So I worked on Naruto today. I don’t think I can say what character I voiced, or what the story was about, but I’m going to be in more than one episode, and it’ll start in about a month. I’m recording again on Friday, and I’ll ask then if I’m allowed to give up any details.

I had to get up much earlier than usual to make it to the studio on time this morning, and my brain, as it so often does, decided that the best way to ensure I got a good night’s sleep was to sing songs, make me too hot then too cold then too hot then too cold all fucking night long. I think I slept for 3 hours, and I’ve felt a little blurry all day.

Naruto is originally in Japanese, so I was dubbing this character for the English broadcast. It was really different from working on Legion or Ben 10, and was more like looping live action. It was a lot of fun, though, and the episodes I saw while I worked today were much darker than the stuff I’ve seen Nolan watch. I think the damn kids today will dig the story arc that I’m part of, but when I tried to tell Nolan what the story was about while I drove him home from school today, he was adamant that I not give him any spoilers, so my one opportunity to actually check in with a reliable representative of the damn kids today was cut off.

I had a lot of fun, though, and it was really satisfying to work in a genre that I’ve wanted to be a part of for a long time. If you count Macross, Robotech, and Battle of the Planets, I’ve been watching Anime since I was a little kid. If you’re more of a purist, I’ve been watching since I got Akira on a fifth-generation VHS bootleg at a con when I was 14. (Funny-but-true story: my friends and I watched that tape over and over again, but since the original Japanese dialog wasn’t subtitled, we had no idea what the story was. We built one of our own that we thought was pretty good, but turns out was completely wrong.)

I’m not super hardcore or anything, but I enjoy anime and manga, and I was awfully excited every time I got to do all the traditional anime sounds, like the various gasps, and the occasionally-awkward translations and bits of dialog we had to add to match the mouth movements (which were originally animated to go with Japanese. Mostly, though, I felt the tremendous satisfaction that comes with bringing a character to life and making him my own.

I always tell people who want to be actors that they have to need it, the way we all need to eat or sleep. It’s a long hard road, fraught with uncertainty and more defeats than victories, and if you don’t have a visceral, primal, almost supernatural need to do it (that is deeper than “I want to be rich and famous”) it’s just not worth it.

Bringing a character to life is how I chase the dragon. Whether it’s writing, acting on camera, or acting with my voice, I need that fix, man. For a few hours today, I got it, and it felt so good.

Maybe that’s why my brain was so worked up last night. Maybe I was subconsciously shivering with antici . . . pation.

I wonder how I’ll sleep tonight?

We’ve been shooting nights this week on Criminal Minds, and I’ve worked every single day, which doesn’t leave any time to write, or do much of anything else. I got home at 4 this morning, didn’t fall asleep until 5, and then had to explain to my dogs that, no, just because I was in bed and the sun was coming up, I’m not interested in getting up to do stuff with them.

So I only got to sleep for seven disturbed hours, and I feel like I’m on the road to Bat Country right now. Luckily for me, I don’t go to set until 5:30 tonight, and I don’t have any dialog today.

Despite the havoc the last few days have unleashed on my body (which is very confused by the hours I’m forcing it to keep, and [spoiler]) I have loved every second of the experience.

I’m keeping a production diary, which I can’t release until my episode airs in October, but I can safely say that working on this show, with this cast and crew, creating this character, has reawakened my slumbering love of acting. I’ll have more to say about that when I can really analyze how I feel about it and why. (short short version: I miss the camaraderie of being in a cast, and I’d forgotten how good it feels to discover interesting moments with the director, writers, and other actors. I work best while collaborating, it seems.)

Anyway, I feel so blurry that the doll’s trying to kill me and the toaster’s laughing at me, so I’m going to sign off. But before I do, a couple of things:

• I missed the Watchmen trailer. It was up and then down while I was at work. Dang. Oh! Wait, there it is on iTunes. Wow, that was awesome.
• I am too tired to see Dark Kinght (I didn’t correct that, because it illustrates exactly how tired I am. Yes, I misspelled the title of the freakin’ Batman movie I’ve been waiting my whole life to see. Jeebus) today, and probably won’t get to see it and the Watchmen trailer until next week, right before Comic-Con.
• I did not miss Doctor Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, and neither should you. It’s absolutely magnificent, the whole cast is outstanding, and my fellow ACME alum Felicia Day is sensational. I want the soundtrack, and I want it NOW! Shane Nickerson said that it’s probably the best thing he’s ever seen that was made for the Internet, and better than most sitcoms. I totally agree, and wish Shane would stop saying these things before I get a chance to say them.
• Wheaton’s Books in the Wild at Flickr has 77 members and 48 supermegaawesome contributions. Yay!
• This is a reminder to everyone who has tickets that I will be at Comic-Con from Thursday until Saturday of next week. I’m probably going to sell out the second printing of Happiest Days while I’m there. I’ll be with my friend Rich Stevens at the Dumbrella booth, which is number 1335. MC Frontalot is going to be there, too, so if you’re looking to fill that final square on Nerd Bingo, come and see us.
• On Thursday, I’ll be on a panel called Star Trek Without a Blueprint: How books and comics keep expanding the boundaries of the Star Trek universe. We’ll be talking about the future of Star Trek publishing in room 32AB from 4:00-5:00. I’ll be on the panel with Andy Mangels (moderator and Star Trek author), Margaret Clark (executive editor, Pocket Books), Andy Schmidt (senior editor, IDW) and Star Trek authors Kevin Dilmore, Dave Mack, Scott Tipton, and Dayton Ward.
• Finally, TrekMovie has the poster we’ve all been waiting to see. It looks awesome.

Have a great weekend, everyone!