Hello Suga! The Voice the Legend, Rogue: An Interview with Lenore Zann

X-Men ‘97’s penultimate episode aired last week, with the finale airing today, and Rogue’s emotional journey continues to hit us where it hurts. Spoilers ahead for season one. Don’t worry, we won’t get into season two or the recent season finale.  

Throughout the seasons, Rogue’s relationships prove to be the heartstrings that hold the emotional foundation of the series together. Not to take away from Forge and Storm’s deep transformative love or the forever mom and dad storyline with Jean and Scott. The Southern Belle has two relationships that will forever be the tea. We collectively move through our grief with her and the team, and more continues to evolve, and we hold on with ungloved hands, unsure of what the next episode will reveal. 

Captive Hearts

Rogue’s character plots have always been tied to her desire for a ‘normal’ relationship. Her inability to touch leaves her wanting when it comes to partnership, and the feeling of inadequacy is self-afflicted. In reality, just being in her presence and having her heart is all any partner truly needs. While skin-to-skin contact is the constant for Rogue, that voice is what brings out the laughter and tears from us all. No feeling compares to the joy of hearing that word ‘suga.’ 

I had the utmost pleasure of catching up with the iconic voice actor Lenore Zann, who brought us Rogue from the beginning through now. The originator and unique rasp that is Rogue joins to talk about being in the 90s cartoon and reprising the role today. She also goes into her successful career in politics and the monumental change she enacted in Canada to fight against environmental racism and injustices to the land. A fruitful conversation that reminds us how much this character and the life of Lenore Zann have been impactful to so many for all of these years. 

BNP: AISHA: Welcome to a very special interview with the legendary talent Lenore Zan, voice of the iconic character Rogue from the original X-Men animated series and the revival X-Men ’97 on Disney+. She’s been on stages, won awards, spearheaded groundbreaking political movements, and warmed our hearts as the Southern belle and tough mutant Rogue. Welcome, Lenore!

LENORE: No problem.

BNP: AISHA: We’re really excited to have you.

LENORE: Thank you.

BNP: AISHA: You’re welcome. I will say I’m probably one of Rogue’s biggest fans. I have loved her since day one. I named my dog after Rogue because she has a nice little white spot on her nose.

LENORE: Sweet, sweet.

BNP: AISHA: Super excited to get into this and kind of talk about your journey through all the years playing this character.

LENORE: Yeah. Yeah.

BNP: AISHA: So, I guess one of my first questions, I’d love to know myself, I’m also an actor and getting into voice acting is kind of like this ethereal unknown thing. So I want to know, how’d you get into acting, and was voice acting always a part of your journey?

LENORE: Yeah. When I first started out, I really was only thinking about being a stage actor. And I started when I was about 16.

BNP: AISHA: Wow.

LENORE: Yeah. I did my first show in high school in grade 10. I landed one of the lead roles in Guys and Dolls, which is a musical. I played Adelaide, and I just fell in love with it. And people told my parents and me that I really had a natural talent and I belonged on the stage. I’d never had any lessons or anything like that. No singing lessons or acting lessons. I had started doing dance when I was very young, but even that had dropped off because when we moved from Australia to Canada, we moved to a very small rural town and there were no dance lessons at that time. But I just loved the stage. And so yeah, so at 16, I did an audition for the local professional theater company and got hired on the spot. And so in my summertime in between all my high school years, I performed in small roles in the theater.

But then by the time I was 19, I was discovered to play Marilyn Monroe in a rock opera on the life of Marilyn Monroe.

BNP: AISHA: Oh, Wow.

LENORE: Yeah. So I ended up starring in my first starring role when I was 19, turning 20. And I mean, Marilyn Monroe is such an icon, so it was a show about her, and it just put me on the map in Canada. And then I started getting movies and TV offers. I didn’t do my first voice job till I was 26, and I was chosen to play a role in a radio drama.

BNP: AISHA: Ooh, classic.

LENORE: Yeah. And then I was nominated for an award for best actor that year for that performance and won. So that was kind of like the beginning of my voice career as well. So then I just started doing movies, television, theater, and voice. And now I do it all of the above.

A Rogue’s Tale

BNP: AISHA: It’s so Amazing because I think Rogue has such an iconic voice. And when they called you to come do the role, had you known about X-Men and Rogue and comics before doing the role?

LENORE: No, I did not know anything about X-Men. And they didn’t tell us what the show was we were auditioning for. They just called it The X Project. And they just said that they were looking for a woman with a deep, husky, sexy voice who could do a Southern accent. And my agent said, “Lenore, that’s you.” And I’d only done one other animated show before that, so it was only my second animated series. And as soon as I opened my mouth in the booth and said the first few lines, the producers on the other end, who were in LA, I was in Toronto at the time, they just started screaming and went like, “Don’t let her leave the building. That’s Rogue. That’s the voice we’ve been waiting for.”

BNP: AISHA: Oh my gosh, that’s so amazing. Because I can’t hear it any other way. I think anyone who ever does it is trying to match you. So it really warms your heart when you hear that voice. 

LENORE: Well, thank you so much, Suga. I really appreciate that.

BNP: AISHA: Amazing. So I guess my question is going from the original X-Men series, that first, once they said, okay, the show isn’t happening anymore, what that feeling was, and then jumping to them calling you after that and saying, “Hey, it’s coming back.” What were your feelings between those two times?

LENORE: Well, each year that we did a new season of the show back in the ’90s, we didn’t know from year to year whether it was going to come back or not. So we did the first season, and then we kind of had to forget about it because we didn’t know if it was going to come back or not. Then the same thing each year. The first show came out in 1992 on Halloween, actually, when the first show dropped. Yeah. Halloween in 1992 was the first time X-Men was shown. And they brought us all into the studio and we watched it on a TV screen, and we all thought, “Wow, this is really cool.” But then we had no idea whether or not we picked up again or not. And then later that summer, we found out, “Okay, yeah, they were going to do another one.

Okay, great.” So we didn’t really know from year to year. And so after the fifth season, it wasn’t like they said, “Oh, that’s it. We’re not doing anymore.” It was just kind of like the rest of them where we just didn’t know. And then it was never picked up again after that. But we all were very busy actors, all of us. We were all busy with film, television, theater.

Every single one of the actors that they chose for the first iteration of X-Men, we were well-known in our craft in Canada, and we had busy careers. So we just went on and continued doing what we do. And so 25 years later, some of us got a call to come to New Braunfel, Texas to do a reunion, like a cast reunion. Yeah. And of all places, New Braunfel, Texas. But we said, “Okay, that sounds great.” We hadn’t seen each other in 25 years. So we went there, and that was the first time that we found out just how prolific the show was and how important it was to so many people. We had no idea before that. And later on that same year, it was 2019, we also got invited to the LA Comic-Con. And there, there’s like 150,000 people that go to that. When they had a panel for X-Men, I remember Chris Potter, the original gambit, and myself, we were waiting in the wings to be called out on stage, and we heard the audience roaring.

Yelling and screaming and roaring. And we looked at each other and we went, “Are we in the right place? Are they here for us?” It was really like that. We had no idea.

BNP: AISHA: Wow.

LENORE: Yeah.

X-Ternally Yours

BNP: AISHA: So throughout the years you’ve played this same character. Do you feel like you’re a part of her and she’s you? You grew up together?

LENORE: Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. I mean, I’ve put all of me into Rogue, all of my emotions and all the different layers of emotions that I can tap into. I’ve always been an emotional creature, and I’ve always been an emotional actor. And I think it’s part of my craft that I can just use the instrument of my voice to make people feel different emotions with that. And I started off doing musicals. I started off as a singer. So as a singer, you can make your voice sound different ways and layer it and do different peaks and valleys, if you will. And so I use that technique in my vocal, my speech for anything that I do where people don’t get to see you, but they get to hear you. And that has come in very handy with Rogue because she also is a very emotional character, and she carries her heart on her sleeve.

Absolutely. She can never let her guard down when it comes to falling in love with someone and being intimate with someone because she’s afraid she’ll kill them.

BNP: AISHA: That was her first interaction too, almost killing her boyfriend.

LENORE: Exactly, exactly.

BNP: AISHA: I love that you say that there’s emotion that goes through it too, because there is that episode, and this is spoilers for anyone out there who’s watching and hasn’t seen the first season. But that episode after we lose Remy and she kind of goes on a tear. I wrote an article with Black Nerd Problems just about being an empath and resonating so much with Rogue and the idea that she takes on these powers even though she can’t control it. It just happens. And I think that’s a lot that has to do with people who can feel other people’s emotions. It’s that being able to feel that. And I feel like what you just said really brings that into the character, that emotionality, and bringing it through just a microphone, I think is just expertly done. Yeah.

LENORE: Thank you so much.

BNP: AISHA: Of Course.

LENORE: Yeah. And I wanted to also have people who might’ve lost somebody during the pandemic, for instance, we’d just come out of the pandemic. I wanted people to feel their own emotions and hopefully have a cathartic experience through hearing the grief in Rogue’s voice so that they could also feel their feelings and release it in tears, because I felt that would be very healing for people.

BNP: AISHA: It was. That came through amazingly. I love that. Thank you for sharing.

Beyond Good and Evil

BNP: AISHA: One of the things I want to talk about too is that beyond your acting, your amazing talent, you did go into politics.

LENORE: Yeah

BNP: AISHA: I wanted to know what was that moment that brought you like, “I really want to go, and I want to do this. I want to be able to make this kind of a difference.” And as some people say, what was that moment that kind of radicalized you?

LENORE: I mean, I’ve always been a political animal. I can remember my parents talking about politics around the kitchen table or my grandparents as well. And my family has always been people who believe in social justice and they believe in the equality of everybody and that people need to be respected and treated with kindness and compassion. And my grandmother also was very in tune with nature. And she would oftentimes, when you asked her what religion she was, she would say, “I’m a pantheist.” And a pantheist means nature is your God.

BNP: AISHA: I’ve never heard that before. Wow.

LENORE: Yeah. So she would talk to the trees and the plants, and she had a real green thumb. She could make flowers bloom. I mean, she was amazing. And she just said she was brought up Catholic, and she went to a Catholic boarding school, but she became disenamored of religion and of dogma. And she said, “Nature is my God.” And I really could relate to that. And so as I got older and I started to see the damage humans were doing to our world and how it was affecting the entire planet, I made a promise to nature that I would try to protect her and try to do what I could to try and protect nature and make it healthy again. And so when I decided to go into politics, that was one of my big things was I was very much of an environmentalist. And I even introduced a bill called An Act to Address Environmental Racism, which is for anyone who doesn’t know and doesn’t understand what that is, it’s the disproportionate number of toxic dumps, waste sites, landfills, and corporate polluters placed on or beside racialized communities.

So communities of color basically. And I went to town with that. I introduced it back in 2014 in Nova Scotia, which was the province or state where I was living and where I had been brought up after we moved there from Australia. But then it never passed there because I wasn’t in government. I was in a different party that didn’t reach government. But then I switched, and I ran federally and became a member of parliament. And I introduced it there in Ottawa, and it has now become federal law in Canada.

BNP: AISHA: Really! That is amazing 

LENORE: Thank you. 

Savage Lands

BNP: AISHA: I feel like you say, a lot of people don’t realize it. And you see these pockets or some things on socials where it’s like drinking water is terrible. And all the things that affect it, people don’t see it as environmental reasons. It’s just like, oh, these corporations doing this thing. They’re doing this on purpose. They put it in these specific neighborhoods because they think nobody cares. But to have someone have that fight, it’s just everything.

LENORE: Yeah. And part of the fight was making people understand what it is. And if you are white and you’ve had a privileged background, you probably don’t realize what is happening down the way where other people live and they’re affected by whatever is going on, but you are not affected by it

BNP: AISHA: Right, right.

LENORE: So I saw that, and I saw that as an unjust thing, and I wanted to change that.

BNP: AISHA: Thank you so much for everything that you’ve done. Really, that is really a feat. Do you still practice? Are you still running for office and doing those kind of things?

LENORE: No. When I went into politics, I decided I was going to give that my all. And so I wasn’t focused on acting at all at the time. I just focused on the politics. And it’s a lot. Anybody who thinks being in politics is easy has no idea, especially if you’re a female. It’s even harder.

BNP: AISHA: I can’t imagine.

LENORE: Right. So for 12 years, four terms in office is what I devoted. So from 2009 to 2021, that’s all I did. And then at the end of those 12 years, four terms, Disney came calling and asked would I come back and play a superhero again, my same character for a whole new generation of kids and for the kids of the ’90s who are now adults and have children of their own. And I thought, you know what? Yes. I said, “You had me at hello, Suga.” I felt like it was time to then dive back into acting again and try to spread the message that, “Hey, we’re all in this together. It’s okay to be different,” whatever that is. We’re all mutants one way or another, and we need to embrace ourselves for who we are and accept and embrace others for who they are and live and let live.

Instead of trying to police everybody else, what everybody else is doing, let’s live and let live and let’s appreciate our differences. And let’s all remember we are one huge human family.

BNP: AISHA: Yeah. Which is so much about where I feel like Rogue’s heart really lies, which is amazing.

LENORE: Exactly. Yeah.

Love in Vain

BNP: AISHA: And when you read the new scripts, what was it like? Because I feel like it’s taken, as someone who watched the original ’90s one and watching it now, obviously both phenomenal, but I feel like the newer one has upgraded. It’s become more modern. It takes not a darker tone, but I think more serious and more forward tone in this current years. So what did it feel like reading those news scripts?

LENORE: Incredible. I mean, when I read the scripts back in the ’90s, at the time, I mean, it was cutting edge even then because Stan Lee wrote a lot about the Civil Rights movement.

There was a lot of that kind of stuff in there, and that was incredible to be performing and seeing those lines in the ’90s. And as you said, things have gotten darker in some ways now. Kids grow up faster in a way. They’ve seen more that maybe they shouldn’t have even seen than kids back in the ’90s. And so the new scripts reflect that. And speaking with six, seven, eight-year-olds who watch X-Men ’97, they love it. We never talked down to kids. We didn’t do it in the ’90s, and we’re not doing it now. And they get it. Kids get it. So every time I get a script, I can’t stop reading it. I can’t put it down till I get to the end. And that’s a really good sign. That’s A sign of good writing.

BNP: AISHA: Yeah. The writing is so phenomenal.

BNP: AISHA: Just a little question about, because for me, I didn’t always read the comics, but I did love the anime series, obviously. But when Rogue and Magneto had a little romance, what was that like for you exploring that kind of relationship?

LENORE: Well, Sugar, it came as a surprise to me. I wasn’t aware of what had happened in the comics with Rogue and Magneto. And someone said to me then, they said, “Well, in another universe, Rogue and Magneto are married and they have a child named Charles.” But I thought, “Well, the fans are probably going to be upset.” Some of them were. But you know what? It adds a little bit of spice to Rogue’s sugar. So why not throw a little bit of that in there and see where it goes. And it was a lot of fun to play as an actor. It was a lot of fun. And I felt bad for Remy and especially episode five. But in the end, Rogue does decide that Remy is her man.

BNP: AISHA: Yeah, That’s her person.

LENORE: She says to Magneto after they dance and they touch and they kiss up in the sky, and she goes, “Thanks for the dance, Sugar. But Remy was right. Some things are deeper than skin.” And that shows that she realizes now it’s not all about touch, that love and passion are much deeper than that. And then she’s about to fly to Remy’s side and all hell breaks loose.

BNP: AISHA: What a wild episode that was too. I have not watched the new season yet. I’m one of those people who loves to binge, so I don’t know what’s come of everything yet. Right. I’m really, really excited. No spoilers for me.

LENORE: No, no

Whatever It Takes

BNP: AISHA: But going back to your craft a little bit before we close out. What is some advice you would give to people now who do want to get into specifically voice acting? That’s their calling.

LENORE: You’re going to need to have a reel of voices. So I suggest taking a class where they also offer to help you put together a reel where you can use different voices that you can learn how to do in the class, and then cut them all together into a very short, two-minute reel. One minute, two minutes where you can show all your range of characters, because you’re going to need that in order to get an agent, a voiceover agent. It’s really hard to get into the industry without an agent, just to get the auditions and things. So I suggest focusing on getting a reel first. And personally, I would say take a class from somebody who knows what they’re doing and can help put that reel together.

BNP: AISHA: Well, this has been so phenomenal. It’s been such a dream talking with you. That was lovely. Thank you so, so, so much.

LENORE: It’s been such a pleasure.

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