David Wills

Played Nesbitt (season 3), Gozaburo (season 3), Seeker (the Exodia Rare Hunter), Roland (season 2 and some of season 3)

1. How did you get into voice-acting?

I was part of a radio theater troupe called The Magnificent Glass Pelican in upstate New York. My friend Sean from the group told me about a show on MTV that was looking for actors who could do impressions of celebrities and thought I’d be a good fit. I called up the contact at MTV and was hired very quickly for voice work on Celebrity Deathmatch which I did for a few years.

2. How did 4Kids find out about you?

I have no idea! If I had to guess I probably worked with an engineer on a pilot for MTV (I did a lot of those) who may have recommended me.

3. Were you able to choose the voices you wanted for different characters, or were you given direction on how they wanted the characters to sound?

Generally you’re given what’s called “sides” when you go in for an audition. There will be a character description listing it’s personality traits and sometimes there will be a reference to a celebrity to give you an idea of what kind of voice to try (“sounds like Jack Black”, etc.”). When you get into the booth you work with the director to fine tune the voice. On the other hand, sometimes another actor has already established the voice but is being replaced so you try to get as close to their voice as you can.

4. Do you have a preference between playing good guys or bad guys?

I prefer to play good guys because they’re usually in every episode so that means steady work, whereas bad guys can disappear for several episodes or entire seasons. Also, I was almost always cast as a bad guy with a deep gravely voice who barks out commands or screams and that’s rough on my voice. My real speaking voice isn’t nearly as deep.

5. Do you have a favorite character among the ones you played, and if so, why that one?

My favorite character was Fergy Fudgehog from Viva Pinata because I love doing wacky comedy and that was such a well-written show with echoes of classic Warner Brothers cartoon humor. Second to Fergy would be Tyranno Hasselberry from Yu-Gi-Oh GX. A close third is Docoriki from the mysteriously lost series Go-Go-Riki (did no one tape this show?)

6. Sometimes, like on the credits for Yu-Gi-Oh!, you seemed to be credited twice, under different names (David Wills and Richard Will). Why was this?

I can only put that down to carelessness on the part of whoever was typing up those credits. I remember watching my first ever episode of Celebrity Deathmatch with my family. It was a big moment for me and they were anxiously awaiting my name to scroll by in the credits....and it was misspelled!! How humiliating!

7. If the mobile game Duel Links ever decides to put any of your Yu-Gi-Oh! characters in it with voices, would you be interested in reprising your roles?

Sure, I did Hasselberry for Duel Links not too long ago. I’m always up for reprising any of those characters.

8. Did you ever have any thoughts about the characters you were playing on Yu-Gi-Oh! or other shows (maybe especially Nesbitt, Gozaburo, the Rare Hunter with the Exodia cards), like thinking of different aspects of their personalities or secret hobbies they might have, that helped you define their voices?

I did but probably not in the way you would think. I could read a few lines of dialogue, look at a character’s face and think “Okay, this guy does not go out for drinks with guys from the office after work. He probably just sits at home and seethes, obsessing on some past wrong that someone did to him”. There was also a lot of joking around while recording the episodes so we created very bizarre imaginary lives for some of these characters. “Let’s get this meeting over with. I have to go play Santa down at the mall”.

9. After you played Nesbitt, you seemed to disappear from Yu-Gi-Oh!; Roland and Gozaburo (and Nesbitt in the short-lived uncut Yu-Gi-Oh! dub) were played by other actors. Why was this? Did you have another project that took all of your time?

I don’t know. I did GX and 5D and I’m pretty sure I came back as a villain in the original Yu-Gi-Oh at least once after those other shows ended. Sometimes (and this is a sad truth about acting in general) the casting directors think “nah, I’m tired of looking at that guy. I want to work with new faces”. It happens.

(Note: LuckyLadybug is still confused about Roland in season 5, as actually in many of those episodes he does sound more like David, but on the other hand, Gozaburo was not played by him then. So if he was available, why hadn't they asked him to play Gozaburo again? More mysteries hidden by the passage of time....)

Question from Crystal Rose of Pollux: Do you have a favorite episode of Viva Pinata, or a favorite pop culture reference they did?

My two favorite episodes of Viva Pinata are the one about the race with Fergy up against Flex Fudgehog and the episode titled “Crimes of Passion Fruit” which had a reference to Hitchcock’s Psycho in it (pretty dark stuff for Saturday morning TV!). There were so many cultural references in that show it was head spinning. That’s a real tragedy that it didn’t take off the way it should’ve had. I think older kids looked at Viva Pinata and thought “this must be for preschoolers” when it was actually the smartest show on TV!

Hope that works for ya!