It’s been 5 years since Tomoko Kawakami had passed away… This is her voice sample (one of those used by voice actor agencies for promotion) recorded back in 1997, the year she got cast as Utena Tenjou. Does everyone remember the story of that casting?
The reason for my visit was that I thought my getting cast as Utena might have been some kind of mistake. You see, on the day of the audition I only had time to skim the material once before I was called into the booth, and the audition was over before I understood the character. I just stood there in a daze for a while, feeling like someone had put one over on me somehow. And when I heard the others who’d finished their auditions talking, I couldn’t help but think their takes on Utena were completely different from mine. Like “she’s cool,” or “it’s like Takarazuka”… So I thought I’d really screwed up; I was so sure I’d failed the audition by the time I got the call saying I’d be playing the part that I just couldn’t believe it. Plus, it was a taped audition, and the director wasn’t there that day, which means he made the decision on voice alone! “Anyone could make a mistake after listening to 150 people on tape,” I thought. “This has to be a mistake. It would be cruel to the person who really got the part if I didn’t tell them what happened.” I know; looking back on it now, it was a crazy reason to visit.
As soon as I got to the BE-PAPAS studio I blurted, “Are you sure it isn’t some kind of mistake that I was cast as Utena? I mean, I think the Utena I did at the audition was really uncool…” And Director Ikuhara said, “You’re absolutely right.” All the other actors’ Utenas were cool, and there among them was my lone dopey Utena sticking out like a sore thumb — and she seemed strangely human in her naïve softheartedness. “That’s why I chose you,” the director told me, and for a moment there it felt as if time had stopped, and as if I’d just met Utena for the first time.
(source: 2000 movie guidebook, translation from the 2011 DVD booklet)
