VAM 103 | Interview with Richard Horvitz, Part 3
Welcome to episode 103 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 third and final part of my interview with my personal voice acting mentor, the amazing Richard Horvitz!
Richard has worked on many famous animated shows including Angry Beavers, Invader Zim and the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
Richard is also a teacher of voice acting and offers both classes and private coaching through his website at RichardHorvitz.com
In the last episode, Richard shared with us his incredibly useful 5 step process for helping an actor play pretend more fully. If you haven’t listened to that episode yet, I recommend you go back and check it out. We reference those 5 steps quite often in our discussion.
In this episode, I get to reveal to you the famous animated character from the late 60’s/early 70’s that Richard and I both dearly love. It’s fascinating to me that Richard and I are such different types of actors and yet we both have an amazing appreciation for the same character. Richard also talks about when it’s appropriate for a voice actor to say no to auditioning for certain projects. We wrap up our conversation with Richard’s final advice to aspiring voice actors as well as information on how to contact Richard in order to take class with him. I’m honored to present you the final part of my interview with my voice acting mentor.
If you are interested in taking class or being coached by Richard, please check out the classes section of Richard’s website!
Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #103 Here (MP3)
One of my concerns about my own acting is the fact that I came in late in finally deciding to become a voice actor. It took time for me to realize that my interest in acting had become more than just something I was fascinated with in watching movies, playing video games, etc. I’m glad you and Richard were able to address this with his response about being human, which I have 23 years of experience.
Thank you again and thanks to Richard for taking time to be on the podcast.
Hello Mike,
Out of curiosity, when did you start your journey towards becoming a VA? I’m 29 myself, completely amateur for now, and started taking acting classes when I was 27, I often think to myself that it’s very late. I’m interested in hearing your journey.
I just realized you actually said your age in your first comment. Nevermind! 23 years old is not late at all, good for you, man!
That’s alright. Thanks, I appreciate it.
Success in voice acting is not about coming in early or late. I know plenty of people who started studying acting at an early age and have not made much headway professionally. Alternatively, I’ve met people who began pursuing voice acting in their adult years with a serious and committed mindset and have done quite well for themselves.
Your age is not the deciding factor. Your skill level and your commitment to improve it to a professional level is the deciding factor.
Glad you’re enjoying the interview.
Fascinating. I’ll have to listen to the entire interview again and take notes. I have learned more about acting from this interview than I did from my college classes (and yes, that is a knock at my college classes).
I’m trying to be more self aware, and I noticed that when people meet me, I’m always treated like everyone’s junior. This is just the feeling people get from me, even if I haven’t done much or done a lot. On stage and film, I’ve been recommended to play the kid brother, the student, the intern, the assistant, the new guy, the nerdy friend, the inexperienced one, etc. That sort of thing. However, growing up the way I did, anger, intensity and negative emotions come easier to me to portray. My favorite characters growing up have always been smart-alecks like Yakko, Bugs Bunny, Spider-Man, Timon from Lion King, Genie from Alladin. I think all these factors contribute to the kinds of characters I can play believably.
“Who is my favorite actor? Wow…” That made me laugh.
I understand that some people think that they don’t want to see them, they want to see the character. What people want is to see you as the character, and I know this because in the credits they always put your name first. Then they put the character’s name.
Thanks to you and Richard Horvitz so much for your time and wisdom. I would love to take a Skype class with Richard, and would like to work with you again someday.
I’m glad you’ve found this interview so helpful! I’m sorry that your college classes weren’t more helpful to you.
*casually downloads all the episodes now*
I sincerely loved this interview, and I’m looking at his website now to hopefully take classes with him soon. Also on iTunes giving your podcast 5 stars! (didn’t know why I didn’t do this before… oh well, better late than never!)
Can’t wait till the next episode!
Oh, btw, do you take issue if people rip the audio from this blog or iTunes and post it up somewhere else? I’m supposing since it’s a free podcast, no, but just curious.
~ Kalyn
I’m glad you liked the interview and thank you for your 5 star review on iTunes. I really appreciate it.
Please do not post my podcast episodes on other websites. While the podcast is free, that doesn’t change the fact that it is my content, no one else’s. I own the copyright to this podcast. If you would like to talk about certain episodes of my podcast on another site, please link to my episodes here on VoiceActingMastery.com. I work very hard to maintain this site and every visitor I get helps me keep the site up and running.
Is there a reason why you would take the content I work very hard to create and post it somewhere else?
I would never take your work and post it elsewhere. You have my promise as your faithful student.
The reason I brought it up is because I saw someone post a link to this particular episode (just the audio) in a post on a facebook group I’m a part of. I immediately commented saying one could find it at VAM.com. I can screencap it and email you the particular post as proof if you wish.
I’d just thought I’d let you know just in case you were adverse to the idea.
~ Kalyn
Thank you for your understanding Kalyn.
I would appreciate it if you would screen cap the Facebook page you’re talking about. I’d like to see exactly what is going on.
Thanks for letting me know about it!
A wonderful conclusion to a terrific interview! And thanks for the reminder to rate & review on iTunes – all done now! (I have finally begun the assimilation into the iFamily!)
I love that I got to take a weekend intensive with Richard last month, as it gave me a chance to get hands on experience in applying everything he talked about in this interview. And furthermore, it gave me another point of view to look at exactly the lessons you have imparted on me in classes I’ve taken with you. The two of you complement each other just brilliantly, illuminating the same lesson from different angles.
I’m so very glad to have worked with two genius teachers!
Thanks yet again,
Flor
You’re very welcome! And thank you for giving me a review on iTunes! I really appreciate it.
I’m very glad to hear that our teaching compliment each other! Considering the high regard with which I hold Richard, that is high praise indeed.
I’m curious about our complimentarity. Could you put into words how we compliment each other? I always like to put myself in the mindset of my students so as to help them better. Hearing how you meld Richard’s teachings with mine would be very interesting to me.
Thanks again for the compliments. That’s incredibly kind of you.
Okay, well I’ll see if I can explain beyond what I wrote above. It was largely a sense of resonance. The different angles are kind of obvious after listening to this episode of your interview. Richard is very animated and his approach is driven by spirit – he even wrote it as “something to think about”: The voice does the work of the spirit.
Whereas your approach comes from an intellectual place and may seem subdued, but it’s because your primary tendency is for thoughtfulness. I wrote a note on something you said in class a while ago, so I’m sorry if this isn’t verbatim: The microphone is a lie detector; it reveals your thoughts. I didn’t write it down because it clarified to me *your* mindset, I just thought it was worth remembering that I can’t BS the mic.
The choice of words is what comes to mind now, lies and thoughts versus voice and spirit. Both you and Richard were making the same point, but from different points of view.
Richard’s second point “A willingness to enter a secondary reality” reminded me of what you’ve said about actor one/actor two. Richard, of course, put in terms of playing, a sense of inhabiting an imaginary world fully and kind of delighting in being there… basically letting the spirit run free in that secondary reality, whereas the primary reality is where all the technical skill we’ve honed goes (breath support, reading comprehension etc). The parallel to actor one/actor two is pretty clear. This could also be left brain/right brain, or the technical versus artistic demands of acting.
His fourth point, too, resonates with what you’ve said. “What do I want?” “What do I need from my scene partner?”
All in all, Richard encouraged us to play without restrictions so that the work of developing the character and the world was in place and we were confident of that before we even got to the mic. If I’m not wildly off the mark, that’s largely your goal too but articulated as “be brilliant!” At your Audition Analysis class you introduced a process for it you named with the acronym CROWS. Sidestepping what it was, it had the same objective as Richard’s “I am” step, but from an intellectual angle.
Both of these approaches speak to me, but in different ways. If the above word dump doesn’t make it clear, I’m much more prone to intellectualizing any task at the drop of a hat. I’m not any where near as energetic as Richard is. So the way you articulate your lessons works for me very well from the word go. But because I also have a tendency to massively overthink any objective, I also get a lot of mileage out of lessons in just going out to play. It doesn’t come naturally to me, believe it or not, but it was a rare pleasure to relieve the days back in first grade and playing GI Joe and no one telling me I needed to be more this or less that.
Anyhow. I hope that’s helpful. }:>
Thanks,
Flor
That breakdown is incredibly helpful! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to reply. That’s a wonderfully cogent comparison of our two teaching styles. I really appreciate you taking the time to give me the “word dump”. I find it very insightful and I hope others will as well! Thank you.
I really appreciated these past three podcasts. I learned so much and feel motivated to making a hobby into a possible career. Mr. Richard made some excellent points about how to pretend with your character fully and just to have fun with it as well. I really enjoy these podcasts and I hope to hear and learn more from them. Thank you, Mr. Freeman.
You’re very welcome Chasity. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to reply, I’ve been busy making episodes and working on other Voice Acting Mastery projects. So glad you enjoyed the interview!
Mr freeman I just wanted to let you know I have started to read jack angles book how to successed in voice over with out ever losing and I have say I love it its heart so far. I have you ever thought about making a book I’m sure you would be great at it.
I’m glad you like Jack’s book! I think it’s great as well.
I may try my hand at writing a book myself. I’ll have to see where things go in the future. Thanks for your vote of confidence.
Your interview segments are always stellar, but you really knocked it out of the park with your Richard Horvitz interview. Along with the information and insights you shared with us, you both showed an obvious passion and joy for your craft that was incredibly motivating to listen to. Thanks so much for such an amazing gift.
You’re very welcome! I had a wonderful subject to be interviewing! So glad you like Richard’s insight so much!