Naruto's Voice Actor Admitted To Getting Bored Of Repeating The Same Lines
"Naruto" has changed a lot in the decades since the franchise's anime adaptation first began. Characters have grown, the animation style has shifted, and the current iteration of the series has even shifted focus to Boruto, Naruto's son. However, despite all the ways the franchise has progressed, one element that has largely remained static is the voice cast for the anime adaptation. The actors for both the original Japanese version and the English dub have generally remained the same since it first began, meaning that many of these performers have been voicing these characters for roughly 20 years and counting.
From the show's inception, actress Maile Flanagan has spearheaded the English dub cast as the voice of Naruto. She's appeared as the character in plenty of media, and the role has even affected her on a personal level, with Flanagan once noting that Naruto taught her to never give up. But while the actress is still going strong in the role, she admitted in an interview that she does occasionally get bored of repeating generic lines for certain projects.
Maile Flanagan has to repeat herself a lot
In an interview between Isaiah Hudson and Maile Flanagan, the YouTuber asked the voice actress if she ever gets bored of reciting certain lines of dialogue as Naruto across various projects in the franchise. The "Naruto" star didn't hold back on her answer, responding with an honest "yes" to the question. "I give it my all, so I don't act that way when I'm recording," the actress explained. "But, I mean, how many times am I going to say, 'I'm gonna be Hokage someday!' Like, really?"
As Flanagan elaborated, the form of media that forces her to repeat lines most often is the series of licensed "Naruto" video games. Per the actress' estimates, she's voiced the character in well over 40 distinct "Naruto" games. In a separate interview with the Western Herald, she once noted that recording for just one of these games required roughly 12,000 lines of dialogue. As such, it's not hard to see why the work might get a little monotonous. "Unless they have plot points and dialogue, I say the same thing over and over and over again," Flanagan told Hudson.
After voicing Naruto for tens of years, it's not too much of a surprise that Flanagan would be a bit tired of reciting canned lines for the character instead of new material. Nonetheless, Flanagan still feels good about playing Naruto, and the gig security doesn't seem to hurt either. "You know what?" she concluded. "They pay me."