In our new Power Rangers actor spotlight, we feature the voice of the Venjix and shockingly Evox Virus himself, Andrew Laing. Andrew was featured as a special guest on my page and The Illuminerdi sister site The Morphin Network. My partner Kent and I conducted the interview. During the exclusive interview, Andrew talked about how he became an actor and his long-respected work in Power Rangers.
Besides Evox and Venjix, Andrew voiced many monsters in the Power Rangers Franchise. Those voice works include Copyotter (Dino Thunder), Delex, (SPD), Oculous (Mystic Force), The Messenger (Megaforce and Super Megaforce), Jack O’ Lantern (Dino Super Charge), Heximas (Dino Super Charge), and Ninja Steel (Lavagor). Laing also played a live action appearance as Master Lope in Power Rangers Jungle Fury.
Laing also revealed his close relationship with former Power Rangers actor Yellow Jungle Fury Ranger Anna Hutchinson. Andrew revealed he and Anna were co-stars in the hit New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street. Anna played Andrew’s younger sister in the series. Ever since then the two have been close friends and eventually they both starred again in Power Rangers Jungle Fury.
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Now In our recent interview with Laing revealed that he was the voice of Evox the main villain in Power Rangers Beast Morphers all along and used a fake name or an anagram for the credits. In the credits, Evox’s voice was credited as Randal Ewing, but it was actually an anagram of Andrew’s name. We interviewed Laing on January 22nd, 2021.
Andrew Laing Discusses His Role As Venjix On Power Rangers RPM
We first asked Andrew on how he found the iconic voice of the Venjix Virus in Power Rangers: RPM
Morphin Network: “What can you tell us how you found the voice of the Venjix Virus?“
Andrew Laing: “Well you know this is a computer go and voice it. What does a computer virus sound like you know and there was no, I don’t recall anybody showing me any pictures of what it was going to be. It was just like here’s a computer virus so I just went in, dropped my voice down to the lowest possible register. I knew that they were going the engineer the amazing engineers down at inside track and were going to treat it so it was put through lots of filters. It would be worked and twisted so I just had to provide a baseline and they would do the rest of the work. But it was hard work some of the decisions that I had made actually proved to be really difficult especially once he got into physical form. When you’re right down here in the bottom of your register but trying to do the all this sound because it’s brutal on the vocal cords.“
In our highlight question we asked Andrew what it was like in returning for Power Rangers Beast Morphers in reprising his role as the Venjix Virus:
Morphin Network: “Can you tell us what was it like in returning for Power Rangers Beast Morphers as Venjix?“
Andrew Laing: “First of all that was it was wild, I got a phone call from my agent just saying you know that I think it was, I talked to Jim Mclarty who had been he had been running the ADR. He was the character voice director in the studio for many years. He’s an amazing actor, improviser and has become a great friend. He just said look there’s this thing coming up and it’s totally hush-hush you can’t we’re not even going to tell your agents what it’s about. No one is allowed to know but we’re going to bring him back and that’s going to be this whole sideline story and take hopefully twist them on a path on a completely different character. That will then turn out to be so I had to come. I really had to audition for it again for the part of Evox because they wanted to know that it was a totally different sound and appropriate for that character. So we had to very quickly come up with what does a computer-generated snake sounds like. But I’m very grateful to Jim he is an amazing director and he’s now the vocal coach on set. We came up with this sound and then yeah I fell down that rabbit hole and went off on the journey. I tried to know keeping a secret for basically because it was about a year and a half that I was working on it. Then another six months before it actually showed that was great, yeah you know whenever you were asked what are you doing or where are you what do you often work it’s just like I’m sorry I can’t tell you.”
If you guys did not know Jim Mclarty the current director of ADR for Power Rangers was the voice actor of Broodwing in Power Rangers SPD. Also Laing finally revealed a huge revelation that for the first time he told I and my partner Kent that he voiced Evox in Power Rangers Beast Morphers. He used a fake name and anagram of his last name for Evox’s voice credit, prior to us asking the question we revealed to Laing that his reveal as Venjix shocked and excited the entire Power Rangers fan community.
Andrew Laing: “So I heard from Jim and from several people as it was going on that they were saying that all the fanboys were going hey look I think it’s this. Look at his name because I was doing it under a pseudonym as well and yeah that just it was it was great it was great fun.”
Morphin Netowork: “Wait so you did the voice Evox?
Andrew Laing: “Yeah so that was a fake name Randall Ewing. Randall Ewing is an anagram of L Laing Andrew. So yeah that’s me dude, that’s me.“
Additionally, with Andrew revealing he was the voice of Evox, he also shared his thoughts on playing the iconic Power Rangers Villain.
Morphin Network: “What I want to say Evox plot twist being Venjix was surprising and was one of the better surprises in this franchise, and it was really well handled.”
Andrew Laing: “It was really interestingly done I mean I only really got to see the bits that I did so there’s you know because in Evox’s because he’s in the cyber world. There was so much going on that I had no idea about but the whole relationship with Blaze and Roxy. The manipulation of everyone and then you realize that the manipulation was actually another manipulation again and ah the powers that’s great fun yes”.
Overall Andrew’s performance as Venjix/Evox will forever be iconic and well-remembered in Power Rangers history. Laing has been involved in the Power Rangers franchise for 16 years. Hopefully, we can hear or see him again in future Power Rangers-related projects. Regardless Laing will always be a beloved, respected, and well-loved individual in the Power Rangers fandom and community. Be sure to click the link below to watch Andrew’s full interview with us on the Morphin Network.
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