VAM 176 | Interview with Jennifer Hale, Part 1
Welcome to episode 176 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
I’m honored to share with you the first part of my interview with a true giant in the world of voice acting, Jennifer Hale! Jennifer has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most prolific video game voice actress! You may be familiar with her work as the Female Commander Shepard a.k.a. FemShep in the Mass Effect game franchise, Naomi Hunter in Metal Gear Solid, Sarah Palmer in Halo, Bastila Shan in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Rivet in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, and one of my personal favorites, Ashe in Overwatch! In animation, she’s played Avatar Kyoshi in Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Legend of Korra, Jean Grey in Wolverine and the X-men, and she also does the voice for Cinderella in numerous Disney animated shows and games.
One of the reasons I was so excited to get Jennifer on the podcast is not only does she have top notch acting skills, but she also has a passion for understanding the business side of the voice over industry. I’ve mentioned this in earlier episodes of the podcast, but if you want to consistently book work as a voice actor, it is vital to not only have professionally competitive acting skills, but also to have a solid understanding of the economic dynamics and business pressures of the industry. Such practical and financial knowledge will help you position yourself better in the voice over marketplace and also help you understand what you need to do to promote yourself as effectively as possible.
In this episode, we begin our discussion with Jennifer telling me how she broke into acting. It turns out she faced many challenges when growing up. She moved around a lot as a kid and was regularly made fun of at school. It didn’t help that her mother was often a single parent who wasn’t very enthusiastic about raising children. Facing such instability in her personal life, Jennifer’s survival technique was to become extremely independent and self-sufficient. She had to grow up quickly and take personal responsibility for her own journey through life. For example, the night before she had to audition at a performing arts high school, her mother went out to spend time with friends at a bar. Since there was no one to watch Jennifer if she stayed home, her mother took her along and had her sit in the parked car outside the bar until about 1 in the morning. Stuck in the car and having nothing else to do, Jennifer proceeded to memorize a monologue that she then performed eight hours later at 9am when she finally did arrive at the auditions for her high school. That’s an incredible amount of pressure to have to manage as a young person, but somehow Jennifer found her way through the difficult and daunting circumstances she faced. Her story is one of amazing resourcefulness and courage.
Jennifer is the first to admit that these hardships took a toll on her psychologically. She also mentions how important it was for her to get therapy in order to find a way to process these experiences in a healthy manner. However, the challenges she faced when she was young also helped sharpen her desire for freedom and independence. Lacking external guidance from her mother, Jennifer began to rely on her own internal compass when trying to figure out how to proceed in life. She speaks often about being taken over by the muse or some other inspiration that guided her in moments of challenge or crisis. That guidance would motivate her to take advantage of any acting opportunity that presented itself to her no matter how small. She always did her best to capitalize on those opportunities to the fullest. This meant that she gained many kinds of creative experiences as she was growing up. She not only worked as an actress, but she also worked behind the scenes as a production assistant helping film crews to make commercials and other content. This wide range of experience in the entertainment industry helped her greatly as she moved forward in her career. It also honed her internal guidance which eventually led her to the world of voice acting.
As I mention in the episode, Jennifer has two websites that offer more information and assistance.
One is her Patreon page which helps with financial education called the Haven which you can access at the link below:
https://www.patreon.com/jenniferhale
The other is SkillsHub.life, an online community by actors and for actors that allows members to access working creators and entertainment industry professionals who offer short, customized coaching opportunities to help you address a variety of topics, from improving your artistry, to managing your business strategy.
I hope you find those websites useful!
VAM 171 | Interview with Darin De Paul, Part 2
Welcome to episode 171 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 second and final part of my interview with the fabulously energetic Darin De Paul! You may be familiar with his voice acting work in World of Warcraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Final Fantasy 15, Apex Legends, and Overwatch. Darin’s enthusiasm for his characters comes through in all the work he does and even spills over into conventions where he often will host panels and events for the fans!
In the previous episode, Darin told us about his extensive theater career and how it eventually led him to become a voice actor. He spent many years training and working as a theater actor both in Florida and in New York City, but he had always had an interest in voice over work. When the opportunity to get involved in voice acting came about later in his career, he eagerly pursued every voice over opportunity he could while working as a theater actor on the east coast. Eventually, he and his wife Debra who is also an actress, decided to take a risk and move to Los Angeles to see if they could be successful in a larger voice acting marketplace. Within months, Darin had impressed industry leading voice directors with his vocal range and acting skills. They were eager to work with him and news of his abilities soon spread! It didn’t take long before he was working regularly in AAA video games and animation.
As we continue our discussion, Darin tells me what inspired him to become a performer in the first place. He gives me a two word answer: Peter Sellers. At a very young age, Darin was smitten with the transformative acting abilities of Peter Sellers who is probably most famous for his portrayal of the character Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther series of comedy films. Sellers also worked on many other seminal movies including Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita and Being There. Sellers was notorious for his ability to play many different types of characters, sometimes in the same film! His mercurial skills fascinated Darin who wanted to approach acting with a similar sensibility. Ironically, Darin’s father, who ran an upscale clothing store for men that catered to some on-camera celebrities, once proclaimed that no son of his would become an actor! However, once his young son showed a genuine interest and commitment to acting, he changed his tune and was very supportive of Darin’s desire to become a performer.
After this, Darin and I talk extensively about the different kinds of theater and acting that he was exposed to. It’s fascinating to hear about all the talented performers and inspiring theatrical productions that he saw. Darin and I share a love of the theater and of the special magic that can happen on stage between actors and a live audience. Performing in the theater requires a level of imagination and spontaneity that is incredibly valuable in the world of voice acting! But Darin took this one step further! He actually trained in European Clown technique with David Shiner! This is the kind of clowning you might see in the world famous Cirque du Soleil, where actors adopt a persona, get themselves into some sort of predicament on stage, and then have to improvise their way out of the problem. I found my own European clown training to be some of the most challenging and rewarding acting instruction I ever received and Darin feels the same!
After we discuss our experiences studying European clowning, I then expound on my theory that one of the reasons the performances of the voice actors in the game Overwatch are so compelling is because each of them are in some way embodying their essential internal clowns. This brings an emotional authenticity to their acting that is deeply satisfying to the audience. Afterwards, Darin and I wrap up our discussion with Darin’s advice to the aspiring voice actor. We go very deep into the nuance and joy of performing in front of a live audience and I’m eager for you to absorb all you can from Darin’s amazing journey as an actor!
As I mentioned in the previous episode, I also want to thank Debra Cardona, Darin’s wife, for acting as recording engineer for Darin as we did this interview. I’m so grateful for her assistance!
Also, it turns out that the 10th anniversary of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast is rapidly approaching! It’s hard to believe, but it’s true! I released my first episode way back on July 1st, 2011, and I sincerely hope this podcast has been helpful to you. It has always been my goal to provide the most concise and useful content when it comes to this topic that we all love.
In honor of the podcast’s 10th anniversary, I would so appreciate it if any of my listeners would be willing to call in and leave a message about how Voice Acting Mastery has influenced your own acting journey or any other part of your life. I’d like to feature some of these messages and respond to them in the 10th anniversary episode in July.
You can leave a voicemail by calling 323-696-2655. Please remember to state your first name and what city in the world you’re calling from before leaving your message. Thanks again for listening and as always, I wish you all the best in your voice acting endeavors. Take care!
VAM 170 | Interview with Darin De Paul, Part 1
Welcome to episode 170 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
For today’s episode, I want to share with you the first part of my interview with the incredibly enthusiastic and completely inimitable Darin De Paul! Darin took the voice acting world by storm the moment he arrived in Los Angeles in 2013. You may know him as the voice of Blackhand in World of Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, Emperor Valkorion in Star Wars: The Old Republic, Arden Izunia in Final Fantasy 15, Revenant in Apex Legends, and one of my personal favorites, Reinhardt in Overwatch. Darin’s passion for voice acting is infectious and he has become a fixture at many different fan conventions, including BlizzCon where he often hosts panels and events.
As we begin our discussion, Darin recounts to me the unique and serendipitous journey he took into the world of voice acting. Darin began his acting career in the theater. He spent many decades acting both in Florida where he was born and raised, as well as in New York City. While his focus was on stage performance, he had always had a fascination with character voice acting work. Unfortunately, most of the people he spoke to in New York told him that the majority of voice over work in the area was for commercials, not characters. This didn’t deter him however. While working on a show at the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, he met a man who ran a loop group. For those of you who don’t know, a loop group is a group of actors who are hired to provide the background voices in films and television shows. This particular loop group was about to work on the animated film, Ice Age, and Darin was eager to participate! He auditioned and was accepted. Because of his extensive theater background, Darin was able to improvise many different voices for the film and came away from that experience excited to do more. However, it took him quite a while to find an agent who would be willing to represent him as a voice over talent. Eventually, an agency did take a chance on him and sent him out to audition for a monster character in a commercial for an airline. He booked the job and has been hooked on voice acting ever since!
Even with his newfound success, it still took many years before Darin and his wife, Deborah who is also an actress, finally decided to take the plunge, leave New York and fly to Los Angeles to see what voice over and acting opportunities they could find in Southern California. It was a fortuitous decision. Within 6 months of landing in LA, Darin took a voice over class with Andrea Toyias at Blizzard Entertainment, impressed her with his abilities, and began working on projects with her. His voice over career has done nothing but expand since then.
What I love about talking with Darin is that you can feel how much appreciation he has for the craft of acting. He didn’t get into acting because he wanted to become famous. After all, pursuing an acting career in the theater is definitely not a path to great celebrity or vast riches. Instead, Darin’s love for characters and story inspired him to become an actor for the sheer artistic satisfaction of it. He just loved it so much. That passion for acting coupled with a deep commitment to continually challenging himself to grow as an artist, took his theatrical acting career in so many interesting directions, which you’ll hear about in this episode! Nowadays, Darin draws on the wealth of his diverse theater experiences when voice acting characters. I hope that listening to his journey will inspire you to broaden your own acting skills so you can apply the rich experience you gain to the characters that you voice, just like Darin does!
One last thing. Debra, Darin’s wife, was kind enough to be the sound engineer for Darin’s interview so you may hear her voice in the background from time to time. They often help each other out when one of them has to record something for an audition or an acting job. I’m so grateful to Debra for helping make this interview happen! So without further ado, here’s Darin.
VAM 167 | Interview with Jon Bailey, Part 2
Welcome to episode 167 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
This is the second and final part of my interview with the epic voice guy himself, Jon Bailey! While Jon has worked in a number of different fields in voice over, including commercials, trailers, games, and animation, he’s probably most famous for doing the voiceover for the hit YouTube series, Honest Trailers. Jon is also a huge Transformers fan and has had the opportunity to play Optimus Prime in Transformers: Combiner Wars, as well as both Shockwave and Soundwave in the Transformers movie, Bumblebee. In addition, Jon voice matches celebrities for trailers and movies including Ryan Reynolds, Chris Hemsworth, and many other performers!
In the first part of our talk together, Jon shared with me his unique path for breaking into the world of voice over. Even though he grew up in Memphis, Tennessee where there were few opportunities for voice over work, his fascination with the expressive capabilities of the human voice, his willingness to attack challenges head on, and some encouragement from his wife, helped him get the attention of a studio in his area that was holding open auditions. His passion for voice acting and his prodigious abilities helped him book voice over roles much quicker than other performers at the same studio. With an entrepreneurial mindset and a willingness to think outside the box, Jon was then able to expand into other voice over marketplaces including Los Angeles where he eventually relocated with his family.
In this episode, we talk about what inspired Jon to become a voice actor in the first place. What’s interesting is that Jon doesn’t think about his desire to act in terms of formal inspiration, for him playing pretend as imaginary characters was just fun. When he was young, he often had a lot of time to himself. Being alone so much, he had to find creative ways to entertain himself. He read books, played games, and listened to music, all of which helped inspire his creativity. Often while he was reading books or listening to music, he would visualize the stories or make up images in his mind to go with the melodies he heard. This creative visualization would end up serving him very well when it came time to play pretend in imaginary worlds as a voice actor.
Jon also fell in love with the voice over introduction to the classic 1980’s cartoon, Voltron: Defender of the Universe. Later he discovered that the voice actor who performed the show’s opening narration, Peter Cullen, also played the main hero character Optimus Prime in the Transformers animated series. From then on, Jon was hooked on following voice actors and studying their performances. His ability to combine his appreciation of voice actors with his fertile imagination and creativity became a great foundation on which to build his voice acting career. In our discussion, you can hear his enthusiasm for the vast expressive capabilities of the human voice. I hope his passion inspires you to focus on the aspects of voice acting that you find most fascinating.
VAM 166 | Interview with Jon Bailey, Part 1
Welcome to episode 166 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 first part of my interview with the epic voice guy himself, Jon Bailey! Since 2009, Jon has worked in a number of different fields in voice over, from commercials to trailers, from games to animation, as well as loop groups and celebrity voice matching. Jon’s resume is long and varied! You may be familiar with his work as the Council Spokesman in the XCOM game series franchise, as Optimus Prime in Transformers: Combiner Wars, and as both Shockwave and Soundwave in the Transformers movie, Bumblebee. What you may not be familiar with is the fact that Jon voice matches many celebrities when producers need either scratch tracks or replacement dialogue for trailers or even for the final movie! He’s voice matched Ryan Reynolds, Chris Hemsworth, and many other performers! In addition, Jon is famous for being the epic trailer voice guy in the hit YouTube series, Honest Trailers.
Jon and I begin our discussion by talking about how he broke into voice over. It turns out that this involved quite a bit of serendipity! Jon was born and raised in the Memphis, Tennessee area. Even though he enjoyed experimenting with his voice and mimicking other voice actors, there weren’t a lot of opportunities for professional acting work around Memphis. With the rise of social media websites, Jon’s wife became interested in building him a profile on the then highly popular website, MySpace. She put all of his favorite things on his MySpace profile including his appreciation for cartoons. Jon didn’t think much of it at the time since he didn’t find social media websites very interesting. Little did he know his MySpace profile would change his life! One day, a pop-up ad for a production house called Studio Center showed up on Jon’s screen. The studio was having open auditions for voice talent in the Memphis area. Initially, Jon thought it would probably be a waste of time to go in and audition. Fortunately his wife convinced him otherwise. She asked him what he had to lose if he did go audition for the studio. “After all,” she said, “the worst they can do is say no.” Jon took her advice to heart, went to the open call, and the studio offered to represent him as a voice talent almost immediately. In less than a month, he had booked his first job and was beginning his journey into the world of professional voice over.
I’m really excited to share Jon’s story with you because his path into voice acting was so unique. He didn’t have the advantage of living near a city that had a large voice over industry. There was no easy access to professional acting jobs in his area. In addition, he never had the opportunity to study acting in school. Instead, his fascination, enthusiasm, and tenacity helped him find his own unique way into the voice over world. Jon has a passion for the human voice and is driven to explore all of its expressive capabilities. He’s eager to learn and willing to tackle thorny problems. Whether he’s facing the challenge of how to create a certain type of voice over performance, or how to find voice over opportunities, Jon is relentless! I hope you find inspiration in his journey and his ambition!
VAM 163 | Interview with Sarah Elmaleh, Part 2
Welcome to episode 163 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
This is the second and final part of my interview with voice actor and video game advocate, Sarah Elmaleh! Sarah has worked on many AAA and independent video games including Gone Home, Gears 5, BioWare’s Anthem, Pyre, After Party, and For Honor. In addition to her voice acting work, Sarah also works hard to facilitate communication and collaboration between the people who perform in video games and the ones who develop them, including co-founding and co-hosting GameDev.world, a global game developer conference that strives to help game designers from different linguistic backgrounds communicate with each other in their native tongues. In addition, Sarah and I have both participated in the Interactive Committee at our Actor’s Union, SAG-AFTRA, which helps negotiate video game contracts between the union and game producers. Sarah has been instrumental in helping to create a low-budget video game contract for independent game developers who would like to work with union acting talent. I’m very grateful to Sarah for spending so much time with me on the podcast talking about her experiences in the industry, and her love of games!
In the previous episode, Sarah told us the story of her initial journey as a performer. She began dancing when she was very young, but transitioned to acting after she suffered a leg injury. During that time, she was also an enthusiastic gamer and a huge Star Wars fan. When she discovered that Mark Hamill, the same actor who played Luke Skywalker, also played the voice of Adrian Ripburger in the LucasArts game, Full Throttle, she was amazed. From that moment, she became fascinated with voice acting and began to consider that career path as a possibility. After exploring acting in theater, film and TV, she eventually decided that her true passion was for games and eventually moved out to Los Angeles to pursue voice acting full time.
In this episode, Sarah and I talk about what inspired her to become an actor. Sarah is honest and courageous enough to share with me some of her own personal struggles and how she’s learned to channel her emotional vulnerability into compelling acting performances. Like Sarah, I too was a very sensitive child who found that I could use acting as a way to explore my psyche and learn how to more effectively process my own emotions. It’s a delicate topic and I’m glad we could explore it in more depth here in this section of the interview. After that, Sarah talks about her work as an ambassador of sorts between game developers and game performers, and we end our discussion with Sarah’s advice to the aspiring voice actor. Sarah has an amazing way to speak directly to a topic with incredible thoughtfulness and rigor and I’m so happy to share her insights with you!
Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #163 Here (MP3)