Interview: Courtenay Taylor on Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with voice actress Courtenay Taylor about her role as Kira in Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind. The film will be available digitally and on DVD and Blu-ray on October 11.

“When Kano and Black Dragon mercenaries become determined to take over Earthrealm, undisciplined Kenshi seeks tutelage from retired Kuai Liang to stop Kano from decimating all of Earthrealm,” reads the film’s synopsis.

Tyler Treese: What’s your relationship been with Mortal Kombat? Were you a fan of the games or the movies?

Courtenay Taylor: I’m a woefully bad gamer, but of course, I’m familiar with the Mortal Kombat “Finish Him” phrasing. Then when I first moved to Los Angeles, I was friends with a girl, a woman named Sandra Hess, who had portrayed Sonya Blade in one of the live-action projects. So I was familiar with that, so I kind of knew that. I think that was from the 90s version of it? Then I read up a little on Kira and saw what she looked like. But I hadn’t really played the games or anything, so it was cool to see. Some of my other friends have been in the universe, so I was familiar with some of their work, but this was pretty new to me.

Kira is one of Kano’s mercenaries in the Black Dragon clan. What did you find most interesting about her character?

I love that she was so good at being bad. I loved the way they portrayed her. They took her in a much more punk rock direction, which I am especially fond of, having been one myself in the past. . I just loved how powerful she was.

You get a great fight scene with Kenshi in the film. What’s your approach to fight scenes? Do you really like doing all the wild grunts and stuff?

I do. I think that in my past life, I boxed and I kickboxed and I ran a fitness gym. I’ve been told by directors that it’s been refreshing because I’ll come in and make any disgusting noise you want. Really, I think physically, [it] has freed me up when doing this kind of work, because I know what it feels like to take a punch or take a kick. To get knocked out, to administer damage to someone. So I’m familiar with that and I think I’m able to bring some realism to that, but also, the challenge of watching her amazing stunts that she does … I am not familiar with knife work or anything like that. So it was really fun to watch the footage and bring both the physical background that I have as well as my imagination to being able to do stunts that obviously I’ve never done before in my life.

Kira’s not the most well-known Mortal Kombat character, so this might be the first time that some fans are being introduced to her. How exciting is it to be that vessel of showing this cool character off to all these fans?

I loved playing her. I would love to play her again. I think that because I’m fairly new to the Mortal Kombat universe that it’s fun to be on par with those fans as well. So I think I can bring in some fresh perspectives because it’s such a huge, huge franchise. I think, in a way, it serves me to have not been saturated with it, you know? To be able to bring something … sometimes when you’re so familiar with a franchise, it’s sort of colors what you do. So I was appreciative that I got to know the franchise better, I got to bring her in, and there isn’t a bunch of other people who have put their stamp on her, so I appreciate that.

You previously worked with WB on Wonder Woman: Bloodlines. What has stood out about working with this animation and production company?

I had the same voice director — a man named Wes Gleason — who I’ve known forever, and he is utterly fantastic. It’s just a joy to work with him. He makes you so comfortable in the room and lets you play. We just have a great time. So anytime I’m going in with him, I know it’s going to be an awesome time. Then with this, it was so much fun to be able to have played Dr. Poison, who is sort of buttoned-down and severe. Then get to play something 180 degrees polar opposite from her, who is just all brawn and rage and has this masculinity about her, [while] Dr. Poison was portrayed in the other project as so covered up and buttoned-down and severe. So it was great that they trusted me to do something totally different. I’m really grateful to them for that opportunity and I hope to be able to bring her back, and Dr. Poison, because I loved playing Dr. Poison as well.

You’ve shown such range throughout your career and you’ve had such a lengthy and successful career. You injured your vocal cords while whispering before. Over the years and from learning your craft, have there been any changes to how you approach the booth over time to try to lower that stuff? How has your approach changed over time?

It’s completely different. I fell into voice acting and didn’t know how to sing. I probably slept through my voice and speech class in theater school. I thought, “Oh, this is fine. I can just do this because this,” because I sort of just fell into it. I didn’t realize that there was training and support that was needed. So once I injured my voice, I realized that I needed to stop taking things for granted. I actually went to a physical therapist and now I work with a singing teacher, and I’m really careful. Losing your voice — not being able to speak regularly for three months — will definitely change how you feel and stop making you footloose and fancy-free about the thing that puts food on your table. So I do straw phonation, I do vocal warmups, I attempt to sing, and I try actually not to scream at the top of my lungs when I go to concerts.

Speaking of concerts, you just saw Foxy Shazam, which is a band I love, and Eric Nally’s voice is so incredible. Do you look at any musical vocalists for inspiration or anything like that? Or is it just admiring their craft?

I actually am wearing a Foxy Shazam shirt right now. I love them and I love that Eric brings this sort of musical theater kid presence to that. That’s a great example of someone who uses their voice every night in a really theatrical way and how you are able to do that. As I get deeper into my singing journey, I’ve actually looked at people who sing metal because I think it’s a really great tool for doing game work as well as … I was on a show called, Okay K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes, and we had the singer for Korn come in and do an episode. We talked for a long time and he talked to me about this technique that he has about where it sounds like he’s really straining his voice, but he almost has this way of compressing his vocal cords. So it allows him to sing with that crazy texture and power without straining his voice. I’m on the hunt to reconnect with him and find out how he learned that.

I think anybody who wants to do this work, both the physical side of things — preparing yourself, physically being in good physical shape, because it can be four hours of screaming — then also having that vocal strength, that you go hand in hand. For somebody like Kira, you’re going to need that. Some of this work can be incredibly physical and you’re going to have to go to another session after that, so you better keep your voice and your body strong.

It’s been a few years since Okay K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes wrapped, so I was curious about your thoughts on just the show’s impact? It had such a positive message and great representation in it. It’s really beloved.

I really wish that it had gotten a better run because I think it’s an incredible show and I hope that somehow it will resurrect because I personally could really relate to K.O. And his sort of alter ego T.K.O. I think that’s such an important message for kids — to know that they can be a good kid and have bad feelings or feelings that are bigger than themselves, and be able to work on controlling them and harnessing them. You can be a good kid and have to make hard choices. So I think there were a lot of things that they explored. I loved that he has a single mom — that really resonated with me. The representation across the board as far as gender roles and societal roles was really important, and I do hope it comes back somehow.

You have such a great initiative with Nerds Vote, so I just wanted to give you the stage to talk about that real quick.

Nerdsvote.com is my initiative to get all the nerds in the nerd space voting. I really feel like, along with my partner, JP Karliak, we are so supportive and want kids and everyone who’s in the nerd space to feel empowered by using their voices to vote. I’m so happy to have so many people in the voice acting community onboard with spreading the word because nerds know what’s up. we understand good and evil, the battle for choice, [and] we understand strategy. All of these things factor in and we’re devoted. So all of these things factor into making choices in how our country’s run. Just like you would choose your own adventure in a game, you can choose to be part of the adventure of this country. If you don’t play, you can’t win.

So I just urge everyone to remember that a lot of elections come down to just a handful of votes, so your vote does matter. If we all get together and row, we’ll start to go places. As Americans, it’s so important for us to use this choice that we have that so many people have fought and died for and many people in other countries don’t have. So I really hope that everyone will show up on November 8th to vote and remember to vote in every election every time.

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