Male Voice Actors Do It With Their Mouths
Written by Guest author Monday, 20 June 2011 15:16
The name Billy Crudup is not a name most people would instantly recognize, but they know his voice. He is the voice behind the "Priceless" Master Card ad campaign. Mr. Crudup and thousands of actors like him— who live out their acting dreams in relative anonymity— are male voice actors.
Moreover, the male voice actor must be able to modify his voice inflections in such a way as to create actual personalities for characters by fiat. Which is to say, voice actors must possess (in their heads) a variegated palette of a half dozen unique emotional colors and attitudes in order to create believable characters. In addition, the male voice actor also has to be extremely directable and flexible with an almost supernatural ability to switch in and out of created characters seamlessly.
Perhaps one of the best-known male voice actors was the late great Mel Blanc, who for decades breathed life into such legendary animated characters like Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird, Woody Woodpecker, Elmer Fudd, and many others.
Inside the Voice Box
The craft of voice acting is a complex mixture of dramatic acting, comedy, dancing, singing and mime. Yet the “casual observer” often perceives male voice acting as something failing actors will do only when there is no other available work, or until they get a “real job.” However, nothing can be further from the truth.
In today’s social media world, voice acting is serious show business. There are skills to learn and proverbial dues to pay. Just having a nice voice is not enough. Serious male voice actors are students who are required to master many of the same techniques, i.e., “method acting,” that other actors must study in order to have success in professional acting.
In fact, there are five times as many people doing voiceover acting than there are actors trying to break into film or television. Yet there was a time when advertisers and Hollywood looked for more of an announcer type voice.
However, in today’s social media market the talent buyers are looking for real people. In fact, today’s radio and television commercials require voice actors to sound like real people in believable situations.
And with today’s technology, the voice over business is international. Male voice actors now compete with voice actors from around the world, even if the job is posted in the United States.
They Do It Better With Their Mouths
In her book, "The Female Brain," Dr. Louann Brizendine asserts that while women use about 20,000 words per day men use only a paltry 7,000 words. Her hypothesis has since been challenged by numerous other studies, but even if her assertions are correct— she is still only describing the average male.
Male voice actors are not average. In fact, live scripted readings or "cold readings" particularly for animated characters may require the actors to improvise dozens of ideas in several different vocal registers. For the most part this is true for all actors; however, in the case of vocal actors it can be even more daunting. Animated characters are essentially chimeras and therefore are always more vocally challenging.
Finally, one seemingly obvious skill male voice actors must possess is excellent reading skills, because unlike dramatic actors, voice actors never memorize scripts-- they read them verbatim. However, gone are the days of male voice actors who need the “golden voice” in order to break into the business. A love for the art of listening and a penchant to effectively communicate regardless of a script requiring less than 7,000 words may be all that’s really necessary.
With permission of JGC inc., this article was written by TiAja Ellis, an expert in the Talk Shows category at www.yoexpert.com
