It won’t be long until the acclaimed anime series Cowboy Bebop debuts its live-action television adaptation on Netflix. In celebration of the upcoming show, the English-language voice cast of the original anime series reassembled to reflect on their performances as the mercenary crew of the Bebop. While Cowboy Bebop has endured for over twenty years, new viewers will soon catch the spacefaring adventures of Spike Spiegel and his friends as they pursue high-risk bounties across the cosmos — and attempt to outrun their painful pasts.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, Cowboy Bebop‘s main English voiceover stars — Steve Blum (Spike Spiegel), Beau Billingslea (Jet Black), Wendee Lee (Faye Valentine), and Melissa Fahn (Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV) — reconvened to discuss the 1998 anime’s arrival on Netflix and the upcoming adaptation. The reunited cast delved into the universal appeal of Cowboy Bebop. Also included in this interview are images from the classic anime series and the 2001 anime film continuation, courtesy of Sunrise Entertainment.
You all have done quite a bit of anime work since Cowboy Bebop but now, over twenty years later, what do you think it is about the series that makes it continue to endure and stand the test of time?
Steve Blum: It’s good! [laughs]
Beau Billingslea: There’s a truth about it and all the characters are flawed in their own ways, like human beings. Every element seems to be special: the music is special, the animation is quirky and I love it and the voice actors are not too bad. If you break it down, every element is special and there’s a truth about it that we often hear about at conventions. People keep telling us about the positive effect Cowboy Bebop has had on their lives, on a friend’s life, or a brother or sister’s life. It just warms your heart to hear that what you did in that booth has actually had a positive effect on somebody’s life in a very serious way.
You guys not only have the benefit of hindsight but also getting to see a new generation of fans discover the show. What is something you’ve noticed with newer fans that’s different from the original fanbase?
Wendee Lee: Our fanbase seems to be really consistent. Something we were pointing out earlier between us is that our fans from ages ago versus ten years ago versus now all seem to be very consistent in the appeal that has reached them all equally. The only thing I would say is that we have caught up to the future example that Cowboy Bebop had laid out so many years ago and was so much more progressive about and integrated at the time about sexuality. You didn’t have to be a cookie-cutter character that fit in a box. We were breaking molds and it was super refreshing. I think the spirit of that is maintained, in that it always kind of feels fresh, it doesn’t feel dated. There is a style of animation that clearly comes from that time and technology has changed but it’s a warm affectionate feeling that comes over you and then all of the edge of outside-of-the-boxness of the show that really prevails.
Blum: One of the things I’ve noticed in recent years is that fans will come up to us at our tables at conventions saying, “I saw Cowboy Bebop when I was way too young and didn’t understand it. As I revisit that as an adult, it affected me so deeply and on such a visceral level.” Back [when Cowboy Bebop premiered], they didn’t have adult cartoons on TV that were obviously adult cartoons. They had things that were supposed to cross-over and keep people entertained that were sitting there with their children.
But this was not made for children and so many people saw it way too young. I’m grateful that it didn’t warp them to the point of needing therapy but it caused them to think and put questions in their mind they weren’t able to resolve until they could fully understand them. As they revisited it and had their own revelations about the show, they were very eager to share with their friends. I think that started the snowball rolling and showed it was different from some of the other content that was out there.
Melissa, with a character like Edward, the way she’s animated helps exude her voice on her own. Having said that, how did you find the voice for Edward?
Melissa Fahn: We’ve been calling her “Liquid Ed.” She’s very liquid and reminds me almost of an old Betty Boopish, rubber-hosed character, that was the style they called it back with [Max] Fleischer and King Features. But Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, she’s a child but she is very deep. She is wounded, which is why I think they’re all together. They all have some wounded thing and they’re all searching for something and the Bebop crew needs each other. But in finding the voice, I innately think that she’s really a part of me. I have a very child-likeness about me that I’m not ashamed of but proud of, and it makes me who I am. I think that’s probably why I was cast as Edward.
We were talking earlier about how this doesn’t really happen. We were handpicked to play these roles. Our voice director Mary McGlynn and [casting director] Kevin Seymour, knew all of our work individually and thought we would bring something to this that no one else could bring. Hopefully, twenty years later, we nailed it and it’s standing the test of time. The one thing I loved about watching Ed — because with anime, you watch and then put your voice in and dub to it — she was animated so beautifully on all of her [movements].
Mary gave me such a chance to play… She’s an actor herself. An actor directing another actor is a beautiful thing. She’s an actor’s director and asked what I thought Ed should do or say here. We had a great time. It was wonderful to bring that but also bring the layers when she sees her father again, and when she leaves, and when she sees the Bebop passing by. There are moments and, as an actor, that’s our job to find those. I was so happy that she wasn’t one-note. I could bring those layers to it and find the fun and childlike quality but bring all the depth to it as well.
Beau, I hear tell that you based your voice as Jet Black on someone from military days. Any truth to that?
Billingslea: Actually, no. [laughs] I don’t know who said that! I misunderstood the nature of the project when I first heard about it so I thought it was about cowboys and I was going to be riding horses and wrangling cows and spitting in a spittoon. But what happened was Mary coached me into basically using my voice and then we tweaked it a little bit and that’s how we ended up with “Hey, Spike! Time to eat bell peppers and beef!” [laughs]
As cool and confident as Spike Spiegel and Faye Valentine are, there is damage and vulnerability under all that swagger. How was it balancing those elements?
Lee: I thought that Faye was trying to find a brotherly dynamic with someone that she admired and she actually had a lot of affection for Spike. I always felt that she was keeping under wraps her deeper feelings of, “I need you, don’t abandon me. Promise you’ll be there for me.” If they could ever have that commitment, it was never discussed. I think that she overcompensates with her “Yeah, whatever” [attitude]. She has this odd, random bouts of banter with him that felt very brother-and-sisterly.
I thought that was such an overt statement at trying not to make it intimacy. The thing that I started identifying in her dynamics between the guys is that she had a little more respect and was a little more accommodating with Jet and more [confrontational] with Spike because it’s a form of attention. There’s this interaction that goes on the more you sustain that banter. [laughs]
Blum: The whole process of recording this thing was like a giant, long therapy [session] for me. It started with an almost 40-year old man stepping into this role with all of my insecurities and I got to hide them in the form of this badass guy who didn’t seem to care about anything. He didn’t care if he lived or died. But when we got to the movie, I had to access a place of vulnerability that was very uncomfortable for me personally, so what came out was authentic in that moment when Spike is talking to Elektra in that jail cell.
That was a very authentic, tapping into a vulnerability that I had really not let myself experience personally. It became much more than a cartoon for me at that point. As our characters evolved, I think we each had moments like that throughout the series where something very personal came to it that was very unexpected. I think that translates, especially when we had the time to explore that in the context of a cartoon.
What is something you’re hoping to see in the live-action Cowboy Bebop coming to Netflix?
Lee: We’re ready to be surprised! We’re really hoping that they’re going to add a lot more to the legacy and that they’ll use this foundation to the fullest and honor it, including the fans that we already have and bring them along for the next ride. Buckle up, because it’s going to be a wild one, cowboy! [laughs] I think that it’s advancing the legacy.
Blum: I’m excited to see another interpretation, I really am. I don’t think it could’ve been done before now — just because it would’ve been too expensive to create that world. They used to talk about that when they were considering doing a live-action film: it would cost half a billion dollars to produce something that made it really feel like you were living in that world. I think the timing is right and that the cast is perfect. I’m really, really interested to see what their take is on it. I hope that they inject enough of themselves into it to make it a completely freestanding thing on its own and also to honor what had come before and they bring in a whole new audience.
Created by Sunrise Entertainment, Cowboy Bebop is available to stream on Funimation, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu.
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