Solid Snake’s Japanese voice actor, Akio Otsuka, has had an expansive voice acting career playing everyone from Master Xehanort in the Japanese dub for Kingdom Hearts to Blackbeard in One Piece, among others, making the 66-year-old an accomplished veteran in the field. He sat down for a multi-part interview with Japanese tabloid Weekly Bunshun to discuss his full career, including how he got into voice acting and how his loyalty to Kojima leaves him conflicted about the potential return of the Metal Gear franchise.

The actor stumbled somewhat into the career of voice acting, having dropped out of college and started working as a truck driver for Nissan. He was even encouraged by his father, a former theater actor, to become a tuna fisherman, which he planned to do before dental procedures he was yet to complete left him unable to take the voyage. That led him to follow his father as a theater actor.

“I had no money and no education, and my options for the future were shrinking,” says Otsuka of his life at the time. “If I wanted a fun life, I felt I had to become either a musician or an actor. It sounds good to say I put it all on the line, but I wasn’t really thinking about anything. ” Doing theater led to voice acting. Though he preferred the idea of movie acting to become famous, someone with a large home and wealth, he thought he would take the voice acting opportunities that came along, and found himself sold on the idea of getting a full day’s pay for speaking lines in an air conditioned room.

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