What Advice Would You Give to Someone Who Wishes to Pursue Voice Acting?

Here’s my take on it. I look at everyone here up on this panel, and I look at them as actors. And I think it’s all part of the same base. So my recommendation is that I don’t break it down into categories. I think once you get experience there’s different factors for voice over, professional theater, and what-not. I think that if you have a passion for the arts, whether you want to be a painter or an actor, no matter what branch or sub-genre, the way to break in is to audition and create. If you haven’t done any acting before, and you’re like, “How do I get started?” If you’re young and in high school, hopefully your high school has a drama department. Audition. If you’re local and your town has a local community theater, audition. If you audition and don’t get in, with smartphone technology, I think you’re better off than we were young and in our teenage years, you know, before that got underway, because you’ve got this high-powered camera. And people would’ve loved to have that in the mid-eighties and early nineties, so make something fun. Make a film for your friends.

It’s all connective. What I say is the best way to get into [voice acting] is to start. Take an acting class, read a play. If you don’t have an acting coach, see if there’s one in your town or just try to memorize a monologue on your own, ‘cause nothing’s stopping you from doing it. From there, I think that you can build. But, I think that what it comes down to is research and auditions. Come to our tables and you can talk to us and we can answer the best way there. But I would say that acting in general starts with the same thing, whether it’s voice over, theater, television, it starts with passion and it starts with you.

So, I’d say get out there and do it. If you want to make a movie, you should write a film and make one. If it doesn’t turn out the way you want it, make another one. There’s no right or wrong in it, just be passionate about it. You can watch you-tube videos, if you’re already watching and playing video games and stuff, you’re already doing research. If you want to act and have a passion for it, start. That’s it.

I would echo everything you said. I think that a misconception people have is working [for it.] A misconception people often make when it comes to voice acting is that, “Oh, I do a funny voice.” or “I’ve been told I can do different voices,” and that’s great, but, like Steve said, it’s about the acting. You know, I’m known for voicing Mickey Mouse and everyone thinks they can do a “Mickey voice,” and a lot of people who can do it in falsetto know, and I’m not going to argue, it kind of sounds like Mickey. But, I’ll tell you to go and do that for four hours in a booth, acting a scene, it’s totally different than just making a noise. I’m known for that, but I’m also an actor beyond Mickey Mouse, and I always have been.

So I agree that it’s about the experience, that it’s about trying things. Improv, acting lessons, all of that will benefit you in pursuing anything voice acting-related or the arts in general.

For me, it was coming up through theater, which seemed to have helped formed everything outside afterwards. I think that you’ve [both] hit on a very good point there. In this day and age, you all have these marvelous little film studios in your pockets. Everyone has one.

I was listening to an interview with a well-known documentarian. He said, when he was at film school, they only had two cameras for the whole school. And he ended up stealing one of those cameras in order to get his start in documentaries, and he never returned that camera. But that’s what he had to do in order to get going. I’m not advocating for stealing anything, but none of us have an excuse. If he just needed a camera to get going, we’ve all got a camera, right?

And it’s about starting and being disciplined. It doesn’t just fall in your lap. You have to create content. The good thing about making something, like a little short, is the mistakes that you see that you’ve made and then the next time you’ll do better, and the next time better still. And we can put it up online. When it’s really good, show it to people who you trust, and see if it’s good enough for them to start sending it out. Send it through to agencies and see if they like it.

Start talking about yourself as the person you want to be. If you want to be a director, start saying, “I’m a director” “I’m a producer” “I’m a writer”. Start talking along those lines and fall in with that idea as much as possible. When you put a word into the world, it starts gathering momentum and you’ve gotta commit to it. Discipline is so essential. If you like accents, that also helps a lot. There are amazing demo reels of voice actors that you might love out there in the world. Check those out, emulate them, and see what works. Then, approach agencies and let them get you the work. You’ve got to put yourself in the way of opportunity.

To people interested in voice acting, two things. One: just about every school now has its own animation program and technology. Find those guys doing those kinds of films. Reach out to them and say, “Hey, I like to do voices and everything else,” and you never know when one of those guys will go that way and remember you as someone who helped them when they were doing a student film.

Two: Remember the rule of auditioning. You’re not auditioning for the role, you’re auditioning to make a good impression and to get invited to come back and audition again. Every role I’ve always landed was because I did one audition then months later they asked me to come in to do one for another role. When you hear the words “thank you,” say it back. Never apologize. Take it and go- that’s how they know you’re a professional.

What do you do to set yourself apart when it comes to doing [digital] auditions?What advice do you have?

I’m learning as I go about that, believe or not. I got my job at Red Dead Performance Capture in a more traditional live-acting sense. I’m learning more about different programs right now, so I’m learning about it along with you.

It’s an interesting world with the whole self-submitting thing now, because it’s extremely hard to direct yourself. You can go into it and be as authentic as possible, and you can do your research, and what-not, but there’s definitely a benefit to having a friend come over or recording and shooting it… and sending it over to a buddy of mine and say, “What do you think?”

Let it be natural. My piece of advice is to bounce it off other people.

You need to have somebody in the room who you trust. You need a mate who’s like, if you’re not hitting it, the mate’s close enough to you to say, “Mate, you’re not hitting it.” and that’s great. Everyone needs mates like that, especially in creative work.

You always get two chances to audition. There’s the lines you say and also your name at the beginning. There’s another opportunity to add some interest there [with saying your name]. [Try to] make it look as high-quality as possible. Get a ring-light, it gives you such beautiful lighting on your face. Lighting is everything on film and television. [The lighting] and background will immediately set you apart from the others [auditioning]. These are little tricks you can use to finesse and make them go, “Oh, that feels professional. That feels interesting.” That’ll stand you apart.