As much as Veronica Taylor has experienced in her life, local geek mecca Supanova Pop Culture Expo will always hold a special place in her heart.
When the renowned voice actor first visited our shores for the convention in 2002, she was at the height of her involvement with the worldwide phenomenon that is Pokémon: five seasons into her eight-year run as the voice behind anime series protagonist Ash Ketchum, with a handful of films under her belt at that time for good measure, Taylor (aka Kathleen McInerney) had nonetheless never been a part of an event such as Supanova, she tells The Music.
"It was the first show I had ever gone to," she explains. "I was in New Zealand and then came to Australia, so those were my first conventions ever. That’s what keeps me coming back — I just love Australia, and Daniel [Zachariou], who runs Supanova, is just terrific and, gosh, if he called I’d just jump on the plane and go!"
Fourteen years later, Taylor is no longer involved in the Pokémon franchise — she left the series in 2005 — and has since been a part of multiple other projects, including her current role as Sailor Pluto in Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal, but it still forms a central part of her convention appearances. She's about to knock over her fourth journey out for the event, having attended the previous two years as part of an agreement to cumulatively tick off all six stops on Supanova's annual calendar — but it's more than just making good on some perceived commitment, she says.
"I’m super-excited to be coming back to Australia, and especially to be part of Supanova; I feel like I’m part of the family, and I couldn’t ask for a better family," she effuses.
In fact, Taylor is uniformly an ebullient presence during our interview, radiating positivity as she muses on topics ranging from the rise of audiobooks (she has narrated several in her career) to the longevity of the Pokémon phenomenon and, naturally, the unexpected advent of Pokémon Go.
My job for eight years was going to work and seeing Pokémon in front of me and now … I can leave my apartment and see a Pikachu outside in the hallway.
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"I think it’s pretty wild," she says of the popular mobile app's arrival. "I go to different conventions, and everybody’s playing it. I was actually at a show the weekend that it came out in America and I couldn’t even get on because it was all jammed, and I had to wait maybe four days to kind of sign on and start playing.
"I love the game; I don’t play enough ... but I really think the idea of being able to find a Pokémon anywhere that you are…" she trails off in wonder. "My daughter and I were camping and were playing, and it was just… I mean, I don’t want to admit that, because we were in nature and we should’ve just been enjoying nature, but we gave ourselves half an hour to play, and that was good, we showed some kind of discipline there.
"But it’s kind of like, my job for eight years was going to work and seeing Pokémon in front of me and now, in my real life, I can leave my apartment and see a Pikachu outside in the hallway and, you know, it’s just pretty great. I love how it’s bringing people together, I love that it’s all the original Pokémon and everybody’s talking about that again — they’re my favourites anyway — so, yeah, it’s been pretty wild."
This speaks to the broad appeal not only of the game but the wider Pokémon franchise, which had well developed into a global phenomenon by the time Taylor was making her maiden convention appearances here and in New Zealand. A major part of that, she says, is how obviously happy it makes the people who engage with the world.
"I was only on the show for the first eight years before we were replaced, and even the fact that I was on eight years and people are still coming and talking to me about it and still watching the episodes that I was on…" she marvels. "I’ve never had a job for eight years anyway, nor did I understand the staying power of something like this. I have a lot of people now who are grown up who love the show and now are introducing it to their kids, and it just goes on and on in an awesome — truly awesome — way. But it’s all this happiness, and people talking about how it makes them feel so happy, and that’s really one of the great things to be part of."
You’re allowed to do so much more, really, when it’s just your voice. I can go to work and play a 10-year-old boy, a 90-year-old woman, a sheep, a pig — you know, whatever.
Being involved with such an iconic anime franchise — and the ensuing career trajectory that has seen her work largely on titles within the genre, alongside other voice work — was far from being her initial design, however.
"I guess you could say it's a happy accident," she concedes. "I’m a trained actor; I started acting when I was five, I worked on shows all the way through high school and I went to college and grad school for acting, and I’ve toured with Shakespeare and all kinds of plays around the United States, so when I moved to New York, I moved as an actor. I was working on a soap opera, I was doing different plays, and I just happened to get an audition for a cartoon, and I booked that and they recommended me for something else and it just kind of went on and on from there. So the fact that most of my work is now voice-related: that’s a happy accident; that everything just kind of took a turn and most of my auditions were for voice projects rather than on stage or film.
"So it was a pretty great thing, because you’re allowed to do so much more, really, when it’s just your voice. I can go to work and play a 10-year-old boy, a 90-year-old woman, a sheep, a pig — you know, whatever, all during the day — do a commercial and be a regular person all in one day. And, for me, that kind of creativity is what keeps me going."
Although Taylor has plenty on her plate for the moment — along with Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal, she's working on Nickelodeon series Welcome To The Wayne, appears on stop-motion series Mofy and has "a few other things" on the boil — "I could always be busier," she laughs. It's not that she isn't happy with where her career has taken her; as we've been discussing over the past several hundred words, it's actually the complete opposite. Still, she's certainly always hungry to take herself down avenues less explored.
"I love being on stage," she reflects on the projects for which she wishes she had the time. "I miss doing plays, but I love to work, I love to come up with new characters, and one of the things that doing cartoons or audiobooks, what that provides is me creating characters all the time, so yeah, in a way, I like to stay creative and this really does help that.
"I moved to Los Angeles two years ago, so mostly what I do now is just recording. Nothing live. But that could change, because I’m in a... whole new land of opportunity, let’s call it — we’ll see what comes up."
Veronica Taylor is appearing at Supanova Brisbane (11-13 November) and Supanova Adelaide (18-20 November). For tickets, see the event's website.
