Voice Acting as an Art

Aditya Pandey, New Delhi

Once answering a fan’s question, Troy Baker said that the key to becoming a good voice actor is to buy a good quality microphone, set up a booth and wait for him and Nolan North to die. You may or may not recognise these two names but most of you will recognise their voice. The above mentioned names are voice actors; the voices behind some of the most captivating characters in movies/shows/video games. Voice acting as an art may seem simple on the surface but it is much more complex with every layer you explore within it. It’s not only about understanding how hard imitation or voicing is, but also how bad voice acting can ruin a movie or video game. A good job done in voice acting can make a voice almost synonymous with the character. A good example of this is Kevin Conroy as Batman. Kevin Conroy is a stage performer who has often mentioned how coming up with the voice of Batman,exactly how the producers wanted it, was one of the hardest things he had to do.

He didn’t just use his naturally deep voice but instead came up with a dark, brooding, intimidating and dirty NYC voice with a sense of maturity that indicates another aspect of the job: subjective interpretation. Mark Hamill created the Joker’s laugh depending on the mood of the character and the thing/idea/situation he’s laughing at while Troy Baker, when voicing a younger version of the same character, showed more anger, motivation and reason behind his whole personality.

Voice actors are usually actors who use every muscle in their body to express what the character demands while not moving (which would help them a lot to express) because their microphone is right in front of them. If you watch any of Mark Hamill’s recording sessions as The Joker, you’ll notice that he physically manifests himself into that character while doing the voice for the character. Motion capture also stresses the same point of voice actors being actors in the first place as they pretty much know how their character is going to behave, sound, and act in a scene of a video game. The acting aspect of this art is complex as you usually have only one way of expressing the character and that is the voice. You do not use your body language or your face to express your emotions. A voice actor once said that when you are voice acting, you’re screaming, you’re yelling but the inability to physicalize that almost leaves your body sore in a weird way.