Sirenetta Leoni Inside Voiceover—Information + Insights On Voice Acting

The audiobook narrators' dilemma: while you may be cast to narrate an audiobook because your gender, ethnicity, race, accent, age and/or sexuality align closely with the main protagonist's, how do you handle  performing other characters in the book whose gender, race, ethnicity, etc. is different than yours in an authentic, yet sensitive way? Is this acceptable, or even possible, in 2021?

This article is a fair, realistic examination of what is and isn't possible, given the logistics and lean budgets of  audiobook publishing, and includes examples of situations where narrators decided to turn down jobs and why. 

Couldn't we all use some good laughs and a lot of fun right about now? Just in the nick of time, "Animaniacs" is back with its original, now legendary, series cast: Rob Paulsen as “Yakko Warner” & “Pinky,”, Tress MacNeille  as “Dot Warner," Jess Harnell as “Wakko Warner,” and the unparalleled Maurice LaMarche as “The Brain." 

Entertaining piece from CBS This Morning on the rising popularity of audiobooks, featuring audiobook reader par excellence, Scott Brick, well-known to many of you. Looks like everyone wants in these days, including top Hollywood celebs. One other interesting thing they mention is that they are bypassing the "book" part altogether and pieces are being written expressly to be performed as audio plays. IIRC used to call them radio dramas, which just goes to prove that there is still a demand for theater of the mind. My one beef with the piece is that the only female narrator is shown on camera for literally one second. It would have been nice to have gotten her perspective, as well.

Insightful article from the Washington Post on the changing role of voice actors in the video game industry, including the long-term effects of vocal stress, the low pay for game work relative to other media and the consequences of the recently-settled SAG-AFTRA strike. 

The article, while fair,  is generally sympathetic to the voice actor's point-of-view. This observation from voice actor Kate Flannery really hit home with us: “That’s the weird thing about vocal stress...You push yourself to do these voices because you want to be easy to work with. And that’s where you get hurt. There’s a people-pleasing aspect that doesn’t happen when you’re [onscreen] acting.” 

Any voice actor who has been around a while has found him- or herself in a situation where, eager to please, they pushed themselves way too hard, and suffered the consequences. If they were lucky, they only lost their voice for a day or two. Others not so fortunate however, have suffered long-term and even permanent damage. Voice actors should be afforded more protection in this area and allowed to say "no" when a client is asking them to go beyond what is reasonable and do something potentially damaging to their voice without fear of repercussion or being blackballed for "being difficult."

Caveat orator! Let the speaker beware! Most veteran audiobook narrators are aware and on the lookout for these types of scams on ACX, but if you're new to the process, make sure to educate yourself on what to look for to avoid being taken in by these nefarious "author" bots. ACX has recently changed the rules, so that there are fewer incentives for scammers to produce sham books, but you know that it's only a matter of time before they find other ways to game the system, like the suspected AI voice-cloning example mentioned towards the end of the article. 

Interesting article which discusses how actors, like Kristin Bell and Hank Azaria, have recently relinquished playing characters who are supposed to be people of color and the changes this will have on voiceover casting going forward. While their actions were generally applauded, there are still a few dissenting voices within the industry, including casting directors, who believe that the best actor, irrespective of race or ethnicity, should be chosen for the role.

That you should only consider actors of the same race if the character is supposed to be a person of color seems obvious to me; there should be no ambiguity about that, but casting based on an actor's ethnicity seems like a more complicated, nuanced issue. If only Americans are allowed to play Americans, British only British characters and Australians only Australians, it seems as though half the roles in TV and movies will have to be recast.

Far too long overdue, but finally audiobook narrators are able to compete on the basis of their talent---their ability to connect with a story and engage their audience---as opposed to just whether they have the  perfect neutral Mid-western "American" accent (whatever that is or ever was).