ABSTRACT
Slater, Adam Sandler, Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz, and Jennifer Lopez. Many highly successful voiceover talent frame their performance through an interpretation of each script based on skill and instincts developed over many years. Although many of these performers have the ability to create a wide range of vocal styles, emotions, and attitudes, their performance comes more from who they are, than by creating a character for each role they play. Some acting courses teach that the actor should bring as much of his or her self to the performance as possible, and design their performance on how they would handle the situations, based on personal experience and interpretation. If you are merely “being you” as you perform a script, even on an extended level, then your performance may risk sounding like you doing the words, and there may, or may not, be anything unique or special about your performance. Now, you may be an excellent reader with a talent for interpreting or spinning a phrase, or you may posses an incredible vocal resonance and command when you speak, but if you are personally attached to the words of the script, you are not truly an actor. The other approach to performing is one in which a wide range of acting skills and abilities is developed which allows the actor to literally create many different emotions, attitudes, and personalities that are outside of who they really are. Actors who have mastered this approach literally become the character they are playing. As we watch or listen to them, we see the character they have created, not the person they are. I refer to these actors as character actors. I consider Jim Carrey, Jodie Foster, Drew Barrymore, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, and Robin Williams all excellent examples of actors who truly become the characters they are playing. In the world of voiceover, many of the best known and highest paid voice talent have developed the ability to create a variety of uniquely different voices and personalities for the characters they play. Both approaches to voiceover work are completely valid, and both offer potential for success. However, it’s important to understand the differences because your individual abilities may direct you to follow one path or the other. Not everyone working in voiceover is a voice actor. For example, if you have very strong personal or religious beliefs, you may discover that it is very difficult to separate yourself from those beliefs in order to create a believable character that has opposing beliefs or attitudes. No matter how hard you might try, you may not be able to create a sense of truth as you speak the words. If this is true for you, then the path of mastering performing skills as an actor may not be for you. You must follow a different path, with different training that will give you the skills to base your interpretation and performance of a script on who you are. You will need to develop a deep understanding of your innermost self, and you will need to learn how to tell a compelling story from the perspective of you as the story teller. You will need to learn how to be a masterful reader of stories, rather than a creator of characters who tell their stories.
