S4 Ep26: Voice Actress Salli Saffioti

This week on Magic Making Mischief we get to chat with the phenomenal #voiceactress Sallu Soffioti! You have heard her acting talents in #monsterhigh among other places like #anime and #videogames. Take a listen to this #podcast episode! It is one you do not want to miss on 23JUN at 7PM CT!

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Salli’s Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sallisaffiotiactress/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Hello, Magic Makers. I'm the Racculora. I'm Claudine. I mean Gory Thank Gail.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

And I'm Gulia. Welcome to Magic Mickey Mishnah. Get your wands to the ready because we solemnly swear we're up to no good. And speaking of up to no good, today we are pre-recording, so do not think that we are ignoring you today today. We have with us a special guest joining us today, Miss Sally Safiotti. Did I pronounce that correctly? I think I may have. I may not have.

SPEAKER_05 1:21

Safiotti, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Um, actually, today we have Mamarella, Yukita, Juju, and CJ, and Miss Sally joining us today. Wonderful voice today. Um, we are pre-recording though. Uh join us for some wonderful mischief today. Um we are having a wonderful time today. We have the wonderful voice actress Miss Sally joining us today. For some wonderful mischief.

SPEAKER_04 1:55

Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

As you can tell, we've been going on behind the scenes. Um, Sally, we are so excited. Thank you for taking a little bit of time out of your crazy, crazy schedule to join us today. Um, we are having some mischievous, mischievous time joining us today. Um explain to those who are watching uh what wonderful characters that you have done for some voice acting. And I know a couple of them happen to be up on the screen today.

SPEAKER_05 2:25

Yay! Hey, my ghouls! Well, of course, there's Monster High, and uh, I was the voice of Cleo and Claudine in the OG Monster High, and then in the you know, one that's out now, I'm uh a teacher and I'm uh Scullet in that one. And um then I've done, I don't know, probably about 50 or more video games, uh, like Destiny 2, uh playing Aramis and Thalysra in World of Warcraft and um Petra in the Horizon series, and um Devil May Cry, the series that just came out. I'm playing Chi, who's like uh a clone of Lucia, and so many games I wouldn't even know where to begin, but um yeah, it's been a great ride uh getting from you know being a theater actress in New York to being here in Los Angeles with this really fun voiceover career, and sometimes dipping into on-camera stuff, and I've been doing it my whole life.

SPEAKER_03 3:34

Well, I pulled up your list of voice actors. You you've got like a lot of things going on for you. You've had video games, you've been anime things. How did you get started?

SPEAKER_05 3:47

Well, like I was doing theater in New York, so I I just always wanted to act, and it was so funny. I wanted to just be like an artist, and so I didn't want to make money at it. So I always had like you know, 13-day jobs, and um I'd be like in a play and doing a free movie, and you know, and I was so happy but so tired. And I finally moved to New York, I mean, from New York to LA, uh, when my best friend moved out here with his band, and um they left to go on tour, so I was just kind of out here, did another play, and eventually I got an agent for television. So I I got a little bit of work on TV, you know, some shows I was on the show called In the House and The Good News, and then I was on ER and NYPD Blue and Mismatch, and um the last show that I worked on was Shameless on uh Showtime. Um, but in in the middle of all that, I had booked uh a part on it. It was a show called Tracy Takes On with this actress Tracy Ullman, who and she does millions of characters like in full garb. And I I had done an episode just as a guest character, and we really hit it off, and she ended up hiring me the next season to play opposite her, so because she would have scenes with herself because she was like a master of disguise, so she would play one and I would play one, so they'd put me in the full thing and they'd shoot like from the side. So it seemed like it was her acting with herself, right? And then we would switch. So it was like the greatest training ground ever. And I didn't even really realize that I was doing the voice, I was doing the body, I was doing like all of it. Um, and then at the end of that show, the show ended up, it was on HBO, it ended up wrapping up, and I met a guy named Don Reed at a rap party for um, or I was actually a premiere of a movie. Uh my friends had written a movie, I was like sitting on the sides, and um he came up to me and he said, Oh, are you the girl on the Tracy Ullman show? And that person changed my life because I didn't know what voiceover was. I didn't know I had a gift at it. I had always done voices when I would just tell a story, you know, in the person's voice. It was just natural. You know, growing up in New York, you're just like it's like a melting pot. So you're just around like every culture, every accent, every all the time, right? And my dad was a bus driver, so I used to ride on the bus when he was if I wasn't in school. So it's like all day long, you're just listening to you know, immigrants from everywhere um speaking, and I guess I was absorbing it. And uh that guy, Don Reed, introduced me to my very first agent. And uh like the I didn't get very many opportunities there, but it was like a good way to learn uh what it was, what to do. I didn't get to do accents and characters there, but um, because I was with the best agency, I was able to switch to a different agency, and um and there there I got into the video games. It's like everyone just wanted to keep you like well, you're you'll just do some commercial voices, and and then it was like, okay, well, all right, we'll we'll give you a shot of video games, and then I did promos, and then I was there for like 13 years, I guess, and then um someone suggested that I make a switch because I wasn't getting a shot at animation. But during that time, I had booked Monster High on my own. Um, a studio came to me that knew my video game work and said, We think you'd be great for the show. Come and read for us. And um so then I ended up switching agencies, and then there, the agent I'm with now I've been with for 13 years, and um they give me a shot at everything. And um I feel so fortunate to have been able to have this voiceover career. I I'm a single mom since my son was a baby, and it's just the two of us all the time, and so I could have him sitting on my studio floor or taking take him to work with me, and he'd have his little Lego catalog when he was little, you know, and now he's 17 and he doesn't need to come with me to work anymore. But he too had a voiceover career. He was on um We Bear Bears, We Baby Bears, um uh the like the Lego City TV series. Um that's cool. Yeah, Pi Pine and the Puppies, whatever, but it's it was just because he had been around it forever, and now he wants to be a physics major.

SPEAKER_04 8:10

So yeah, so here we are.

SPEAKER_05 8:16

That's that's how it all happens, and you know, the the on-camera stuff happens every once in a while. Um, certainly since the pandemic, it hasn't happened for me at all, and the the industry has changed a lot, but the voiceovers are the constant and the thing that keeps me going, you know, and I and I love it.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

That's awesome. Yeah, I love that. One of the things, um, I mean, okay, obviously I'm a Dracula and and Monster High fan overall. You know, my daughter for her 10th birthday, her whole theme was actually Monster High, and she had all the characters, and she made little lockers for the nameplates for everyone's places, and they it was so much fun, so cute. And uh, I know that I grew up loving the classic monsters, so for me to be able to share that with her in a way that like really hit her girly side too, was so much fun. It was just the best thing. And I I gotta ask, so were you a fan of classic monsters at all before you did the project with Monster Hyde and before you started doing it?

SPEAKER_05 9:22

Um, I can't say I I mean it would be a stretch to say that I was a fan. I mean, um I I liked I liked them. I didn't know a lot about it, you know what I mean? I grew up um there was like those that old show, like the monsters. Um, I don't know if you guys ever saw that one. It's like a black and white, right? I did a convention once and they had like the mobile, like the the car, the family car there.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

And it was like most people didn't even know what it was.

SPEAKER_05 9:52

And I was like, guys, because it was one of those things like this black, it was old when I was watching it, right? It was like my dad knew about it, right? So like stuff like that, and you know, and he was like Frankenstein, and I did used to watch those movies, but I was I can't say that I was like a fan of it. But when when I saw when I auditioned for Monster High, they basically had a picture of like you know, the core group of the original characters, right? And I had never even had an animation audition. Yeah, that's Rykles. Um, I had never auditioned for animation, so I didn't even know how it worked. So I went in and I I was like, oh, I was like, they're like, Who are you reading for? And I said, Well, I've prepared like I have an idea for every character. They're like, Oh no, I mean, maybe you can do two, but I was like, No, that's not how my brain works. Uh I kind of need to cycle through all of them, and then I can do whatever you want, but it's like right now, like this is like the file that's been pulled up in my brain, and for each one, and they go in an order, and we're gonna do it. And and they were like, Oh my god, right? So they let me do it though. So I read for Deuce, I read for you know that's awesome. Yeah, I didn't know. I mean, it was really just I was so naive that I I didn't understand how it worked that you're just supposed to do one or whatever. Um, but like Laguna, I mean, I read for everybody, it was so it was so much fun, and they were just like, Who is this girl? And then I got called back for Cleo and Claudine, and um I couldn't believe I booked both of them, you know, like that was my very first animation audition. So um it was so fun to do that show. I what I loved about it was that so all of that to say that then when I saw their photos, I just was like, wow, this is like genius, right? Based on these monsters that I kind of knew, but I didn't really know. So then it was like I learned so much more about the lore and everything around the monsters by working on the show. And the message, the messaging is what was everything for me, right? Like feeling like everyone was welcome. You don't have to look a certain way to fit in. Um, because I I grew up moving around a lot. I was every two, two, three times a year we would move up until I turned 10. So I I moved a lot, and it was like always being this new kid and this like kind of even though I wasn't really freaky, I just I was like a freak at a school where everyone has their way. It's this way at this school and it's that way at that school and that, you know. And it was it felt so great for this series to to show that it was not even acceptable, it was welcomed, it was um cheered on to be you.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

I love that. Yeah, kind of like a little fix. It was very, it was very, very good about like being confident in yourself. And I love that be be a monster, you know, like be yourself, be a monster. And I love that because it just so much fun. Um, my daughter, she went through her phases because she kind of went through like a little goth phase. She she came full circle back around to her, kind of more girly. She loves the Japanese fashion, so she's got a little kawaii and a little goth in there mixed together. It's like perfectly. Um it's funny because I I grew up a little different and uh I didn't self fit. I didn't realize that I had kind of a goth personality until I became an adult. And then they're like, everyone just assumed that I knew it. And I'm like, what do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Your obsession with vampires, you love bats, you like wearing black all the time, uh you have all the Halloween thing and all the spookies. I'm like a duck, wax like a duck, walks like a duck, I'm a duck of swine.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

I mean that's that's just who you are. So that's okay. She's our black swine.

SPEAKER_04 13:50

I love it, I love it.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

So before we move on to your other characters, I'm gonna ask, and you could say no, and that's okay. Can we get a little sample since they're already dressed up as I know Jacobira and and and Claudine?

SPEAKER_05 14:05

Well, I mean, I could do Claudine all the time. Claudine's my favorite character, right? So of every character I have ever played in my entire life, she is my favorite. Number one, I think she's nice. Number two, I think she's fierce. Number three, I think she's fabulous. You know, and she is like the glue for that group, I think. Like she just is like, and she's so kind, but she's also like hard. Like, you know, she'll like she'll like call Cleo out for instance. I'll call myself out, you know. Um, Cleo is like she's just like her, oh my rah. You know, do I do I have to wait? Like denials don't wait, you know. She's always she's like that that like it's almost like I feel like the angel devil, right? Yeah, we all have inside of ourselves, right? So Claudine's kind of like, you know, she's like the little angel who's like, come on, ghoul, you know, do the right thing. And Cleo's like, you know, no one tells me what to do, you know, like and we all have that side of like of course, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:07

So with that in mind, did you ever have a time when you recorded both voices at the same time and just switched back and forth?

SPEAKER_05 15:13

Every time, every time, like like all they they got to the point where they were like writing scenes because they just wanted to watch me do it. I love it. It was like watching like uh someone who's like a little off, right? And I wasn't, it wasn't like I go da-da-da-da-da, pause, da-da-da-da-da. Like, I'd be like, you know, Clio, you are not being nice, and then she'd be like, Oh my god, Claudine, like, you are not in charge. Don't tell me who's in charge. We are all part of the same group, yes, and I am in charge, you know, and it would just like we and they would just watch and I would like look up at the end to see, like, did you like it? And they'd be like rolling on the floor, like so.

SPEAKER_04 15:57

It was funny at the beginning.

SPEAKER_05 16:00

Like, um, they were like, Oh, do you want to read all of you know Claudine and get her done? And then we'll read all of Cleo. And I was like, uh no, absolutely not. Like it, because it's so funny because it and it was so like stimulating for my brain to get to do that like that. Because you almost never get to do that, you know. I don't know if I so fun, so fun.

SPEAKER_03 16:26

Um, so you you actually have another series, Devil May Care. Devil May Cry. Yeah, Devil May Cry on Netflix series.

SPEAKER_05 16:35

Yeah, it just came out last week.

SPEAKER_03 16:36

Um can we talk about that?

SPEAKER_05 16:39

Sure, that's one I I think I I originally recorded it at least a year ago, maybe a year and a half ago. They were already pretty deep into it. Um, it's uh uh based on the video game series Devil May Cry. Um, I wasn't in season one, but I came in for season two, and um, I guess I had replaced someone. They'd originally had the character with like a French accent, and um, I do a lot of accents, probably because I listen to everybody on the bus all the time. Um, but I I she's Eastern European, and um it was really cool because they were already pretty deep in the process. So I went in and my first um night working with them, I did all six episodes because I'm in six out of eight of the episodes. I did all six episodes in one night, and I was just like, wow, this this is pretty cool. She's kind of like quiet, powerful, like sexy. Um you know, she'll she'll kill you, you know what I mean? She'll do what she's gotta do. Um, so she's uh and she's a clone, right? So she doesn't, you never know if like, oh, did someone just take her out? Oh no, there she is again, you know, it's kind of like that. So it's it's sort of fun to do that. But you know, the series, the music is great on that series, the look of it, it's anime style. Um it's and it's like you know, getting lots of great buzz. So I feel really, really proud to be a part of that. And I I love that character because there's a lot of like activity going on, and she's just she's just kind of like, well, you know, we can do this or we can do that, you know. She's just very calm and very like, um, oh, you think you're the one? Well, just wait and see. And you're just kind of like, Oh, like what's she gonna do now?

SPEAKER_03 18:32

You're like, oh no, you didn't.

SPEAKER_05 18:34

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Oh no, you didn't, definitely. You should know better, okay?

SPEAKER_05 18:40

Yeah, yes, right.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

It's it's not quite Transylvania, but it's almost my uh my sister lived in Romania with her family for the last couple years, and she kept telling me you need to come visit Dracula's castle. I'm like, I wanna come. Oh, and you have to bring your bow dead in the die, you will have missed your opportunity. Oh my goodness. The Romanian, yes, very close in there.

SPEAKER_05 19:05

Yeah, so the right she's got more of that that that in there, you know. You're crazy. She's get up in that space, up in there, you know.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

So, what's your next project coming up? Are you allowed to talk about it? What's my what next project coming up?

SPEAKER_05 19:23

Well, I I will I can't say the one that I'm working on right now, um, but it's super exciting. It's gonna come out in December, um, and it's an animated series. And um, I'm not a series regular, but I'm a heavy, recurring, very memorable part or two in it. Um, so that'll be that'll be coming out at the end of the year, and that's been really fun and really challenging to work on because I I'm playing two characters and that I also talked to myself in that one. Um, but not they didn't record that at the same time. Um I'm doing that and then um a video game that I worked on a long time ago. Um the character is coming back too. I also can't speak about that. Uh, but that it's exciting when things that I really enjoyed working on um come back around, you know what I mean? And it's because the fans had asked for it or whatever. Like I'm in that whole Resident Evil series, but Ingrid Hunnigan hasn't been around for like a while. I mean, and maybe they I think they used somebody different in a recent one, but at the conventions, the fans like come up, they're like, I can't believe like I'm meeting honnigan. Oh, like Honigan's my everything. And I'm like, wow, that because that was a really long time ago. Um but she was like Hunnigan was also like the calm in the storm, you know. Uh, because everything that's also like zombies and you know, all that crazy stuff going on. Um, and she's kind of like, you know, she's on the comms, just guiding them and making sure they're still alive and things like that. So yeah, fun, fun stuff.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Okay, so I'm curious because like my daughter's grown up with this fandom in her life, and uh I know there's other ones you're saying that one was an older one. Have you ever met a fan who named one of their kids after one of your characters yet?

SPEAKER_05 21:09

Oh, oh, let me think about that. Um I don't think so. I don't think so. I I mean I've met I've met fans that have a kid that has the same name, but they don't like they don't say, but then you you wonder, you know, you're like, hmm, that's is that a coincidence or no, but like I tried to name my cat Claudine, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_04 21:44

She's so cute, she's so funky. Oh yeah, huh?

SPEAKER_05 21:52

I should name my next cat Claudine, even though you know she's a wolf. That would be such a good name for a cat. I used to be a really big Yankee fan, right? Because I when I I grew up with my dad and we really had nothing in common, but the Yankees was our like glue. And um, I have a cat who he's like so afraid of everyone except my son and I, and his name is Derek Jeter. He's like he was like the best Yankee ever, whatever, no big deal. Um, captain of the Yankee team, whatever. So, and we we call him DJ, but like his name is Derek Jeter, like basic, and so I'm like, I can't even believe he doesn't play baseball anymore, he does other things within the industry, but um I I call out Derek Jeter's name every day in my house, and there's something very satisfying about that.

SPEAKER_04 22:38

He's like, Yes, Derek Jeter is mine.

SPEAKER_05 22:41

I know I'm like, one day I'm gonna meet Derek Jeter and I'm gonna tell him about my cat.

SPEAKER_04 22:46

Right, but it's not named after you.

SPEAKER_05 22:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

Just say no, it's not named after you at all. No, not after you at all.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

That was a coincidence. Okay, films, just own it, just let her know. Just be like, okay, I did. I totally use that name on purpose.

SPEAKER_05 23:04

Yeah, I've also never met a fan that had like a tattoo of one of my characters. I've seen I've seen tattoos, I've seen Dracula tattoos actually, quite a few. But I I haven't seen any with one of my characters because a lot of times I I see my friends at conventions and they might ask or you know, have them sign where the tattoo is, and I'm like, but that's gonna wash off. Like maybe they're gonna go back to get on. Yeah, maybe they're gonna go get the tattoo over the autograph. I don't know. That's funny. That's a commitment. That's a real commitment.

SPEAKER_04 23:41

That's what some people do, they actually have like the whoever they'll have whatever celebrity like sign over like impermanent marker and immediately go to a tattoo shop afterwards and be like, I want this tattooed on me.

SPEAKER_05 23:56

Yeah, wow, wow, I can't even imagine.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Oh, here's a weird question. So, since the monster high ones were fashion dolls, do you have uh Cleo and Claudine? Like, do you have any of the figures?

SPEAKER_05 24:09

Oh, the action figures? Yes, I I have like you can't really see. I have a whole this is my booth, right? And I never had any of my stuff displayed, like ever. I was just like, I have everything tucked away in a box. Well, then like about a year and a half ago, I changed this whole wall. I like I said, I'm from New York and I love New York. My whole the wallpaper is black with like all the skyscrapers, and then I it's a whole wall with like I've got my Funkos, my two Clio Funkos, two Claudine Funkos, and then I've got like Deuce and Clio. I've got one of those big Claudines. Did you guys ever see those really tall ones? They made these ones that were like three feet tall. Um, so I have one of those of Claudine because she was my favorite ghoul. Um, and then I was in that Skylanders series like way back when. So I have my two characters of that, and I was in Arcane, and so they sent a little merch for that. So yeah, I have like a whole wall. And it's like it feels so it feels so like self-indulgent. There's like three medals when I was a finalist for an audiobook I did. So yeah, so I do have it out there now because I was like, you know what? Uh because it's it's my basement, right? So it's kind of like, and it's a not a big basement, it's like L-shaped. So it it it's kind of like became like a catch-all room, like it's almost like a junk room. So it's still like that, but um, it's like at least it's nice. You walk in and I feel like, oh yeah, right. Don't forget what don't forget what you've done in the past and stay inspired to keep going in the future and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

It's not self-indulgent, it's inspiration, and that's yeah, yeah. I'm an author, and so it's not self-indulgent, it's actually inspiration that you know you did this. So it's not they'll look at it.

SPEAKER_05 25:51

I love you what you have behind you, by the way. All your stuff. It's so fun.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

Thank you. Yeah, it's it's it's it's meant to be fun, and that's that's the deal. It's it's not self-indulgent, it's inspiration to keep going, and that's what I have. My look awards up here behind me. They're like they're awesome, but that's that's what it's for. It's to remind you that this is why you do what you do and to keep doing what you're doing, and that's what you do, what you do. Yep, yep, perfect.

SPEAKER_05 26:18

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 26:19

What is your next Comic Con? Do you know?

SPEAKER_05 26:22

Um, well, I'm doing the ne the next. I was supposed to do one in Anaheim, but I'm I'm taking my son to go look at colleges that same weekend, so I had to say no to that one. Um, yes, we're gonna we're going to Boston to go to Worcester and Cambridge because um he got a big scholarship to one of the schools over there.

SPEAKER_04 26:40

Yay! That was awesome!

SPEAKER_05 26:42

I know I know, and it's for physics. I'm like, are you sure? Congratulations on that. Thanks, thanks. It's a big deal. Um, but anyway, so I couldn't do that one. But the next one I have in the books is not till August, I think, and that's in Connecticut. Um, I can't remember the name of it. Some kind of fan con. Um uh no, I don't remember. But anyway, um, that's my next one. Um actually today, later today.

SPEAKER_03 27:11

Um they can put it on Instagram, correct?

SPEAKER_05 27:14

Yeah, uh yes, there's a post on my Instagram page that says where that one is. And then actually today I'm talking to another um convention rep um so I could do um, you know, get more opportunities coming up. Um, because they each each rep has different, you know, relationships. So, but you know, in the fall we usually book a lot from Monster High because it's it's kind of like around that Halloween. Oh, I think then, but I don't I don't have the only one I have is the Connecticut one right now.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

Very cool.

SPEAKER_05 27:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:43

Well, I know that you're super busy. So is there anything you'd like to add? We have a few minutes left.

SPEAKER_05 27:48

Um, well, uh what I'd like to say is that it's so moving that like you know to be asked to come onto your show, right? To know that this still matters, like that Monster High is still like a part of people's lives. And um yeah, uh, and that you know it's it's still relevant, like after all these years, and you guys are the ones that keep it alive, which helps me feel really good about keeping going, also, you know what I mean? Because the business is up and down, like like all of us in life. Life is up and down and stuff like that. So, you know, I really appreciate all of you guys and you know, you guys keeping it going. Well, we love you.

SPEAKER_04 28:31

Oh yes, we do.

SPEAKER_05 28:35

So thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03 28:38

Well, thank you. Thank you for coming on, and I'm your newest fan. Appreciate you taking time out of it. Um, and so thank you for coming on. If you guys learn more about Sally, you can find her on her Instagram at S-A-L-L-I-S-A-F-F-I-O-T-I, and the word actress A-C-T-R-E-S-S on her Instagram. She will have where she'll be um showing up next. Check it out there. Um, you can also see hear her and see her on Monster High and all of her other various voice actoring places. Um, check her out. Check her out at The Devil May Cry that is coming out or has already come out. It's already out. So check it out. Get your wands to the ready, folks. Mombi, take us out. Next week, we will have our one hour special. You get one hour with our giggle crew. So, from the monster hag crew that is here today, mommy, take us out.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Thank you so much for joining us, everyone. Make sure to smash that thumbs up and share this out because we love Sally and she is awesome and we appreciate her being here. Let her know that she is fantastic. And make sure that you're following Mombi Rella and CJ Peterson and Yukina Gosling and Juju Jones. Till next time, guys. Mischief manage. Bye.