.

A lot of the sarcasm that Spider-Man has in the video game really had to be sarcastic just to make sure that people know it's a joke. You don't want him to say something like, [says plainly] "Ah-ha. Look at this guy. He must be happy to see me." And someone goes, "I don't know if he was joking, he just kind of said it." You really have to go, [sarcasm emphasized] "Ah-ha! This guy must be happy to see me!" Something overexcited so that the audience knows what's going on. 

You said SAG limit per sessions is four hours. Is that four hours per day and that's it?

SM: Yes. I did Ultimate Spider-Man for four hours [each day]. If I had something else to record, I could do that for four hours too. But normally that doesn't happen. [Sessions are usually] scheduled for different days.

How far in advance did you have to record the voices for Ultimate Spider-Man?

SM: It was kind of a slow process, which is a good thing. The longer they take to develop a game, the better it's going to be when it's released. I started recording around November of 2004. They already had at least a year's worth of work into the game I believe. They had been recording other voices as well. I didn't record again until January, then March, it was about every two months. I recorded over a seven or eight month period. I finished in about summer 2005, and they didn't have the game ready until about September 2005.

As far as I know, voice acting is typically a solo job. They record one voice at a time, then mix them together. Has it always been that way with you?

SM: Most of the time. When I record Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends on Cartoon Network, it's done with six people at a time. It really depends on what you're doing. With Spider-Man I was solo, mainly because Spider-Man doesn't really interact with characters all the time. There are interactions with Mary Jane and Peter Parker, and the bad guys, whoever they may be. But you didn't really need to have those actors with you in the booth to get the right chemistry, whereas for certain voice-overs you might. 

Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends has six main characters. They're always together and always working together, therefore it's better to have everyone in the studio at the same time because it's better chemistry. It's easier for me to react off of another person. If someone says a certain line, I can respond the correct way, rather than recording each person separately and having to listen to every single line later on and figure out how to respond to it.

When you're reading a script there isn't always one way to say something. If you say something a different way, there will be a different way to respond to the way that was said. So it's better to have everyone in one room at the same time to do that rather than spend a few hours with each person individually.

Are you gunning for any other video game gigs? Are there any particular characters that you'd like to play?

SM: I am in talks to do Ultimate Spider-Man 2. I can't release any information on that.

My spider senses are tingling!

SM: I also did Kingdom Hearts 2.

Awesome, I didn't know that. Who are you playing in that game?

SM: I play Pince. Coming to video games, a lot of adults do the voices. Some of the actors I've worked with on Cartoon Network have worked on Final Fantasy. That's another step I'm going to have to take as I get older. Being a teenager there's only so much I can do with my voice. Ultimate Spider-Man and Kingdom Hears 2 were perfect for that. 

Sean got the chance to work with some of Hollywood's most esteemed (and steamed) actors.

How was your experience working on Kingdom Hearts?

SM: It was good. It was interesting because the game had already been done completely in Japanese. What I had to do was, you know the Japanese makers were in studio, and they would have to translate the lines and sort of give me an idea of what it sounded like in Japanese. I kind of had to say it the same way but in English. It was fun, an interesting experience. I really enjoyed it.

Did that end up being a longer session than Spider-Man?

SM: Per line, yes. For Kingdom Hearts 2 there weren't that many lines, but it took a long time to translate them, go over them a few times, and [discover] that it doesn't sound right. The Japanese line sounds authentic, whereas mine doesn't sounds right, it sounds kind of awkward, [or at least] not like the Japanese. So it took longer per line, but not overall.

Thanks for all the details, it’s been great talking to you. I’ll be listening for more when Kingdom Hearts II ships later this year.