Characters and voices

As I’ve written else where on this blog, my first professional voiceover was in 1974 and I’ve been making money in voiceover work steadily since 1983. For most of the time since then, I’ve thought of myself as mainly an announcer or narrator kind of guy. Sure, I’d change my tone or inflection when a commercial script called for something a little different; but I never saw myself as a performer of characters like Pat Fraley, Nancy Cartwright, Daws Butler or Mel Blanc.
But, the last couple of years, I’ve started to change my viewpoint on this subject. Two influences have shaped that change in perspective. One is studying with Pat Fraley. The other is starting to record audiobooks.
My studies with Pat ended up including work in creating characters because that’s so much of what he teaches. To supplement what I learned in the classes, I got a copy of Pat’s audio CD The Greatest Cartoon Voice Tricks Ever Smuggled Out of Hollywood. I’ve begun to realize that much of the time I’m actually adopting a character when I’m in the booth, even when it’s just for a straightforward announcing job. (In that case, I might be playing my “big voice announcer guy” for example.)
Then, and this is where the studying with Pat Fraley intersects with audiobook recording, I started recording audiobooks that had multiple characters in them. And it turned out to be great fun. I had to figure out how to give each of these book characters a distinct sound, keep them all straight, and not have to stop down every time I changed character.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that when I’m working in voiceover, I’m playing some kind of character all the time. Even when I’m just being me, I’m actually playing a character who is a slightly exaggerated version of me.
These thoughts were prompted by reading this thoughtful post on Kara Edwards-Suchan’s blog. I especially liked this thought…

…contrary to what many have tried to tell me recently, I do believe there is also room in this industry for the type of tiny voice that makes you smile.

Here’s another choice comment…

If only more companies realized that voice actors can do more than ‘pronounce words with a non-regional dialect’, they can act…they can sell!!

I agree, Kara. Thank you for helping me think further about this subject.