Interview: Amir Talai on Playing the Most Enigmatic Demon in ‘Hazbin Hotel’

One of the biggest draws to Hazbin Hotel’s 2019 pilot, on social media at least, was the Radio Demon Alastor. That meant whoever took up the staticky voice when the full series entered development had some pretty big shoes to fill. Amir Talai–a prolific voice actor across film, television, and video games–would take on the mantle to great success.

Below is our interview with Talai, where we discussed playing a character so shrouded in mystery, his love for playing a wild card character, and Hazbin‘s eclectic soundtrack.

Awards Radar: So you’ve done a fair share of voice over work for the last two decades. Was there anything special about has been or the role of Alistair that really spoke to you?

Amir Talal: You know, it’s funny. I didn’t realize it until I got in the booth. It felt like the sort of perfect confluence of everything I’ve been preparing for 20 years. I feel like, for voiceover, you have so little time to prepare that you’re usually just thrown into it. Usually it’s really the casting people, the producer, the director, knowing that you’re perfect for the part that leads to you getting the perfect part. It’s not like you’re saying “oh, I’m going to work my ass off so that I can be right for this” I’ve actually already done that for 20 years. And then it turns out I’m actually perfect for this. 

So it’s this role that combines my sort of sense of comedy and this accent that I’m adept at doing. There’s improv, there’s darkness, there’s sort of sassiness and then on top of all that it’s a musical. So I get to sing and it’s right in my region. I didn’t really know what I was getting into when I auditioned. They said “we want sort of a Burt Healy type from Annie” And I said, yeah, I could do that. And then I got it. I didn’t know that I was getting into something big. I was like, “cool, another job” It turns out it was the job of a lifetime and one of the biggest things I’ve ever done. It was just another audition. I wasn’t drawn to it any more than anything else. But, once we got in the booth, I realized that this is special. You saw the fan reaction. That was a whole whole other level that I never, ever, ever could have imagined.

AR: So, with the pilot, Alastor was already an established character when you joined the production. Was there any special spin you wanted to add when you joined for the full series or were you leaning towards how his character was?

AT: I only watched a few minutes of it before my audition and before I recorded. After I finished season one, I went back and watched the entire pilot, but it was really important to me to not have any to have as few preconceived notions as possible. When I went in I really wasn’t trying to do anything different because I had so little to compare it to. I watched enough of it to get a basic flavor, but other than that I went on doing my own thing.

AR: Alastor is meant to be a super enigmatic figure within the world of Hazbin Hotel. How did it feel playing a character that is intentionally hard to get a read on?

AT: It is actually liberating. It’s really liberating. I saw an interview with an actress who said before she does any role, she fills a notebook with backstory, what’s her favorite movie, and what was middle school like for her, and this and that. Not to judge another actress’s process, but it bogs me down. I love having so little to go on that in the moment I’m really just focused on the moment and and. Trying different things in the booth and then trusting Vivienne to pick exactly the right take that works for the story that she wants to tell.

AR: How is it balancing Alastor’s status as a rogue figure and processing his relationships with other characters throughout the series? 

AT: I think that’s what’s great about Alastor, and I’m not sure if it’s like this for the other actors in the show, but what’s great about Alastor is that there is the veneer of the smile, and then there’s what’s going on underneath. So, for me as an actor, I play the veneer and then allow different types of things to bubble up, and so sometimes it might be dead wrong, but that’s up to Vivienne to decide. 

AR: It sounds like there was room for improv, is that true?

AT: The improv was more improvising little jokes here and there. Little turns of phrase, ad-libs, stuff like that. Little noises, you know, like, you know, just just a little. Like, you know, the kind of stuff that, I’m sure, 50% of the time was completely inappropriate. But what’s great is. My improv training allows me to do that stuff, and then my lack of ego allows me to let Vivienne go. That’s awful and completely inappropriate. Or that’s great. I’m going to use that.

AR: I think the little noises he makes too. Oh my God. It really makes him sound just like walking radio static, which is so unnerving.

AT: Yeah, it’s fun.

AR: And was it fun playing a character that was just so unambiguously, borderline sadistic?

AT: Yeah, I mean, what’s fun about him is that his sadism is always delivered with glee. I don’t know, glee is just such a fun thing to play. It’s different from an arch villain because, frankly, that takes more of a vocal strain. There’s a delight to it. There’s a lightness to it that I think I relate to. You know what I mean? I never insult someone extremely aggressively. It’s always extremely passive and definitely with a smile on my face. I’ll laugh through a fight and someone will not realize that I’m actually incredibly pissed off at them. But, you know, I don’t know, maybe that maybe that’s too deep, but maybe maybe that goes back to when I skipped a grade and had a late growth spurt. And so I was much shorter than everybody. And so if I was mad, I had to couch it and smile and joke

AR: I mean, sometimes life experiences impact you in the weirdest ways. I think the glee also plays into this, but I feel like sometimes he was just super petty. The song between him and Vox was this is the pettiest song. I kind of love how multifaceted he is, especially in terms of just like. being so unambiguously evil, and also he’s just literally just some guy with random beef sometimes

AT: Yeah, you’re thinking of “Stayed Gone”. That song is so fun because it has both that sort of languidness and it also has that sort of rap section. Basically, I’m like Kendrick Lamar is what I’m trying to say. And, because he has more power than Vox, he doesn’t need to put too much on it, and so it’s sort of bitchy, petty, and sassy. And that’s just so fun. That’s so fun to play.

AR: Vivienne has a very big soft spot for musical theater and the soundtrack has been super eclectic. What was it like being able to kind of perform and listen to such a varied set of songs?

Yeah, I mean, it’s fun. Like, so my stuff obviously tends to conform to my character a little bit, right? Which is, which is sort of showy, old-timey, you know, sort of 1930s. I didn’t hear any of the songs until I watched the show. And so to see the songs like “Poison” or or or some of the other very Disney-ish ballads. I was always just astounded by the work of Sam and Andrew, the fact that they could switch back and forth between genres so seamlessly. And it’s also so amazing that it doesn’t feel out of place when you’re watching this 30 minute episode to have a club banger and then like an old-timey 1930s patter song five minutes apart. I’m not surprised that the soundtrack is such a massive hit and. I it’s an, it’s another one of those incredible surprises I never expected to be #1 on the Billboard charts for two months.

AR: Which is wild. It’s like people are enjoying musical theater without really realizing that they’re enjoying musical theater. It’s a good gateway.

AT: Well, yes and no. It’s funny because there’s people who were like, I’ve always loved musicals. And I’m so happy this is here. And then I’ve had people come up to me who go. I never really care about musicals, but watch this and I really like it.

AR: I’m very much in the first camp. As soon as I heard that there was a musical theater angle, I said I’ll watch it. I guess that also leads into my last question: what is your favorite song that you had a part in? Or, if you feel like it, your favorite song that you don’t feature in, or just in general?

AT: It changes constantly. One of the one of the moments that really sticks out for me though is the finale. I think I was one of the last people to sing in the finale; they had recorded other people before they recorded me and we recorded it all separately. Right. But what was amazing was when I recorded that and did the harmonies at the end to hear like 10 different Broadway fellow cast members in my ears as I’m singing it. It was one moment that really made me feel like a part of something big, you know? Animation can feel so solitary because you go into a booth by yourself and you do your thing. Every song is great. I, you know, I think I think “Poison” is kind of iconic but singing that bit in the finale was one of the most rewarding for me.

But you know, I will say I think, if not that, singing all those pattern sections in “Hell’s Greatest Dad” and in “Stayed Gone”; the really sort of passive aggressive rapping basically. It was hard, but it was fun and challenging, and it was great to be able to be in the booth and focus in on like four bars and just nail it before moving on to the next four. Because when you’re doing, you know, a full song in front of an audience, it’s like you’re thrown out there and you hope you make it. I’ve never been a recording artist before, and to be able to really nail the track is a cool thing and a new experience.