If you want to get into the business of doing voices for cartoons, you've got to be a good actor. It's all about acting. It's not about the voice. The voice is just one part of what you bring to the character.
I always wanted voice over to be part of my career. Even as a child, I'd watch cartoons and know that someone was doing the voices. When I moved to L.A., my hope was that I'd do on-camera work and voice over. I've ended up doing both, but the voice over side took off in a way that I didn't expect!!
I loved the idea of doing impressions and mimicking and playing around with the spectrum of your own voice. That's what I enjoy most about doing voiceovers. You can be completely unconscious with the rest of your body and just concentrate on doing something with your voice, creating an entire character with your voice.
I literally fell into this business. I never came down one day and said, "Atticus' thought of the day...I want to be an actor!" My mom and I would always read story books out loud together and I loved doing character voices and playing with my voice.
There are times when the voice of repining is completely drowned out by various louder voices: the voice of government, the voice of taste, the voice of celebrity, the voice of the real world, the voice of fear and force, the voice of gossip.
I got good at trying to throw a voice on a character from the very beginning as opposed to like reading it and sitting with it and mulling over it and stuff like that just try to read what it is and then try to put a funny voice to it like as soon as possible and stuff like that. Once you get laughs with your voice then you can start thinking about, you know the physical characteristics and how they might walk or if they stick out their buck teeth or if they wear an afro and stuff like that. I think like finding the voice of the character helps to like build the wardrobe and everything else.
I'm always thinking about songs and how I can sing a song that would resonate with my voice, my persona. I want it to be a pleasant experience that's not just about hearing my voice. I remember some singers whose voices were so pretty, it didn't matter what they sang - you loved it.
The cool thing about doing a voice-over into a different language is that you get to bring the character of your own culture into it.
'Selma' is a story about voice - the voice of a great leader; the voice of a community that triumphs despite turmoil; and the voice of a nation striving to grow into a better society. I hope the film reminds us that all voices are valuable and worthy of being heard.
With voice overs... you're not thinking about the camera. So your voice becomes this thing that you can manipulate. And depending on the character you're doing, it's all concentration on your voice.
I had a very low voice for the character in the show. I said, "That's not actually my voice. That's the character's voice." I'm being such an actor.
There are a few pretty fundamental differences. In voice acting, if you are doing game recording, for the most part you are going to be by yourself in a studio. With game voice acting you are constructing everything for yourself pretty much. You're thinking about what the other characters could be doing, trying to imagine the scene, you're constructing the entire environment for yourself.
What I enjoy most about doing voiceovers is that you can be completely unconscious with the rest of your body and just concentrate on doing something with your voice, creating an entire character with your voice.
I think everything you do, characters I always find, have their own voices and once you establish who that character is you find a different voice. I think it's just a question of establishing that character and the voice speaks through that character.
I loved the opportunity to just transform my voice. I loved the idea of doing impressions and mimicking and playing around with the spectrum of your own voice. That's what I enjoy most about doing voice-overs.
I think getting something together to showcase your voice is important. You can also watch cartoons and play games and just kinda listen, and try to see how the design of the character matches to the voice.
To be honest, there is a special gift for doing voice-overs, and the people who did the voices in the 'SpongeBob' cast are excellent at cartoon voice-overs, and they bring something extra to the reads.