VAM 211 | Interview with Amanda Wyatt, Part 2
Welcome to episode 211 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Welcome to the second and final part of my interview with the amazingly talented voice director, Amanda Wyatt! Her resume includes games like Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War, Ghost of Tsushima, Assassin’s Creed 2, and Batman Arkham Knight. I’ve been fortunate enough to work on many games with her including the Batman Arkham Games, Halo Wars, and Horizon Zero Dawn. It’s always been a pleasure working with Amanda, so I was eager to have her on the podcast so she could share her insights from a voice director’s point of view with all of my listeners!
In the previous episode, Amanda told us how she originally got started as a voice director. She shared the story of how she went from being a dancer in her youth, to working as a producer at the famous audio production house, Soundeluxe, to eventually apprenticing under voice directors Kris Zimmerman and Gordon Hunt so that she could become a voi ce director herself. She learned so much from shadowing her mentors, and she sees her responsibilities as twofold: First, she wants to foster a creative environment which will help inspire her actors to give their best performances, and second, she needs to make sure that she keeps the production on time and on budget. These are challenging tasks, but with her background in both performing and stage managing, Amanda is perfectly positioned to be able to help the projects she’s working on to succeed both artistically and practically.
In this episode, as we continue our discussion, I ask Amanda what inspired her to become a voice director in the first place. She explains that while she was passionate about dancing when she was younger, and had many wonderful experiences working as a performer at Disney theme parks, when she finally had to face the staggering competition that exists in the world of on-camera acting and commercial work, she found it incredibly daunting. It seemed to her that succeeding as an actress required a lot of luck, and as someone who liked to be able to control her own circumstances, she was much more enthusiastic about working as a producer at Soundeluxe than she was about competing for acting jobs.
She also shares with me her advice for the aspiring voice actor. In this, Amanda echoes what many other guests and industry professionals have said before which is: having an interesting voice is not enough. In order to succeed as a voice actor, you must develop professionally competitive acting skills. There is nothing you can substitute for this, not impressive vocal tricks, not fancy recording equipment, nor any other shortcut or “hack” that can make you professionally competitive, if you don’t have reliable, effective acting skills. Amanda believes that taking traditional acting classes is very important for developing those skills.
She goes on to explain why many animation and game producers are reluctant to hire people outside of the Los Angeles area who don’t already have an extensive voice acting resume. She shares the logistical reasons for this, as well as addressing when studios are willing to make exceptions. While the challenges she describes are significant, I don’t think they’re insurmountable. It’s therefore very useful for any actors outside the Los Angeles marketplace to understand the resistance that LA producers have to hiring remote talent, so those remote actors can plan how to overcome those objections, and possibly make themselves more appealing to LA projects. Amanda has behind-the-scenes knowledge that is invaluable and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you. Let’s get started!
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