VAM 079 | Interview with Grace Rolek, Part 3
Welcome to episode 79 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 third and final part of my interview with the very talented young voice actress, Grace Rolek. Grace and I had the good fortune to work together on the show Steven Universe for Cartoon Network where Grace plays Steven’s girlfriend, Connie. You may also have heard Grace’s work in shows like Mulan II, Final Fantasy Advent Children and as the voice of Lucy in the Charlie Brown special Happiness is a Warm Blanket. Grace has been voice acting since she was 5 or 6 years old and is 16 at the time of this interview. I was eager to get Grace on the podcast so she could share with all of my listeners what it took for her to become a successful voice actress at such a young age.
As we wrap up our discussion, Grace tells me what it was like working on such an iconic character as Lucy from the Peanuts. She also discusses how even as a young child actress, she understood how important it was to behave in a mature way when at the recording studio. She ends our chat by giving her advice to aspiring young voice actors, which is the same advice she uses herself while pursuing her voice acting career!
Thanks for listening!
Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #79 Here (MP3)
Nice. Reminds me of Jack Angel’s “It’s selection, not rejection” advice.
Thanks to you and Grace for your time and wisdom.
Yup! You’re right, it does sound like Jack. Both veterans and rookies have to remember the same advice. Glad you’re seeing the pattern!
Amazing 🙂 When I was little and younger, I wasn’t intelligent and emotionally mature enough at all because of my mental health and non-verbal and verbal communication problems. I’m also an easy going, creative, whimsical, charming and a nice person. I also keep learning about cold reading. About my language disorder, I still keep learning more about emotional response from more films/shows. I’m also planning to go the speech department to get more help of my language/communication problems. My voice, I sounded more for soft-well spoken preteen girls to sincere later teen girls in sweet early twenties. If they want me to do audition of any Alice-type or sweeter anime characters, I do want to be aware of the competition as well. Yes, fear of rejection is my worst enemy too. Thank you so much for sharing with amazing words of wisdom, Crispin and Grace 🙂
You’re very welcome.
I enjoyed the episode today and I would like to thank you and Grace for your insights. It is amazing to look at the auditions that never to think that the fear of being rejected is your own worst enemy. But maybe as Grace says that to just look at the positive side of the auditions and failures and that you’ll know you’re good enough. My question is as an actor if you have ever felt frustrated, what is a good way to let out some steam and that you’ll stay calm throughout the projects you’re working on?
I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the interview.
As far as overcoming frustration, everyone has their own methods. For me, I usually need to clear my head, either by changing my physical state like going outside, breathing fresh air, doing something physical, or I need to change my emotional state by listening to music I like, pursuing an intellectual topic that interests me or watching something I care about.
If I’m actually in the studio and things are going crazy, I have to try to shake out my body and talk myself down internally to reassure myself that I have the ability to handle anything that comes my way.
Thank you for your insight.
I want to thank you for these past few episodes Mr.Freeman because I’m pretty young right now, 19 as a matter of fact, and this has really been pushing me to really reach for my dreams and not let thngs like age or my own timid behavior about acting get in my head and get in my way.
Wonderful. I’m glad you’ve found the interview so inspiring. Best of luck to you.
A great wrap up to the interview. Thank you to both you and Grace for taking the time to do this. She really does have wisdom beyond her years.
That she does! Glad you enjoyed it.
Wonderful! I’ve enjoyed the whole interview and found Grace very compelling and wise. I am *ahem* much older but still very much appreciate the thought “I’m working here!” when emotions and frustrations start to pull me off my game. Very great insights from two great pros.
I had to giggle when you noted that sometimes it feels like the child actor is more mature than her older cast mates, because that has been my observation when I’ve worked with kids on plays – sometime it felt like the 8 year old was the only adult in the room. (Then again, teenagers, oy vey. Some are calm like Grace and some are…not.)
Grace is amazingly mature. Period. It is stunning to find so much calmness and professionalism in someone so young, but the kind of centered-ness that she has is uncommon almost no matter how one qualifies her!
My take away: Calm down, get to work.
Thank you once again, Crispin.
You’re very welcome. I really wanted people to experience Grace’s purity of intention. I saw it in action in the booth while recording and I had no doubt it would come across as we chatted casually about the voice acting process.
That’s a great take away as well. Glad you found it so useful.
Grace was a treat to listen to. She is extremely mature for a 16 year old these days, and it’s refreshing to see such wisdom from someone so young.
Great interview with a fantastic guest, looking forward to more!
~ Kalyn
You’re very welcome! I wanted to make sure my audience heard from younger actors as well as seasoned veterans so they can see the commonality of mindset. Glad you enjoyed it.
I just read all the comments here and I wanted to thank everyone for their lovely words. This was such a fun interview and I’m so glad that my words have been inspirational.
As a young voice actor, I still have much to learn, but it was an honor to share that which I have already learned with all of you.
Crispin, your voice acting series is awesome! I’m so grateful we had the opportunity to work together on Steven Universe. Looking forward to more episodes. Thanks (again) for having me on!
Thanks so much for commenting Grace! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed not only other people’s comments but the podcast as well! It was great to share your insights with my audience!