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Howdy folks. I'm Curtain Deina and this is Roger Craig Smith. Welcome to this edition of Let's Draw with Roger Craig Smith. Let's Draw with me, Roger Craig Smith. Are you much of an artist? No. Okay. Anybody who's watched me like So this is a knife of some sort. Yeah. Anybody I can't draw to save my life. What we should do is there's a thing online I hear where you basically would anybody can be a hedgehog like blank the hedgehog.
Sonic the hedgehog. A version of the hedgehog. You know something about that? Uh no, you don't. No, I mean I feel maybe I'm familiar with it, but I'm not. No, I don't know that I would want to Google that. So, you never feel uh as somebody who voices Sonic the Hedgehog, you don't Google Sonic the Hedgehog or your version of if you were to be Roger the Hedgehog, not human realistic versions. No, I would be afraid. I'd be turning on the VPN for that kind of a search history kind of thing. It' be save you. Okay. Um that potential Yes. Uh murky territory. I'm going to draw you. Okay. As Roger then. Well, I would imagine you if you were Roger the Hedgehog, right?
Okay. And you would draw me Kurt the Akidna. Makes sense. Okay. Good. No. Kurt the Hedgehog. Curt the Hedgehog. Okay. That's it. No pressure. All right. And then we just Okay, then we go. And we can just chill and I'll ask you some questions while we're doing it. Okay. This is what, your 16th year? Yes, if you can believe that. Yeah. Um, as the what do you is there like something you call him internally?
Like do you call do you always refer to him as Sonic? Uh, yeah, I guess. And Yeah. Yeah, I guess because I guess if it's small talk with people um I mean obviously in my line of work you get a lot of people kind of going like what do you do and if you bother to even say anything uh because you're not quite sure like the next question is always like oh anything I would have heard of. And thankfully, I mean, even at this phase of sort of pop culture, Sonic the Hedgehog is something people have heard thanks to 35 years and now the movies and the Sonic Prime series. I think it's it's it's kind of hitting on a lot of marks along with all the games obviously. So yeah, I always say Yeah. Sonic the Hedgehog, I guess.
Yeah. How's the drawing going? As expected for my degree of expectation. Do you remember where you were like the day you learned you were going to be the guy, the Sonic the Hedgehog? You know, uh I don't know that I necessarily remember so much the time that I was asked as much as I do the day that it was announced. Ah, and I can remember getting a uh an email from someone that was uh with Sega and they had, you know, they were just reaching out to say, "Hey, just to let you know, we're going live with this announcement today of the change in the voice cast for, you know, for the sort of the franchise and all that." And I just remember thinking, "Oh, this is
okay." I was like, "Whatever. What's going to be anything different? What's going to change?" Um, and I think at that point I still had like my email or maybe I maybe it was Facebook or something. I still had it was just very public. I wasn't like locked down or anything like that and I was just sort of out there and I thought, "Oh, that's not going to be that big of a deal." And literally it was like 12:00 noon Pacific or whatever. All of a sudden it was like my whatever sound effect was attached to either my email or the messages starts going bing ding. And I'm like, "Oh." Oh. And it was just people going, "What is this?" Whoa. you know, change is always received very well by
fan bases. I don't know if you're so people didn't I mean they were just like who's this who is this and like there's no way and you know it's like you know yeah so it was and I just remember going oh this is going to be a thing this is this was my introduction into that degree of fandom and that degree of fan base because a it had been such a legacy character even up to that point uh that it that it makes sense and I fully understand to this day I still understand why people are like you know hey this is this was the version that I grew up on therefore this is what I always wanted you know, and this is what I, you know, think of when I think of this character and I go, I get that, you know. So, yeah, I remember that. Not
necessarily getting cast. I remember the audition process, but not the announcement of like, you've got it kind of a thing. Can you tell me some of the noises they made you make to make sure you were the right one for the job? I'm sure it would have been like attack sounds. I don't doubt that they probably would have asked to hear like you know like the spin attacks and things like that like and so was there a case in which they asked you to do the spin attacks and you did the actual sound effects the fully for the spin attacks rather than what Sonic would do like so I just went maybe I mean yeah I
I who knows so what I remember is that like we walked in and they were showing us a bunch of footage at the time they were showing us like a bunch of footage of like previous versions of the character and where they had been what had been done um in the hopes that it would be like, hey, this is the change we're hoping to make. Uh this is where we're going with this. Um and this is what we're trying to stay away from. This is what we're thinking about experimenting and playing with. So, it would have been something along those lines. Yeah. I think it had just occurred to me you're so synonymous with Sonic. It has been such a big part of your career
that it actually was when we were chatting today that I realized that things like Chris Redfield and Etsio Yeah. were before Sonic. Yeah. Which is great. So with the time in which you got the Sonic role, people were like Chris Redfield. Yeah. Is going to be Sonic the Hedgehog. Yeah. I think that was their like he sounds too old because as we know ah as voice actors the only thing you can do is the one voice that you do. you never have any sort of a range or any sort of a ability to change your voice
or do different characters. And I think people were thinking like I can't imagine Sonic the Hedgehog being voiced by Chris Redfield or Etsio or whatever it might have been. You know what any anything else up to that point I can see it would have been something along those lines. Uh 16 years later now at that point that means you could drive. Well, yeah. Now I'm finally behind the wheel. What lessons did you learn as a 16-year-old that you can apply to the lessons you've learned now as Sonic or 16 years? What lessons can I apply? You know, like think about the person you were like the innocence that we have when we're 16. We think the world is could crumble at any moment when we really haven't
experienced anything. And then now you're 16. If you were to tell your 16-year-old sonic self Yes. you know some a lesson you would want them to take on with them. my 16. Oh my gosh. I don't know. Just put the pedal to the metal and go for it. No, I'm just trying to think like Yeah. What would be Yeah. Got to go fast. I mean, that's the cheesy answer to give is got to go fast. I don't know. That's an interesting question.
You know, if you think about like it's like uh I've been at GameSpot for seven years and in a way I think about like when I was a seven-year-old and I was like just, you know, I was just like I'm just an imaginative little fella, imaginative little world. And uh I have to remind myself here at GameSpot, having only been here in seven for 7 years, being in the industry for 7 years, being like you're just you're a pup. You're a seven-year-old. You're you're just you're a blip. You're nothing. Not in a bad way, but just like to embrace the unknown, to embrace the silliness, to get as wacky, dacky as you can, and invite Roger Craig Smith to draw pictures.
Yeah. There you go. And when was the downturn of your show? It was that time that I thought, what a great idea to have a guy who can't draw come and do a segment called Let's Draw. You agree? I know it's true. Well, you asked. I mean, I'm a glutton for this. No, I don't know. I guess a 16-year-old version of No, I don't know. I don't know what I would trying to think. I shouldn't be dispensing advice to anybody really. That's kind of where I'm at. You apparently are going to have gray hair. There's Oh, I see. Okay. Though, so there are color differences here.
There's shade. Yeah. So, one So, one cup is just black markers. The other cup is pencils and water shades. Okay. Yeah. Okay. How's it going? Poorly. But this is what we I this is what I knew it was going to be. This is the probably, you know, kind of the cliche thing. I kind of ask you what, you know, what lessons maybe you learned, what lessons you can teach a 16-year-old self, but how are you feeling in general? 16 years. Oh, it's unreal. It's surreal. like literally it's it's very strange I think and to this day like when I'm uh going about my job just going about the business all I'm doing is thinking I
just want to be good at what I do for my job I don't think about things like oh boy I hope that if there is a fan base of some sort that they receive this well or that it's going to go over well it's like I never think about things like longevity or anything like that so it's weird to actually I mean honestly one of the moments where it really kind of sinks in the most is when I go into like a uh like a fan convention and you're you're there to be a guest of the convention and so they have a banner that's up with your name and your face and maybe characters that you're sort of known for having portrayed and it's like all of a sudden I'm looking back on what's 20 years of
of this job and going oh yeah that's right yeah there was there's this career like there's the like I've been doing this a little And it's strange to look up and see things like Batman or Etsio or, you know, Captain America or Mirage or Give a Mouse a Cookie or like you name it. It's everything is always just like any day behind a voice-over microphone is a victory. And that's always where my head's been at. It's like, hey, I just want to make people happy. I love being a part of like this this community of video game artists and animators and just storytelling. And then the idea that it's like suddenly it's it's something that, you know, turned into a 20-year career and 16 years in one character and, you know, and just as
long in certain others to a certain degree as well. It's uh you got quite the roster. It's crazy. Yeah. I mean, Batman. Yeah. Which is so like again like to do that once to do any of the characters that I've done once is like is just a victory. I mean, I Liam O'Brien was my Stephanie Shay and Liam O'Brien were my directors on Resident Evil 5. And by the way, I have to apologize in advance for what you're about to witness when this does get revealed. I don't want you to feel like any sort of indicator of like it's a it's not a projection. It's nothing that I Okay, it's nothing I'm not saying that this is what you are to me or who or like I don't want you to have any sort of an like an issue with identity. Okay.
Okay. I mean, but it's pretty good. It's pretty accurate. Well, I hope you feel that when I show you what I've done, okay, that you feel you see a part of yourself you haven't seen or haven't been able to see, okay, quite yet. Um, but time will tell. Yeah, this is not going well. How are you? I mean, like, how far are you in? Uh, we're about to tackle the mustache. Only just now. Yeah, it's getting there. I mean, the beauty is uh it doesn't have to be good. Oh, then we're really going to be pleased with it.
You just have to feel good about it. Yeah. Those are different things. What is your favorite Sonic line? Uh, actually my favorite line is not, and I've I've I've answered this at little like con panels and things like that, was not it was in the Sonic the franchise, Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. It was on Sonic Boom, but it wasn't his Sonic. It was this Dave the Intern. Uh, and he has this line where he's standing up to somebody and he finally says, "Stop telling me what to do. You're not my mom's boyfriend." And I just thought, "Oh, there's so much darkness in that line. It's lovely."
Like, he's standing up for himself like, "You don't get to tell me what to do. You're not my mom's boyfriend. Only he can tell me what to do. I just thought that's that's brilliant. And then of course I mean like there's I mean there's been so many. Baldi Mcno's hair. That's the best thing I've heard all day. No copyright law. The universe is going to stop me. There's there's too many things. Oh yeah. That's another thing. You know, in the 16 years you've been doing it. I know you just said how, you know, voice actors their voices he's too low, he's too gruff, he can't do it.
Yeah. Have you uh have you had to retrain your voice in any way over the years? Uh, no. No, not really. I mean, in all honesty, when it came down uh to doing Sonic Frontiers, um, and I think a lot of people, it's funny, I think a lot of people in this business think that I'm like I walk in and just go like, "All right, here's how this voice is going to go. This is the choice I'm making from here on out," kind of thing. And it's not that. I like even with a legacy character, something that you've done for a number of time, um I still am like I walk in and I listen to what my director uh says we're going to be doing and that's the way that it works. And we walked in and Jack Fletcher, our director, my director, uh, uh, on just about every
single Sonic project I've ever done, um, said like, you know, I was I think somebody said like, you know, son, do you want to hear like a voice reference file, you know, so that we can hear like where we were at with like the last jobs? And I was like, no, I got it, you know, like it's over, Egghehead, you know, and he was like, well, we're not doing it that way. And I was like, oh, what are we going to be doing? And it and all a sudden it was like this different version of a uh of Sonic and we started going lower and so I was saying I was like yeah it's over Egghehead it's over there's a video that people have shared online of me answering that at a panel but it was sort of like I remember thinking oh
I wonder how this is going to land it worked perfectly for the game once I realized that it was going to be a little bit more like a serious Sonic game. It worked perfectly for the game, but it was one of those things where I thought, "Oh, I wonder if people are going to think like, oh, he's getting up there in his years. He can't hit the high notes anymore." kind of thing. And I was like, "Oh boy, I hope that's not, you know, what people think." Trying to do this as like almost like a depth of field perspective kind of thing in his Well, you are a photographer, so you do have Yeah, but that does not some sense of composition. That does not mean you'll see.
I mean, you'll see, too. Um, clearly does not mean drawing fast and well is hard. Yeah. Um, I'm actually almost done. I'm almost there. But I also appreciate the fact that you guys gave us three pencils with no erasers. Oh, here. So, that's that's No, no, don't do that now. That's like That's not fair. Actually, you know, you want it? No. I have apparently I've hyperextended your foot somehow. I was trying to get it I was trying to make it look like You'll see.
It's fine. Things are not meant to be perfect and cool all the time. Other than you. All right. I'm almost getting there. All right, we're actually at the fiveminute warning. Okay, good. While you're at it, Yeah. what is sort of the final What do you want to see out of the next year of Sonic? Um, you know what? I really think we're just at like an exciting time uh to where I don't know. I mean, seriously, it's like I never would have thought that this many years later we'd be I mean like as large of a brand as the uh the entire thing has
become sort of globally now. I mean it's always been a legacy character within like the interactive space, but the fact that the movies have done so well uh it's like it really has sort of launched the notoriety of the character kind of into a whole other stratosphere. Um, so I honestly I don't know. I don't know where it goes from here. I think it's neat that like games are being received as well as they are. And I'm still stoked to be around for this. So, it's kind of like Yeah. Uh, it's hard for me to say like I as voice actors too, we're always like the last to sort of find out anything. I think for good reason cuz we would of course probably just like, you know, make a mistake and tweet out something that we
shouldn't have been tweeting out. But yeah, no, I have no idea. I guess I'm excited just to kind of Yeah, just to see where it does go. All right, so we're going to reveal our drawing story to each other. So, three, two, one. That is so fair. You know how to draw. No, this is really good. That's not This is great. Yeah, this is wonderful. Got to cover you fast. It sounds covered. It's like you're naked and I have to I got to cover you up.
Gotta cover you fast. I mean, I got a mustache. Yeah. And I tried to do the hair. You uh you know along with the quills. You know what's one detail you got that a lot of people don't. What's that? Is my eyelashes. There you go. Yeah. They're staggering. The eyelashes. I do understand that I have intense eyelashes. Um so you know how to draw. You did all that in That's not right. It was this pre-done by somebody else and then you guys just like literally have him back there going
like this and going, "So tell me, what's it like being Sonic the Hedgehog?" But I have pulled that gag on somebody before, not this time. Uh, so yeah, you know, there's there's your underbite sort of chin. Oh, I Yes. Thank you. I told you're like, "What's the one feature?" I'm like, "Go with the underbite chin." You got to go. You have kind of like a sharp nose. Yeah, there you go. And you gave me dotted eye vibes if I were to draw you. I like that we both went with like physical things. Like I somehow was like, "Well, I'll just draw you like flexing for no reason." It was maybe an
attempt at Chris Chfield, but I don't know what you're wearing or where it meant to be. You were coming at us. Can you show it to me again? Here. It was meant It was supposed to be that it's like you were coming at us like, you know, perspective. Force Is this a That's a foot. That's your foot up like cuz you're going so fast. It's like you're running like this at that angle. I thought it was uh maybe like my knee. No. Or an Eggo waffle. It could be a waffle. Just a random waffle that's like thrown out there. I'm I'm You're flexing while running. So, wait, hold on. So, I'm just like Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's basically that,
right? Yeah. And I attempted to and at some point it looked like it just was going it was going off the rails way too fast. So, but this is a work of art. This is nice. I can't draw. Well, that's awesome. Thank you. Everybody who says they can't draw, they end up drawing something. Well, yeah. Everybody can draw something, but that doesn't make it a thing. I um it's something not anything. I also I do appreciate my hands. Yeah, there that's a perspective thing. Are they Well, I don't know. M You cheated, too. You went with gloves. You put boxing gloves on cuz fingers are hard to draw.
I can We all know AI you could always tell AI images cuz they had like six fingers and like your fingernail would be where your knuckle is and all. Fingers are hard. Thank you so much for being a part of uh this Let's Draw. I'm so sorry. No, I No, I'm so sorry. Thank you. But I'm so I'm really happy with that. Hey, let's whatever this is drawing. Let's draw the Khog. Kurt the hedge. Yeah. Kurt the waffle stomping hedgehog. Who's got to cover you fast?
It's a waffle stomper. That was my idea of like, oh, that's the tread on the bottom of the shoe. Okay, sorry everybody. ruining your characters since 2010. No. Oh no. God, should I not have said that? I'm Roger Craig Smith and I just learned that waffle stomping is not something I'll be ever saying again. Good lord, that's what that's called. Somebody came up with a name for that.
