SPEAKER_00 1:17

His name was MG Kelly, Machine Gun Kelly, and he was a DJ in LA. And he taught a class, a workshop, and this tells you about how long ago it was and how things have changed. I think it was a four to six week workshop, evenings, three hours every uh every time we met. And at the end of the workshop, you left with a demo tape. Now, at this time, those were real-to-real demo tapes, so we are talking a long time ago. And um, you would go in and do a special session with him, and you'd record a bunch of different copies, sometimes just narration, sometimes animation, sometimes commercial, and he would edit together a demo for you with music and effects and the whole deal. What I learned in that was how many different types of voiceover there are. Everything from talking toys. You know, Chatty Kathy was a pool toy that spoke, and that was the voice of June Foray. She spoke and recorded that voice. There's certainly animation, there's commercials, there's radio stuff, there's point of purchase. So, you know, you go into a store and there's a big standee and you press a button and it talks to you. That's a voiceover gig. Talking watches, voiceover gig, um, movie trailers, promos, um, teasers, bumpers, all these different things that were used for television viewing. And um, aside from you know, uh animation voicing. And so he gave me that class, he gave me a tremendous amount of information as to all the other things that were available. I also learned microphone technique, how not to pop on a microphone, right? How to know how far away to stand. And and I actually developed my own um theory about that for people who are having trouble with my technique, which was think about the microphone as a human ear. You wouldn't get close to a microphone, I mean to a human ear, and shout into it. If you get close, you're quieter, right? If you're talking into a human ear. If you're gonna have to shout, you back off. And that seems to help people get a better sense of the space around a microphone, how to use it. Um, I also learned that in that class from MG Kelly, um, that there's much to be learned from your fellow students. Much to be learned, what to do right, what to do wrong. Everything from page turning, right? When you're working on a script in an animation session, everybody's got a full paper script on their stand. You can't just pick that paper up and turn it and put it over there in the middle of the session because that will be recorded. So you have to learn how to slide the paper over. You don't turn it, you don't flip it, you just slide it and put it down to avoid that. And you do that when your microphone is not on, when someone else is speaking. So all those kinds of uh recording studio uh information that everybody needs that that lots of like celebrities or people who had not done voiceover before just didn't think of, didn't know. I remember working with an actor that I just loved working with, Eric Roberts, and he had built voiceover for animation, and he would would like do this on the lines and rub his legs, and I had to actually go out into the studio and and tell him where to put his hands and not you know because and and another really simple thing is overlapping. You can't overlap in animation because the track readers need each track separate so they know which character's mouth to animate open, right? We're doing the dialogue first, then comes the animation. If someone's going, ah, and the next guy goes, ah ah, you have to make sure the one mouth goes, ah, and the other guy's goes, ah ah. Not overlapping, in which case the track reader can't tell whose mouth to open. So no overlapping. I learned that in in those classes. I learned things like not wearing noisy clothing. That seemed like such a simple, easy thing, but I can't tell you how many times I've had to ask an actor to remove their shirt. And Lydia, you should be able to remember this. Lexi probably won't know who the heck I'm talking about. But Carol Channing was working for me over at Disney, and she was wearing a beautiful starched white cotton blouse. Just looked stunning, but every time she moved, it went wheel. And I said, Does anybody have a t-shirt that we can give Miss Channing that she can wear for the recording? And nobody did. She goes, Oh, darling. She unbuttons her blouse, hangs it on the end of the microphone stand, and records the entire session in her bra. It was so wild. I loved it so much. The darling, it's fine, don't worry about it. But I mean, that seems such a simple thing as wearing not noisy clothes or jewelry, you know, jewelry that would make noise, or heavy cologne. Some people are very sensitive, and so you're I we used to work back in the day, uh, ensemble record, which was the entire group there together, all the actors there. And sometimes somebody's cologne would disturb someone so much allergy-wise that they had to actually leave the room, and we had to air out the studio after that actor left and let them come back in. So, real simple things like that were taught in that class, and those are things that I brought with me all along, reminding my students when I started teaching. Um, I also learned that you you you achieve so much more with a student if you treat them with respect and kindness. An actor is so sensitive that if you shut them down by saying no or wrong or don't do that, you've already put a wall up that's going to be very hard for the actor to either climb over or break through. Everything with kindness, enthusiasm, and encouragement. Again, actors are very sensitive. You want them to be sensitive. And so I developed a theory of, or a kind of a way of life, of treating actors the way I wanted to be treated when I was trying to be an actor. Just don't ever do anything to an actor that I wouldn't want to have done to me when I was trying to do it. And that mostly is about respect.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

I want to go back to Eric Roberts and the hand movement, uh, because I think that as actors, sometimes we don't know where to put our hands. And so, what is the technique that actors can use when they are doing voiceover to keep their hands still?

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Right? The thing is, if you are wearing quiet clothes, uh, and first of all, I always suggest that it's better for breath control, it's better for energy to stand for a recording session rather than sit. If you sit, you're not really allowing the diaphragm to fully lower to allow that enormous chamber to fill with air, right? And so I always suggest people stand up. So if you're wearing not noisy clothes and you're standing, you should be able to gesture while you're acting. You should be able to act. You can be as Italian as you want and use your hands and speak this way because it's really hard, for example, if you're doing a show like an action show, like a Batman or a Superman or a Justice League, it's very hard to do the sound of throwing a punch. Now, this is the vocal sound, not the sound effect, but the vocal sound of throwing a punch, huh, as opposed to huh, right? If you can do that move, you can get the sound to come out better. And so you you don't have to keep your hands, you know, on the on the arms of your chair. You can you can leave them comfortably in your lap, or you can act with them. Just be careful you don't have noisy jewelry or noisy clothes.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

And and for the clothing, what would be what fabric uh would be a good fabric? Okay. Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Like if I know it's not dressy, but you know, that's the joyous thing about voiceover. You can show up for a session in your pajamas. Um, but t-shirts. T-shirts are you know, cotton, not the ones with like uh that sort of plastic when they do artwork and it's got a kind of a plastic. A plain t-shirt is uh a cotton t-shirt, is the best kind of thing. They have them with long sleeves you can wear, of course. And you know, you can always show up to a session dressed to the nines, and when it comes time to actually work, go off, change, put the t-shirt on, do the work, go back, change to a really cool outfit, and and spend the rest of the day that way. But it's um be careful of your shoes, be careful you don't have squeaky shoes. I know that sounds silly, but squeaky shoes. Um, and uh, and of course, things that are loose fitting. You don't want to, you know, I see girls sometimes in really tight jeans, and it's a it's a fashion statement. And and here's another thing, Lydia. I'm sure you can appreciate this too being an actress. Um, we are taught as women in America that beauty is a flat belly, and that is not the best physical shape for breathing. And so rather than holding this all in, we should think about letting the belly hang. You know, open this up, and then when you take that breath, you can really fill up better. But if you're holding your stomach in just to try to keep that flat belly look, then you're you're you're not giving yourself uh the air that you need to get through a line. People will get through a line and need to go in for a breath to finish it. You want to be able to get it all in there. So it's that that attitude of American beauty, which is being, you know, five foot seven and weigh 98 pounds and a flat, flat belly. Bellies should be allowed to breathe. I studied with Kristen Linkletter. Kristen Linkletter, another one of those people who um like I had the great good fortune to study with. She is um, she had the group called the Working Theater, I believe was the group, and she had an entire way of teaching breathing that I thought was excellent. It it wasn't foolproof, um, but it it there was a lot about letting, and she had just had a baby, and so she was watching the baby breathe, and she used a lot of her technique from watching before anybody had said, suck in your belly, you know, throw those shoulders back, suck in that belly. The baby, she just watched how the baby breathed and developed her technique about that and said, you know, the babies let it hang out, we should let it hang out, and and it all was a very interesting technique.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

And I love what you said because it's giving women permission to be okay with how they are. I think we don't hear that enough, you know. It's like we're told, be the best you you can be, but then they put a lot of restrictions on that. And so to be able to say, be who you are, enjoy it, and just just stand in it. Don't don't suck in your belly if that's not who you are. Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Just be and not just that, not just because that's not who you are. Uh release the the muscles there because you need them to work in a different way. You need them to work to give you strength to push out a 10-second scream, you know, a 10-second breath, whatever you need. Um, but there's also that whole attitude of well, it has to do with voiceover. It doesn't matter what you look like, and that's the joy of voiceover. And and why so many people get into it, I think, because they will often, or they have the potential to be cast for a voiceover for a character that they would possibly never be cast as on camera, right? For people who do both. So um, you know, a girl who's who's well let's say uh an older woman who's 45 years old, the first instinct isn't, okay, that's what I'm going to use for uh the voice of a 10-year-old boy. However, Nancy Cartwright, who's been doing that the voice of Bart Simpson for the last what, 35 years, absolutely, and that's one of those joyous things, Lydia, about women in voiceover for animation is we can do voices that are realistic sounding boy voices. And what happens to boys, real boys, although I love working with kids, is you get to that 10, 11, 12-year-old range and their voices change. I remember um when I was working, I would get resumes from kids when I was doing casting for kids. There'd be like 10 kids who credited themselves with the voice of Charlie Brown. Because 10 different kids did the voice of Charlie Brown, because as soon as they age out, they have to recast. What a hard casting that is. Thank God I didn't have to do that gig. Because it still has to somewhat the original Charlie Brown, right? And but every year, somebody new the voice changes. And I'll tell you a really cool story. I um I found some paperwork many years ago about one of the first castings I did for Warner Brothers. It was for Tiny Toon Adventures, the first Steven Spielberg project I did. And I was looking at the SAG sign-in sheets. Um, you know, you just had to sign in, give your name, your age, and I would use them to put my notes on for the actor. And I noticed that two actors I had marked as the two best actors I read. But I couldn't hire either of them because they were literally at the point where I could hear their voice changing. I mean, it was changing like in the studio while they were auditioning for me. And it was Leo DiCaprio and Giovanni Rubisi.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

And they were probably 10 years old at the time, 12 maybe, 10, 11, 12, but their voices, and I thought, these guys were such good actors, but I cannot hire them. But it was simply because their voices changed. So women, women do a lot of boy voices. Um, and that's a really that's a big advantage. But you have to you have to think about things when you're doing kid voice like that, about how kids breathe different and they'll breathe in a really weird place that we adults would never think of breathing in. We we go for the phrases they don't. Um, and so that was one of the few advantages because for the most part, when I started working in voiceover for animation, I'd say 75 to 80 percent of the castings were for males. There were far fewer roles for women, except when it came to little boy voices. I always auditioned real kids and adult women, and we would pick the best voice. And if we had a series that we knew it was gonna go on, we we were confident. I think even for Tiny Cute Adventures, the initial purchase for that was for 65 episodes. So that's gonna take at least two, two and a half years to produce. Those kids whose voices were already changing were gonna sound like men by the time we finished production. So I had to look at voices who either and there's a couple of adult men like the Jason Marsdens, um, whose voices are naturally young. They will be able to sound like 12-year-olds Scott Mendel. He will sound like a kid. He's gotta be 50 years old by now, he still sounds 12. But it's fabulous. It's given them, I mean, he's been the voice of Robin for a decade, probably, and and that's an advantage. That's terrific.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

Hey, actor, where are you gonna be in 90 days from now? Is it gonna be with that same old headshot that is not getting you anywhere? That same old story that it's everybody else's fault while you're not booking? Or even worse, depression, because nothing is happening for your career. Well, let me help you. Because in 90 days from now, you can have a whole new set of pictures that are built on your brand. You can have a list of agents that actually would fit what it is that you sell and a plan to have a more prosperous career. Listen, I cannot book you, but I can make you bookable. So if you are ready, willing, and excited to change your circumstances, come and join us at ActingSmarterCircle.com, sign up and get started. We're a weekly community that helps actors get in gear and get the career that they deserve. When they get the script or or when they get the materials for the audition, yeah, and they they go through it, is there any anything that they should focus on? You know, I I've gotten the script, I've gotten the sample, I've gotten the video or the audio, what whatever is is attached to what you're sending. Is there a specific way for an actor to take it all in and then go, okay, now I'm going to because you you made a point with with um Ken how he saw Batman's voice as the true voice, right? And then Bruce was the fun voice, but but it was Batman's voice. And so when they're bringing in the character and they're bringing in that voice, whatever it is, that is there something, is there, is there something tangible that you can give that they can anchor themselves in every time they are going for an a character?

SPEAKER_00 20:10

An excellent question. It's an excellent question. And there's multiple answers to it. One is, as I told you, for like a role as important as Batman, I heard so many auditions. And the copy, it wasn't a horribly long copy, but it was a good chunk of copy so the actors could sink their teeth into it. Um as I get into listening to audition number 1000, I'm not listening to the whole audition anymore. If I haven't heard what I need to hear in the first 10 to 15 seconds, I'm gonna move on to the next guy. My point is, don't save your best stuff for the end of a copy. Make sure you hit me with your best shot right there at the beginning. And what that requires you to do is to answer a series of questions. And these are the questions. Where am I? Who am I talking to? How do I feel about that person or people? What just happened before I opened my mouth? Those questions impact the very beginning of the copy, and even if those decisions that you make, it may not be clear from the copy, but you have to make those decisions. Uh, those things will be interesting, it will make the audition interesting. Even a wrong decision made will be more interesting than no decision made. I need to know that you made a choice. So, for example, I'm actually teaching a workshop later this month, so I have copy pulled. So, for example, the first piece of copy for Batman, the first line of dialogue, and this is exactly what Kevin had to read for this was sure you have rights, but you forget I'm not a policeman. That's the line of dialogue. First line of dialogue. Sure you have rights, but you forget I'm not a policeman. So, and it does say parenthetically right before it, to whining thug. So we already know who we're talking to. So he's talking to a whining thug. So, where are we? We're in a warehouse. What just happened? I'm making this up. What just happened? Um I I knocked out the thug, the thug is just coming to, he's complaining, he's got rights. Sure, you have rights, right? That makes a difference. He just said, Hey, I I got rights here. Sure you got rights. So um that impacts that, but you forget. I'm not a policeman. So all that informs what you do. Without answering those questions, it could be, sure you have rights, but you forget I'm not a policeman. Well, that just lays there, doesn't it? It doesn't give any life to it. So you must ask questions, and good copy gives you a bunch of different chances to make different choices. The next line is there's nothing wrong, sorry, there's nothing wrong with you that I can't fix with my bare hands. Now that tells me it's to the Joker. So, you know, Batman has this relationship with the Joker. There's a history there, right? So there's nothing wrong with the other. I can't fix with my bare. You know, there's there's there's things that you do by basing, by asking yourself questions. Where am I? What just happened? Who am I talking to? And how do I feel about that? There's a lot more questions that need to be asked as well, but those are really good ones. And and you want to answer those and you want to grab me right at the beginning of the audition. And so, what I'm talking about when I say I didn't listen to the full audition if they didn't grab me, is those thousands of auditions that came to me through agents. So I don't have the actor in front of me at that point, I only have the copy, the the uh recording. So don't wait to do your best stuff later in the copy. The other thing is, too, and people ask me about this, is how to slate, if you're slating for yourself. Some people say, Do I slate in the character voice or do I slate in my own voice? My answer to that is do what works best for you. If slating in Batman's voice gets you already there, so that when you dive into that first line of dialogue, you're already there. Do that if you don't need it, and you can just say, Hi, this is Kevin Conroy as Batman, and you can dive in, that's fine too. So um that you have to make that choice yourself as to how you want to handle that. But uh the other thing is you have to find something in the copy for the character that you're auditioning for that you love about this character. Even if he's a bad, bad, bad guy, you, the actor, have to find something that you love about this guy, or you can't play him, I don't think. You have to find something that you can relate to, that you can love. Latch on to that makes you want to play that character because people will read for things and they don't really want to play that character and it comes across. We can tell that. So I suggest often to people find something about the guy, the girl, the gal, the kid that you love. And when you're at home working through it, record yourself. You have five different versions. I mean, each of us have different versions, right? And you should walk into an audition with multiple versions because you may come in to read for Lois Lane, and you do a great audition, but the gal right in front of you did the exact same voice. You're the one that's going to have to change. They've already got that woman on tape. If they played that back for you, you've all man, that is just like what I'm doing. You need to have that second option. So always have two options for every character you're going in to read, I think. That's my opinion.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

I want to go even a little more deeper. So you're you're recording your stuff. Um, you're recording the the character, you're giving different voices. You're you want to give a couple of different takes, maybe even a couple of different voices per character. How should you uh practice that before you prepare for tape? Because sometimes actors are are quick on the draw and they'll start recording, but they didn't take the time to rehearse it or practice it or kind of get a feel for it beforehand. What what is your um what is your instruction on that end, you know, before they can hit the button.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Right. I don't think it's a bad idea for them to record their rehearsal. I don't think they should use that as the take that they submit necessarily, but I don't think it's wrong for them to record it. It's just they shouldn't look at that as okay, I'm gonna dive in and record it, and that's it. Um, but I don't think it hurts if they've got three different versions to record the rehearsals, listen back to the three and go, oh, this one clearly is superior to the other two. And then take that one and work that through. Answer those questions. Who am I talking to? Where am I? How do I feel about that? What just happened? Uh, and and and maybe you change so you found the voice. Okay, this is the voice I like. I'm gonna use that voice. The three different voices that I tried. That's I don't want to use the high one, I don't want to use the incredibly deep one, I want to use the one that's really comfortable in my range right in the middle. Okay, now uh I'm talking to in this line um someone I like, someone I a friend. This is a friend. So the line is um we're not so different, you and I. That's the line. Now I'm talking to someone that I don't like at all. We're not so different, you and I. It's a different read, isn't it? Right? Third version of that. I'm talking to my mom. We're not so different, you and I. Right? Everything, all those, so then that's maybe three more auditions that you'll record of your own, making different choices to those answering those questions. And then you listen back and you go, I like that, I like that, I like that. And so especially because we all have the ability now to record ourselves, we didn't always, I think recording isn't a bad idea because unless you have somebody who's in your house with you that can give you feedback, it's just ethereal, it's just out there and not not really um just a memory, right? It's not recorded. So I don't think it's bad to record it, but but don't, it's kind of like they used to always say when we were doing rehearsals on mic with the ensemble record, they used to always say, we're gonna record the the rehearsal because everybody's gonna be great and we're gonna find some stuff, and almost never could it be used. Always people were laughing, there were overlaps, all kinds of stuff. But maybe there was something that happened that was organic and then that you want to go back and refer to, and that's what you're gonna record when you're rehearsing your audition. Is boy, didn't I do something on that first take that was really kind of a neat entrance? Oh yeah, I chose to like it's kind of like that the knocking on the door exercise where you're on the other side of a door and you have to determine what, why you're going into that room, who's on the other side of the door. Is it an urgent knock? Is it a really quiet knock? Is it you don't want to wake the baby? Is it I mean, all a million different knocks? Well, you have to come up with all those ideas for what's happening at the beginning of your copy as well. And so you want to be able to pull that from uh multiple takes that you recorded, possibly. But um, I don't think it's a bad idea to record, just rehearse it, work through it, ask yourself those questions for every paragraph of the copy. Um, and then for something like uh a character like Batman and Bruce Wayne, which would read both those characters, listen to the two against each other. Does that make sense that that's the voice that would come out of that Batman to be Bruce Wayne, or is it just so silly cartoony would never fit together? Uh so it's you know, do your research. Um, usually they'll tell you if you're doing a voice like Batman, they'll say, we are not looking for a Kevin Conroy sound-alike. Okay, good. What does Kevin Conroy sound like? Listen to a couple of Batman cartoons with Kevin. Okay, I don't want to go there. Uh, we want kind of Heath Ledger meets, you know, some other Batman meets someone, you know, sometimes they'll give you a conglomeration. Well, listen to what Heath Ledger did. Do your homework. Um, but originality is a big part for me in voice casting. I like people to do something that hasn't been done before. I don't want to hear you do your impression of Mark Hamill's Joker. I want to hear a new joker. I want to hear something else that you created that's different. Um, and if if you need to, do both. If you need to do Mark Hamill's Joker, if they're looking for a sound-alike or something or something similar, do that, but also do the one that's your version. Submit that to your agent and ask your agent to choose which one they're gonna send. Or maybe both they will send. You leave a lot in the hands of the agents. You have to, because now everybody records at home. Very few people go into agencies to do their auditions anymore. So they're being self-directed for the most part. Um, and that's a lot to ask of an actor to self-direct, to choose which one is the best. Uh, so it's good to have an agent or a booth director decide which one to send.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

I have a couple of questions from actors. So I'm going to uh just give you what I've been asked.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

Uh so the first one is how do you come up with characters as an actor for um auditions or just to have in your arsenal?

SPEAKER_00 31:27

There's there's a million ways. Um, first of all, ideally, you're given lots of information from the people doing the casting as to what that character is about. Um, and so it may like you go, boy, that's kind of like um Christopher Walken in uh Deer Hunter. It's kind of that. And so you don't want to do a Christopher Walken impression, but maybe it causes a kind of hesitation that you normally might not have used. That's a Christopher Walken signature, but not a spot-on impression. So so maybe you are reminded, and it could be you're reminded of your third-grade teacher that none of us know. And oh, that's a really good voice for a gravelly old cranky cop. That would be a really good voice for that. My science teacher in third grade was such a you know, gravelly old cranky guy. That's a good voice for that. Maybe there's a I used to teach a class um with a partner of mine, um, and it was we would have people come in and do 10 sound effects. And so they would do, you know, the sound of a creaking door, or the sound of the wind blowing, or the sound of windshield wipers, or the sound of a rainbird. And we would take that and just find out where that voice was placed in the body, and then we would listen to it and go, okay, well, can we take that door creak and make it a witch? Can we get witchy with that? Can we? Or we would do, you know, whatever. So so sound effects sometimes can help you get into a voice. Um, accents, dialects, practice them. Don't do them if you're not good at them. If you can do them well, throw them in there. But nobody wants to hear a bad Cockney accent. Do a good one if you can do it. Unless the copy calls for it. It may say bad Cockney accent. Um accents are good. Um, impressions. Impressions are a really good way to come up with a character of your own. And what I mean by that is don't do a good impression, don't do a great John Wayne, but find your own jumping off point from doing John Wayne. And I mean like women doing John Wayne, a John Wayne impression, so pilgrim or whatever, finding that and then taking that to create your cowgirl character. So, so kind of jumping off point for using somebody else's impression. Um, but but that's such an enormous question. How do you come up with characters? Something should strike you from the copy, from the description, from the character design that says that speaks to you in some way, and that should be your jumping off point. And again, people from your past, relatives, actors that you know, celebrities, political people, you know, um uh Bernie Sanders, great voice to start from. You know, all these different kinds of political people who um have real characteristics to their voices that you don't want to do an impression, but you want to kind of, unless you're an impressionist, but you want to get a jumping off point. Um, classes, classes, classes will teach you to do that. And that's the other thing that why I like group classes is you listen to somebody create a voice, you don't steal their voice, you don't steal the voice they created, but you use that as a jumping off point for a voice that you then alter and and create and make your own classes, classes, classes.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

Hey Hector, are you tired of being tired of being tired of being tired? Your pictures aren't working, you're not getting into auditions, your agents aren't calling you back, or worse off, you can't even get an agent. Well, if that sounds like you, if it sounds like you are at your wit's end, that you just feel like all is lost, you don't know what to do, come and join us at the Acting Smarter Circle, where we are a community of actors who help other actors. And I am your guide and your coach to help you with a plan, strategy, and your branding. So if you are interested and you're tired of being tired and ready for change, come and join us at ActingSmarterCircle.com. We're waiting for you now. Another question on negotiation. And this uh and I and I think this would be very advantageous for actors listening. Um what is your philosophy when you are negotiating? Um, because I think actors a lot of times won't negotiate, they'll just take whatever is given. So can you speak on the art of negotiating for yourself? We are so afraid that you know, oh, if I ask too much, then they'll they'll leave.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Here's my thinking on that. For the most part, uh, unless you're a celebrity, every uh new series that comes up that's casting is going to offer scale plus 10 and and you should take it. That's you shouldn't negotiate the first shot out. If the series gets picked up, you should consult with your agent and find out if it's even an option to ask for a bump. And and I'm not big on ask for the moon and take you know a little less. I I'm I'm big on uh having been an agent. Your agent should feel comfortable checking with the other agents who also have clients on that same show and find out if they're asking for a bump. Because if all the agents go in asking for a 10% bump for the second season because it's a successful show, then that then that's a strong way to go in. Everybody wants it. Now, they may say we simply don't have it, they may be jerks about it. Um, how many times have we all heard that the Simpsons are recasting? And I uh because they couldn't make deals with the actors, you you don't want to ask for too much. The thing about it is there's a deal to be made. First, let's let's take the Simpsons, for example. People would reach out to me and they go, Andre, I'm gonna read for Homer Simpson. Why are you reading for Homer Simpson? Oh well, they it went out to all the agents because the their agents are asking for too much money. And I would always say, and this is I and and again, this is my opinion, other directors, agents, casting directors will have different opinions about this. My opinion is karma, and if you audition, okay, I've got to go back. There's going to be a deal made with Dan Castellanetta to do Homer Simpson. If you audition for that voice, sometime somewhere down the line, you're gonna have a series and someone's gonna audition to replace you. I don't think you should audition for it. I think you should say, Dan Castellaneta is gonna do that voice, and I think every actor should do that. Every actor should say, I will not. Now, that said, if an actor is no longer available or not interested, or dies, and you want to audition for the voice, fantastic. But if it's a negotiation, the reason that that they're asking you to do a sound alike, I say don't do it. Now, I've had agents call me after I taught a class and told that to all the students in age call, what are you talking about? I'm like, you know, you're the agent, you and your client have a relationship, you should talk about it. I don't think. I I think you're you're you're you're creating a situation where you'll be known as a scab. Someone who'll be willing to go in when someone is essentially striking because they think they deserve more money. And you know, a show like The Simpsons, good God, they were making money hand over fist. They could afford to pay the actors more money. That show is such a performance-oriented show. You know, you you laugh because the actors are incredibly funny. That's what makes that show work so well. Very good scripts, of course, and you know, the animation, I kind of liked the earlier animation when it wasn't so perfect as it is now. But still, the the thing is uh for a show that's as as important as that the company is sending a message to the actors they're negotiating with saying we're going to do auditions. Um for a sound alike for you. They're trying to force the actors' hands to make a deal. Well, if everybody says no, we won't audition, they have to go back to the table and finish making a deal with the actors. There is a deal to be made with the existing actors. They worked really hard to get that gig in the first place. They've done it for season after season. Now they're in what season 35 or something obscene. I think stepping in and saying, I'll do their voice is just bad karma. I do. That's my two cents about replacing replacing voices. Everybody will not feel that way. Some people will go, absolutely, I'll do Homer Simpson. Absolutely, I'll audition for Marge. I personally would never do it myself. I would not audition for it. And when they when I was an agent and when actors would come to me, uh when casting people would come to me with that, I I would not suggest. I would I would present it to my actors, but I would suggest they didn't audition. And that I think is a really important distinction, Lydia, about um agents. I don't think agents should turn down jobs for actors without telling the actor they've been approached. For example, I I um it's one of those weird things. I I've been in the industry for so long that I have a lot of friends who are celebrities. And I mean, genuinely friends. And so there was a, I think your daughter might have actually been working on the show at the time. Um, they wanted a Carrie Elways type swashbuckler. And uh I said, it's it was actually written in the description of the script, Carrie Elways type squash buckler. And I said to the the casting people, I wasn't casting it, I was just directing. I said, Did you prove did you offer it to Carrie Elways? And the agent came back with he's not interested, it's not enough money. And I went back to the company and said, I I would guess that Carrie has not been approached about this. I bet the agent turned it down because it wasn't an overscale offer. And I know Carrie would love to do this role. Please go back to that agent, tell him I'm directing, and I think that they should make the offer to Carrie. So they did, and he was delighted, and he came in, he was fantastic. My point is they made a mistake, the agents, and I'm really opinionated about agents because I was one. Your job is to advise your client not to turn down roles without telling the actor they've been offered it. It would have been perfectly fine for them to say, Carrie, you've been offered this role on this series, it's a scale offer, I don't think you should do it, but I wanted you to know about it. To which you still would have said, I want to do it. It's Andrea. I know her really well. I've told her I'll do anything, and and you know, it ultimately worked out. So you it's really important the relationship that you have with your agent. You have to be sure that the agent, you and the agent are on the same page as to what you're good for. And if I could spend a couple of minutes with you, Lydia, talking about this because I think it's so important. You want to make sure of a few things with your agent. You want to make sure they like your work, that they know your work, they've come to see you in plays, they've watched whatever TV work you've done, they've they know your demo back to front. Um, you want to make sure there aren't five other people in your same agency who do exactly the same thing you do. Because if I, as a casting director, am limiting the agent to only five submissions for each character, and there are five other actresses in your category, you may not even be submitted. So you want to make sure that you're getting the activity you deserve. You also want to make sure your agent thinks you are up there at the top of their list. You're the first, second, third person they're going to submit on this. You don't want to be also ran. You know, you want to be the people they think of. And you want to make sure that if there's something that they want you to do differently, that you have that conversation. What am I doing wrong? Why am I not booking, agent? What are you what feedback are you getting from the casting director that's that I'm not getting the gig? Sometimes it's just not your time. Sometimes for what your audition is excellent, it was up between you and the other guy, and the other guy got it. This is gonna terrify actors. Sometimes it's actually the toss of a coin. These two actors are equally qualified to do the role. Who are we gonna hire? Let's flip a coin. Okay, actor A is gonna get it. Terrifying, I know. Um, the other thing is sometimes it comes down to that. Casting director myself is going, okay, there's these two actors, they're equally qualified. This guy's kind of a jerk. This guy's always pleasant to be around. Which one am I gonna cast? I want to cast the guy that's good to be around. That's again if they're equal in talent. So um make sure your agent thinks the world of you. So make sure you have good representation, make sure they know what you can do. If you take a class and you learn how to do something that you never knew how to do before, and you don't tell your agent about it, you would be wrong to say to that agent, why don't you ever submit me on the old women roles? Well, I didn't know you did an old woman voice. Oh gosh, yes, I learned how to do it in you know Joe Schmo's workshop two years ago. Agents, think about this. Let's say using round numbers, an agent represents a hundred clients. In a perfect world, they are spending one one hundredth of their working day working on every client, right? Every client has the right to expect that their agent is working for them every day. Well, how much time are you gonna get if you get one one hundredth of their day? You have to do your work, you have to give them the information they need. I learned how to do baby cries, I learned how to burp on cue, I can whistle odd pitch, perp, whatever skills you've learned. I can now do a wonderful Russian accent. You must update your agent and make sure that they know everything that you can do so that when they submit you, they submit you on the right stuff and you don't get left out. So make sure you have that kind of relationship with your agent. If you're just hanging out there because you don't want to be agent less, I'm not sure that's the best thing to do. Uh, you may want to start looking for other representation and uh certainly see what else is out there.

SPEAKER_02 46:06

What are some pointers you can give actors to getting closer to their agents without being a nuisance or without being disrespectful? Okay, because you said uh make sure they know you're real, they know your work uh front and back. A lot of actors are afraid to present because they don't want to bother the agent, but it's a relationship. So if you don't, if if I don't call you and say, I just did this fabulous uh workshop and I know these new uh these new techniques for new characters. Um, how do you know? So um uh it's yes, I would love to hear what you have to say.

SPEAKER_00 46:53

Great question. The industry is different now than it used to be. Normally, that would have been a make a phone call, ask if you could have 15 minutes, bring them a delicious coffee and a delightful pastry, and take 15 minutes with them at their office. Now, so many people are working remotely that maybe what might be required is a quick 15-minute Zoom meeting. And and you want to request it because it's certainly less scary to request that than to get the notice that you're being released from the agency because you're not booking. So maybe it's a an email to your agent saying, um, I want to check in with you. We haven't had a chance to chat in a while. I have some new skills, or I have a new reel, or I want to know if you have any tips for me why I'm not booking. Can I get 15 minutes from you sometime next week? I I don't think there's anything wrong with asking that. And especially because asking takes no time. You send an email, you send a text, whatever your typical communication with your agent is, and you ask that question. If they are not willing to spend that time with you, already something's wrong. Something's wrong with that relationship. That's not an equal relationship. If they're not willing to give you 15 minutes, because you know, they don't make any money unless you book a gig. So it behooves them to get you on the right track. And if you're not booking and you're not booking consistently for a period of time, they will release you, they will just not sign up a new contract with you. And so before that happens, find out, have something to say to them. Don't just randomly, I want to just talk to you. Make yourself a list of notes. I want to find out are my the auditions that I'm sending to you, the auditions that I'm doing in my home booth, are those being submitted to the casting person? Or am I being eliminated before I even leave my agency? Of the six people that do what I do, am I number one? Do I get out all the time? Or do I need to do something more? Um you hear my and and what this requires, and I think it's important, is the agents to listen to some of your past auditions. Because what often happens is the booth director gets the auditions from all the actors, listens, determines which ones go, and then forward them on. The agent isn't even involved. The agent is the one who said, Audition these five people. Of our whole roster, audition those five people. So the booth director sends a copy out to the actor. The actor auditions at home, often without any direction, sends auditions in, the booth director listens and decides which ones get sent. So asking for a meeting with the agent will require the agent to listen to some of your recent auditions, which is really good. You should have them hearing what you're doing. They should be able to tell you, ah, you know what? The auditions that you're submitting are very 1990s cartoons. They're not 2024 cartoons. Um, and they may suggest, and this is always a good idea for people who want to work in animation, watch what's working right now, watch what's on the air, watch cartoons, what's selling, what kind of cartoons are they making? They're typically not making Hanna-Barrera style cartoons like they used to years ago. They're not that broad, they're not that cartoony. Now, some are, but there's a lot of action shows, and of course, with video games, how huge video games are. Um, if you have certain skills like you could do 10 death screams, and by that I mean throat rippers, where you have to just, you know, you are being stabbed a dozen times in this video game, and you have to scream 10 different takes of 20 seconds of screaming. I learned how to do that, and I can do it without it hurting my voice, and I don't have to take the weekend to recover my voice. Your agent needs to know that. Because video games have different skills, they're acquired differently, they're done, they're not done like a theatrical piece, they're recorded in pieces. And so, and that kind of skill, being able to scream a death scream, is a very valuable skill for video games. Um, I never had a hero voice before. I now have a hero voice. Your agent needs to know that. So, what I suggest in general is if you're dissatisfied with your activity from your agency, is take a workshop, a good workshop, hone up your characters, get them really good, and then request a meeting with your agent to go over those new things you learned, to play some of those quick takes. And I'm saying any agent will, I think, any agent worth their assault will give you 15 minutes. If you ask for an hour, you're not going to get it. But they can manage 15 minutes to talk about your career because, again, they want you to get the gig. They want you to be one of those top fives. But you have to, the competition is so fierce, you have to take some control over your career. And by doing that, you have to make sure that your agent knows what you can do and is submitting you for the proper stuff.

SPEAKER_02 52:00

How would I know uh what is a good workshop for voiceover animations? How would an actor uh because we talked about uh I know what's a good acting teacher, uh you know, but but as far as animation uh coaching or animation workshops, how would I know?

SPEAKER_00 52:23

It's essentially the same process. Do your research on the teacher, find out what their credits are, why did they think they're qualified to teach? Are they working voiceover actors? Fantastic. Study with them. Are they someone who could actually hire you? Are they a casting director? Are they a director? That's worthwhile investigating. Um, I I confess there were students of mine that I then hired because I learned what they could do in a six-week workshop. They were really good and I could use them. Um audit their classes, pay them whatever fee it is to sit, you can't work, but just watch how they work with actors, how much work you get done. Are they using contemporary materials? Are they giving you copy to read? That's something that was just auditioned a month ago, two months ago, three months ago. Are they pulling copy from a long time ago? Not to say that that copy from a long time ago isn't valid, but you also want to make sure that there's something contemporary that you're working on. Um, get a sense, I mean, it's kind of like searching for a doctor. If you can get references, find someone who took their class, ask even within your own agency. You know, Kathy Lizio, can you ask some of these other clients who they studied with and who they got really good results from? Um, CESD, very good talent agency, one of the biggies, um, they reached out to me a couple of months ago, and they have been within their own agency um hiring voice directors like myself and teachers to teach an online class just to their clients. And so I did one a couple of months ago, I'm doing another one in a couple of weeks. Only 10 students. But how brilliant is that? An agent who's going out to to working professionals, not not going to the um, what is that book called? I still have one here. Voice over resource guide, not going there to find out the list of teachers, but rather the agency is going to people that they know are working in the industry or have worked in the industry. They've already done the screening for you. So maybe it it takes a phone call to your agent going, why don't you guys do this? Why don't you guys reach out to um casting directors and directors and professional people to teach an online workshop just for your clients, groups of 10 at a time or whatever. I think that's a great idea. CESD did it first. There's no reason why every agency in town shouldn't be doing that, especially because now everybody has a home recording studio. Everybody's got to set up like you and I are talking on now where they can um record and work and see. And you know, I can show you physical exercises and I can show you warm-up exercises, and we can go through all kinds of stuff. Uh, but I I I think that's where you find your your teachers is through your agents, too, who they think are good teachers. But get get some references, get some other people who have studied with them. I want to tell you that that I got some very positive feedback from people from that first class uh that I taught for CESD, where they've booked since that. And I think I'm a big believer that putting the energy out there, it comes back to you. It does. If you don't put energy out, it's not gonna come back. And you may take a commercial voiceover workshop and suddenly you book an animation gig. Still, you put the energy out there, it came back in a different way, or vice versa. You took a commercial workshop and you booked an animation gig. How fantastic! It's just you put it out there, you got more confident, you got more skills, then then then you can move forward.

SPEAKER_02 55:53

If you're enjoying this channel, I need you to do me a great favor. Yes, I do. I need you to subscribe to the channel. So if you can, just click the subscription button because it helps us to give you more great content. How's that? You hit the subscription button, I give you more great content. Deal? Deal.