It’s been over 20 years since Cowboy Bebop first hit the airwaves and the anime continues to be hailed as one of the best of the genre and a good introduction for Western viewers. The neo-noir sci-fi series revolves around the exploits of bounty hunters Spike Spiegel, Faye Valentine, and Jet Black and eccentric young hacker Radical Ed as they travel the galaxy in the year 2071 on the titular starship.
As audiences gear up for Netflix’s live-action series, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with Cowboy Bebop‘s English dub stars Steve Blum, Wendee Lee, Melissa Fahn, and Beau Billingslea to discuss the anime’s legacy, the debate of subs vs. dubs, and the forthcoming adaptation.
Screen Rant: The legacy of this show is incredible to think about after 20 years, but when going into it back then, did you have any sort of feelings or ideas that it would carry on as far as it has?
Melissa Fahn: Yeah, you know, a couple of us have talked about this. On my very first day recording the show, Mary Elizabeth [McGlynn] took me into a screening room with a big huge screen and she said, “You know what, before we do anything, I want you just to watch the opening titles of this project that we are about to embark on” and I watched it and my jaw dropped. I thought, “Oh, my God, this is the coolest music I have ever heard, what is this show?” Then she let me watch a little bit of it and just the style of it, the look of it, the characters, the music – which we all call the fifth member of the Bebop, the music is so integral.
But to be in the studio 20 years ago and then to be here with you 20 years later, it’s a little bit mind-blowing, but it’s an incredible feeling knowing that we were a part of something that has been crossing through generations and that we were able to create these characters and bring them to life. It’s such a very special and unique show and so ahead in so many ways that it stands the test of time, so it doesn’t feel dated. That’s what I keep hearing, that it doesn’t feel dated. It could still be that anime that is your first anime, like, “Which one should you watch?” “Ooh, watch Cowboy Bebop.” When I hear people say that, I still get that warm fuzzy feeling.
Wendee Lee: I just remember feeling like this show stands apart from anything else we’ve done. It was unlike any other anime I’d seen, it was unlike any animation from the US as well, it was all really designed for an adult audience. I thought, “Oh, this is something I can sink my teeth into, this is going to have substance. It’s not just stereotypical, especially for the female roles.” But think about what we were working on at the time, we had been doing Digimon, I was working on Mysterious Play, which seemed to go on forever and which had a very complicated storyline to me, at least the scenes that I was in.
When you put it all together, it was very difficult to follow, it wasn’t a linear storytelling sort of vehicle. Mind you, this is pre-video-game years; we were not getting additional roles in video games where really hardcore, aggressive, developed characters started becoming available to us to really sink our teeth into. At the time, it was much more about, honestly, boxes that most characters fit into. I hear that there’s something like a nine-character type archetype of characters that most anime characters are designed off of.
These characters broke the mold, and it was obvious that that’s what was going on and it felt like there was an American western storyteller involved and it paid such homage and respect to our rock’n’roll roots in the US. That was just something we could instantly relate to and I thought this show is the vehicle I dreamed of, something that’s going to be that edgy and that real and is going to take it to the next level. So we were just hopeful that people would get a chance to see it, we didn’t know where it would end up, much less continuing to play all these years.
Beau Billingslea: We didn’t know that it would have the legacy that it has and it was a fun gig. But as time went on, I began to realize how special it was, but it didn’t hit me right away. One of the things I loved about the way Jet was written is that he was vulnerable. There’s so much macho going on in it, you know, I come from a very macho background, and too often characters are totally macho with no vulnerability. I enjoyed the fact that he was vulnerable, he professed that he didn’t care when Faye and Spike left the Bebop, “Doesn’t matter to me, I’m glad they’re gone.” But you can see through, that this guy was vulnerable, he was dependent upon them, they were his family.
Then when it was written, where he went back to Ganymede, it really completed it for me. Because he went back to put his other life to rest and to toss the watch away. It was just real stuff and it was emotional for me to voice it. That was one of the special aspects of voicing Jet because he was vulnerable and there was a lot of real emotion that he exhibited and experienced that I really enjoyed portraying.
Steve Blum: Back at that time, we didn’t have social media, we didn’t have internet, most of us didn’t even have a decent computer. So we didn’t get feedback on the work that we had done, other than the occasional fan that might reach out to us. Or my experience going to a convention back then was a bunch of subbers versus dubbers and getting my life threatened. [Chuckles] To get to work on something like this, I didn’t have any expectations at all. But we knew that it was something very special and Mary Elizabeth and I talk about this all the time that we just wanted to make the best show we possibly could.
We didn’t want to screw it up, because it was so beautiful and perfect the way it was before we even got a hold of it. So we made it for us with all the love and integrity that we possibly could inject into it and to see that people resonated all these years later was the most amazing surprise and continues to surprise me that it carries on generation after generation to the point where now it’s expanding into a different genre completely.
Since you bring it up, subbing versus dubbing is still to this day quite the heated conversation in anime viewing. Since all of you have made such great careers from dubbing work, alongside other animation fields, what is it to each of you that you find is both challenging and rewarding helping bring so many different works such as Bebop to Western viewers through your dubbing?
Wendee Lee: I’m always aware of that burden and goal and responsibility and take it with great honor. I constantly am working on both sides of the mic as far as directing, adapting, performing, and honoring the art form, and advancing it is super important to me. I think that we’ve all had a great opportunity to do that and I think it is a bit of a burden, but it also is a throwdown, it’s a challenge, and I think that’s why we’re still challenged by the art form, it’s still an amazing feat to be able to reproduce a performance that’s completed and done and make it sound like it comes from a whole different language.
That’s how the production was meant to be, so in our case, it was meant to be in English and that’s just the way we play it and we expect the quality of what we do to rise to that goal, but I think being able to put our mark on that as technicians, I mean, this is a very right-brain, left-brain discipline, it requires a ton of creativity. That’s the wide appeal for many people that want to get into voiceover, but there is another 50 percent of the work that is very technologically based. It’s technique and it’s technology and reading our scripts; our ADR scripts are very much like reading music. We insert pauses, like rests in music, we have dialogue that’s on camera, off-camera. So there’s a lot that the actor is juggling and then has to put it through their filter as an actor and then produce the final outcome that has to be convincing and believable and real.
Creating dramas and comedies and slices of life one line at a time and threading them all together to create one beautiful created artwork is tedious, super demanding, you’ve got to be on it. As soon as you show up to a session and you’re a little fatigued, or you’re hurting about something, or you haven’t been able to leave it at the door, your team’s gonna know it in a minute. They may not know what it is, but they’ll know something’s off, so there’s a lot of intuition that comes into play as well.
Melissa Fahn: That is so true, Wendee. I especially appreciate that you said that this was an art form because it truly is. To be an actor and to be a voice actor, and then to be a voice actor who works in anime and in dubbing, it’s really an art form. It really is being a technician and being able to use those qualities, I so appreciate that you said that. It is a lot of pressure and it is very demanding to do; it’s not just a cakewalk to go in and dub and have that musicality and that timing and to be able to bring a character to life right away that already has its stamp on from an original voice.
So coming back to Bebop, the fact that we were able to put a stamp on these characters and the fact that these characters have cut through and this show still stands and is still so powerful and resonates so strongly, it really is gratifying as an actor to know that we were able to do that. In any job that you take, you take them as seriously as possible, you take each job and you put everything into it, but it’s not always the case that you’re here 20 years later.
Beau Billingslea: What we do, we know goes forever. [laughs] We know that the subtitlers are out there and they’re ready to jump on us and jump on out work. [Laughs] One of the things I do get is that periodically that subject comes up dubs versus subs and invariably they come down on the side of dubs for Bebop. They distinguish Bebop from a lot of other projects, “I’m a purist. I like subs, but I will watch the Cowboy Bebop dub.”
Steve Blum: Back then, we didn’t do it for the money, we still don’t really do it for the money, because every other area of entertainment pays so much more. [Laughs] We were talking about this earlier, no residuals. I mean, there’s a lot of reasons not to do this work if you’re already a successful actor. But being part of the convention circuit and being able to interact with the fans and understanding how much this means to them fuels me to want to continue doing anime and it also keeps our skills sharp, like everybody was saying, it is a very technical skill set and I don’t want to lose that.
I would much rather do that in anime than in background work on a TV show. I’ve done a lot of looping for TV shows, it’s stressful, it’s backbiting. Animes just feel like a warm, loving hug every time we go into that booth. It’s warm and it’s a very personal, intimate experience, like Wendy was saying, to where most of the time we’re just working with ourselves, the director and the engineer and that’s it. It’s an amazing, intimate experience that translates out there in the world and hopefully that can lift somebody up on the other end.
So I know when it comes to acting, especially with characters that have been portrayed before, a lot of actors when they come into the role want to look for their own take on it as much as staying true to the source material. With the live action show coming up, I’m curious, have you heard from each of your counterparts for advice or thoughts?
Wendee Lee: I’m available anytime, Daniella [Pineda], call me.
Steve Blum: I actually stalked John Cho a little bit when I found out that he had the role. I reached out to him and he actually responded and I’d like to call him a friend; I don’t know if he considers me that yet, but we’ve had a few little digital conversations. I was actually supposed to go out and meet the cast in New Zealand when they were first starting to film and then he broke his leg. I was in New Zealand for a convention, I missed him by like three days, so I never had that opportunity to do that. I put it out there that I’m available if he wanted to talk about anything, but I’m kind of glad that he didn’t, because I feel like he’s gonna bring his own unique presence to the character and I’m very curious to see what he does with that.
Beau Billingslea: That’s what we do as actors that when we have a role, whether it’s on camera or voiceover, that we try to find where we meld with the character. How Beau melds with Jet, the commonality there, and I think that in line with what Steve said, I’m anxious to see what he brings to Jet that’s part of him, not mimicking me at all, but what’s part of him. So I’m really anxious and excited to see what he does.
Melissa Fahn: I think that’s what it’s all about as actors and about artists, you want to support each other and you want to lift each other up. We have to feel good that what we’ve done in the genre, that what we’ve done with Cowboy Bebop, is something great. So much so that now they’re doing a live-action version, and whatever that version is, it’s going to be amazing. We have to honor what they’re doing and say, “Oh my God, that’s fantastic.”
I can’t wait to see what they do, I can’t wait to see what they’re going to do with Edward, you know, that’s like the big mystery, and I’m so excited to see what they do. I’m all for it and supporting it and I want them to succeed because if they succeed, we succeed and the whole family of Cowboy Bebop succeeds and I’m all for it.
The original Cowboy Bebop anime is available to stream on Funimation and Netflix now.