Voice ACTING: Why the “acting” is more important than the “voice”

it’s called voice ACTING

“I’ve always wanted to try voice acting, but I don’t know if I have the voice for it.”
“My voice is really unique and unusual, so I think I’d do great in this career field!”
“I’ve been told I have a great voice and should do this for a living.”
“I want to be a voice actor, because I enjoy doing a lot of funny voices.”
“There are a lot of people in the field already who have voice types like mine, so I’m not sure my voice is anything special.”
“I’ve been told I sound a lot like [insert well-known actor here] and/or can do a great impression of one of their characters, so maybe I’ll be successful too!”

Variations of the above statements come up quite frequently among those new to voice acting or looking to get their start. It’s very common for people to bring them up at conventions, in our Discord server, or in daily life when they meet a voice actor and can’t help but wonder if they might “have what it takes” to make it, too.

However, all of these sentiments overlook one important fact:  Voice acting is far more about the ACTING than it is the VOICE.

Instead of asking “do I have a good voice?”, try asking yourself questions such as…

Am I connecting with what the character is saying in this line?
Do I understand what my character is feeling in this particular scene/moment?
Do my recordings sound like the character is authentically speaking, or does it sound like an actor “performing” lines from a script the way they think they should be read?
Am I speaking to the other character in the scene, or speaking at them?
Am I able to use my performance to help tell the story in a meaningful way?

Practically speaking, how often does voice print play a factor in casting?

Voice print IS important to an extent—after all, if the character’s voice simply does not match their appearance, age or characteristics in any conceivable way, it can create a disconnect for audiences. And if you’re working on a project that was originally recorded in another language, sometimes (though not always) clients want to keep the voice print similar to how the character/actor sounded in the original language.

But how well a voice print “matches” a character is subjective, to some degree. Human beings can sound all different ways, and surely you have met people before whose voices surprised you because they did not sound the way you would have expected them to. What one casting director or client thinks happens to “fit” a character isn’t the be-all, end-all, and everybody has different preferences. A lot of times, the voice print aspect of casting can be somewhat beyond your control—while voices can be trained and ranges expanded, sometimes the decision maker(s) simply want a different “sound” than what you have to offer, and that’s okay.

Voice print is one factor in casting, but it’s far from the only factor. And even if your voice itself is the perfect fit for a character, you’ll very rarely get booked if the acting isn’t believable.

About your natural voice…

Can you voice act while using your normal voice, even if it doesn’t sound like anything special?

Absolutely. In fact, many productions these days are leaning away from a “cartoony” sound and/or overly stylized acting in favor of natural-sounding voices and performances—even for animation and yes, sometimes even anime. After all, animation is a medium, not a genre. As a generalization, a show aimed at preschool-aged children will likely have more fun and whimsical performance styles, whereas a show aimed at adults may have more grounded, conversational performance styles.

Similarly, while having a “voice for radio” was often seen as an asset for voiceover, commercials and narration have been leaning away from the “radio announcer sound” for years now. Most commercial specs request performances that sound authentic and real, like you are having a conversation with a friend rather than delivering a sales pitch (though in reality, this can be challenging as the audition scripts are still often written in a very “sales-y” manner)!

Having a “unique” voice can be seen as both a blessing and a curse. Some people envy those who naturally sound like a cartoon character, but rest assured that there is absolutely a market for “everyday” voices and in fact, having a voice that you think sounds generic might actually help you avoid being pigeonholed into one particular archetype.

Why you might dislike your natural voice

“But what if I hate my natural speaking voice,” you may be thinking. Don’t worry—that’s actually extremely common! Even some established professionals who voice act as their full-time living still have a hard time hearing playback of their own voices.

A big part of why this phenomenon happens is because scientifically, people sound different to themselves than they do to other people (just a few sources: 1, 2, 3.) It’s similar to how you’re used to seeing your own face in a mirror but may dislike seeing photos that other people take of you.

The good news is that 1) you tend to get over it by necessity as you’ll have to listen back to yourself often when editing auditions and files, 2) even if you are self-conscious about how your voice sounds, chances are others don’t think it’s anything strange, and 3) something that you may see as an undesirable vocal trait, such as nasality, can either be worked out with practice and awareness or perhaps even seen as a unique asset.

If, however, the reason you are uncomfortable with your natural voice is because it’s not in alignment with your gender identity, that’s a different story. Actors who experience gender dysphoria may wish to adjust the voice they use to sound in a way that is perceived as more masculine or feminine.

Voice actor Florence Wilder offers the following advice:

If the specs in an audition ask for “no put-on voices”, that doesn’t mean you must use your at-birth voice—though you can still keep and use that voice, if you like. Do the sound that you are capable of doing, for long periods of time, that is natural to YOU.

When experimenting with your sound, keep in mind the MII PARTS—aspects of your voice which you can control:
Musicality: Thinking in and expressing yourself in sound
Intonation: Variance of pitch and contours to provide meaning
Inflection: Where the emphases are placed
Prosody: Pitch, timbre, and length and intensity of sounds
Air Flow: How breathy or muted a sound becomes
Resonance: How sound is affected by the physical anatomy of the vocal tract
Tongue: Placement and positioning of the tongue in the oral cavity
Speed: Rate and clarity and which one creates sound

If you are looking for places to train in either masculinization or femininization, search for trained Speech-Language Pathologists like Prismatic Speech or take classes with a place such as QueerVox. Avoid any place that offers you a “scholarship” that is really just a reduced cost of their services. Alternatively, watch videos from experts online. There are a ton of resources out there and various methods by which to practice. Be cautious when taking advice from videos only, as the speakers often aren’t trained Speech-Language Pathologists and don’t teach methods by which to practice both well and safely.

Do you truly hate the way your voice sounds, or are you just self-conscious of your speaking mannerisms?

Cringing when you listen back to a recording is especially likely to happen if it’s something where you’re speaking unfiltered as opposed to reading lines from a script. For example, let’s say you are asked to give a speech at a friend’s wedding, and someone takes a video of it. You are then horrified, thinking “do I really sound like THAT?”

But in reality, it may be less about your voice and more about the way you are speaking in such a situation. For example, did you rush and/or trip over your words out of nervousness? Used filler words like “umm,” “uhh,” or “like” too often? Do you have an awkward laugh that bothers you? These are all things that human beings normally do, but it’s easy to feel self-conscious of them.

Try recording yourself reading from a script. Use a proper microphone if possible (cell phones, laptops, headsets, and other lower quality microphones may distort your voice and not accurately represent how you really sound.) Concentrate on slowing down and enunciating your words, and chances are you will find that you already sound more professional.

Characters can sound all different ways, just like real people

A common misconception in voice acting is that you will be locked into or locked out of certain archetypes based on how your voice sounds. For example, someone with a high-pitched voice might feel like they will only be cast as “cute” or “funny” characters, and someone with a deep voice might feel they will only be cast as serious characters, authority figures or villains. But that doesn’t have to be the case. After all, in real life, people with all types of voices go into all different professions and have different motives. Someone can have a naturally “cute” sounding voice and be a parent, a soldier, or a cop. What will “sell” your ability to be believable as a character are your acting choices as that character.

But what if you want to alter the way you sound in order to play a character?

Voices can be trained

Beginners should prioritize learning acting techniques more than trying to alter one’s voice, but obviously not every role you perform as has to be in your natural speaking voice, and plenty of actors embrace learning to be a “vocal chameleon”, playing all sorts of roles and perhaps even multiple characters in the same production.

There are many circumstances where you might want to sound different from how you normally do: strengthening archetypes outside of your usual wheelhouse, playing more than one role in a project, playing a character of a different age or gender, voice matching a celebrity, or even just to have fun and improve your confidence.

Just like using a muscle, the more you practice, the more easily you’ll be able to train yourself to be able to sound a certain way when you need to. The key is of course to do it safely (use proper vocal technique, don’t strain, and stop if it hurts). And always remember: “doing a voice” is not a substitute for good acting.

Will expanding my vocal range help to improve my bookings?

Having versatility never hurts, and naturally if you are more versatile in terms of the types of characters you can go out for, it can be an extra competitive edge. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be a range actor or have an impressive range. The problem is that many beginner actors focus on learning range over learning acting skills, and being able to do a bunch of different voices isn’t going to help you book if you can’t believably interpret a script. So learning to act shoud be your number one priority, but you can practice your range on the side.

One way that vocal range can be a great bonus is in “utility work”, where you are brought in to fill in a bunch of side characters (often unnamed). These could be NPCs in a video game, one-off characters in an episode of a show, etc. These characters may only have a small handful of lines each, but because it is standard in professional voice work to pay session minimums, productions will usually want to hire a few versatile voice actors to cover a bunch of these smaller roles. While care is usually taken to not have any of these characters speaking to each other in the same scene, you’ll want to be able to differentiate the voices at least just enough that it wouldn’t be noticeable to viewers that it’s the same person.

Vocal age (it’s not just about pitch)

While some productions cast real children to voice child characters, this isn’t always possible or practical due to the various logistical challenges of employing minors. Therefore, it is fairly common for characters who are children or teenagers to be voiced by adults with “youthful” voices.

But what exactly makes a voice sound youthful? The mistake many less experienced actors make when trying to voice children or teens is simply raising the pitch of their voice and calling it a day. But speaking in an artificially high voice is not automatically going to make you sound younger—it may even result in just sounding silly and cartoony, which could be fine if that’s the specific style of the production, but if you’re going for a more “authentic” sound, as many productions are these days, it’s just not going to work.

This is because pitch is only ONE factor in how old or young we perceive someone to sound. Pacing, articulation, vocabulary, texture and cadence all play a factor as well. Not all kids or teens have high voices, either! But there may be other aspects of the way they speak that conveys a sense of youth. Similarly, adults with high-pitched voices exist (for example, Bernadette in The Big Bang Theory or Charlie in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia have higher sounding voices, but they are still perceived as adults.)

One tip for improving your child/teen voices is to listen to how actual, modern-day kids and teenagers really speak (not an adult’s imitation of a child on a cartoon, which is another mistake people sometimes make when working on this aspect of their voice acting—while studying adults who voice children well can be helpful technique-wise, it’s not a substitute for the main part of this exercise!) You can do this on places like YouTube and TikTok, or even just observe how kids you know in real life, such as younger siblings/nieces/nephews, tend to speak. As a very generalized example, loosening up your diction can be an often overlooked tip for sounding less like an “adult”.

Impressions and voice matching

Learning from and imitating currently working actors can actually be a useful tool to help you explore character archetypes and parts of your range that you might normally feel less confident in. However, try not to focus just on imitating the original actor’s vocal tone, but also the personality and essence they bring to the character. Even if you happened to book a voice match job, chances are it wouldn’t just be a “listen and repeat” – you’d have to record new lines as that character while not only sounding close to the actor whose voice you’re matching but embodying that character as a whole.
See our full article on impressions here.

Things to ask yourself on a technical level

Do I know how to properly support and use my voice in a healthy manner so that I do not end up straining my voice, especially during long sessions?

Particularly for those whose voices have a natural “gravel” or “grit” to them, it can be tempting to want to go ham on playing all sorts of characters that lend themselves well to this vocal type. However, it is essential that you learn proper vocal technique (such as diaphragm support) to avoid strain or injury—-remember, a video game or animation session will often require 2 to 4 hours in the booth at a time, during which you will be expected to sustain and perform consistently in that vocal placement. If a voice feels uncomfortable to do during your audition…think very carefully about whether you’d actually be able to sustain it during a session.

Am I able to maintain consistency with the character if I have timing constraints or other technical limitations to work within?

Many, many voice actors especially desire to work in anime and localized video games. But for anime, keep in mind that you will need to dub to picture, matching the mouth flaps exactly as they are already animated. This can often present more of a challenge than you might anticipate, because you do not have the freedom to use pacing to help tell the story. Even in localized video games, it is common to have timing restrictions where the length of the English VO needs to match within a certain number of frames to the original language VO. So, can you act (and maintain a consistent voice) without the ability to naturally speed up, slow down, or take pauses (or, have to pause in an unnatural place in order to fit lip flaps?) If the director or engineer asks you to go faster or slower to fit sync, can you provide the same intent in your performance but with adjusted timing? The technical side of your work will be refined with on-the-job practice, but the acting instincts must be there. An experienced voice director can easily coach on sync, but it’s a lot harder to teach someone acting fundamentals when they’re on the clock!

Closing concepts

voice ACTING: little “v”, big “A”

Industry veteran Rob Paulsen told AV Club, “The way in which we consume entertainment with all these platforms is different too, but my process is no different. I’m an actor. It just happens to be voice acting, with a is small “v” and a large “A.” It’s all about acting. Virtually everybody I know grew up doing stage and music and TV and movies, and the process for me is no different. I just don’t have to worry about makeup.”

Even if you have no interest in doing theatre or on-camera work, taking classes and/or learning concepts related to stage, TV and film acting can help make you a more well-rounded performer. This goes for observing established actors’ performances, too—consuming media outside of just anime, cartoons and JRPGs can help give you ideas on how a performance can be extremely compelling without relying on vocal affectation. Again, there’s nothing wrong with learning to do different voices, but voice alone isn’t going to “sell” the character.

When you’re committed to delivering a strong performance, the voice will often follow

Vocal shifts when playing a character can actually happen subconsciously. When you are committed to telling that character’s truth, you may find that the voice you use will naturally follow along.

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This article is written by Kira Buckland. While all guides and resources on this site are provided on a volunteer basis, you may optionally support with a coffee if you found them helpful!