WEBVTT

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- It's Isaiah Colbert,
the Otaku of Kotaku,

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and today I'm interviewing Deven Mack,

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the voice actor for
'Sonic' and 'Sonic Prime'.

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And Deven, my man.

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So I wanted to ask you, obviously, again,

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'Sonic' has such a rich
history with a lot of actors,

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like Jaleel White, Ben
Schwartz and Roger Craig Smith

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taking on the helmet as
their beloved character.

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So I wanted to ask you, how did it feel

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to kind of be included
into that illustrious list?

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And was there any pressure at all,

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especially being a black
voice actor, in this space?

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- It's definitely been very surreal.

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It's been very terrifying at first,

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because I grew up as just
a very, very shy kid.

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I never thought that
I'd be in the business

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that I'm in today.

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But I know that Sonic is a character

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that has resonated with so many people.

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Definitely, including
myself, especially since

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the first voice that I heard
on 'Sonic' was Jaleel White.

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He was a character that,
right from the get-go,

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I was able to connect with.

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Sonic is a character that
can be for everybody,

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but he had a very kind
of unique kind of swagger

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that Jaleel brought, that
immediately had me be as a kid,

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like, man, I'm gonna
get like that, though.

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(mouse squeaks)

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- A mouse?

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Every force in Robotropolis
is on our butts,

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and you're wigging out over a mouse?

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- So, it's been a whole lot to live up to.

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But again, I think the
fact that the character

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has connected with me through
so many different generations

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and so many different
performances, and I kind of am

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drawing inspiration from
all of them to an extent,

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while also throwing in my own unique spin.

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- You have the coolest plane!

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- I do?

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- It's called, The Tornado.

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- And I think the fans have
been able to pick up on that,

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and sort of have really embraced
what I've been able to do,

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to an extent that was really,
really overwhelming to me.

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Just the amazing positivity
and support that I've gotten,

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right from the get go,

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was more than I ever would've imagined it.

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I'm so grateful that so
many people were happy

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with what I was able to bring to it.

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(upbeat music)