A few of the games that those lucky enough to have gotten their hands on a Playstation 5 are likely playing are titles such as Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War Zombies, and even Bugsnax. With so many new games dropping on the system, we decided to reach out to a voice actress who happens to have worked on all three, Julie Nathanson!
Julie has already worked on many projects on the Playstation 5, some of which have not been announced yet. In Call of Duty Black Ops: Zombies, she reprised the role of Samantha Maxis, and she voices half a dozen Pokemon-like characters in the PS5 exclusive title Bugsnax.
Despite all of these new roles, she has been voice acting for years, dating all the way back to series such as Powerpuff Girls and Johnny Bravo. Comic book adaptation fanatics might also be familiar with her work in Avengers: Assemble, Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, and even DC Lego Super-Villains as characters like Jewelle, Silver Banshee, Crimson Widow, and countless others.
When we spoke with her, we asked about her work on the comic book projects she's involved in, and she brought up the new Miles Morales game and the characters she voiced in Spider-Man PS4. She also explains what "walla" is and what is considered "additional voices" for acting credits.
To hear our chat click the podcast player below. Fans of Julie can also find our last two conversations with her embedded along with the transcript below. Happy Holidays!
Literary Joe: Having voiced in projects for both universes, do you lean towards Marvel or DC more?
Julie Nathanson: It's the same annoying answer. I know that. That's why I say like, I'm sorry; it sounds like a cop-out because I think there is a curiosity people have, like, "what do you secretly really love the most?" That doesn't come up for me with DC and Marvel, and I can tell you I have favorite movies, live-action, and otherwise in both buckets.
You know, I partially took about a hundred women to see the Wonder Woman movie when it first came out because I love it. And a friend of mine and I thought, let's gather our forces. And that was incredible. And I've also been extremely involved in my own passion and love for many Marvel movies and experiences. And I've voiced Crimson Widow on Avengers Assemble.
So, I think being able to play in both universes has been really fun for me. And again, it's never lost on me how lucky I am to be able to do this. The fact that you are asking the question, "Hey, you've worked in both, which do you enjoy more?" And I don't know! I feel incredibly grateful and lucky that I've done both and can do both.
Literary Joe: What else do you have in the works?
Julie Nathanson: That brings me to my nightmare scenario of saying the wrong thing. So I do tend to stick with whatever has been announced and whatever has launched. I would say that the two most recent and significant would be Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War Zombies, Bugsnax, and some additional voices in Miles Morales, the Spider-Man game that just came out.
If you ask me what I played, I cannot remember. I don't know, but it was fun. Yeah, and it's an odd thing, too, because I'm aware of what I'm omitting from this conversation. I am well aware of what I'm not sharing right now, but I can share lots of fun things.
In the first Spider-Man, I did several different sessions for several different voices. One was a professor who was in costume at the Halloween party. She ended up looking like it was actually, you know, a different character, and then it was revealed. It wasn't like a huge part of the game, but it was a fun little moment. And then several different pedestrians and people along the way, you sort of end up populating these games. And, of course, I'm happy that Insomniac wanted me to hang out and play in their sandbox. And they are incredible games to be a part of; they're really stunning. What they're doing is really incredible.
Literary Joe: Additional voice acting is interesting. Do you get to make up some of the random words, or is it just on a sheet?
Julie Nathanson: It depends on what it is. Every so often, I'll be brought in to do what would be more considered like walla, which is like really extra and additional voices.
So it's kind of that background filling in and really populating, maybe a busy street, a party, a gathering of people looking up to see, "Oh my God, there's Spiderman," and some of those things because filling in crowd sounds has a more improvisational experience to it. But generally speaking, when I've done additional voices for games, they throw a few characters at me. Some of them are more significant than others. It's also been wild going from a game where I go to the session, and I'm like, Oh, this is such a cool character.
I know the character isn't in a lot of the game, but it has a personality or an emotional arc, and there's stuff going on, but because it's not a significant role in the game, it moves into additional voices. So I try to write down and remind myself of what characters I've played so I can keep track. But I think there are so many characters in so many of these games that it would be a little bit overwhelming to have every character be named and assume that players are really going to be paying attention to that.
*This interview has been edited for clarity.*
More than a year after the "Devil's Breath Crisis" and the Maggia's gang war, Miles Morales (Nadji Jeter) is now being mentored by Peter Parker (Yuri Lowenthal) and plans to help keep New York safe while honoring the memory of his late father Jefferson Davis (Russell Richardson).
Spider-Man: Miles Morales is now available on PS5.