Interview: Veronica Taylor Wanted To Keep Voicing Ash Ketchum Forever

Pokemon Ash Ketchum with Johto Pokemon

Most Pokémon super fans grew up with the series, and for them the Pokémon anime was a pivotal part of their childhood. At the center of the series was our protagonist, the hopeless dreamer Ash Ketchum, who may not have been the most knowledgeable trainer, but preserved for 25 years until he finally became the very best.

Forever tied into Ash’s journey is Veronica Taylor, the original voice actor in the role who played Ash among other characters in the series for eight years. We were lucky enough to catch up with her at the London Card Show, where we asked her all things Pokémon, and what exactly happened after season eight.

GLHF: I wanted to know when you were first auditioning for Pokémon, how much did you know about Pokémon or how much were you told about it?

Veronica Taylor: Oh, I didn't know anything about it actually. I only knew what I saw in the tiny snippet that we looked at when we auditioned. I think after I had auditioned for it, I read somewhere that there was an episode that caused seizures in Japan. [Editor note: She is referring to Electric Soldier Porygon, an episode that never aired outside of Japan.] But otherwise I didn't really know anything about it. I didn't know that it was popular in Japan. I didn't know how popular it was after the first season actually.

It was 1998. So we didn't have the internet like we did now. I didn't even have a computer then. So the only way I would have known about it is reading in the New York Times or something like that. So I didn't know anything about it at all.

GLHF: And after you were told you got the role, did they give you the Japanese series to watch?

VT: No, no. So how it would work is we would just go in for the session and you see the show as you begin to record. You say good morning, get the script, go in, put on the headphones and start. Sometimes there would be maybe a small synopsis of what happens in that episode, but sometimes not and you just kind of jump in to do it. There was no preparation or rehearsal or anything beforehand. It was all very much in the moment. Most of my jobs are that way.

GLHF: For the role of Ash, did you take inspiration from other Pokémon media or did you put your own spin on it?

VT: I don't think there was room for your own spin because they wanted the voices to sound similar to the original Japanese actors. So when we auditioned, it was to be as close as you could to the energy and the sound and the kind of age range and all of that. I think that as the first season continued, I and everyone else was allowed to kind of relax into it a bit, but definitely they knew what they didn't want but not what they wanted, and so you had to really fit specifically into this tiny niche. I think the ‘bringing your own’ was just how you could act in the moment. But voice wise, they were pretty specific about sticking as close to the original as possible.

GLHF: Would you say Pokémon were more strict with how you could do the voice compared to like Sailor Moon?

Sailor Moon is very strict on how the voice sounds. Many of the shows I've worked on have been. They really know what they want. In One Piece, I played Nico Robin for 4Kids and they wanted a southern accent. I would say with Sailor Pluto that I work on now, the Viz version, that they wanted it very specific and so much so that we had to go back and re-record because she was too warm, too emotional and they needed her to be much more withdrawn, which is an interesting challenge because she's so far out there that I don't think she knows how to express herself. She's not able to get through the walls that she has put up.

I mean, when you're guarding the door of space and time you've got to have some walls so that you don't go crazy. But most of the jobs I've had, it's pretty specific what they want and then you try to make it your own by bringing the reactions or in how you deliver it, that's your own. But the parameters are strict.

GLHF: At what point when you were doing Pokémon did you realize it was gonna be gigantic?

VT: I feel like I realize that more now, 25 years later, that it's big than I did during the eight years that I worked on the show. I felt like, as they say in the business ‘This thing's got legs’ that it'll last, but it's interesting that we didn't know until kind of close to the end of each season if it was being picked up again.

So, it never felt like it was a huge success. It was like, ‘Oh, great. We're on for another season.’ And at work it wasn't treated like, ‘Hey, you're in Pokémon!’ It was just another show that we were doing amongst many and then amongst all the other jobs that I had, it was just part of the wheel that keeps spinning.

I feel now that people have grown up with the show and are starting to have their own kids and realizing what Pokémon meant to them. I feel it's bigger than it was when I was on it originally because it has more emotional attachment and people, they see more the meaning, the lessons learned, how much they resonate within them and what they are teaching their children. In that sense it's bigger now.

GLHF: That surprises me because as a kid I remember everyone rushing home to watch the anime on TV.

VT: It was huge. I remember that and it was exciting. It’s just from being at work, nothing changed. It was all just the same and it was just exciting that as an actor, people say, ‘Oh, you're an actor. Are you in anything I would know?’ And then I could say, ‘Yeah, actually. I don't know if you've heard of Pokémon?’ And they were like, ‘Oh yeah, I have.’ At least that had some traction.

GLHF: How did you feel when you heard that Ash finally became the champion, and that his journey was coming to an end?

VT: Well, that's two things, I think, first, a year before he won the Masters Eight Tournament, he won the Manalo tournament, and that was pretty exciting. All these things I found out about on Twitter. So I'm with everybody like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is the greatest news.’ Then to win the grand championship and retire that's incredible. We've all been on this journey for 25 years. That win is our win.

Related: Ash’s Final Pokémon Journey Hits Netflix This September

We've been pulling for him and struggling and winning and losing alongside him all this time, like when he lost to a Bellsprout. Oh, the misery. It's so joyful and so it gives us all the kind of will to go on in the sense that if he can do it, we can do it. It takes time, it takes a lot of energy and practice. But if he can do it, we can do it.

GLHF: If you were ever asked to return to voice a new character for the Pokémon anime, do you think you would go for it?

VT: Sure. I would never have left if they hadn't replaced us. I would have stayed till the end of time. I would definitely return if they'd have me.

GLHF: Why did they change all of the voice actors?

VT: Pokémon USA took the show, and they didn't renew the contract with 4Kids and they said ‘We don't need any of you anymore. We’ve found replacements.’ We had a few episodes left in the eighth season and they just let us all go. Everybody. It was horrible.

I remember we were starting to prep for the 10th anniversary special and that the materials had come in. We were told we'll be doing that soon, and then we were told we weren't needed anymore.

GLHF: How long did you get to adjust to the fact that you weren't going to be in the next season?

VT: I think we had eight episodes left before the season ended. In the very beginning, after the end of the first season, we had three months off and then the second season started. But later, one season would kind of go into the next. So we didn't really have breaks.

Who knows why that was, I guess how fast they were recording or how quickly we were catching up to whatever Japan had put out, so it was no time really. It was quite shocking and there was no chance for us to say we wanted to go on with the show, there was no chance for any of that. It just was done.

GLHF: What do you think drove that decision?

VT: With Pokémon USA, whatever their business thing is they didn't want us. I don't know what, I really don't know. It was their decision. And no explanation was given to us. But it's really sad because so many people were watching the show and then suddenly all the voices were different.

This is 2006, so yes, we had the internet, but it wasn't like it is now. Like now, if someone said something, you could start something on Twitter or Instagram or whatever and other people would find out about it. But in 2006. there were some people who did emails, doing things online to get people to sign petitions that say, ‘Bring the original cast back’ but you can only get so far with that when you don't have the reach that we have today.

GLHF: I remember at the time thinking it was ‘Fresh season, fresh start’.

VT: It wasn't at all, because at the beginning of the ninth season, everybody is still in the same outfits, the same style, and later on it changed in Black and White. But at the beginning of that season, we were still in Hoenn, so it was just their decision. It was sad, and there’s that whole feeling that as an actor you're just so disposable even after so many people are committed to the show. So, yeah, it's pretty sad.

GLHF: Were you ever involved in any other parts of the community? Did you get into the TCG or the games or anything like that?

VT: I had Pokémon Red and I did have a DS at some point. My daughter was born after the first season.

So eventually she had a DS but neither of us have really played many video games at all. I have some cards because people have given them to me, but I've not really bought the cards. I love Pokémon but it's been a tiny part of my career. So I haven't fully embraced it. I don't only swim in that pool as they say.

But,I have a lot of Pokémon stuff at home because it's the project that's been the dearest to my heart, for sure. But luckily enough, there's been a lot in all projects that I really love actually.

GLHF: I know your voice was used for the Pokémon Puzzle League, were you asked to do other games?

VT: Was that me? I’ve never heard it. There's some things that they just took the voice and could use it. I don't know specifically, I think I might have done that, because there's a lot of stuff that you would just go in and then you'd be working on something. It's not necessarily different. It’s not different contracts for all of it, it was kind of a glob of stuff, but I'm sure that it probably is me. I’ve just never heard it.

We did do some games, but also at the same time we were working on Yu-Gi-Oh!. I don't know if other shows had games, I'm not sure. But at that time, if there were games with us, we would have done them. But I don't fully remember it that clearly. Just because it was a glob and I had a baby at home. So I was working and going home and it just kind of fades together.

GLHF: What's the funniest or the strangest interaction that you've had with a fan?

VT: Oh, my gosh. I meet the most amazing people and the stories that people tell me are just incredibly beautiful, like ‘I met my partner through Pokémon’ or ‘I met my best friend.’ That's just incredible, isn't it? Some people were bullied at school and found support through Pokémon and found a way to be a stronger person. I recently talked to someone who said that because of Pokémon, they discovered a love of animals, and they became a vet. It's just so many great things.

But strange? I don't know if there's any strange. Someone did make an incredibly beautiful Diglett for me but Diglett is a little hot dog-looking, and it’s coming out of brown mud. So that was an odd thing to have in my house, just on its own. But it was amazingly crafted and it was large, so it's a great gift. But it’s odd when someone comes to your house, and doesn't know what it is. It’s just a hot dog coming from the mud or something. But it was really amazing.

GLHF: We have to ask, what's your favorite Pokémon?

VT: My favorite is Pikachu. Because I think Pokémon is the relationship between Ash and Pikachu and just through them, you learn how to fight for what you want but compromise and think of others because Ash can't just be like “Pikachu get out there and win” but to say you need a rest or something like that.

GLHF: Our last question is a silly one, but did you cry when you saw Bye Bye Butterfree?

VT: Oh, for sure. Because it's such a tender moment and yet it had to happen. You had to let Butterfree go. Also, when we dub, you only see your lines. So I wouldn't have really seen or heard Butterfree and how sweet Butterfree is as it's leaving. Just those little sounds, I wouldn't have heard that when I recorded so I just would have seen Ash's face and just been able to do the lines.

I find it very emotional. It's amazing that it's been going so long and yet Bye Bye Butterfree is frequently a top episode. My daughter and I are doing a podcast called The Trainer's Guide and it's a rewatch of the first season of Pokémon. So, we're going through each episode and talking about it and talking about lessons learned and what was happening at the time. And we are not to that episode yet, but we're almost there.

You can catch Veronica and her daughter Rena’s podcast The Trainer’s Guide every Wednesday on Apple, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

Related: Review: Pokémon Horizons’ First Story Arc Starts Strong But Loses Its Way