Steven Universe, the show of a boy named Steven with a magical Gem in his bellybutton and the adventures he has with the Crystal Gems Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, is not only airing new episodes all summer but also had a huge musical panel at San Diego Comic Con 2016.
Toonzone News, along with other members of the press, sat down with show creator Rebecca Sugar and Estelle (voice of Garnet); supervising director Ian Jones-Quartey and Zach Callison (voice of Steven); and Deedee Magno Hall (voice of Pearl) and Michaela Dietz (voice of Amethyst).
REBECCA SUGAR AND ESTELLE
Rebecca Sugar (at New York Comic Con 2014)
TOONZONE NEWS: Fusion weapons are combinations of the weapons used by the gems they fuse with. How does that work with Ruby and Sapphire? In “Keystone Motel,” we saw Ruby manifest the gauntlets herself.
REBECCA SUGAR: There’s a Sapphire influence on Ruby’s gauntlets, but the combination of their abilities is a little more cerebral for Garnet. Her Future Vision is specifically their combined power. There’s a way I really like to think about Garnet’s Future Vision: Sapphire can see the future if she is completely passive. When we see her in the past and she knows what’s going to happen, it’s what will happen if she doesn’t intervene with anything. She is a completely passive character at that time. Ruby is extremely impulsive and was able to derail what she knew would happen by changing it. Garnet’s Future Vision is not Sapphire’s Future Vision. It’s a series of possibilities based on what would happen if she did do something. Sapphire on her own would never do something, but they can track possible outcomes of their, basically, combined personalities, and that’s why her power is not always flawless, but a lot more expansive.
QUESTION: Was it a conscious decision to create a non-traditional family or did that come from who the characters were?
REBECCA SUGAR: I think it just happened naturally. I had a lot of goals, early on, and that was certainly one of them. Yes, I suppose is the answer. Yes, that was the goal. I think it grew so naturally as we were working on the show together. At least when they started, I think the Gems were all me and my relationship with my brother. I guess as I found out through making the show…of course it’s unique, everyone’s relationship with their sibling is unique, but he has supported me through so much, and that’s reflected in the Gems and each of the Gems in different ways. It just happened naturally.
QUESTION: Steven Universe has become a very important show in the LGBT community, particularly Ruby and Sapphire’s relationship in “The Answer.” What did that mean to you?
REBECCA SUGAR: I really was excited to explore that in “The Answer” book. I liked doing it through the song when they sing “Something Entirely New.” In the course of the song, I was really thinking of it musically. This truth and their connection exists just under the surface of the song just waiting to be shared by them, and it happened. When I got to flesh the story out in the book, I got to describe a little more the way that the two of them came to understand each other better and what was happening, not just to them, one looking at the other, but also their whole point of view changing by sharing this experience with someone. Not just their point of view on the other person but also of themselves and the world that they’re in. Everything. Everything changes.
QUESTION: Are we going to get a soundtrack?
REBECCA SUGAR: I really hope so.
ESTELLE: I think so, I think we should.
QUESTION: I’d love to have one.
REBECCA SUGAR: For now, Aivi and Surasshu have a Sound Cloud and all of the music is up there. I would love for there to be a soundtrack. Just hoping.
QUESTION: Where does the iconography for the star come from?
REBECCA SUGAR: Oh my gosh, let’s see, so much to say about it. I remember when I was first pitching it, there was so much I loved about using the star. Really early on, I got to chat with Mike Mignola of Hellboy, and I was asking him how do you make these striking motifs and these settings where there’s this power in these symbols. And he’s like, “You pick something and you repeat it a lot and then it feels very important.” I was asking him about what kind of mythology I can look at and he was saying there’s this incredible Babylonian mythology, the figure of Ishtar, this Goddess with a star for a crown that has seven lions that pull her chariot, and I was like, “I love all of this!” But I also just love the gold star as a really clear symbol of positivity. It’s what you get when something good happens. It’s like a completely gender neutral symbol of positivity. I love so many things about it as a symbol. It’s cute and it’s sweet, but it’s also powerful. It’s patriotic. It’s everything. He used to just have a pink shirt, and when I was doing the pilot, one of the last things we did was put a star on it. That’s when it sort of came together.
QUESTION: Bismuth is an upcoming character, can you tell us more about her?
REBECCA SUGAR: Oh gosh, there’s already more about her out there. Please watch it, it’s our first half hour special. Please watch it, I’m proud of it. I love her music.
QUESTION: What are you most excited for fans to see this season?
REBECCA SUGAR: I’ve been waiting so long for “Mr. Greg” to be out in the world and now that it is, I’m so happy because we worked so, so hard on it. “Beach City Drift” I really, really like, love that that’s out. But there’ s a bunch of stuff coming up that is really interconnected that is really challenging and exciting and a lot of things that are also really true to me and my brother that I can’t wait to be out there. And Bismuth I want people to see.
QUESTION: Can you tease any upcoming music for Garnet that may be coming our way?
ESTELLE: No, no.
QUESTION: It was worth a shot.
ESTELLE: She told me Garnet’s very clear, she never asks any questions. She never ever asks questions.
TOONZONE NEWS: Garnet has changed since the beginning of the series. At first she was the most mysterious Gem, but now we’ve seen more of her personality.
ESTELLE: I think it’s like as you’ve gotten to know her and she has gotten to know Steven, it’s like her whole family. She’s a bit more expressive and she’s a lot nicer. Just in reading the scripts at the reads, Rebecca’s always like “No, nicer”. Because I’m like stuck in my, “No” and just like that, and she’s like, “Nicer” and act like you’re hugging him, so okay. It’s nice to be able to do that. I’ve got brothers and sisters as well, so I’m definitely like the one who’s “Is everyone okay?” I’m that person in my family, so it makes sense. I’m definitely nice to him.
ZACH CALLISON AND IAN JONES-QUARTEY
Zach Callison singing “Cookie Cat” at New York Comic Con 2014
TOON ZONE NEWS: In the panel you mentioned your voice changing, is that the same case with Steven or do you have to keep him sounding the same?
ZACH CALLISON: I’ve let him age up a little bit, but I’m trying to keep it consistent for the moment. It’s very much more a character voice than it ever has been. I talk down here and (Steven voice) he talks up here, so it’s very much perpendicular to each other, but I’d like it to remain as consistent as I can. I think the thing that keeps it consistent from the beginning is his emotional side. Even though he’s grown up a lot, he still has that same child-like wonder in his voice sometimes and the same love for his family and friends, and I think that’s so important. Keeping Steven as Steven no matter what I sound like as I continue to grow. My voice has stabilized, for the most part, so hopefully we’re even now. For my sake.
QUESTION: What was the most challenging song to perform as Steven?
ZACH CALLISON: There have been some tough ones. “Steven and the Stevens” was a unique one because I had to layer the vocals four times because there’s four Stevens singing. I’d say “Giant Woman” early on was tough too because any song where I have to switch between head voice and chest voice, for all the singers who know the distinction, flipping between them is the hardest part. Singing in either of them is its own thing, because once you start switching you have to be very careful because that’s when voice cracks happen. So those have been some of the hardest. “Strong in the Real Way” had some of that, “Giant Woman” had some of that, even my song that I just sang on the panel for “Mr. Greg” had some of that. It makes it sound good if you can get it right, but it takes a few takes sometimes.
QUESTION: You have had many guest stars on the show already, are there any you’re looking forward to working with?
ZACH CALLISON: There are people I’d love to have on the show. I’m friends with a lot of cool voice actors that I’ve worked with on different projects with and haven’t come to Steven Universe yet. Jess Harnell is a really good friend of mine. He’s unlike anything else, he’s just a character. Literal rock star, amazing voice actor. We’ve worked together on a few different shows, but not Steven Universe, so it’d be cool if we could do that.
IAN JONES-QUARTEY: There’s definitely going to be some amazing guest-stars coming up. One that we’ve announced already is Uzo Aduba from Orange is the New Black. She’s going to be joining us in the fall as a new Crystal Gem. What she brought to the role was just amazing. You’ll just have to wait.
(from left to right) Jeff Ball, Ian Jones-Quarty, Deedee Magno Hall, Zach Callison, Jeff Liu, Rebecca Sugar, Ben Levin, Michaela Dietz, Estelle, Aivi, and Surasshu
TOONZONE NEWS: The Gems have been on Earth for thousands of years and have affected history a lot. Do you care to tell us how? Maybe what happened to Russia?
IAN JONES-QUARTEY: It’s something that you almost don’t notice when you start watching the show, but little things sort of start cropping up. One of the first ones was, I think, even in “Cat Fingers,” you see their money and you’re like wait a minute, everybody is using two and three dollar bills and everything looks all weird on them. And then you start seeing more things like the geography of the US is completely different and then you start seeing the world is completely different. This is an alternate universe from our own, and I’d say the Gems themselves, the race of the Gems, is an intergalactic empire that has affected the entire galaxy in many different ways. There might be huge, seismic things on an interplanetary scale that are different between our universe and the world of the show. So there’s a lot that’s going to be explored coming up, and we’ll see how Gems as a race have shaped the actual Earth itself.
QUESTION: The diversity of the cast is something you may not see when watching the show, can you talk about that experience?
ZACH CALLISON: To me it’s just great that we have it, but it’s just working with a bunch of really talented actors. We’re all there because we really love what we do and we’re all talented in different ways. I think besides that kind of diversity, we’re all diverse in our backgrounds. A lot of them are new to voice acting. Deedee is a theatre trained actress, and I have a theatre background as well, but I believe this is her first voice acting role. Same for Estelle, obviously, she comes from an R&B music background, so everybody has a different story. I think that really brings a lot to the show and brings a lot to recording sessions.
QUESTION: Do you ship any characters?
ZACH CALLISON: My thing with shipping is “Why ship so much if we already have awesome actual relationships on the show?” Many shows are not blessed with the kind of relationships we have between Rose and Greg and Ruby and Sapphire, and you will be able to see that.
QUESTION: Can you tell us anything about the future of Connie and her relationship with Steven?
IAN JONES-QUARTEY: I would say that as the stories get way more intense, we will start to see, yeah, Connie, specifically, and Steven and Connie’s relationship is going to become a main thread as the story continues. It’ll get more intense and bigger and crazier, but yeah, definitely, that’s not something that will go away anytime soon.
QUESTION: Are we going to see Stevonnie again this season?
IAN JONES-QUARTEY: We’re going to see Stevonnie. Stevonnie, as the living embodiment of Steven and Connie’s relationship, definitely has to be brought up again and again and again in those cases. Having Zach and Grace in the booth at the same time is so fun.
ZACH CALLISON: My favorite story to tell about Stevonnie is when AJ Michalka first came in to voice the character and you guys had me and Grace with you guys on the other side of the glass in the room laughing back and forth so she could listen to us and combine it to make Stevonnie’s laugh. And she nailed it on the first take. It was uncanny.
QUESTION: What was your favorite song to sing?
ZACH CALLISON: There’s been so many. I feel like “Both of You” now has a special significance to me after performing it here. This is the first time I’ve ever really performed a Steven Universe song. That’s definitely going into my favorites now. “Giant Woman” was one of my favorites early on because I didn’t really think that we were going to be doing more music besides the theme song, and then that hit me by surprise and was really cool.
QUESTION: What were the rehearsals like for this?
IAN JONES-QUARTEY: For this, we got together a couple times.
ZACH CALLISON: Yeah, pretty chill. The first time was at Jeff Liu’s house. Most of the band and everybody that could make it. It was me and Michaela. Deedee’s been on tour for her show If/Then, and Estelle’s been really busy with her music.
IAN JONES-QUARTEY: We all got together and we all sort of hung out.
ZACH CALLISON: Yeah.
IAN JONES-QUARTEY: We just jammed, it was super fun.
ZACH CALLISON: Yeah, super laid back, just switching between songs, it was like hanging out, a jam session. We had one yesterday, more official. That was here in our hotel.
QUESTION: If there was an exclusive Steven Universe convention, what would you like that to be like?
ZACH CALLISON: Didn’t one just get announced?
QUESTION: Yes. What would you like it to be like, what would you like to see at it?
ZACH CALLISON: Are we talking unlimited amounts of awesomeness? I think a carnival would be cool, Beach City style.
IAN JONES-QUARTEY: Yeah, Beach City, boardwalk style. I really think that the best thing for a Steven Universe Con would be an open and accepting space where fans from all sides of the fandom can express their love for it and there wouldn’t be any in-fighting or judging or any ship wars or stuff like that. A place where all people can enjoy the show and everybody can enjoy it in the way that they like the best and really be together in that love. That’s really important.
QUESTION: What was the process of finding Steven’s voice like? Did you see an image of him?
ZACH CALLISON: That helped. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got from my voice teacher, who I actually recorded the audition with, Tony, he said when you get drawings of a character, that’s a toy that the writers and the artists are giving to you and you can play with it and look at it while you’re doing the voice and mold it to that. It really helps when you’re seeing character designs, but yeah, we spent about an hour and a half recording the initial audition. I only took like ten minutes to get the actual character voice down. And back then when my voice was high, it was (lower Steven voice) down here like this and then, obviously, that changed a little later. We spent most of the time focusing on reading the lines and really getting his personality down, which is, obviously, the most important part of a character. Once you have the voice, you really have to flesh out who they are. Otherwise, it can sound hollow. Sang the song, did about ten lines, sent it over, you guys gave me a call back and said thanks.
IAN JONES-QUARTEY: I remember one of the things about casting for the show that was always so great was also finding natural qualities to people’s voices. I remember the way that what you did was very studied, and it really fit Steven’s personality. He seems like the type of kid who would take a look at this picture and say, “I am this person” and then find a unique spin on it. I remember hearing that from your personality and it made us think, “Oh, that’s Steven for sure.” There’s a mix of technique and then also the natural choices that Zach makes that makes us know, “Okay, that’s something that Steven would do.”
QUESTION: Is there any endpoint in sight or is this something you can see keep going?
IAN JONES-QUARTEY: Storywise?
QUESTION: Yeah.
IAN JONES-QUARTEY: One thing I will tell you about the show that a lot of people don’t know is there is a discrete timeline from the beginning of the story to the end of the story. There’s a timeline for all the things that happen before the story, and there’s a timeline that are all the things that happen after the story. Those are all sort of written down, so there’s definitely an ending. There’s ways to expand it and go further, but yeah Rebecca’s going to have her chance to tell the story the way she intends it to be told.
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL AND MICHAELA DIETZ
QUESTION: How is Steven Universe different from what you’ve done in the past?
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: It is so much fun. That’s not to say things I’ve done in the past were not fun. Because I’m on tour doing a show called If/Then touring the country, I’ve been away for almost a year. So I haven’t been able to be in the studio with everybody else, which I miss so much because we have so much fun together in the studio. But they have been able to record me remotely. But when I’m home, I will drop my kid off at school and then drive over to Cartoon Network and go in there and have the most fun making silly noises and saying fun words and telling amazing stories, and then literally, I’m done, I’m laughing, my cheeks hurt. I pick up my kid, and I’m done, that’s my day of work!
QUESTION: Is working remotely mean you’re not with other voice actors and is that more challenging?
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: Yes, it is so much work.
MICHAELA DIETZ: In spirit we’re together.
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: It’s so much more fun to be in the studio with everybody else, obviously, but I love that they are able to record me remotely so that I am still able to be connected. They’re on the phone so they can hear everything that I do. So they send me a script, and I get to look at the storyboard and I look at the script, and they’re hearing what I’m doing simultaneously while I’m recording, so it’s pretty cool that they can do that.
MICHAELA DIETZ: Isn’t technology amazing?
TOONZONE NEWS: When you two are together, do you start acting like your characters with each other? Amethyst is goofy and Pearl is more serious.
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: I don’t know, she brings the goof out of me.
MICHAELA DIETZ: I feel like we’re just pals.
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: Yeah, she’s my bud. We’re buds.
MICHAELA DIETZ: Did you catch our Periscope last night? We were getting down, eating sugar.
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: Having a dance party. She definitely rubs off.
MICHAELA DIETZ: I will answer this, Amethyst and Pearl have, at times, a very great relationship and sometimes it’s a little contentious and I think that’s rooted in the fact that they love each other so much. In real life, I love this woman dearly, and we never have weird “ugh” dynamics, so we can skip over all that and we just have a beautiful friendship.
QUESTION: How do you feel about the evolution of Pearl since the beginning of the show? At first she was hard to like.
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: I guess it’s just like an onion with many layers. She’s got many layers, as do all the Crystal Gems and all the characters on the show. I love that. I love that you keep watching and keep peeling away and just knowing more and more about each character. But I feel like all of the characters have grown tremendously from the beginning, from the conception. I don’t know, she’s just misunderstood. She loves Steven, and she loves everybody, but yeah, I guess she can be a little hard to take sometimes. That’s how it’s written, it’s in the script, and I just do my job.
QUESTION: Do you guys ever improv?
MICHAELA DIETZ: Well variations of it. The writers, Matt and Ben, are hilarious and obviously the storyboard artists. The episode”The Answer” was nominated for an Emmy. Incredible. But so the words that they write are pretty gold, and sometimes we’ll just kind of add on. I remember an Amethyst line was “Oh, my torta” and I took Spanish, so I’m just going to use my education. So like “Ay, mi torta!” and they were like let’s use that. I try not to stray too far, but we like to riff.
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: Sometimes we’re in the studio and we’re just going back and forth when we think the microphone is off and they’re not recording, but we had a conversation talking about your mom how she thought it was “boodles of fun” and it somehow got in the script.
MICHAELA DIETZ: The writers were like, “Oh, that’s good, we’re giving that to Pearl.” So now Pearl is like “Boodles!”
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: Thank you, mom.
MICHAELA DIETZ: Maryanne Dietz says thank you.
QUESTION: Amethyst is seen as a big sister to Steven, how do you also see her evolving as a mom figure like Garnet and Pearl?
MICHAELA DIETZ: I think even this past week we’re seeing a little development from Amethyst. We’re seeing that, maybe in instances if we had taken those slices from even the first season, maybe she would’ve acted out, perhaps violently, and now she’s able to kind of let some stuff roll off her back. I love the idea that she’s ever growing just as all the Gems are and just as I strive to in my own life, so it’s exciting. I’m excited to see where it goes just as much as you are.
QUESTION: What’s your favorite form that Amethyst has taken?
MICHAELA DIETZ: Shape shifting? Probably when she’s Pearl ::slaps butt:: Womp Womp!
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: I was hoping you were going to say that.
MICHAELA DIETZ: Sorry to circle back, but it’s interesting you say it’s like every Gem is like an onion and you’re just peeling back the layers. I would say except for Onion. He’s the only character who just…he’s still a creep.
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: He’s totally creepy.
MICHAELA DIETZ: He’s the kid that you’re like “You will NOT use that lighter!” “You can not be near the oven”. “You cannot”.
TOONZONE NEWS: Speaking of Onion, Amethyst and his mother Vidalia have an interesting relationship.
MICHAELA DIETZ: They do. That was actually one of my very very favorite episodes to voice. Jackie Buscarino, our producer, voiced Vidalia and she has an incredible voice and she’s hilarious. Just being able to work off her was really fun, and it was nice to see that Amethyst had history. Up until that point, we hadn’t seen too much, and we hadn’t seen things that made her, maybe nostalgic or just genuinely happy, so that was a different color for Amethyst, and it was really fun to explore.
QUESTION: You’ve had a lot of different guest stars on the show, is there anyone you’re hoping to work with?
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: Well, I got to sing background vocals for Patti LuPone, for Yellow Diamond, and I was really really hoping that we could have sang that together in the studio. That would’ve been really epic for me. Just because I have a musical theatre background, and she is a legend. When Rebecca told me that Patti LuPone is voicing Yellow Diamond, my mind was being blown. So that was pretty cool.
MICHAELA DIETZ: I don’t know. As Michaela Dietz, I would die to voice act opposite Cher or Gilbert Gottfried, or just somebody great. Oprah? Bring it! We can dream. She’d be like, “You get a mike, you get a mike”.
QUESTION: Serialized cartoons that have a long and complex ongoing plot are rare, what’s your experience with that?
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: It’s just amazing. Growing up, I watched a lot of cartoons, but I never, never watched a show like Steven Universe, and I think it’s such a wonderful way to reach children and explore all of these…they could be difficult things to talk about, but Rebecca and the team, they somehow find a way, a beautiful way, to translate these messages and storylines. Things that people can relate to, everybody can relate to. All ages, gender. I love that the show does that and touches so many people on different levels, and then I love that I can share it with my kids.
MICHAELA DIETZ: Steven Universe certainly is serialized, but I also think it’s exceptional in that one could just jump in at any moment and find an episode entertaining. They could cry and probably laugh within those 11 minutes, and it might even implore them to come back and watch some more. I did not grow up watching cartoons. I just couldn’t get over the fact that people or ducks or whatever would go swimming and just wouldn’t be wet. I’m like, how does that happen? But I think this show, the serialization is crazy because Rebecca and the team have created this mythology that it feels like the fans know way more about than we could ever know, and so I find that I’m constantly looking to the fans for tutorials on what my character is doing because I don’t know. You know better than I do.
TOONZONE NEWS: Of all your stage characters, are any of them similar to Pearl in any way?
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: Well, the show that I’m doing currently, If/Then, my character’s name is Kathy, and she just happens to be married to a character named Steven. And in the show, the second act, actually before the show ends, my character gets to say “Steven” twice, and because it’s just my voice…sometimes I run into Steven Universe fans that come to see the show just because they want to hear me say “Steven”. It’s pretty cool.
MICHAELA DIETZ: So a bunch of the Crewniverse…Rebecca, Ian, me, bunch of people, we saw Deedee perform in LA and when she said “Steven,” because I wasn’t sitting near them, I was looking around going “Guys! You caught that, right?”
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: You’re so amazing. Everybody is so amazing. All of them have come to see all the shows that I’ve done in Los Angeles, and I’m so appreciative of that. Zach did a play, we all went to go see it. If I was in Dubai, I would’ve gone to see Estelle in Dubai.
MICHAELA DIETZ: Hell yeah!
DEEDEE MAGNO HALL: And I’d see anything Michaela does. They’re incredibly supportive and such a wonderful group of people to work with and also call friends. I just feel so blessed.
Toonzone News would like to thank Rebecca Sugar, Ian Jones-Quartey, Zach Callison, Estelle, Deedee Magno Hall, and Michaela Dietz for taking the time to talk with us at San Diego Comic Con 2016, and to the Cartoon Network PR team for making it possible. Steven Universe airs on Cartoon Network.
The post SDCC 2016: “Steven Universe” Interviews with Rebecca Sugar, Ian Jones-Quartey, Zach Callison, and the Crystal Gems appeared first on ToonZone News.