To celebrate the upcoming finale to Attack on Titan: The Final Season, we were invited by Crunchyroll and FUNimation to speak with the incredibly talented English voice cast behind series leads Eren Jaeger (Bryce Papenbrook), Mikasa Ackerman (Trina Nishimura) and Armin Arlert (Josh Grelle).
Note: There are some spoilers for the first three seasons of Attack on Titan in the following interview.
STARBURST: Congratulations on the show. So after NINE years, Attack on Titan is coming to a close with arguably the most explosive season yet with twists and turns at every corner. This show has been a global phenomenon since it first came out in 2013 and is a huge part of people’s lives. As the three of you have been involved since the start, how much has this journey meant to you on a personal level?
ALL: Thank you so much!
TRINA NISHIMURA: For me personally, it has been an amazing journey. I say this over and over, and I only say it because I mean it – Attack on Titan has changed my life in so many ways. It’s been an incredibly special journey. Not only was I able to work on a show portraying an amazing female character that I adore and love, but I also got to meet and become very close with Bryce and Josh along with many other people (I know that sounds cheesy but it’s true). I think that’s been the most special part about Attack on Titan to me alongside meeting passionate fans too! I’m so grateful.
BRYCE PAPENBROOK: I definitely agree. Attack on Titan was my first audition for FUNimation – I live in Los Angeles, FUNimation is based in Dallas, Texas and I was just so lucky to even be able to audition for the show. I was a fan going into it – I fell in love with the show very early on and would’ve been happy playing anyone on the show – even “Guy who gets stepped on by Titan” (laughs) but getting to play Eren was just incredible. Like Trina said, I’ve been able to meet so many amazing people both cast and crew and develop lifelong friendships because of it. It’s hard to find another word to describe it besides incredible (laughs).
JOSH GRELLE: I echo everything these two have said. Immensely grateful – this is something that has changed my life in so many ways, not only from the rewarding and fulfilling friendships but also from the people that I’ve got to work with and the ways that I’ve grown as a person. I’m a very different person now than when I started on this show. There are a lot of memories that go along with all of this including all of the places we’ve got to travel together to conventions and hear how this show has impacted them too. This is one of the greatest gifts that I’ve ever received.
Did you ever expect it to be this big when you signed on?
JOSH: Nope! (laughs) Even when I’m hearing those numbers I’m still in shock and awe. It just seems so mad. To be a part of it – you can’t put that feeling into words really. I think we all knew going into the show that it was going to be something special and that a lot of people would connect to it – but to imagine that it would become what it has become is mind-blowing.
The fact that you have been involved since the start of these characters’ journeys, you’ve been able to truly craft the role into your own. Would you say that this has benefitted you as an actor and allowed yourself to grow?
BRYCE: Yeah, I think when you have more time with a character you do build that different relationship with them. And the interesting thing for me going into this final season is – that the character is TOTALLY different to what he was in the first season. So I had lived with Eren and really understood him and his anger – I knew what to tap into personally to get as angry as Eren because in real life I’m not as angry as he is (laughs) so I have to think of things that make me pissed like traffic in LA (laughs). In this final season, this anger is buried, it’s there under this layer of ice. The director and I had to reinvent the character and find a new place to come from to portray these lines – new motivation. It was so interesting to live with the character for so long and then have to find them again after all those years.
TRINA: It’s been a journey, right? Being able to be with a character for almost a decade has been one of the great privileges of my life – being able to grow with her. In season one to now, being able to grow with her from a child to young adulthood and all of the things she’s gone through has been really fun and challenging. In fact, in Season 4, Part 1 – Bryce recorded an episode and then called me and said “Oh my gosh! I know what happens, can I tell you all about it!” and I was like “I can’t wait to see it!”. Watching Bryce’s portrayal of Eren and Josh’s portrayal of Armin and how they’ve both changed has been amazing. Being able to play Mikasa in all of her brokenness is awesome – it’s unlike anything I’ve done before.
JOSH: Grown as a performer? Absolutely. I’ve grown as a person since we started working on this show. I’ve changed a lot – my worldview has changed as much as Armin’s has. It’s a unique experience as a voice actor to get to live with a character as long as we have. We are some of the lucky few to have gotten to be a part of shows that run for so long, that tell such a story as, like Trina said, watching these people go from children to young adults and experience their journey that I believe we go through it too. We have become very close to these characters. I’ve never had an opportunity as an actor before AoT came along to really explore that. It’s been unforgettable.
Across the four seasons, there have been many stand out moments. Which moment is your favourite and which was the most challenging and rewarding to perform?
JOSH: That’s way too tall an order, man! And I’m the colossal titan! (laughs) I guess in Season 4, Part 1 – one of the most awful things that a person can go through, Armin goes through to save Eren’s ass. He kills more people in one instant than he had killed titans in his lifetime, just from transforming. He himself becomes this weapon of mass destruction and he is not okay with it. It gives him nightmares. I can’t imagine having to be Armin in that situation. He’s been through so many moments like this – but this was THE moment. I don’t think at that point, the Armin that we’ve known and loved is there anymore. He loses a part of himself. As a performer – that is another pivotal moment when I grew as a performer and person.
TRINA: Mikasa goes through a lot of challenging moments – she has a lot of really awful things happen to her. I think her bond with Eren and Armin is very strong, she went through terrible things as a child watching her parents die and being kidnapped – and then finding this adopted family with Eren and Armin is so important to her that every time one of them is threatened it’s heartbreaking for her – as an actor, you and your character go through so much and you pull things from your real life to relate to that. Being so close with Josh and Bryce – whenever their characters die (which happens more often than I like) (all laugh) in my mind my friends are dying in front of me. That’s always really messy and hard! There’s a particular scene in Season 4, Part 1 on the rooftop when I sobbed for almost an hour straight recording that one scene. It’s traumatic sometimes. But I’ve definitely grown.
BRYCE: It is so hard to narrow it down to just one moment! I’ll give you a couple. Being able to be so raw and ferocious and bring this veracity to the show is something really unique. Sometimes as voice actors when we get into the booth we want our sound to be clean – you rinse your mouth out with water and try to make it not spitty or disgusting but Mike, the director, had the correct way of approaching this and that was to make it dirty, gritty and disgusting sounding. I was able to bring physicality to a lot of the moments in the show. There’s a part in Season One where Eren is biting his hand so I bit my hand just like him – so hard that I left bruises. In Season Two, Eren is fighting and he’s so unhinged so I literally unhinged my jaw during those scenes and brought real pain to those moments. And I hope that that pain actually comes through in my performance. I was willing to bring that intensity at every moment – and still going into this final season. It’s very exciting to be able to do that and you don’t often get the chance to approach it like this. I enjoy every moment.
