Kellen Goff is a voiceover extraordinaire, starring in many popular anime and video games. Goff is well known for voicing multiple fan-favorites in the Five Nights at Freddy’s video game franchise, including the namesake character Freddy Fazbear, Funtime Freddy, Glamrock Freddy, Sun and Moon, as well as Foxy in the film adaptation. On the anime side, you’ll recognize him as the voice behind major characters such as Kai Chisaki / Overhaul in My Hero Academia, Diavolo in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Porco Galliard / The Jaw Titan in Attack on Titan, Sasaki in Sasaki and Miyano and many more. We had the opportunity to sit down with him and discuss many of these roles, his new role as Carnage in Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, and an opportunity to get a figure of him while supporting The Jonathan Foundation.
Portions of this interview have been lightly edited for clarity.
Q: My first question to start things off: I want to talk about Diavolo from JoJo’s Part 5, mostly because I am always deeply interested in characters that have multiple personalities or identities. What was it like having to portray a character and constantly juxtapose that character against a different character that was not voiced by you?
Goff: It was like such an exercise in acting. I don’t think I’d done too much Jekyll and Hyde type stuff up to that point, but it was just such a treat to get to work off Griffin Burns in that regard, who plays Doppio. When you’re playing someone who is the exact opposite of someone else with their counterpart, you have to do your best to portray as many of the qualities that they don’t as possible. So I tried to make him more schemey, more reserved a little bit where Doppio’s a bit more cheery, happy-go-lucky at points, just so that the turn when you see Doppio whenever he turns into Diavolo just hits harder. I’ve always seen him — and there are some people who don’t appreciate this take — but I played him as someone who really wanted be silent and be in the background and pull his puppet strings. So I feel like when he was pulled away from his safety, he got a bit childish. He believes himself to be a king, a ruler, a god, and the more that god screams about being dethroned and stuff, the more I think, “Oh, this one’s spoiled. This one has always gotten what this one has wanted.” So acting like a child and throwing a tantrum when they’re dethroned just seemed like a foregone conclusion, and that is also different from Doppio in that regard. Doppio never really wanted to be a part of any of that, you know.
Q: What was your approach to the childish tantrums or even the moments of very intense anger?
Goff: Well, at the time, I had just really started recording on it when the pandemic of 2020 hit, and there was a lot of uncertainty and discomfort in everybody at that point. So I chose to take that energy and funnel it into Diavolo’s own discomfort and uncertainty, to fuel the screams and to fuel the the wish for something to be so different, something to go his way. I did my best to convert whatever nervous energy we had about that point into those screams, and I think it turned out pretty good. It turned out to be rocket fuel in that regard, for me at least.
Q: That makes sense. One thing I’m definitely curious about, what was it like for you trying to learn and comprehend his stand?
Goff: (laughs) I was just told by everyone the meme, “It just works.” But I did my best to comprehend it my own way, how it was different from Dio’s and everything. There was a TikTok I posted with a pickle, sort of like slicing out the middle of it and making a new timeline out of that. I thought that was pretty good, but as time went on, I tried my best to give more and more thought to it. And really at the end of it, it makes sense on the surface, but if you get into the science of it, it’s tough to navigate to this day. And that’s my favorite thing to do, to make sense out of magic or science that doesn’t have an explanation and give it a logical explanation. That’s one of my favorite things to do in my own writing. But time has always been a tough one. The only thing I could have used to justify it is alternate timelines. He just skips to another timeline where it’s gone his way, which could be possible. Stands — anything’s possible, right? So that’s the only way I’ve really been able to self-justify it. But who knows, maybe someone will come out with a video essay that explains it perfectly for me.
Q: You also voiced Overhaul, another scary but a bit silent type. What aspects of his personality do you think made him such a compelling villain to portray?
Goff: Overhaul was my first foray into the big anime villain. So it was an interesting trial to go full throttle into a psyche like his. How I’ve been able to justify it now, now knowing his backstory and everything — he was an orphan. He was thrown away for having a quirk that was destructive to the ones he loved that he couldn’t control. So he was thrown onto the street and grew up in this very cutthroat and awful environment for a good long while, for a lot of his formative years. And in an environment like that, people I’ve talked to who have grown up in similar unfortunate circumstances have given a lot of credence to the concept of fair and unfair. Everything’s fair, so the one thing that you can have within your control is what you deem eye for an eye, you know? That’s the only justice that you can get, is justice that you create yourself. So when the leader of the Shie Hassaikai picks him up and becomes his father figure, basically, he idolizes him.
He’s the one who saved Overhaul from this awful, awful life. So from then on, every move that he made, no matter the surface level motivations, underneath it all has been to repay Pops, his father, for the kindness that he showed this orphan. The ends sort of justified the means for him because he has that skewed eye for an eye, life isn’t fair, nothing’s fair, you make your own rules kind of thing, which is why he didn’t give too much thought to torturing a child, unfortunately. And of course, that’s why he deserves to be in jail because that’s a very dangerous mindset to have, ends justifying the means. So yeah, you can see it throughout it too. He’s not — as far as villainhood goes — he’s not bad for the sake of being bad. He’s bad when he wants to hit someone back. He’s bad when he feels spited, but for a lot of it, I mean, take his first meeting with the League of Villains as an example. He stops the fight when both of them have lost one of their soldiers, you know, told them to cool their heads and come back. He’s probably had to do something similar coming up on the street and all that. So at the end of it, when everything was for naught, when he had this perfect plan and he was so sure down to his bones that he was going to succeed and finally pay back his father, he gets stopped by the very things that he detests, heroes, those with quirks, those he deems sick. Also, I believe growing up around on the street, with all the filth that he had to endure he probably got sick, like really sick multiple times and had to fend for himself in that regard. I think that’s where his germaphobia comes from.
I feel like once he got beat by those he deemed sick and stuff, it brought him back to his childhood and all of the times he’s been beaten down by sickness. And that really broke him that he really just, life stopped him and brought him back to the street when he tried to pay his father back. I feel like that really broke him deep inside. And at that point, all he wanted to do was start from the beginning and tell his father figure that he was sorry. So in the very end, when his father figure tells him how awful he is, I bet that just crushes him. And I can only hope that he would finally wake up from there and do as his father wished and make something of himself. Apologize to Eri, use his quirk for restorative stuff as opposed to destructive. Because his quirk’s amazing. He can take anything apart on a microscopic level and if it’s put back together within 10 seconds, you’re completely cured of whatever. Cancer, anything. He could cure anything, but he uses it to destroy. It just, yeah, it’s sad. I really want a redemption arc for him because there is so much good that he could do.
Q: Those two were villains, but you’ve played other archetypes as well. Are there any character archetypes you haven’t had as many chances to play that you wish you could voice?
Goff: I would adore once in my life to play the classic shonen anime protagonist. I just want to feel what that feels like, you know? It could be an anime that nobody watches or a show that nobody watches.
I hope that people watch it, but I just want to feel what that’s like. Because I grew up admiring the protagonist, you know? As normie as it is to say, Naruto was my favorite Naruto character. For a time, Goku was my favorite Dragon Ball character, you know? I would love to be in a position where either he’s the underdog or it’s his story. I did get to play a main character in an anime with Sasaki and Miyano. But, the romantic anime — it was so much fun to do. It made my heart sing, but it’s different from the action-adventure shonen protagonist, you know? There are so many reasons that I always wanted to do that, so that’s the tops for me.
Q: My next question has to do with Attack on Titan. I’m curious what it felt like, just vibe and energy-wise, being involved in the conclusion of that series.
Goff: That was such an honor, because the first season aired while I was in high school. So, to grow up with something and then to be able to portray a titan shifter all those years later, that was involved, albeit off-camera, but involved in the story that I grew up with — that was so cathartic to me. And it’s just a legendary show all its own. It’s a legendary piece of writing, piece of storytelling, and it’ll go down in the annals of history as such. So to play any kind of role in that, let alone a titan shifter, my god, it’s one of the greatest honors of my life and career. It was so fun to get to be part of it. And it was a bit of a light in the time that we recorded, which was during lockdown. It lifted my spirits at a time when I really needed it. So, Attack on Titan and Porco mean a lot to me. And it’s also pretty much the one project that I got to work on with a good friend, Mike McFarland, who is fighting his own medical battle right now. And we’re all really, really, really hoping he pulls through there. But he was just such a joy to work with. And it was so great getting to know him through that and otherwise. So, all of those things are good feelings that I associate with being on that show.
Q: This next question is about a very random role, but one that I’m just amused by. You played the ball guy in Pokémon Masters. How did that come about, and what was that like?
Goff: That was just straight up an audition. I’ve always been a fan of Pokémon. One of my first video games that I owned that wasn’t a learning computer game was Pokémon Gold. I bought my friend’s old Game Boy and copy of Pokémon Gold off of him for 15 bucks when I was a kid. I kept it from my parents because they didn’t want me playing it yet. But since then, I’ve just been the hugest Pokémon fan. I buy every single game and I’ve played through all of them multiple times. So, to be able to contribute to that universe is such — for lack of a better term, it’s catharsis and an honor. Ball guy in particular. I had auditioned for Pokémon Masters a couple times, but that one came up and he was the meme at the time. Just this bouncy, big buff ball dude who helps you on your journey in Galar. So, auditioning for that and booking that was such a joy too. It was super fun working on it for both that and the costume he got later or the update he got later. Because he is a very punny character, but only with the word ball. All he really does is replace syllables in words that sound like ball with ball. Like, oh, that’s terri-ball. I’ll have a ball of a time with you. It was goofy and I adored the goofy roles. The funny ones, they lift my spirits a lot.
Q: Next, I would love to hear a bit more about Carnage and the Marvel Fighting Souls game. Your experience with that, what was it like booking it and performing that?
Goff: That happened a couple or a few years ago. It was heavily codenamed. I didn’t know what it was, but you always have that feeling and hope. I knew who was making it, so I was like, could it be? Then you book it and figure out, yeah, it’s Carnage. I adore Marvel. Just today, I’m watching every YouTuber’s takes on the Doomsday trailer. It was a ton of fun to start. They showed me the art in the session. I did my best with him to take aspects of all the previous incarnations and actors’ performances and to honor those who came before and figure out how best to make that into not perfect Carnage, ultimate Carnage, or anything, but just one that satisfies everyone. I really like what we came up with here. He’s got the higher pitches and creature noises of the Bradley Baker’s performance. He’s got the lows and growls of David Sobolov and Woody Harrelson’s portrayals. He’s got the same craziness as Scott Cleverdon’s. I’m pumped to hear what people think of him. From there, it was just a good bunch of sessions of just the screaming and the guttural stuff and just making sure that he’s crazy throughout the whole thing and that people who play against him are going to be so annoyed by being beaten by him and so satisfied by killing him. It’s been such a pleasure. I really, really would love to come back to Carnage again someway, somehow.
Q: Then lastly, I see a familiar figure behind you there. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
Goff: Yes. This is Youtooz’s figure of me. He’s a little Kellen Jr., part of the Five Nights at Freddy’s collection. You can see it has a couple Freddys there. Then it has Funtime Freddy’s microphone I’m holding in my hand. This just came about randomly when we were talking about doing voice actor Youtooz to correlate with the three voice actors from the FNAF 2 movie. It evolved into just being its own standalone thing, which I’m super, super grateful for. I just always wanted to be a toy. Any proceeds I get from it, I didn’t really want to take for myself. I’m giving them all to The Jonathan Foundation, which is an incredible charity that helps children on the spectrum, help them get the resources that they need to make life a bit more accessible for them. For any child with disabilities, they’re doing an incredible job of that. I am very, very happy that I get to contribute to that in some way or another. The orders for it end on the 28th of July, so y’all still have a chance to get it.
We’d like to thank Kellen Goff for taking the time to speak with us. His YouTooz figure is available to order until the end of the 28th and all proceeds will benefit The Jonathan Foundation.
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