Welcome to episode 187 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 back to the second and final part of my interview with voice actor and voice director, Lucien Dodge! You may know Lucien’s voice acting work from anime including Sailor Moon, Gundam: The Origin, Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway, Sword Art Online, Demon Slayer, and Fate/Zero! He’s also worked on games such as Dust: An Elysian Tail, League of Legends, Mad Max, and Smite. Lucien also voice directed me in the dub of the anime Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon where I played the main antagonist, Kirinmaru. We had such a great time working together that I was eager to get him on the podcast to talk about his own voice acting experiences and his approach to the art form.

In this episode, Lucien describes what inspired him to become a voice actor and how therapeutic the process of acting was for him, especially early in his career. He goes on to talk in detail about the Meisner Acting Technique and how foundational it was in helping him develop his own acting skills to a professionally competitive level. We then discuss how a technique like Meisner applies to playing cartoony characters and how much traditional acting training supports the more wacky or zany character voice acting you might hear in some animated shows. While an audience might initially be struck by the voice qualities of a certain character, such as Daffy Duck’s lisp, or Bug’s Bunny’s Brooklyn accent, what makes those characters compelling beyond those vocal pyrotechnics is the emotional authenticity of the character. That genuine emotional believability can only be achieved through top-notch acting skills.

Lucien is obsessed with finding that emotional authenticity in all of his work, and I could feel his sensitivity to sub-text when we were working on the dub of Yashahime. That’s why I was so glad to get him on the podcast, so he could share with my listeners how important it is to develop that nuanced understanding of human emotions and what it takes to be able to portray them believably in an acting situation. I’m not the only one who noticed this quality in Lucien. The famous voice actor, Corey Burton, also could see Lucien’s passion for acting and they developed a friendship over the years. Lucien learned so much from Corey about having a professional mindset, especially when Corey invited Lucien to watch a recording session for the animated show, the Boondocks. By observing some of the most talented voice actors in the business, Lucien truly understood just how competitive he needed to be in order to succeed as a voice actor in Los Angeles.

As this episode draws to a close, we wrap up our discussion with Lucien’s advice for the aspiring voice actor. He emphasizes how important it is for your own mental health to realize what aspects of your career are in your control, and what aspects of the voice acting world are not. If you can stay focused on developing the abilities you need to further your career, and let go of the aspects of the voice over industry that are beyond your power to influence, it can help you pursue your voice acting goals with less stress and more ease. Lucien also credits my interview with Jack Angel as helping him develop this more positive mindset.

It’s a great conclusion to our talk together, and I’m excited to share it with you.

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #187 Here (MP3)