You are one of six actors to have played the role of Kaworu Nagisa from "Neon Genesis Evangelion" in English.
Six of us now. I was number three.
As many people have played that role as have been married to Henry VIII.
That's so funny. So far, I'm the only common thread between all of them too, because the original was done by Kyle Sturdivant, and I knew him from the Houston theater community. The second one was Aaron Krohn, whose mother was my first dance teacher. Then I did it, and then Jerry Jewel was next. I worked with him at Funimation, and then Cliff Chapin Jr., who's one of my directors and also printed it, and now Daman Mills, who shares a role with my brother. I'm still the one common thread of all the "Evangelion" Kaworus.
I wanted to know why that role, in particular, has been recast more than any of the others.
Who knows? A lot of those roles have been recast, and it's not a secret. I was butthurt the first time I was recast out of it. When you look at it, Kaworu has always been played by a different person. Knowing that, I don't feel it's personal. That's one of those roles everybody wants a shot at, and that should be okay. A lot of the actors in the Netflix stuff took a lot of unnecessary abuse from people that are like, "I would only stand by Spencer," and that wasn't fair to Casey [Mongillo] as an actor. How many Romeo and Juliets have we seen? God knows Gainax is not going to stop putting out Evangelion stuff. Why not [let] everybody have a crack at Rei or everybody have a crack at Kaworu?
As long as the material is treated respectfully, that's all I really care about. That was one of my favorite roles at that time. I'm glad Cliff got to feel that same excitement. When I was standing [in] the booth and saw the NERV logo flash, I almost peed a little bit ... As a nerdy anime fan, that's a huge thing to be a part of "Evangelion." I'm glad that Cliff got to experience that and Casey got to experience that and so many other people. It's so weird that people like to pit us against each other as actors, because we're all just pretending to be some character that somebody else made up. I'm very proud of the work that all of them do.
I don't know why there's some characters that got recast as others. Anytime I feel butthurt about losing Kaworu, I have to realize that Monica Rial went from playing Maya Ibuki to Pen Pen. That is definitely a bigger downgrade than going from Kaworu to Kensuke. We both have a really good sense of humor about it ... I don't know why roles get recast, but I'm glad I'm working.
This is a job where you're always working. I'm glad [that] if I'm not working, it's going to a friend. It'd be different if it was some actor I don't get along with and they got the role, I'd be like [grumbles], but it's Cliff. I love Cliff. I love Jerry. It's one of those things [where] I'm glad somebody I like is doing the part, not somebody that's just going through the motions.
This interview was edited for clarity.
