As an unabashed fanboy himself, voice actor James Arnold Taylor has had the opportunity to play some of the most iconic characters in pop culture including Fred Flintstone, The Flash, and Spider-Man. For fans, Taylor is perhaps best known for playing Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi in various Star Wars animated projects and other media. In his latest animated project, the faith-based film The King of Kings based on the novel The Life of Our Lord by Charles Dickens, Taylor does quintuple duty as the voices of Melchior, Matthew, Thomas, Phillip and young Jesus.
Ahead of the film’s release this weekend, we had the pleasure of chatting with Taylor not only about his involvement in the film but his own independent film project and more!
Dar: You play multiple characters in The King of Kings. Did you go in already knowing which characters you’d voice or did it change as you went along?
James Arnold Taylor: I was actually brought in early in the production process to do what we call scratch tracks. I recorded pretty much everybody. I was Charles Dickens, most of the apostles, the Devil, all of these characters in the original cut of the movie so they could animate and find their story before they cast the celebrities. For me, it was more of a question which ones did they like that stood out that they [could] keep me in after the fact. Thankfully I got to play three of the apostles, Matthew, Phillip, and Thomas. I got to play King Herod’s scribe. Melchior, one of the Three Wise Men. I played Malchus who gets his ear healed by Jesus. And I also get to be the voice of young Jesus in a special scene when he’s twelve years old.
Taimur Dar: As you mentioned, you voice young Jesus. Playing a younger version of a character is always an interesting challenge for an actor. Obviously, you have experience with that as Obi-Wan in various Star Wars media as well as the Hellboy: Blood and Iron animated film where you voiced the younger version of John Hurt’s character. In both instances, you had well established material to base your performance on. For The King of Kings, obviously you never met Oscar Isaac who voices Jesus, so what guided your performance?
James Arnold Taylor: Originally when we did the scratch vocals, I did the voice of Jesus in my regular tone the way that I felt that he would be portrayed. And then we went to a younger version of me. When Oscar came over and took the role, then we did what we call ADR or looping where I went back in and looped myself because I wanted to make sure I was giving a similar performance to what Oscar had done. The truth is, it wasn’t that dissimilar to what I had originally done because our tones are somewhat the same. But Oscar has a very even keel to him. So I wanted to portray that in that younger voice. So [imitates Oscar Issacs’ voice] Oscar’s voice is right in that space. So I just thought [imitates younger voice] I would bring that voice up a little bit younger and just bring it in this place of age twelve and his acting demeanor. As a voice actor, I’ve doubled a lot of celebrities in my career like Christopher Lloyd as a young Doc Brown. So you just have to take on their acting and their abilities and vocalizations and fit it into the criteria of the story. It’s quite fun. Actually, I think I even played a young version of Mark Hamill once in the one of the first things Mark and I did years ago together. I played the kid version and he did the old man version of the character. It’s funny, I’ve been the younger version of many famous people.
Taimur Dar: I think nearly everybody is familiar with the works of Charles Dickens whether or not they’ve read his books. I wasn’t aware of the book this film is based on, The Life of Our Lord. It has a really fascinating publication history.
James Arnold Taylor: He wrote in 1846. It came out in 1934, nearly a hundred years after he wrote it. He wrote it very specifically for his children. It was more of a way of introducing the scriptures to his children. It was more of a family story. I don’t think he had any idea it would get published. I love that it’s a great vehicle for telling this story in a very palatable way for all audiences. We join Dickens and his son in the midst of their tumultuous relationship at this point. I know most parents understand [when] you’re just not clicking with your kids. The beginning sets that up really well and you find out they have much more in common than they thought.
Taimur Dar: Were you aware of the Dickens book before this project and have you since had a chance to read it?
James Arnold Taylor: I have not had a chance to read it. I get asked that question a lot now. I really need to read it because I’m very curious about it. But I was aware of it before this. Then when Jamie Thomason reached out to me, I said, “I’ve heard of that.” Next time we talk, I will have read it!
Taimur Dar: Since my outlet covers the comics industry, I’d be remiss If I didn’t take the time to discuss The Comic Shop, an independent film project you’ve been developing.
James Arnold Taylor: It’s been a passion project of mine for quite a few years. I have several versions of scripts that I wrote for different people. We’ve landed on one and we are in the hopes of finding the investors that we need to get the movie made. It’s a wonderful story. Essentially, I took all the things I grew up loving and watching and put them into this. You’ve got a little bit of The Breakfast Club because you’ve got five kids from different walks of life coming together for one goal. They’re stuck in one place waiting in line to meet their favorite voice actor who no one has ever met because he’s a bit of a reclusive guy. He comes to this small-town comic book shop so these kids are all waiting to the be first five in line. We get to know all of them through their time together because they’re forced to be together which is the premise of The Breakfast Club. I took a little Clerks and Mallrats, some of those Kevin Smith things. But it’s a much cleaner version! And some things I loved from Cheers and Seinfeld and brought that into this as well. It’s a coming-of-age family friendly comedy that I think is sorely lacking in the world of film right now. I’m really hoping for opportunities to get this movie made and out in the next year.
What we’re also planning on doing is getting the fans involved because I spend so much of my weekends at comic cons meeting fans and artists and creators. The comic book shop set that we’re going to build is going to be filled with fanart and pieces. That’s my homage and thanks to all of them. But also we’re not using IP from DC and Marvel. We’ll be using our own stuff. The comic book character in this is based off one I created as a kid called The Sound. He uses sound waves to save the day. It’s based off of a piece I do in my one-man show called Talking to Myself. I think it’s going to be a fun movie. I can’t wait for people to see it. I can’t wait to shoot it. I made another movie called Hidden Blessings. It’s a more faith-based movie that I wrote, shot, produced, and edited all on my own. It’s out right now for free. We made that as a proof of concept for The Comic Shop to show what we can do. I hope people [reading] this will be up for spreading the word when it’s time!
Taimur Dar: As long as we’re talking comics, my introduction to the Guy Gardner version of Green Lantern was through the Batman: The Brave and the Bold animated series where you voiced the character. He’s about to make his big screen debut in the upcoming Superman film portrayed by Nathan Fillion. I’d love to know if you grew up a fan of Guy Gardner and your thoughts on the casting?
James Arnold Taylor: I had not heard that Nathan was going to be doing it. That’s fantastic. You’re telling me that for the first time! I knew they were doing live-action but I didn’t know it was him. I’ve been so busy doing other things, I didn’t get the word. I’m a huge Green Arrow and Green Lantern [fan]. I had those comics of both of them. And then I was a huge Green Lantern fan by itself. All of them from Hal Jordan to Guy Gardner. I played Tomar-Re in Emerald Knights years ago. Green Lanterns are fantastic superheroes. My version of Guy Gardner was kind of Dennis Leary. He’s the complete opposite of what Hal Jordan or any other Green Lantern would be. Nathan is perfect. I’m excited.
The King of Kings will be distributed theatrically across the globe by Angel Studios beginning April 11, 2025.
