Peace and Blessings! I recently attended Anime Milwaukee and had the privilege of interviewing the voice actor Jill Harris! She is known for her roles as Fern in Frieren Beyond Journey’s End, Noelle Silva in Black Clover, Yuzuriha in Hell’s Paradise, Charlotte Pudding, Sanji’s fiancé, in One Piece, and Charlie Magne in the Hazib Hotel pilot. You can find her as @jillsvoice on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch, and @JillHarrisVO on Twitter. Now, let’s head into the interview!

Sound Recording:

Transcript:

Tobi: So I’m Tobi, one of the members of ReligiousNerdy, where we talk about spirituality in anime, and among other things, pop culture, manga, and everything like that! So first, we’d like to ask all our guests, since we’re ReligiousNerdy, what are you currently nerding out on?

Jill Harris: Ooh, interesting. 
Um… I’ve been really busy. So, it feels narcissistic, but I’ve been nerding out on the things that I’m working on because I have to consume those. I’m directing a show right now called Gnoshia, and I find it really compelling. 
I didn’t know anything about it before I started working on it, and as I’ve worked on it, I’ve fallen in love with it. My engineer, Katie, has been working in the industry for four years, and she says it’s her favorite thing that she’s ever worked on as well. I had said before, it’s got a very diverse cast of characters, and we have a very diverse cast of actors, a mix of LA and DFW actors, and it’s also a union dub, which is cool. They aren’t always. And then let’s see, I’m working on Hell’s Paradise.

Tobi: Nice!

Jill Harris: The animation for season two has like picked up. Also, I didn’t expect them to make me cry about the Tensen! Like, they’d show me the Tensens’ backstories, and I’m like, well, now I can’t fight. I have to fight you, but I don’t want to, ’cause you’re, like, little abused plant babies. Um, don’t make me cry, Tensen. Um, so yeah, I was not, um, that’s one that I’m not reading the manga, so I was caught off guard by that. Uh, and then, of course, I’m working on Frieren, uh, which I love. We’re about to enter a really cool arc, uh, so I’m excited for that. 


Tobi: Great. And how are you enjoying the con so far?

Jill Harris: It is so lovely. I do a mix of anime cons and comic cons, but anime cons have such a good vibe. Like, everybody is so sweet and polite. I feel like everybody’s just here to have a good time and make friends, and it’s just such a good vibe, and I feel like whenever I come home from an anime con, I feel better. I used to be an anime fan, and I would attend these cons for fun, and now, they pay me to come out here.

Tobi: It’s a full circle!

Jill Harris: That’s insane! I really won at life, you guys. Like, I don’t know what I did to deserve it. 


Tobi: The ultimate goal is to be on an anime, right? So great. So you do voice some of my favorite anime, like Hell’s Paradise and Frieren. So how did you prepare for those roles?

Jill Harris: I mean, both times I looked at the director, and I was like, thank you, but are you sure? And they went, “I believe in you”. Yuzuriha in Hell’s Paradise, specifically. I play a lot of children or sweet characters, and she’s kind of, like, sexy and mischievous. And I was with Mike McFarland, in season one, with and he’s, the best in the biz, and he was like, “You’ve never done anything like this before, and I want to give you a shot, and I believe you can do it”, and so I’ve just had a blast. We don’t always get the chance to try something new, so I’m glad he saw that in me. Fern, I love Fern. I love Frieren. I would watch it, even if I weren’t in it. It’s one of the best animes.

Tobi: It’s such a comfort show. 


Jill Harris: Right? And, like, my parents don’t watch anime, but they watch that one. Another thing that I love about Fern, specifically, her Japanese actor, Kana Ichinose, she and I share several roles across different anime, and I actually got to meet her at another anime con, and she was so super duper sweet, like, she is my favorite Japanese sayu. And so that was just a really cool moment to meet the Japanese counterpart. It’s awesome.

Tobi: Great. And one of the things I love about Fern is how she just keeps a straight face. How do you do that with your voice?

Jill Harris: Oh goodness. Well, I mean, speaking of Kana, I draw a lot of inspiration from Kana. 
Also, our director, Jade Saxton, is also, like, a phenomenally talented actress, and so she’s really good at keeping me in line. But, yeah, like, Frieren, I feel like we all approach it with such reverence that none of us are trying to do anything cartoony or whatever. We’re trying to bring a really realistic cinematic feel to it, and, like I said, I get to act off of Kana Ichinose, who’s phenomenal, and Jade is there to guide me, and we have wonderful scripts by Macy and Johnson. So, it’s just really, like, a phenomenal team. Uh, and they make my job easy.

Tobi: Nice. Great. And what character do you relate to the most in Frieren? 


Jill Harris: Oh, I mean, probably Fern. I mean, because it’s really interesting. I was like, such a weird, serious child. I made straight A’s, and I would cook my own food, and I was like, 10 and babysitting 6-year-olds. I also grew up in a very religious community. She grew up with a priest. On the flip side, like, I was very mature in certain ways, but I was also very socially awkward. I thought I was quiet and weird, but people said I was mysterious. Um, but Fern kind of has that vibe of just like, um, you kind of can’t tell what she’s thinking all of the time. I’ve gotten more expressive, but for a long time, I used to also just be very, like, stoic. I relate to Fern a lot, for better, for worse.

Tobi: So it’s nice that you end up voicing her. 


Jill Harris: Yes, I was, like, when I saw it, I was, like, please, please, Jake, cast me. Please, send out vibes into the universe.

Tobi: So, one cool thing I just learned about you is that you voiced the pilot for Hazbin Hotel. Like, I didn’t know that. How was that experience like?

Jill Harris: Yeah, so before I got into anime, I actually got started, uh, when I was 15. 
I set up a home studio in my closet. And when I was in high school, I started auditioning for stuff. So I had a lot of experience. I provided a lot of voices for student thesis films. I did a lot of indie games, a lot of audio dramas, some audiobooks. So I was used to that kind of indie recording setup. Uh, Vivian, like, literally just tweeted out a Google Doc, and she’s like, anybody can audition. And so, I just, like, I just shot my shot, and I was, like, I’m not gonna book this. And then she emailed me, and I was like, Oh, my God. But yeah, uh, I recorded that in my closet, and we all had a lot of fun. We knew that it was a passion project. 
Um, we didn’t know that it would take off, you know, uh, ’cause, like, you can work on something, and it can be great, but it might not resonate with people, or it might not catch on for whatever reason. So I’m really happy that it caught on and people liked it. And I feel like Hazbin Hotel has kind of started to revolutionize, like, the indie animation scene. 
We’re seeing more people. I think Dana Terrace of the Owl House has one, uh, that’s coming out, like, Knights of Genevieve or something. I’m just seeing a lot more indie animation because the studios are, like, really restrictive, and they’re like, you can’t have gay people in our cartoons, or whatever. So I really like the indie scene. There is a lot more freedom, and I’m really happy to have been a part of that. I don’t know.

Tobi: Hey, and I love the singing, the songs you were doing in the beginning. So thank you for your time, and look forward to seeing more works from you!

Jill Harris: Awesome. Thank you!