For us here at Muses of Media, August is a month where we celebrate all things animated. During #AnimationAppreciationMonth we were lucky enough to chat with the one and only Adrian Hough!
During the interview, Hough discussed his portrayal of Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler when he first joined the cast of X-Men: The Animated Series, and his excitement about returning to the character for X-Men ’97 over 30 years later.
Hough also reflected on his career, vocal techniques, and the long-term impact of his work, including his connection to and gratitude for the fanbase.
Watch the full interview with Adrian Hough below:
Hough is no stranger to voicing Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler. In fact, for those who don’t already know, Hough voiced the character back in the ‘90s when the original X-Men: The Animated Series debuted. Hough told me about his initial audition, noting that it was his first-ever audition for an animated project.
Hough shared, “Well, I mean, it was my first audition for an animated show, ever, and I played lots of characters both on stage and on TV with accents, and I had done a German accent fairly recently at that time. This little drama documentary, where I had to do this long monologue dressed in full, you know, German uniform from I think the Second World War, and and I was introduced to this young fella who was from Berlin by a friend of mine who had spent a lot of time in Berlin, and this young fella came came around and he read all my lines for me, and instead of having like a very severe German accent, he had this very kind of shy demeanour, which was very kind of somewhere in there. And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s really interesting.’”
Hough continued, “Maybe a month later, my television agent said that, ‘Look, I’ve got this voice agent working with me now, and there’s something called Project X…’ Which sounds very mysterious to me, and I go, ‘Okay.’ They needed a German accent, but it can’t sound cartoonish. And the scene was the scene in the chapel with Wolverine, and I just remember there was some musicality that was connected to the voice that I had for him and the lines that were, you know, that were there. And I’ve done a fair amount of Shakespeare and theatre, and so I just kind of went in there and said, ‘Look in your heart, Herr Logan,’ and I did the whole scene. And first take, and it was just like my mind kind of went blank, and I was just kind of like in the sort of music and feeling of the scene.”
After that first take, Dan Hennessey immediately noticed Hough’s passion.
Hough said, “Then next thing I know, I look up, and there’s Dan Hennessey with his Robert Plant hair, sort of looking up at me with intensity, and he goes, ‘He’s a very passionate guy.’ And I went, ‘Yeah, do you want to do it again?’ So I did a second take, and next thing I know, I am standing next to Cal Dodd – Wolverine and Lenore Zann – Rogue, and Allison Court, who was playing Jubilee at the time, and Norm Spencer, may he rest in peace, who was playing Scott Summers, and I was an X-Men.”
Physically speaking, Nightcrawler’s appearance could be intimidating to some. For Hough, it was important to explore the character’s inner workings to find his voice truly, in contrast to the visuals viewers see on-screen.
Hough shared, “ I focused on the inner workings of him and the vocal and the inner feelings of him because the animators really do that other work, and the storytelling that the writers do, you know. And the animators do the other work. I mean, you see him running away from the townspeople back in the Nightcrawler episode, and they’re all, you know, going to burn him and pitchforks and, you know, flames and stuff like that. So I just focus on the intent of the character when I’m doing these things. And of course, in X-Men ’97, when he comes back after 33 years, he’s all that, but he’s also more.”
Hough praised the wonderful writing in X-Men ‘97, as well as voice director Meredith Layne, whom he called “amazing.”
Hough said, “They’ve written this wonderful playful kind of Kurt. He’s joking with people all the time; he teases Beast, and he teases Professor X a little bit, and you know there’s a whole card-playing scene in season two, you know ‘The Dead Man’s Hand’ episode, which when we’re recording this has just aired. And then he’s this incredible fighter, but he’s also got this other side to him. I just look at what’s on the page, and I go, ‘I feel like this is going to be how it goes, how it sounds.’ But on X-Men ‘97 we have an amazing voice director called Meredith Layne, and if ever my instincts are just a little bit off here or there, then she will just sort of bring me right back to what’s actually happening and what they plan to happen in the animation because we recorded first before they do all that.”
On returning to Nightcrawler over 30 years later, Hough explained that he kept Kurt’s voice in his back pocket.
Hough said, “Well, I’ve always kept the Nightcrawler voice in my back pocket, you know. I spend a lot of time when I’m not actually on a set or in front of a mic, actually just practicing things, and trying to get accents and tones, and see how many different voice shapes I can make. How’s it coming back 30 years later? Well, I mean, like the story I told you, I came in with this very soulful Nightcrawler, which I was echoing what I had done. But now the writing just takes us in all these different ways, you know. And, you know, I work at, you know, like, most artists who have been around, I’m working at something all the time.”
Hough told me that the original cast had to audition for their roles again because they were unsure if the actors could still do these voices 30+ years later. Plus, he tackles a new characer in Season 2 of X-Men ’97.
Hough shared, “I also play Strong Guy in in X Men ’97 as well, which is a very different kind of vocal shape as well. It’s wonderful to be back, and we actually had to audition again. We had to audition for our roles again because they weren’t sure if, 30 years later, we could still, you know, like – I talk like this when I’m speaking in life. They weren’t sure that we could do it, so I just- here’s the lines. Tell us, you know, see if you can do it still. It turns out that, you know, they brought many of us back, those of us who are still alive. There’s a few changes, you know, like Chris Potter, who used to be Gambit, is now Cable. And he’s just knocking it out of the park, as far as I’m concerned. His Cable is so kind of butch, you know, like this kind of incredible raspy sound he finds. But yeah, we’re back, and, you know, a lot of us can still do it.”
Regarding his legacy as the character and the impact his work has had on fans, he noted his appreciation for the stories he’s told at various fan conventions.
Hough shared, “Well, I mean, obviously, it’s absolutely delightful because in those days we didn’t have the internet to tell us how we were doing, right? Like, in the moment, as far as I was concerned, I did two episodes back in the ’90s. You know, ‘Nightcrawler’ and ‘Bloodlines,’ and that was it. But it was always kind of like a calling card for me, I guess. I’m doing a lot of comic cons these days, a lot of fan conventions. So I get to have people say exactly what you said, ‘When I read the comics, I hear your voice.’ And they thank me for what I brought to it. And I mean, it’s very heartwarming, and there’s always at least one or two people at a convention who will tell you some incredibly personal story about what the character meant to them. But you know, I’m a Canadian, so you know I think I have an innate sense of humility about it all, so I just say, ‘Thank you.’ I don’t say, ‘Oh no, no, no’ or any of that stuff. But no, it’s delightful, and it’s wonderful to be able to connect with people who have had responses to the work I’ve done.”
For me, episode 7 of the current season has some of my personal favourite Nightcrawler moments. Hough told me that when he first received the script for that episode, it was a “revelation.”
Hough said, “When I got the script, I kind of went through. I was like, ‘Oh, oh, oh, oh,’ you know? And it was like a revelation, and so I spent some time, not too much, but some time going through it. And the cool thing now-it’s also the not cool thing-is that we record alone. So I think on that session, what Meredith said was, ‘Would you like me to read the lines opposite?’ So I think we ran through it once, as if we were doing it as a play reading or on stage. And then what I’ll do is I said, ‘Just let me run through it by myself,’ and I’d just sort of clock the changes which I see on the script or from the responses that I’m getting on the script, and then I just kind of let it rip. I just let it fly. You know, I try not to plan too much because I find if I plan too much, then it starts to sound like, oh, that sounds planned. You know, it just doesn’t sound fresh.”
Hough continued, “But that scene, especially not to spoil for people who haven’t seen it yet, especially at the end when he’s using his tail to strangle? Yes. ‘You are as you were born, a vain soul, searching for your 15 minutes of faith. Yield.’ Like things like that, you know, it’s great because Nightcrawler is not always just sunshine and light and trying to be understanding. He has real emotions and real reactions to things. But yeah, that one – the preparation for that was just read it through a bunch of times, and then let it work in my intuitive system, I guess, for lack of a better expression, and then just let it fly.”
Lastly, Hough reflected on the most important things to come from his work as Nightcrawler, specifically what he’s learned about himself over the years.
Hough shared, “Well, I mean, I certainly do have a certain amount of that kind of not shyness, but sensitivity, I guess, in my general life. You know, I’ve raised three kids, and you know, I’ve done a lot of environmental activism, and I live near a forest. I live near the ocean, which I’m very fortunate to do so, and I care deeply about the planet in which we live. And I think you know, I’ve also always believed that there are, as Hamlet says, ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy.’ And that one of the things we use, I believe, and it’s just my thinking, is that you know we come up with philosophies, be the religions we’re trying to interpret these mysterious things, which you know, give us meaning and give us, you know, what is the best way to be ourselves. I think that’s always been a part of me. I’m always trying to be the best version of myself, and sometimes failing, as we all do, right? Often, sometimes.”
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