Adam McArthur on His Dual Roles in Jujutsu Kaisen and Kaiju No. 8 (Interview)

In an exclusive interview with The Direct, voice actor Adam McArthur discussed his roles in Jujutsu Kaisen, Kaiju No.8, and some exciting video games.

Adam McArthur is a versatile American actor, best known for his roles in popular anime series such as Jujutsu Kaisen as Yuji Itadori, Tokyo Revengers as Chifuyu Matsuno, and Sakugan as Yuri. 

He also voices the character of Reno in Kaiju No. 8, adding to his extensive portfolio of animated roles.

Yuji Itadori: Adam McArthur's Most Demanding Role Yet

"It Sort of Required a Lot of Me As An Actor..."

• The Direct: "What’s the most difficult voice acting role you've had in your career so far?"

Adam McArthur: Probably Yuji. And part of that is because in Season 3, it sort of required a lot of me as an actor, and there’s some really heavy moments, and I wanted to make those feel as real as possible. So it just takes you to places as an actor that you normally don't typically get to go to in voiceover when you’re working in cartoons and stuff like that.

So that was really cool, actually sort of a dream scenario, getting to do so much with him. And then also just from a technical standpoint, we started recording 'Jujutsu Kaisen' in October of 2020, so we were all recording from our own home studios, which meant not only were we actors with a new studio on a big project that had—I mean, at that time, I don’t know if we knew how big it was going to be, but certainly maybe the studios had high expectations. But because of when we were recording it, we were doing our own engineering, we were in the booth adjusting levels while we're trying to act, all at the same time. So that also made it a little bit difficult.

The Impact of Jujutsu Kaisen on McArthur's Career

Adam McArthur Now Gets to Travel a Lot More, Thanks to Jujutsu Kaisen

• The Direct: "How has working on Jujutsu Kaisen changed your career?"

Adam McArthur: I mean, to be honest with you, I try not to pay attention to that. I really do try not to pay attention to that. Now, the things that are kind of undeniable is the fact that a big portion of what I'm doing now is traveling around not only the U.S. but globally for conventions and appearances and things like that.

Me and my castmates, we're getting to do a lot of that stuff. And so we're doing meet and greets with fans. It's brought a lot of opportunities to do charitable work, which has been really fantastic, companies like Make-A-Wish and stuff like that, which is really cool. So yeah, it's added almost like a whole other little area of work with these conventions and things like that. That's been really cool.

And as far as VO goes, again, I don’t know. I try not to. I feel like if I think too hard about it, I'll be like—well, I don’t ever want to become, what’s the word? I guess, entitled or feel like I am owed something because I’m on a show that’s popular. You know what I mean? I'll just do as good of work as possible, and hopefully that speaks for itself and wherever it leads me, it leads me.

Shifting Gears to Kaiju No. 8's Reno

"... He's So Driven and Disciplined."

• The Direct: "How does voicing Reno Ichikawa in Kaiju No. 8 compare to your other roles?"

Adam McArthur: Reno is such a fun character to play because he’s so driven and disciplined. Compared to someone like Yuji in 'Jujutsu Kaisen,' Reno is much more structured and focused, which has been a cool shift for me as an actor. The dynamic between him and Kafka really adds to the heart of the show, and I love being able to explore that in the recording booth.

Adam McArthur on Bringing Characters to Life

"I Think It's Bringing a Lot of Yourself."

• The Direct: "What does it take to bring life to different types of roles?"

Adam McArthur: Yeah, I think it's bringing a lot of yourself. I think early on when I started acting, I had this manager in LA who was kind of, he was like, 'You have to live in your car and give everything to this.' And I stopped doing martial arts, which was something I had done my whole life, and I had stopped hanging out with certain friends and things like that. And it was horrible advice from him. I don't think you have to do that at all. 

I honestly think that one of the most important tools for an actor is just living your life and doing the things that you're passionate about and having friends and building relationships and stuff like that because all of that experience is what helps you have things to draw from when you're building out characters. So whether it's a random villain on 'My Hero Academia,' or whether it's Yuji in 'Jujutsu Kaisen,' all of that stuff, I'm bringing a little bit of myself and finding ways for me to bridge the gap between who they are and who I am and where we relate to bring life to those characters.

The Challenges of Voice Acting Across Different Mediums

"The Production Process Is Always Different."

• The Direct: "How does voice acting differ across different mediums like anime, video games, and Western animation? And how does ad-libbing work?"

Adam McArthur: So all of these various kind of niche video games, anime, which is dubbing or prelay. Prelay is what they call Western animation where you have a script, you record the audio, and then it's animated after that. 

The production process is always different. And then within those, it can be different project to project, but typically how it works is for anime, as you mentioned, the animation is already finished. So we get that in the booth, and we're watching finished animation, and we have our start point and our end point, and basically, we're filling in the gaps. So to your question about ad-libs, that makes that a little bit difficult. Now, I think the further along you get and the more comfortable you get with the character, you can find places for that, but ultimately that performance is tied to however they animate it.

So sometimes that works out awesome, and then sometimes it makes for some clunky translation and how it ends up looking. There’s a couple of scenes where, just for example, maybe not even a specific scene, but if the character's mouth opens, if the line is, 'What the heck are you doing?' or something like that. But the Japanese might only have two flaps, so then you got to rewrite the line to make it fit into the thing. So that is a complicated process, and I always say dubbing, it's like rubbing your stomach and patting your head while you're acting inside of a box. It's kind of a very tricky thing.

The Unique Difficulties of Voice Acting in Video Games

"Video Games Usually Give You Zero Context."

• The Direct: "How does voice acting for video games compare to other mediums?"

Adam McArthur: Video games usually give you zero context. You don't even know sometimes what game you're working on until it comes out, which may be two or three years later. So in video games, you go in and you’re relying heavily on the director for context of what’s happening, which is all code-named and code-worded anyway. They're just giving you scenarios and then context for how to read your lines.

I was in 'Far Cry 5,' and I didn’t know I was in 'Far Cry 5' until two years after I recorded it or something like that. So you have very little context, so you're just doing what the director tells you. Sometimes they might say, 'Give us something else,' but for the most part, you're just doing what they say.

And then another little niche in video game VO is if it's a Japanese game a lot of times, or a foreign game, I guess it could be a Chinese game too, a lot of times you just match timing. So they'll play the Japanese, and I can do whatever I want as long as it’s the exact same length. So they’re comparing waveform on the screen to make sure that whatever it is will fit where it fits in the game. So every day is different, which makes it a lot of fun.