Voicing a Galaxy far, far Away: Interview with Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes

The daring and exciting adventures in a galaxy far, far away come alive within the pages of each book and make their way into the fans’ imagination through the talented voices of their narrators. Many of these actors have a special connection to Star Wars, allowing them to give the listeners amazing, immersive experiences. Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes is one with the Force and the Force is with him—his career path as a voice actor and love for Star Wars chosen by fate at just four years old.

“I had a crush on a girl in my kindergarten class who lived down the street from me. She and her family were going to go see this new movie, Star Wars. So I got home and started selling the movie to my parents. I just wanted to see it so that I could talk to her at the end of the movie. I was working out these complex scenarios to meet girls at four [laughs]. I ended up going to this movie because of a crush, but ended up falling in love with Star Wars,” Kenin Elias-Reyes said in an interview with TatooineTimes.com.

“It was one of those life changing moments. I was immediately drawn to Han Solo, so I told my mom I wanted to BE him when I grew up. I didn’t realize yet that I couldn’t actually be someone else. But my mom said, ‘Han Solo isn’t actually a real person. He is played by someone whose job is being an actor.’ That’s when I realized I wanted to become an actor and play Han Solo … completely unrealistic, right?”

As fate would have it, Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes went to New York to pursue his acting career—from studying musical theater to discovering voiceover and finally getting to work on TV and film animation. But it wasn’t until he got into audiobooks that his dream of playing Han Solo came true.

“I auditioned at the time for Kevin Thomsen, who is part of Thomsen Scott Productions. He’s a great director. I credit at least half of my overall performance to him and his direction. I ended up booking a Star Wars audio book called Death Troopers. For me it was a sort of a culmination of being an actor and the origins of wanting to become an actor that stemmed from Han Solo that created this opportunity,” Kenin Elias-Reyes reflected. “Death Troopers is actually a Han Solo audiobook, although it doesn’t get revealed until halfway through. So for that to be my first Star Wars audiobook to work on was a dream come true … I got to play the character that I have loved since I was a kid.”

Death Troopers was just the beginning of Kenin Elias-Reyes’ Star Wars journey. Ever since the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm and the introduction of a new era of canon, the voice actor has worked on several projects—from portraying the tormented Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas in Dooku: Jedi Lost to the murderous droid Triple-Zero in Doctor Aphra, both characters known to the fans but their voices never heard before. He even had the opportunity to voice young Poe in Poe Dameron: Free Fall.

“I think what’s great about developing these characters is that you’re familiar with the material, but what I absolutely love is getting to create original characters that you’ve never heard before, to put your own spin on them. You want to breathe life into these characters … give them some sort of three dimensionality to bring people’s imaginations alive. It’s a beautiful, wonderful process,” Kenin Elias-Reyes said.

Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes shared the challenges of projecting vocal performances within audiobook settings—which do not have the same spatial liberties that you would have in animation in terms of physicality.

“Typically the studios are small. They sit you comfortably in a seat, and you read off of an iPad and there’s not a whole lot of room. You’re not on your feet, moving around. Gaining that physicality is not something you necessarily can do,” Kenin Elias-Reyes said. “You need to try and make your vocalizations as intent and as realistic as possible for the situation, kind of reign it in physically and make it all happen just from your voice. It is certainly easier when you have your full range of motion, but it’s something that is possible to do with limited space, because you’re really painting with your voice … you just learn how to fake it.”

With the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, Penguin Random House Audio assembled an all-star team of narrators to bring each of the stories from the celebratory anthology, From a Certain Point of View to life. Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes shares experience working on the audiobook—from voicing the green rabbit smuggler Jaxxon to working on multiple accents.

“Getting to work on another Cavan Scott story and play Jaxxon [in Fake It Till You Make It], you know, from my animation background, was such a treat. He embodies so many things that I love, as a kid and as an actor, right from the animated style. It gives you such a chance for a departure from what we typically think of as Star Wars and yet it perfectly fits into Star Wars. If they ever make an animated series of Jaxxon, I need to be in that room.”

“But beyond that I would say I had fun with the stories where I could do multiple accents and multiple characters, like in Standard Imperial Procedure. I envisioned those three characters almost as the ones from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. I just had these guys bantering with each other … one of them was Scottish, one was like a South Londoner, etc. I had all these crazy voices in mind,” Kenin Elias-Reyes said. “Then to work on STET! and being able to bring this sort of a young Latino journalist that had this crazy galactic crime family was so much fun. And then, of course, to be able to say a Han Solo line from the movie in A Good Kiss was the cherry on top.”

One of the stories out of From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back that was surprisingly included in the audiobook was the one-pager comic The Dragonsnake Saves R2, which Kenin Elias-Reyes beautifully executed.

“Kevin [Thomsen] comes to me and says ‘This book is unabridged, so we’re going to do the comic. There’s no lines, but I want you to play this creature on Dagobah.’ That was such a treat, because I’m a huge fan of actors who can portray non-human characters, especially of Dee Bradley Baker.”

Among the countless Star Wars characters, Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes admitted he would love to portray Poe Dameron once again and of course his childhood favorite, Han Solo—but he is most excited about where Star Wars is expanding, from The High Republic to The Mandalorian.

“Honestly, whatever (producer) Nick Martorelli asks me to be a part of, I’ll do, but I love voicing NEW characters and I’m loving The Mandalorian right now. If I could work on an audiobook based on that series it would be a huge treat.”

Make sure to follow Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date with his Star Wars projects. If you are interested in voice acting, then don’t forget to check out his NYC studio, Hyperbolic Audio!