Meet Justin Cabanting

We recently connected with Justin Cabanting and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Justin with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

My work ethic stems from the stories of various types of fiction I grew up watching and lining the parallels with situations in real life. From Japanese anime/western animation and gaming such as the Persona and Yakuza series, “Yu-Gi-Oh!”, “Pokémon”, “Avatar: The Last Airbender”, as well as space operas and action franchises such as “Star Wars”, “The Matrix”, and “The Karate Kid”, seeing our characters overcoming their trails in the face of adversity was always a driving force to helping me achieve success.

One can argue that this is a form of delusion, but I would contest that any hero in history was doubted until they achieved any degree of success. I have my friends, family, and my colleagues in the entertainment industry to thank for inspiring and pushing me to break my limits and always improve for myself.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

As a performer in the entertainment industry, I get all sorts of role(s) such as voice acting for animation, audio dialogue replacement (ADR), motion capture, stunts, and on-camera performances for film and television. Coming from a family of either tech engineers, finance/business officers, or nurses and caretakers, I’m the first in my immediate family to take on an artistic career in tandem with a career in business, finance, and accounting. Having acquired a baccalaureate degree in Finance at California State University, Northridge, this served as the foundation to systematic approaches that complement my work ethic and personality with my colleagues in various jobs.

The most exciting aspect about my artistic career is that everyday is a new day with its own set of challenges and teams, whether you are working on a new project or returning to one! I always like to tell our fellow talents that we are in the business of “professional pretend” (just like when we were kids playing in the playground, but are just getting paid for it). You get to potentially dress up in a costume, given instructions from an Assistant Director (AD) or Voice Director on your actions and motivations for scene(s), and you let your process to getting in character set in. I am so excited that one of my most recent projects was working on the new Amazon MGM Studios streaming series “Like A Dragon – Yakuza”, based on the hit SEGA and Ryu Ga Gotoku video game series “Yakuza”, as the character of Shibusawa. With a lot of these projects, you’re given a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to sign that says you can’t communicate anything about the production until the studio says you can. I’m so honored I was invited back to work with RGG since I worked on their most recent title “Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth” (2024) providing additional voices. It’s a wonderful process of getting in character, learning what precedent (if any) prior actors laid out for those roles in the past, and where the producer(s) and director(s) want to take the story they want to tell.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The qualities most impactful in my journey as an actor definitely have to be my initiative, respect, and sense of patience that really got me to this point in my career. Any career will test you based on how you approach each challenge as yourself. As an actor, you will face similar instances as well as how you would face each obstacle as your character(s).

One must be willing to take time to learn their character. Talents need to be calm and methodical with how they analyze a character’s dialogue and understand how they would move/act/feel internally at any given time. Their motivation drives their actions and you’re the avatar that must display that visually on camera visually or audibly via voice performance. Some characters have more layers than others, and the more you understand them, the more believable your performance will be for audiences. Having worked on the Moonton game franchise “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang” and “Mobile Legends: Adventure”, I have portrayed the role of Valir, a pyromancer who has gone through a metamorphosis throughout the years as a character and it was my job to incorporate his new powers with each cosmetic costume with a vocal delivery that is fitting to his appearance. I am very honored I’ve been invited to work as this character and it was one of my first every voice roles for a video game.

My advice for folx early in their journey in this career is to take your time to revisit being a child again – watch your favorite cartoons, reread your favorite book series, and try playing Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) or Live-Action Role Play (LARPing) to really understand your own processes to getting into character. And the most important thing is to not get wrapped up in the process, but to have fun with it! That is the best way one can improve as the positive energy brought to the table will inspire others to follow, bounce off it, and reciprocate similarly.

Tell us what your ideal client would be like?

My ideal client is one who is welcoming, honest, and respectful and is not afraid to express their imagination while being as grounded as possible that realizes their vision in full circle. When you meet someone new, you try to find common ground to see how they see the world and how you can work together as a team. And with that various approaches, you can help get the entire group from Point A to Point Z in a reasonable amount of time in a logical manner.

In stunt work, our work relationships are very similar as you want to 1) do a great job; 2) ensure everyone finishes the day and gets to go home safe and sound and 3) do it in the safest and most efficient way possible. I had the wonderful honor of working with the stunt team led by Clive Hawkins and Nick Papadakis for a horror film titled “SIREN”, directed by Giulia Mucciarelli. Not only do I enjoy working on horror films, but I absolutely admire the time, effort, and type(s) of storytelling that go into this genre. The process of working out sequences that are spine-chilling and unconventional in theory or to the average person while doing it in a systematically safe way with “movie magic” is one of my favorite aspects in action design as a stunt performer and aspiring coordinator.

My dream project(s) are to perform motion capture/stunts and voiceover for a franchise like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Dead by Daylight, and Fatal Frame/Project Zero as survival-horror was my gateway genre to video games as a kid. To say it would be a “dream come true” would be an understatement!

Contact Info:

Image Credits

– Sebastien Chiu Photography
– Hector Vivas Photography
– Infinite Imagery by Natasha Sachi
– Kyle Conemac Photography
– PEXELS
– iPhone 15 Precision Finding | Find Your Friends | Apple

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