Inka Magnaye lends voice to superhero film Blue Beetle: I manifested it!
MANILA, Philippines — “Host acquired. Threat approaching. Whatever you can imagine, I can create.”
These were some of the lines that Filipino voice talent and content creator Inka Magnaye delivered as she lent her voice to the Scarab, called Khaji-Da, in the Philippine theatrical release of the Warner Bros. Pictures and DC superhero film Blue Beetle, now showing in cinemas. She is the first Philippine-based voice over artist to dub a character in a DC superhero flick.
Blue Beetle is helmed by Ángel Manuel Soto and stars Xolo Maridueña (Cobra Kai) in the titular role as well as his alter ego, Jaime Reyes.
As per press notes, Blue Beetle follows the story of recent college graduate Jaime, who returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it.
As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: The Scarab. When the Scarab suddenly chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he is bestowed with an incredible suit of armor capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero Blue Beetle.
For its international release, singer-actress Becky G is the one voicing the Scarab.
According to the director, the film centers on close-knit Mexican-American Reyes family. He shared, “In this origin story, the family – contrary to other superhero movies where the hero keeps the secret from everybody around him – the secret really happens in front of the family. So, Gareth (Dunnet-Alcocer, screenwriter) always said, ‘Good luck trying to hide a secret from your mom in a Latino household, they always know!’
“And we kind of like embraced that, so this made for a very unique journey, where the family is part of the adventure, not a group of people or an object of rescue, but on the contrary, an integral part of the construct of this superhero,” added Ángel.
Although Inka hasn’t met any of the cast members of Blue Beetle yet, the digital creator is still over the moon with the huge opportunity that was given to her.
“(I’m still) on a high and it hasn’t sunk in, but I think it’s sinking in little by little. Like even now, it’s a presscon and I don’t even know if I’m fully here,” she said with a laugh during the media conference, held ahead of the theatrical release.
“At the back of my head, there’s an Inka going (like), ‘Is this really happening? I’m dreaming right. Pinch me.’”
She further recalled how she manifested her dream of doing voice over for a superhero character.
“It’s crazy. Because I manifested this. If you go through my Twitter from before, I made like a tweet, manifesting number one, being a voice over for a character in a video game. Two, voice over a superhero like DC or whatever. And here we are,” she beamed.
Bonch Santos, marketing lead at Warner Bros., divulged Inka was “handpicked” for the Scarab voice.
“She was really the choice from the beginning. When we heard the opportunity to do the voice over for the Scarab, there was just one person we had in mind.”
Inka was initially tapped to do a content for Warner Bros. “(It was supposed to be) a duet on TikTok,” explained Bonch. “That was the original intention and then what happened was we were given the opportunity to actually do the voice, to do the dubbing of the Scarab and we took the chance to nominate her.”
Bonch described Inka as “a good representation not just of that strong female character but also as someone (who is full) of determination.”
Moreover, Inka remembered her first reaction the moment she learned that she got the offer from Warner Bros.
“Oh my gosh! It was actually an e-mail from Warner Bros, from Bonch. And I didn’t see the e-mail myself because I have my wonderful team behind me doing that. They sent the e-mail to our chat group without anything, it just said what was the message (that is) the screenshot of the e-mail and then I looked at it,” she recalled.
“And I was little confused. ‘Cause (it) said Warner Bros., superhero movie, (and) I’m like, ‘What? No. What? What?’ And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. This is real. This is real.’ And then the whole time, I think I was on a high the next few days after that.”
“And then, we had a call with Warner Bros. and Bonch could tell you, I was just like this (smiling), ‘Yeah, OK.’ It made my year,” she gushed.
In terms of preparations, she did her usual preps like study and review the character she would be dubbing.
“But it’s more of like the mental preps knowing that this is going to be the biggest project I’ve ever taken on so far,” she added.
“This is going to make waves. There’s a different kind of responsibility knowing that I’m the first-ever Filipino, Philippine-based talent that DC is going to get for their superhero movie. And I’m the only one dubbing the Scarab in the entire region. The other countries are not even doing this. It’s just me,” she continued.
In a separate roundtable interview, Inka shared some tips on how she preserves her lovely voice. She told The STAR, “I used to smoke before. I was a smoker before but now I don’t. I don’t do vape. Nothing. Because wala, it will really destroy your voice.”
“And also drinking soothing teas like salabat, (it) is a staple in our house. Something nice, warm and soothing for your throat. Do vocal rests. You also have quiet time, so your voice gets to rest because the vocal chords they’re still a muscle right. And if you use your muscle all the time, you need to rest,” she added.
Inka grew up in the voice acting industry. In fact, the 34-year-old is surrounded by a family of voiceover artists. She started doing voiceover at the tender age of five.
“So when we were kids, my dad would make a game out of it,” she recounted. “Like we would watch something on television (and) he would mute it and he’ll be like, ‘Let’s make funny voices for these things.’ For me and my siblings, it was just like a fun Sunday afternoon kind of activity. Who knew that years later I’d be doing exactly that.”
Much like her mom, Lindy, who did spiels for Philippine Airlines (PAL) in the ‘90s, Inka is also a sought-after voice talent behind PAL’s in-flight announcements. The former also did stint for Pond’s, Nestlé commercials and Johnson & Johnson’s famous line “The baby is now a lady” back in the ‘90s.
Inka’s dad, Gerry, is a radio, TV and audio producer, her sister Bettina also does voicing (aside from being a pre-school teacher), younger brother Renzo is a DJ and a professional dubber, and Tita Neneng Magnaye Arceo is the talent behind Movie and Television Review and Classification Board public service announcement.
Lindy told this paper how proud she is of her daughter’s latest gig. “I’m just so proud and so happy because it’s surreal actually. I can’t believe it until this day ‘cause it’s like what she said it’s a dream come true. Since they were small, they’ve been doing those things and they’ve been watching those movies, comics and stuff.”
Meanwhile, Inka was asked about her thoughts on AI taking over the work that people could do such as ChatGPT.
She replied, “But I also think that it’s having the human element that is something that AI cannot replace. Like you can hear a voiceover and know that it’s AI. But you can hear a VO and think that’s it’s a robot, but it’s actually a person.”
“So we can sound like people, but also sound like robots that people think that it’s a robot. Robots and AI can never sound actually human yet. So, let’s stop there,” she continued.
“I actually made a post on that on Facebook where I think that advancements and AI technology, maybe there needs to be a conversation that should be started about regulation. Because, you know, if there are good people out there, but there are also not-so-good people and AI is a tool. It’s just the intention of the user that makes it good or bad.
“So, I guess it can be helpful just as a hammer can be used to build a house. But it could be used to destroy something. So, I think it’s just the use of it that needs regulation or that needs the conversation of regulation,” she reiterated.
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