The Voice of Ash Ketchum on ‘Pokémon’ Finally Made the Leap to Live Action Features After 19 Years
Alison Foreman
Sarah Natochenny launched her acting career voicing the boy who’s gotta catch ’em all on “Pokémon.” But this fall, the actress better known as the voice of the English dub Ash Ketchum battled the masses to catch a flight. After spending nearly two decades as one of animation’s most iconic performers, Natochenny has broken through to live-action features with a part in comedian Tim Heidecker‘s upcoming indie feature, “Raccoon” directed by Michael Basta, which shot this November in Boston.
“The idea that voice acting and on camera acting are somehow so different is a hard one for me to accept,” the actress recently told IndieWire. “I don’t really buy into that.”
Still voice-acting on “Pokémon” after 19 years, Natochenny jokes that her job does eventually boil down to being able to sound “like a little boy” and commanding Pikachu. But in 2006, when she landed Ash as her first major role, the then-teenage actress replaced another performer (Veronica Taylor) and entered the entertainment industry amid intense fan backlash and prolonged scrutiny.
“When a voice changes, people feel like someone is taking away a familiar friend,” Natochenny said. “People don’t feel like they’re just replacing a voice. It’s like they’re replacing the soul.”
At 18, Natochenny saw her theoretically inspiring casting story become an early-internet controversy thanks to forces far beyond her control. The New York daughter of classical musicians had been judged harshly before. Natochenny trained at a competitive acting school and got a bronze medal in rhythmic gymnastics at the Junior Olympics.
“I’m Russian,” she said. “You have to have a passion.”
Type-casting is a real concern for plenty of voice actors who want their faces on screen, too. Since breaking through with “Pokémon,” Natochenny has racked up hundreds of voice credits, and at this year’s Crunchyroll Anime Awards, she was nominated for Best English Performance for the title role in “Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian” (an adaptation of the Japanese novel series). She wanted to be on-camera from the beginning but didn’t use social media to shape the narrative of her career because her experience with the public had been so demoralizing.
“I stepped into film editing,” Natochenny said. “I loved film so much and I wanted to stay in film. But I really did not want to be famous. I didn’t want to be scrutinized like that anymore.”
It wasn’t until “Pokémon GO” became a mobile phenomenon in 2016, and Natochenny started surprising fans dressed as Ash Ketchum at conventions such as New York Comic-Con a few years later, that she started sensing positive reaction to her part in the “Pokémon” universe. That was especially true online, where Natochenny developed an audience she found earnestly supportive.
“It’s been really lovely knowing that the work that I did for so long has affected so many people in so many positive ways,” she said. “It started out really, really tough for me, but it ended in a really beautiful place, and there’s been an incredible amount of growth for me internally that’s happened because of this show and this job.”
Filling the gap between voice and live action, ironically through social media (she won the People’s Voice Award Webby in 2023), Natochenny rebuilt her confidence and networked at a wider scale. She attempted the pivot to on-camera feature work for several years before connecting with producer Dave Entin of Omnes Films. The microbudget project starring Heidecker is still in production, but Natochenny’s casting doubles as an overdue win for the actor. It’s also a symbolic victory for other voice performers battling a production landscape that can seem impossible to navigate.
Giving advice to her voice actor peers, Natochenny said, “Figure out what feels right to you and how you want to present yourself to the world and what you’re going to be proud of.”
