VAM 182 | Interview with Larry Reiss, Part 1
Welcome to episode 182 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
I’ve got a very special treat for my listeners today! This is the first part of my interview with booth director and voice over agent, Larry Reiss! Larry works at my voice over agency, Arlene Thornton & Associates. Arlene herself is the founder and president of the agency. Larry works as her employee where he wears many hats! I’ve worked with Larry primarily in his role as booth director. Back before the Covid-19 pandemic, when I was called into my agent’s office to audition for voice over projects, Larry would often be the one recording me and directing me in the booth. I came to rely on his keen insight and his helpful feedback whenever I came in to audition. These days, voice actors are expected to record from home and direct themselves. This is not an ideal situation. It can be very difficult to effectively direct or critique your own acting. It is far easier and more productive to have someone whose feedback and direction you trust, and I always trust Larry to help me bring out my best when I’m acting!
Larry isn’t just a booth director, however. He also helps manage the mountain of e-mails, phone calls, and auditions that come into the agency at all hours of the day and night! It’s quite a challenge to coordinate all of that communication between casting directors, producers, and the agency’s acting clients! In the midst it all, Larry still finds time to give feedback on actors’ auditions and to promote his acting clients to producers who are looking for talented people to work on their projects! I thought Larry would be a great person to interview so my listeners could get a better sense of what an agent does, what their workday is like, and how an actor can best collaborate with an agent in order to further their career!
We begin this interview by talking about how Larry got started as an agent. It turns out, he and I both joined Arlene’s agency around the same time in 2003! Initially, Larry had studied to be a recording engineer and was planning to get into music production. While he was exploring his employment options, he discovered that there were many studios that needed engineers to help record voice over classes which were often held in the evenings. He became interested in how voice actors could bring such nuanced emotion to their performances. He eventually had the opportunity to work at a casting director’s office in Los Angeles where he spent most of his time helping to cast commercial voice over projects. He and I actually first met at that casting director’s office, where I took one of my first voice over classes shortly after I arrived in Los Angeles at the end of 2001. Imagine my surprise when I signed with my agency two years later and discovered that Larry had been hired there as an agent! It was great to see a familiar face and to get to work with such a talented and knowledgeable booth director!
Larry is not only a wealth of information and experience, but he’s skilled at articulating his insights as well. I’m very grateful that he was willing to spend so much time talking with me. If you’ve ever wanted to understand how an agent thinks and what they’re looking for in the talent they represent, listening to Larry is your chance!
VAM 181 | Interview with Amanda C. Miller, Part 2
Welcome to episode 181 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Welcome to the second and final part of my interview with Amanda C. Miller! Amanda has worked extensively in animation, video games, and anime including Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal, and the Dangan Ronpa video games. In American animation, she’s worked on Netlix’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Kid Cosmic, and DC Super Hero Girls. Amanda also works on-camera as an actor and behind the scenes as a writer and producer of her own web series! Having recently moved to Atlanta, Georgia to pursue acting opportunities there, she brings a unique perspective on how to manage an acting career where she works both in Atlanta and on remote voice acting projects in LA.
In the previous episode, Amanda explained how she broke into voice acting. While she initially intended to pursue a career as a theater actor in New York city after graduating from college, she changed her career trajectory after taking a voice acting class with veteran voice actor and director, Tony Oliver. His feedback encouraged her to pursue voice acting in Los Angeles instead. Amanda moved to LA, interned at Bang Zoom studios, and quickly learned what it took to work professionally as a voice actor. There was no magic “break through” moment where she was suddenly discovered. In fact, she didn’t win the 2009 AX Idol voice acting competition held at Anime Expo, but was only a runner up. That didn’t stop her. She continued to develop her abilities as a voice actress. Her success is due to the fact that she can deliver consistent, believable, and professionally competitive performances over and over again.
In this episode, we dive into what inspired Amanda to become an actor in the first place. Amanda was a very shy and sensitive child who moved around a lot due to her father being in the military. While she couldn’t control her circumstances or her surroundings, she did develop a rich imagination. She would create characters and stories where she could explore different emotions, relationships, and situations. Her fantasy life definitely helped inspire her acting pursuits! We also talk about what it’s been like for her to play a beloved character from her childhood, Sailor Jupiter in the Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal anime series. We then get into a discussion about how you can find satisfaction in the face of the uncertainty and volatility of an acting career. At the end of our talk, Amanda shares with us her advice to the aspiring voice actor including how important it is to find value as a human being regardless of how successful you are in your career! So without further ado, here’s Amanda!
VAM 180 | Interview with Amanda C. Miller, Part 1
Welcome to episode 180 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
I’m very happy to present the first part of my interview with the multi-talented Amanda C. Miller! Amanda has played many famous characters in animation, video games, and anime including Boruto in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Sailor Jupiter in Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal, and the characters Junko and Toko in the Dangan Ronpa video games. In American animation, she’s played Flutterina in Netlix’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and Jo in Kid Cosmic, the new animated series from Powerpuff Girls creator, Craig McCracken! Amanda also works on-camera in films and web series, including the comedic web series, Ghosts ’n Stuff, Inc. where she co-produced and wrote many of the episodes! I’m excited to get her perspective on the voice acting industry as well as what it’s been like for her starting her career in Los Angeles and having now moved to continue her career in Atlanta, Georgia.
Amanda had an international upbringing. A self-proclaimed Air Force brat, Amanda was born in Germany and spent much of her childhood traveling back and forth between Germany, Florida, and Maryland, eventually settling down in Maryland after she was in the 7th grade. She started participating in her school’s theater program during middle school and high school and had every intention of graduating college and moving to New York to do Broadway theater. However, while in college at the University of Maryland, she had the opportunity to take a voice over class with Tony Oliver from Bang Zoom recording studios. After the class, Tony told her that she had real potential as a voice actress. She decided that instead of pursuing acting in New York after graduating college, she would move to Los Angeles to pursue voice acting opportunities there. She applied for an internship at Bang Zoom, was accepted, and began to learn about the voice over industry during her time there. This eventually gave her the opportunity to start auditioning for voice over work. As she repeatedly demonstrated her ability to perform characters at a professionally competitive level, she gained access to more voice over opportunities which allowed her to pursue union voice over work and to eventually land an agent.
I enjoy talking with Amanda about her journey because like me, she was a very shy child. She was not gregarious and outgoing as most people expect actors to be. Instead, what drove her to perform was the desire to bring characters and stories to life, not to get attention from others. She understood that in order to achieve continuing success as a professional actor, she had to apply herself diligently to doing the “boring work” as she puts it of being able to give consistently believable performances as well as being reliable and easy to work with. She also did her best to network with fellow actors and reach out to studios to market her skills to them. She even emailed yours truly back in 2009 when she took an acting class with a classmate of mine from Graduate Acting School. My classmate had suggested that Amanda reach out to me directly to ask about the voice over industry in LA! Amanda’s ability to be courageous in connecting with industry professionals coupled with her sustained commitment to honing her acting skills has truly served her well and I’m eager to share her story with you!
VAM 179 | Interview with Feodor Chin, Part 2
Welcome to episode 179 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
This is the second and final part of my interview with Feodor Chin. You can hear Feo’s voice over work in games like Overwatch, Ghosts of Tsushima, League of Legends, and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. He’s worked on the Regular Show for Cartoon Network, and on-camera he’s worked on TV shows such as Nash Bridges, The Mindy Project, and Jane the Virigin. He’s also narrated or contributed narration to over 100 different audiobooks!
In the previous episode, Feo outlined the steps he took to become a professional actor. There was no single moment when he “broke into show business”. Instead, Feo diligently studied to improve his acting skills and then consistently took the actions necessary to find acting opportunities. This included regularly marketing his skills to producers and casting directors who were hiring actors. This is the unglamorous homework that it takes to book regular work as an actor. No one in the industry suddenly discovers you and then paves a path to success for you. If you want to get paid to voice act, you need to master your art, research your industry, and then market your professionally competitive skills to producers who are looking to hire top notch acting talent for their projects. Feo never shied away from putting in all the behind-the-scenes work that was necessary to help him become a working actor both in voice over and on-camera.
In the final part of our discussion, I ask Feo what inspired him to become a performer in the first place. In the previous episode, Feo had mentioned that in high school, he had seen Dustin Hoffman’s performance as Willy Loman in the movie, Death of a Salesman. Hoffman’s acting had made a huge impression on Feo, so in this episode, I ask Feo to outline in more detail what exactly was so compelling about that performance. Feo explains that after watching Hoffman perform, he became fascinated with diving deep into the emotional life of a character. He talks about the satisfaction he gets from fully embodying a character, especially when a character’s psychology is incredibly rich or nuanced.
After that, we discuss Feo’s background in improv and sketch comedy. He explains to me the differences between full improvisational performances and the sketch comedy writing that he works on most often. We then talk about how we both apply our improv background to the challenges we face as voice actors, especially when we’re given very little information about a character or the story they come from, and yet are still expected to deliver authentic and believable performances. We also discuss the challenges Asian-American actors face in the entertainment industry and how Asian representation in media has changed over the past 20 years or so. We wrap up our discussion with Feo’s advice to the aspiring voice actor, and how important it is to be open to different career opportunities because you never know where you’re going to find success.
VAM 178 | Interview with Feodor Chin, Part 1
Welcome to episode 178 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Welcome to the first part of my interview with voice actor, film actor, writer, comedian, and all around wonderful guy, Feodor Chin. You may be familiar with Feo’s voice over work as Mudmug in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Harunobu Adachi in Ghosts of Tsushima, Lee Sin in League of Legends, and one of my personal favorites, Zenyatta in Overwatch. In animation he’s worked on Cartoon Network’s Regular Show and on-camera he’s worked on TV shows such as Nash Bridges, The Mindy Project, and Jane the Virigin. As of this episode he’s also narrated or contributed narration to over 100 different audiobooks! Feo has worked as a performer in so many different mediums and he brings a great perspective to the challenges of sustaining a career as a working actor.
In this episode, I begin by asking Feo how he got his start as an actor. When he was in high school, Feo saw Dustin Hoffman’s performance as the character Willie Lowman in the movie adaptation of Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman. Feo was so fascinated by Hoffman’s ability to transform into a different character that he wanted to explore that sort of transformational acting himself. So he decided to pursue acting in any way he could. He started taking drama classes and auditioning for the plays at his school. He also joined his school’s forensics and debate team in order to gain more experience with public speaking.
When it was time for him to apply to college, Feo had to balance his personal desire to pursue acting with his family’s expectations. Feo grew up in San Francisco and his family wanted him to attend college somewhere in his home state of California. They also hoped that Feo would major in a subject that would serve as a good foundation for a financially stable career such as being a doctor or a lawyer. In an attempt to satisfy both his parent’s desires and his own, Feo applied and was accepted to UCLA, initially as a design major. Not long after his matriculation at UCLA, the school dissolved the design department so Feo switched his major to communications. Attending college in Los Angeles allowed him to explore acting possibilities there as well as to build up a network of friends that would be helpful to his career in the future. By majoring in communications instead of acting, he mollified his parents’ concerns, while at the same time giving himself the opportunity to take as many acting classes as possible.
After graduating college, Feo moved home to San Francisco to explore acting opportunities in the bay area. He spent many years there taking the time to build up his skills and his resume until he felt that he could compete in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. I advised my listeners to do the same way back in episode 18 of the podcast where I suggest that it’s wise to exhaust all of the acting opportunities in your local area first before moving to a bigger marketplace! Feo moved to LA in August of 2001 and has been a working actor ever since.
What I love about Feo’s journey is how practically minded it is. Feo was willing to put in the time and effort to do unglamorous things like looking for auditions in trade newspapers, printing and mailing out headshots and resumes, and diligently following up with casting directors to keep them aware of his talents and his marketability. He understood that succeeding as an actor didn’t mean suddenly getting discovered by some casting director or producer. Instead he did his homework consistently until he was able to create an acting career for himself. It’s wonderful to hear from an accomplished journeyman actor like him and I hope you find his insights as practical and useful as I have!
VAM 177 | Interview with Jennifer Hale, Part 2
Welcome to episode 177 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Welcome to the second and final part of my interview with the Goddess of Video games, Jennifer Hale! I joked with Jennifer about that nickname in the last episode, but all joking aside, it’s true that Jennifer holds the Guinness World Record for being the most prolific voice actress in video games! You may be familiar with her work in games like Mass Effect, Metal Gear Solid, Halo, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, and Overwatch! In animation, she’s worked on Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Legend of Korra, Wolverine and the X-men, as well as voice matching Cinderella in numerous Disney animated shows and games.
In the first part of our interview, Jennifer described how she became an actor. If you’ve already listened to the previous episode, you know how much hard work she put in to pursuing her acting career. She made sure to take advantage of every performance opportunity that came her way, even if it meant working behind the scenes! All of that experience was invaluable to her as she pursued her acting goals. While from the outside it may seem like her journey was very serendipitous, it was also a demonstration of the classic aphorism that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Jennifer was constantly striving to improve her skills so that when opportunities came her way, she was able to capitalize on them fully.
As we continue our conversation in this episode, we discuss how to nurture your own internal voice of inspiration. Jennifer faced many difficulties growing up and she didn’t always have someone with more experience to advise or guide her. This meant that she had to nurture in herself the ability to find her own way through life’s challenges. This internal guidance has served her well and in this segment she shares what she does to help her listen to the quiet voice inside that’s always doing its best to lead her to happiness and satisfaction. We also talk extensively about money and finances. It’s always been important to Jennifer to have mastery over her own financial well being. While many actors shy away from learning about economics, Jennifer embraces the subject whole heartedly. It’s admirable how she is able to demonstrate her mastery not only in the discipline of acting, but also in the world of business. She shares with me how she approaches financial literacy and how important it is to smash the false dichotomy that actors can’t be good with money or that business people can’t be creative. We wrap up our discussion with Jennifer’s very clear and specific advice to the aspiring voice actor.
Jennifer definitely has some heartfelt wisdom to impart in this episode and I’m eager to share her insights with you!
As I mention in the episode, Jennifer has two websites that offer more information and assistance.
One is her Patreon page which helps with financial education called the Haven which you can access at the link below:
https://www.patreon.com/jenniferhale
The other is SkillsHub.life, an online community by actors and for actors that allows members to access working creators and entertainment industry professionals who offer short, customized coaching opportunities to help you address a variety of topics, from improving your artistry, to managing your business strategy.
I hope you find those websites useful!
VAM 176 | Interview with Jennifer Hale, Part 1
Welcome to episode 176 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
I’m honored to share with you the first part of my interview with a true giant in the world of voice acting, Jennifer Hale! Jennifer has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most prolific video game voice actress! You may be familiar with her work as the Female Commander Shepard a.k.a. FemShep in the Mass Effect game franchise, Naomi Hunter in Metal Gear Solid, Sarah Palmer in Halo, Bastila Shan in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Rivet in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, and one of my personal favorites, Ashe in Overwatch! In animation, she’s played Avatar Kyoshi in Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Legend of Korra, Jean Grey in Wolverine and the X-men, and she also does the voice for Cinderella in numerous Disney animated shows and games.
One of the reasons I was so excited to get Jennifer on the podcast is not only does she have top notch acting skills, but she also has a passion for understanding the business side of the voice over industry. I’ve mentioned this in earlier episodes of the podcast, but if you want to consistently book work as a voice actor, it is vital to not only have professionally competitive acting skills, but also to have a solid understanding of the economic dynamics and business pressures of the industry. Such practical and financial knowledge will help you position yourself better in the voice over marketplace and also help you understand what you need to do to promote yourself as effectively as possible.
In this episode, we begin our discussion with Jennifer telling me how she broke into acting. It turns out she faced many challenges when growing up. She moved around a lot as a kid and was regularly made fun of at school. It didn’t help that her mother was often a single parent who wasn’t very enthusiastic about raising children. Facing such instability in her personal life, Jennifer’s survival technique was to become extremely independent and self-sufficient. She had to grow up quickly and take personal responsibility for her own journey through life. For example, the night before she had to audition at a performing arts high school, her mother went out to spend time with friends at a bar. Since there was no one to watch Jennifer if she stayed home, her mother took her along and had her sit in the parked car outside the bar until about 1 in the morning. Stuck in the car and having nothing else to do, Jennifer proceeded to memorize a monologue that she then performed eight hours later at 9am when she finally did arrive at the auditions for her high school. That’s an incredible amount of pressure to have to manage as a young person, but somehow Jennifer found her way through the difficult and daunting circumstances she faced. Her story is one of amazing resourcefulness and courage.
Jennifer is the first to admit that these hardships took a toll on her psychologically. She also mentions how important it was for her to get therapy in order to find a way to process these experiences in a healthy manner. However, the challenges she faced when she was young also helped sharpen her desire for freedom and independence. Lacking external guidance from her mother, Jennifer began to rely on her own internal compass when trying to figure out how to proceed in life. She speaks often about being taken over by the muse or some other inspiration that guided her in moments of challenge or crisis. That guidance would motivate her to take advantage of any acting opportunity that presented itself to her no matter how small. She always did her best to capitalize on those opportunities to the fullest. This meant that she gained many kinds of creative experiences as she was growing up. She not only worked as an actress, but she also worked behind the scenes as a production assistant helping film crews to make commercials and other content. This wide range of experience in the entertainment industry helped her greatly as she moved forward in her career. It also honed her internal guidance which eventually led her to the world of voice acting.
As I mention in the episode, Jennifer has two websites that offer more information and assistance.
One is her Patreon page which helps with financial education called the Haven which you can access at the link below:
https://www.patreon.com/jenniferhale
The other is SkillsHub.life, an online community by actors and for actors that allows members to access working creators and entertainment industry professionals who offer short, customized coaching opportunities to help you address a variety of topics, from improving your artistry, to managing your business strategy.
I hope you find those websites useful!
VAM 175 | 10th Anniversary Episode, Part 2
Welcome to episode 175 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Welcome to the second part of my 10th anniversary feature! As I mentioned in the last episode, the Voice Acting Mastery podcast is now officially 10 years old! I released my first podcast episode in July of 2011 and I wanted to take these two episodes to celebrate that important milestone. I’ve always tried my best in this podcast to share the most practical and useful information I could on what it takes to succeed as a professional voice actor and I hope the content I’ve provided in this podcast has in some way helped each and every one of my listeners.
For these episodes, I asked my listeners to either call in or e-mail me a voice message letting me know how the Voice Acting Mastery podcast may have influenced their own acting journey or any other part of their lives! I received a flood of messages and I’m grateful for each and every one of them. I thought it would be a nice way to celebrate the occasion if I shared some of the messages I received and responded to them here on the podcast.
In the previous episode, I shared 3 messages from listeners who talked about how the podcast helped their mindset when it came to approaching voice acting. It allowed me to expand on their ideas and share some important mindset goals including how to approach auditions without stressing about them afterwards, the importance of doing your best to express a character rather than impress a casting director, and why there is no such thing as a “right” way to perform a character.
In this episode, I’m going to be sharing 3 calls that focus more on the practical approach one can take to pursue a professional voice acting career. I think it will be a good compliment to the previous episode.
I’d like to start with a message I received from Riley, a young voice actress from Louisville, Kentucky.
When Riley was in the 7th grade, she watched a Netflix documentary about the voice over industry. It so inspired her that she became obsessed with researching what it would take to become a voice actor. One very wise thing she did was to surround herself with other actors and creative artists by attending a local performing arts high school and then continuing her artistic education in college.
I emphasize how valuable it can be to participate with a community of creative artists, even if the only way you can collaborate with them is online! I’ve learned just as much, if not more from my fellow actors as I have from my acting teachers!
Our second call is from Paul in Los Angeles.
Paul feels like the podcast was the friend in the industry that he always wanted, but never had in real life. Paul shares some of his professional acting journey with us and it’s clear that he’s been able to combine both professionally competitive acting skills with an entrepreneurial business spirit. I congratulate him on his ability to manage those two sides of his career and say how much I wish I had had teachers that helped me learn more about the business side of an acting career. I emphasize how much I try to share my business acumen in the podcast and how heartening it is to hear that Paul has found my podcast so helpful in his journey!
Our last call in this episode is from Afaz in Greece!
Afaz wants to thank me for both the detail I pursue in my interviews with industry guests, as well as my commitment to making sure I explain any confusing or esoteric terminology. I thank her for her compliment. It’s always been a high priority of mine to make sure my podcast remains accessible to anyone who is curious about voice acting, regardless of whether they are already familiar with acting jargon. Often teachers will suffer from something called “the curse of expertise” where they will forget what it was like when they were a novice in the industry. I’m glad that Afaz appreciates all the work I have put in to making sure none of my audience is left behind.
There’s a piece of advice that I’ve heard articulated by many different teachers including the famous physicist Richard Feynman that goes like this, “If you want to master something, teach it.” I can testify to the fact that teaching others has improved my own artistry tremendously and I advise my listeners to teach what they know to others if they truly want to achieve Voice Acting Mastery.
I’m grateful to all of my listeners who have diligently listened to this podcast over the last 10 wonderful years, and I look forward to the topics we’ll explore together in the future. Thanks again to those of you who called in and left such wonderful messages. I truly appreciate them all. Until next time, I wish you all the best in your voice acting endeavors. Take care!
Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #175 Here (MP3)