Jennifer Hale Breaks Down Her Long Voice Acting Career, From ‘Totally Spies!’ To ‘X-Men ’97’ (INTERVIEW)

If you’ve watched any animation over the past twenty years, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve heard Jennifer Hale’s voice. While perhaps most famous for her role as Jean Grey in the recent X-Men ’97, Hale is one of the most prolific veterans in the voice acting industry, having been in everything from cult hits like Xiaolin Showdown, to blockbuster franchises like Mass Effect.

Heroic Hollywood recently sat down with Jennifer Hale to talk about some of her most prolific roles, some potential franchise returns in her future, and the current state of the voice acting industry.

X-Men ‘97 was a massive smash hit with fans and critics alike. Was that big reception surprising to you at all?

It was. It was. Not having anything to do with the quality of the show. It’s a phenomenal show. I just love it when the intelligence of the audience connects to the awesomeness of the show, and that’s always a happy surprise.

Lenore Zann, who plays Rogue in the show, said you guys wrapped recording on season two already. Is there anything you can tell us about Jean’s story or how you felt about Jean’s story in season two?

Not if I wanna live! No. I do think that no. No. I would not wreck it for anybody, least of all the writers who put so much hard work into it. Let me just say… awesome.

The next season of X-Men ’97 is now under a new showrunner. Do you feel that the quality is staying the same based on those scripts you read?

Yes. I mean, Larry is phenomenal. You know, Larry’s an OG of this universe, and he gets it to his bones. I am very excited for our future under his leadership.

You played, Kyoshi in Avatar the Last Day of Bender, a big fan-favorite. There are apparently talks about a Kyoshi animated movie. Have you heard anything about that regardless of your involvement?

No. But I have one thing to say to them. Call me. Call me. Yes. I can’t wait.

What would you want to see in a Kyoshi movie if it were to happen?

Man. Man. Man. I’m gonna leave that to the creators and the fan base because my favorite thing is to jump in and serve the piece and serve the brains that brought it to life. I am not a person to come up with this story. I’m a person to breathes life into that story. And, I can’t wait to see what they do.

And if there’s a spot for me, I would be overjoyed. And, you know, if it is one of these situations where it evolves into something else, I support them wholeheartedly.

Speaking on how stories evolve over time, Totally Spies, which is a show you were involved with back in the day, is coming back in a big way. Why do you think the show is resonating with people all these decades later?

Oh, this is such a sad subject for me. I love this show so much, and they didn’t even try to get us into the new season of it. It was really sad. I’m incredibly disappointed because it’s awesome. That’s why it’s resonating.

I love this property. It’s an amazing property, and I want them to know that Andrea [Baker] and Katie [Griffin] and I are still here anytime.

I’m guessing there’s been no communication since then about potentially appearing in the revival?

None, but I know we’d love to.

Voice acting is covered under the SAG union, which has always been weird to me because it seems as different to me from regular acting as theater acting is. Do you think there’s room in this space for a voice actors exclusive union?

 I think to create more unions would be to complicate things. Although you have incredible organizations like NAVA, the National Association of Voice Actors, that is really advocating beautifully for voice actors.

You know, and I will say, just to clarify around Totally Spies, the first iteration of the show was on in done in The US under SAG. The second time around when we did it, it was done in Canada under ACTRA, and I think UBCP. I think ACTRA for sure. And that was because of budgetary constraints, but it all worked out. So that’s why I’m really unclear about why they wouldn’t even give us a shot this time.

The world of voice acting is changing rapidly, especially from when you first started in the industry. Do you think the path is the same for people starting out now as it was when you were coming up?

No. The path has evolved from when I started, which is part of why I started skillshub.life, because there are so many different ways to get there now. The path has evolved. And the great news is there are even more paths in. There are so many ways in, and you don’t have to live in the town where it happens anymore. You used to have to do that.

The pandemic pretty much ejected us out of that reality and into this new reality where you can do a ton from anywhere in the world — maybe not performance capture or stuff where you’ve gotta show up on set, but everything else voice oriented. As long as you’ve got good quality studio and you know people are ready to take that seriously, you can work from anywhere.

There’s this new sort of world of indie animation that’s been springing up in recent years. Do you have any interest in sort of dipping your toes into that pond?

Oh, yeah. I love indies of all flavors. I love them. You know, my constraints are that I’m a SAG member and I’m an ACTRA and UBCP member. But as long as those boundaries are respected, I love those projects. I can jump into any and all of what I do. I work on a lot of indie projects. I love them very much.

You voiced a character called Kimiko In Xiaolin Chronicles, which is the sequel to Xiaolin Showdown. Yeah. Would you ever have any interest in returning to that world?

I would do Kimiko anytime, anywhere. Loved it. Had so much fun.

That’s an interesting story. That’s another story of a show that evolved. Like, when it was first produced, it was produced in The US under SAG. And then they brought it back, and they wanted to bring it back under a Canadian contract because they had a different budgetary setup. And I was taking over Grey’ [DeLisle]’s role, and this is what I always do when I’m taking over a role.

And there’s no problem in taking over people’s roles, but whenever you can check, you know, check either with the director and make sure that they know that there’s been clear communication, like, that’s what I do, or directly with the actor if you got access to them. And Kimiko, I called Gray, and I was like, “Hey. They want me to do this thing, but it was your part. She’s like, do it. Go have fun. I was like, thanks, honey. Bye. Oh, yeah.”

Do you find that there’s sort of a difference between how you approach your preparation for these types of roles in an animated series compared to something like a video game?

Yeah. The main difference is in an animated series, you get the material ahead of time. You get to see it. You get to read the script. You get to the whole universe or, you know, it’s a lot of the universe. In a game, I’m gonna say 85 — it used to be 95% of the time, but now 85% of the time, you don’t see a single line until you show up for the session.

And you don’t see that line until you say that line. It’s all cold reading, and that is a thing. That is a thing. That’s a skill in and of itself.

Is there anything you want to communicate or reach out to, your fans while you have sort of the chance?

Yeah. I’ve got a passion project that I’ve been working on for about three or four years with my sister and our friend, Bill… It’s acting.skillshub.life …This is modeled after how I built my career. And we’re talking my first career…. when I was living in a nonunion market with no agents, and I had to scrounge the work myself, you know, and it was all this weird kinda off the radar kinda work…We have this killer community. People are doing projects together now. Like, it’s the coolest, chillest place. I love this community so much.

Note: The Above Interview Has Been Edited For Length and Clarity.