VOICE ACTRESSES

Ayumi Ito
Ayumi is a Japanese actress and voice actress. She was active as a child model. In 1993, she made her film debut in Mizu no tabibito: Samurai kizzu (1993). Her distinctive style then led to her superb acting in the 1996 feature, Swallowtail (1996). She received a Best New Actress Award and Best Supporting Actress Award from the Japanese Academy Awards for this role. She also received the Best New Actress Award from the Takasaki Film Festival.An interview with Ayumi reveales her thoughts about playing Tifa in the Advent Children film. Here's what she had to say. "This was first time I watched it as a complete work. Back during the dubbing days, the CG wasn't done yet and the characters didn't have hair *laughs*. But seeing it complete was a delightful surprise. It's also the first voice acting job I've ever done. When acting out roles for movies, your whole body speaks but when you're trying to accomplish the same thing with just the voice and match it perfectly to the CG that's being shown on screen, somehow, it all just seemed very curious to me," she revealed.

Itou-san added,"This work took 2 years of blood, sweat and tears so it would make us very happy if everyone were to see it. A lot of time and love were devoted into making this. "How much guilt can a person harbor and what exactly is peace?", issues like these were tackled so the movie itself becomes a deep and soul-searching experience. Please, please, do watch it!" She also said," this whole thing sprung up on me rather suddenly so I kept on bugging Nomura Tetsuya-san with question after question about it. Then I thought to myself, 'I shouldn't worry over it too much and just do it', and so I accepted the role, and did *laughs*. I had no idea that it'd be using such unbelievably superb CGs and would become something this great. Watching the complete work gave me a real shock," said Itou-san, looking completely satisfied that her expectations have been thoroughly exceeded.

Rachael Leigh Cook
Minneapolis native Rachael Leigh Cook began her career as a model at the tender age of 10, gracing Milk-Bone(R) boxes and Target(R) ads nationwide. She also appeared in a now-famous anti-drug TV spot in which, armed with a frying pan, she bashed her way through a kitchen to show the disastrous effects of heroin. At 14, her modeling agency sent her to read for a short film (26 Summer Street (1996)) and changed the course of her young life--from that moment on, Cook was hooked on acting. When she reached L.A. later that year, Cook bypassed the wannabe stage and nailed her first audition (for the part of a budding entrepreneur in The Baby-Sitters Club (1995)). She returned to theaters three months later in the Jonathan Taylor Thomas vehicle Tom and Huck (1995), then filled her calendar with appearances in independent and made-for-TV movies. She divided her time between Minneapolis and Tinseltown, shuttling from school events to movie shoots with her mother in tow. Cook's starlet status crystallized in 1999, when she starred opposite Freddie Prinze Jr. in the Pygmalion retelling She's All That (1999). Her on-screen transformation from ugly duckling to ravishing beauty scored several teen-oriented awards and made Cook a hot commodity in Hollywood. She signed for a handful of plum follow-up roles, including a troubled adolescent in Sylvester Stallone's Get Carter (2000), a frontier gal in Texas Rangers (2001), and the caterwauling lead in the live-action version of Josie and the Pussycats (2001). Cook now lives primarily in Los Angeles, but she returns home frequently to visit with friends and family. Her father, Tom (a former stand-up comic), is a social worker in the public school system, and her younger brother, Ben, is an aspiring filmmaker. While doing the voice for Tifa, Rachel had a chance to hear Ayumi Ito, first. She said she was a big fan of Ito’s work and hopes that she was able to capture Tifa as well as the original voice actress. Rachel has said thanks to the director, Tetsuya Nomura, for the “beautiful piece of art”. She said it was “stunning” and she’s a “fan (of Final Fantasy) as of today”.