Interview with “Solo Leveling” Voice Actor, Aleks Le

Full transcript of Interview with “Solo Leveling” Voice Actor, Aleks Le.

0:12KT: Aleks, thank you so much. And welcome to the For Your Reference podcast.

0:17Aleks: Thank you for having me. Happy to be here.

0:19KT: Uh, I'm very excited to chop it up. All things Solo Leveling. We're very big fans of Solo Leveling. I'm also low key a fan of Rent-a-Girlfriend and Romantic Killer, but I know we probably don't have time to get into that as well as Demon Slayer, um, obviously as well. But I first off just want to start and hold this moment and say Weeby circles, everyone's talking about Solo Leveling. So congratulations on season one and also for the film coming up.

0:46Aleks: Yeah, I'm very, very excited to see it in theatres. Uh, I haven't gotten to do that yet, but I'm super looking forward to it.

0:53KT: Yeah, it's, it's gonna be a fun time, that's for sure. Um, my partner and I, Oti, uh, learned it in these weebie anime streets. Um, so it was fun to watch the dub as well as the sub version of Solo Leveling. Yourself and Taito bring such vibrancy to Jinwoo's character, um, but also personality wise very different. I'd love to hear a little bit about, I guess, the process on, I guess, a nod to, um, Taito's performance in the Japanese version, as well as what only you can bring to the English dub version.

1:25Aleks: I think Taito, uh, Taito Ban-san, he did an amazing job portraying the character and definitely set up a groundwork for us because he showed us how crazy We're allowed to go with his show and, and what he showed us was that we didn't have to hold anything back and I'm super grateful for that bar that he set because, uh, from that we can build upon it and, uh, we can, Give it a, uh, you know, something that honors his performance, but also gives it our own spin to it. Um, and so I was super excited to be, to be a part of this, uh, new endeavor to take on this character. And I, I feel that something that makes us unique in, um, how we approach this is that, uh, we wanted to take a very naturalistic approach because of the setting. It, it kind of, It almost feels like it could be like the setting for a movie or like a live action drama, kind of, that blends the real life struggles of somebody who's trying to get by versus a fantastical world that's also taking place in our world.

2:31Aleks: And so, we wanted to go after a very grounded and natural take. Um, And, yeah, it was really cool to get to implement that because that means that I get to put a lot of myself and my own mannerisms and my own attitude and my own vocabulary into this character because we wanted him to make, we wanted to make him a very grounded, realistic guy.

2:56KT: Yeah. And a lot of brooding as well. A lot, a lot of delicious brooding going in his character. Um, Jinwoo in particular goes through a very emotional journey, which I would imagine would be very satisfying from your point of view. There's a lot of highs, but there's also a lot of lows in regards to Jinwoo's character. Also in regards to like all of the different performances that you've done in your career as well. Um, you know, from Zenitsu, congrats to Batman. By the way, um, what is it like being able to, I guess, channel those sorts of the trajectory and the character arcs that we see, you know, from the start? And he's a very different man by the end of season one. What's it like going through the process of his emotional journey?

3:40Aleks: I think I've had a really unique privilege of being somebody who gets to play characters that have multiple sides to them. And that's something I've always found fascinating as an actor and something I've always wanted to do. And so for me, it was to, to get this opportunity, I wanted to inject a lot of my own history into the character. So, uh, you know, my voice didn't always sound like this, you know, So for the character, I wanted him to have a similar journey to mine, uh, when he was younger or before he got his power up. It's kind of how I sounded when I started out my career. So it's a much lighter voice and more naive.

4:22KT: Shout outs to you putting in the work and sending hours, practicing hours, sending in tapes.

4:27Aleks: Yeah. Yeah.

4:28KT: I know you don't recommend it, but that's a lot of work.

4:29Aleks: Exactly. So it's a lot of optimism and hope in the very beginning, a lighter tone of voice. And you could see that he slowly evolves into somebody that sits more comfortably at my natural voice, uh, over the course of the first season. And I think it was unique. Uh, a unique challenge to, to bring that on screen because I haven't really had the chance to do that. I've gotten to do characters that have two sides to them that are very apparent immediately, but I haven't had the opportunity to transition somebody from a very specific physical state in their lives to something else that was different.

5:09Aleks: So it's kind of a dream come true to get to do that so early on.

5:14KT: And there are so many great protagonists across all anime. Like some of them have always been cool. Um, like Kurosaki Ichigo or even a Yagami Light. Like they've always been the cool guys that everyone wants to talk to. And then you have the ones that you're rooting for and that's where all of your feelings go into, and that's where you want to fight for them. Like Naruto, Tanjiro, even Asta from Black Clover as well. I will put Jinwoo in the same category. Category of just trying to scrap it together. And, you know, everyone has a proverbial dagger that they can never afford that will never protect us in these things. Like there's so much of rooting on Jinwoo's character.

5:54KT: Was there any sort of pivotal moment? Cause there are so many great moments in his character journey. What was there any sort of pivotal moment that was rewarding for you to bring that particular performance?

6:06Aleks: Yeah, I think it's gotta be between the snake fight in episode four, where he finally musters up the courage to risk his own life again and put all of his fears behind him to take on this big challenge. Because I, that speaks a lot to me, uh, the ability to, you know, put your self doubt behind you for just a moment to fully believe in who you are, even though you, you in that moment, you don't. You don't believe who you are, but you have to and that was a really cool moment to see and then also in episode six where he starts to realize the cruel reality of, you know, this world, which is very similar to our own world is, uh, people will do whatever it takes to come out on top, whether It's morally righteous or not, and, uh, for him to realize that he will be left behind if he doesn't look out for himself and he has to start doing things that he wasn't comfortable with doing before, for the sake of his own survival, it's kind of a flip on his self sacrifice in episode two, where he chose other people over himself.

7:14Aleks: It was really cool to see him choose himself. over others, even though we are taught that it's a selfish thing to do, uh, it's very interesting to see a character who's willing to go there and do whatever it takes.

7:30KT: And he's been hard done by like Jinwoo been through it.

7:35Aleks: Oh, no, he has.

7:37KT: So I think that's why I feel like for a while.

7:39Aleks: Yeah, it's it feels so satisfying to see him make these choices, even though they're not technically the correct choices. It's so satisfying to see him get his revenge, to see him get fueled by hate and spite and stuff like that. It's just an interesting arc to follow. I think.

7:58KT: Yeah, and I think at the end of the day, like, that's, I guess, the untold story for those that aren't tapped into anime, is like, there is story there too. And there's so many satisfying moments in Solo Leveling in particular, um, with Jinwoo's character. And I appreciate you painting that picture throughout season one because that needle drop of his voice, I know like, I don't know where you were on the internet, but it was everywhere on our side of the internet.

8:22Aleks: I'm glad, yeah, that's what we were going for. So I'm glad people picked up and enjoyed that, so.

8:27KT: Yeah. Um, and obviously we're not going to spoil the film or like coming into the, um, new season, but even at the end of season one, that is a delicious, but also very frustrating sort of cliffhanger to be left on. But even from like, we talked about the emotional journey, even from like a power journey. We see he's stacking on stacking on stacking it. We're all having reawakenings. We have the necromancy. He's building his shadow army. We got big man Igris in the building. It's all happening there in regards to because it seems like you were very considered in how you map out.

9:06KT: The character journey and the performance that you bring to it, which is also a lot of love and praise to you again. Um, does it feel like a daunting challenge or is it an exciting opportunity to tap into what this newfound power is going to be?

9:21Aleks: Uh, I mean, I mean, it's, it's, it's gotta be both, you know, it's, Always exciting to do something new. So I think from his perspective, he's excited at the prospect of what he's capable of. Uh, but at the same time, you know, just like real life, even though we're excited for something, we can't let that. blind us from the potential dangers or pitfalls of whatever challenge we're facing. So we have to keep our excitement in check, but we also can't let our fears and anxiety overwhelm us. So we got to strike this very, very clean balance of just enough fear to be cautious, but also just enough excitement to be motivated to push forward. So just with his powers, it's the same way I approach any exciting franchise or exciting challenging roles is that we just have to toe this line. Um, but yeah, it's a, it's definitely a challenge for sure.

10:24KT: It is very exciting, um, jumping point. Um, that's for sure for the film and also for season two. Um, a topic that we love talking about, especially in anime, is power hierarchy. Um, we've already talked about the power in which, um, we leave Jinwoo at the end of season one. Is anyone touching Jinwoo right now? Like, do you feel, and you can be as biased as you want, obviously. But where do you think he is in regards to the power hierarchy? We have S Ranks, etc, etc. Like, where do you think Jinwoo is?

10:57Aleks: I think he's aware of his own shortcomings right now because he is very, very strong, but at the same time, he's aware that there's a lot of people out there who are way stronger than him. So, and you can see that in his interactions in this season as well, but you will see that he's very cautious, um, about who he messes with. Uh, he is a little cocky and arrogant sometimes, but I think he's smarter than that. But right now I think he sits comfortably at a At top top five characters that we've seen so far not the not the top yet, but top five

11:35KT: We're making our way to Jeju Island. That's for sure.

11:37Aleks: Yeah, right.

11:40KT: Um, well it I want to talk about guilds like fantasy guilds right now It doesn't have to be eight. It can be eight If you want, I have a couple of like rules though, if that's okay. Um, characters across anime, uh, you can only choose one character in each anime. And it also can't be the protagonist. You can't just choose Goku because you're the star, you're the protagonist. Um, if you were to build a guild, you're about to face, I guess, every level over 9,000, um, sort of monsters who's in your guild.

12:14Aleks: Oh, man. Ooh, that's tough. I mean, from Solo Leveling, I think I would choose Cha Hae-In, who's the girl with the blonde hair. She's very powerful and she's very cool. Um, so from, from other shows, oof, I don't know. If we're going Dragon Ball, you got to go with either Vegeta, you know, Vegeta or Piccolo. And, uh, Got to get a healer in there somewhere. I can't rack my brain right now, but I guess if we're, if we're going, uh, Naruto, I feel like it would be cool just to have Sasuke in there cause he's such an edgelord.

12:53Aleks: And it would be fun to have more edgelords in the team. Like why not? Right?

12:57KT: Yeah, exactly.

12:59Aleks: No, it's tough. It's tough. Uh, yeah. I, I, I am terrible at building teams, so whoever I choose, we'd probably barely scrape by anyways.

13:11KT: You're just gonna get it all together. That's the main thing.

13:13Aleks: That's the, that's the main thing is that we're just going to be a team of people who are just trying to get it together, so.

13:20KT: Do you, do you envision a particular battle style for Jinwoo? And do you think that has changed throughout season one?

13:29Aleks: A battle style?

13:30KT: Yeah. Like he seemed a bit more scrappy at the start, but he feels a bit more.

13:35Aleks: Now he's, he's moving, he's moving into more of a commander role, which is really, really cool, uh, for season two. And so I'm excited to see how that plays out. Cause one of the things I was looking forward to the most was seeing how he utilizes his shadow army. Uh, and we get a taste of that in the first two episodes in theaters. So I am so excited to see how they coordinate the action for these guys. So that'd be cool. That'd be cool.

14:04KT: I want to thank you so much for your time. I will be wrapping up now with our final question. Um, we, we finished off our reviews with a recommendation. So what would you pair with Solo Leveling usually for films, I'll say a double feature, but as like a back to back sort of companion.

14:21Aleks: Gosh, that's tough because you wouldn't want You wouldn't want two shows that are the same, like, heavy, uh, gritty tone. I would say right now

14:35KT: You wouldn't want to race for it. Yeah, yeah,

14:37Aleks: Yeah, yeah. You wouldn't want them to compete with each other. I would say right now, uh, Shows that I've been enjoying. I've been watching Dan Da Dan a lot, and that's another show.

14:47KT: Oh, yes.

14:47Aleks: Making an appearance on soon. I feel like that the fun, light hearted action of that would pair really well with the intense, gritty action of Solo Leveling, so I feel like it's, it's always a treat just seeing two great productions together, so. Definitely, uh, my choice personally right now. Either that or you watch a, uh, watch a rom com. Who knows?

15:09KT: Come watch Rent-a-Girlfriend with me, friends and lovers. Um, what a great tasting menu. And just quickly, I made the mistake, I guess, mistake of telling a co worker about Dan Da Dan. And then it started getting weirder and I'm like, I need to avoid him now. Not look at him anymore. But Aleks, thank you so much for your time.

15:27Aleks: Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it.