Kayleigh McKee’s path to voicing Yuta Okkotsu in Jujutsu Kaisen 0 came with an unusual twist: they didn’t realize they were reading for the movie’s lead.
Speaking about the experience at a New York Comic Con panel, McKee said they went into the audition with almost no context for who Yuta was or how important the role would be.
They thought it was a smaller audition
McKee recalled that when the audition materials arrived, they assumed it was for a side character and didn’t overthink the tape. They said they recorded the audition quickly and sent it in without knowing Yuta’s place in the story, later telling the crowd, “I didn’t know who Yuta was.”
The surprise call from their agent
The reality hit after the casting decision. McKee said their agent followed up with a blunt reality check that the part they’d booked was not a small role at all—essentially telling them they’d landed the main character of the movie.
Why the lack of context helped
Looking back, McKee framed the “not knowing” as a benefit. They explained that approaching the audition like any other read kept them focused on what they could bring to the character, instead of getting in their head about expectations or hype around the franchise.
Connecting with Yuta’s emotional core
McKee also said they related to Yuta on a personal level and pulled from their own experiences to shape the performance. That connection, they suggested, mattered more than knowing the character’s status going in.
McKee’s role in the English dub
McKee is credited as the English voice of Yuta Okkotsu for Jujutsu Kaisen 0, making them the primary English-language performer for the character in the film.
