VAM 231 | Different Types Of Directors, And How Best To Collaborate With Them
Welcome to episode 231 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
In the previous episode, I explained my method for taking direction as an actor without taking it personally. If you haven’t checked it out already, I strongly suggest you listen to that episode before continuing with this one. I will be referencing some of the ideas and strategies I shared in that episode and it will be important to be familiar with them as I talk about the different types of directors you may interact with in the industry.
As a quick recap for those who have listened to it, hopefully you remember that I began by explaining how important it is to be able to modify your performance based on feedback you get from your director. No matter how good an actor you are, if you cannot take direction quickly and effectively, you become a liability to the production rather than an asset. I also shared an intense experience I had working with a director who was so aggressive in his approach that he was willing to use insults to try to elicit a change in my performance. Hearing his words, it was difficult not to be upset by them, especially when it felt like his criticisms weren’t just of my acting, but of me personally. While we able to reconcile later, and I grew to understand that he really did want the best for me as an actor, that experience stuck with me for two important reasons.
The first reason was that such a dramatic event really forced me to evaluate my own process as an actor. I had to decide whether I cared enough about acting to deal with any similar difficulties that might come my way. Was I going to let one person’s words said in the heat of the moment derail my artistic goals, or was I going to develop resilience in the face of an intimidating obstacle? Eventually, the tactic I developed to handle this sort of caustic direction was to identify with the larger universe of possibilities in my psyche, rather than get attached to any individual persona I might adopt in the moment. That way if the character I was currently playing was criticized, I need not take it personally, even if that character was my everyday persona that I used to interact with people in the real world. Again, I strongly encourage you to internalize the stories and lessons I shared in the last episode so you too can handle any critiques you might receive as an actor.
The second reason that experience stuck with me, was how drastically different that director’s behavior was towards me depending on the situation. In class, he was critical and dismissive, yelling at me forcefully to try and shock me out of my habitual patterns of acting. Later, when it was just the two of us in his office, he was more inquisitive and relaxed. He sincerely wanted to find a way to help me grow and his manner was more quiet and gentle. Experiencing this helped me realize that the best directors know how to change their approach in order to assist the actor they’re collaborating with. I’ve watched masterful directors quickly evaluate an actor in front of them, decide what tactics might be most effective to get the performance they’re looking for from that actor, and then adopt a completely different persona so they can help that performer achieve those results.
What if we, as actors, could do the same? What if an actor could quickly identify the kind of director they were working with and then was able to modify their behavior to collaborate with that director more effectively? That’s what I want to help you accomplish in this episode. To achieve this, I’ll be sharing with you my taxonomy of some common types of directors I’ve come across in my career. This is not an exhaustive list by any means; it’s merely my shorthand for identifying the kinds of directors I tend to encounter in the industry. Hopefully it will be a useful starting point for developing your own director classifications and I encourage you to add to it based on your personal experiences. Just remember, the goal is not to reduce, over simplify, or dismiss the director in front of you, but rather to discover how you can adjust your approach so as to mesh more seamlessly with that director’s workflow.
VAM 230 | How To Take Direction Without Taking It Personally
Welcome to episode 230 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
Since 2011, I’ve repeatedly stressed on this podcast the importance of developing professionally competitive acting skills if you want to be successful as a voice actor. It’s why I decided to name the podcast Voice Acting Mastery! If masterful voice acting skills are the prime requisite for succeeding as a professional, and they most certainly are, the next most important skill is the ability to take direction. If you are a brilliant actor who can give truly authentic performances, but you’re unwilling to modify your acting to suit the overall vision a director has for a project, you become an impediment to the production, rather than an asset. Allow me to explain.
When working on a production with multiple characters, like an animated show or a video game, every actor in the project has their own idea of how they would like to play their character. Industrious, proactive actors have taken the time to analyze the script and their character’s point of view very rigorously, working out as many details as they can in order to explore the psychological nuances in each scene. And while this might be enough to create standout individual performances, if a director were simply to allow each of these actors to play their part as they saw fit without considering the project as a whole, the resulting performances may not end up sounding like they go together. Instead, you might end up with as many different opinions about how the project should sound as there are performers working on it!
The director’s job is to have a single point of view or focus for the production and to make sure that every actor’s contribution serves that unifying vision. It’s not dissimilar from the conductor of an orchestra ensuring that every musician is playing on the beat, in tune, and with the appropriate emphasis, emotional nuance, and dynamics to make the music as compelling as possible. No one musician, no matter how brilliant they may be on their own, can remain in the orchestra if they’re not willing to take direction and contribute to a unified performance. The same is true in acting.
The ability to take direction and modify your performance so you can serve the production as a whole is crucial if you want to be valuable to a project. However, I have noticed that some beginning voice actors, especially those who have little to no experience in traditional acting environments like theater, have a tendency to take the direction they receive rather personally. Instead of acknowledging the notes that a director might give them, and then doing their best to perform in a way that aligns with the director’s vision, they instead take that direction as a personal criticism. They feel upset and hurt, as if the direction they received was an insult or a judgement.
I can understand why this happens. Acting is about sharing one’s emotional life through the vehicle of a character in service of a story in the hopes that an audience will find it compelling. I’ve spoken often about the importance of an actor being emotionally vulnerable when playing a character, so the performance will be as authentic and believable as possible. If you make yourself emotionally vulnerable, it’s understandable that any director’s request to modify whatever vulnerability you just shared can feel like a personal rejection.
I’d like to take this episode to implore all my listeners not to take direction personally, and to understand that it’s a means to guide you, not a weapon to attack you. To help you understand this, I’m going to be sharing some techniques that may assist you in taking any direction you receive into consideration without becoming upset. Most directors I work with are generous, supportive people who only want the best for their project and for their actors. I know that when they give me notes, even spirited ones, it’s never a personal criticism, but merely their passion for making a project the best it can be. That being said, the mindset I want to share with you will even help you when working with directors who are not so enlightened. It’s unfortunate, but there’s always a possibility that you might end up interacting with a director who’s less generous and more egotistical. There are a few directors out there who can be controlling, emotionally dismissive, or downright rude. I want you to be able to maintain your emotional equilibrium even in the worst of circumstances!
VAM 227 | Interview with Alejandra Reynoso, Part 2
Welcome to episode 227 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 the talented Alejandra Reynoso! You may be familiar with her work in animated shows like Winx Club and Castlevania. In games she’s worked on Metaphor: ReFantazio, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, and DOTA 2. In anime she’s worked on Secrets of the Silent Witch, The Medalist, the Mononoke films, and Pokemon Horizons! Alejandra and I have been fortunate enough to cross paths on a number of different projects and I’m always impressed with the authenticity and vulnerability of her performances!
In the previous episode Alejandra shared with me how she got started as a voice actress. She began as a child actress working in commercials and on-camera for many years before her agent recommended her to the voice over department when she was around 16 years old. She booked a guest character in one of the first projects she auditioned for, GI Joe Renegades, and other than taking a short sabbatical during college where she focused on her studies, she’s been voice acting professionally ever since!
In this segment, I ask Alejandra what inspired her to become an actor in the first place. From her perspective, she feels like she just sort of fell into acting and that it was never something she aspired to do on purpose from a young age. However, as we explore the topic more, she admits that she has always loved experiencing imaginary worlds. Playing make believe was one of her favorite pastimes. Also, her father had a great love for films and she took joy in participating in something that he appreciated.
When I ask why Alejandra decided to pursue acting rather than some other artistic endeavor like writing or drawing, she shares that she loved the idea of other people facilitating the process of creating stories and inviting her to collaborate with them while they were playing make believe. That creative endeavor was so important to her that she was willing to find ways to overcome the stage fright and nerves that often made her feel anxious and scared to perform. The characters and stories required her courage, so she jumped in and played pretend despite her fears!
After that, Alejandra and I wrap up our discussion with her advice to the aspiring voice actor. She emphasizes that any actor has to love the work of acting; not the attention, or the acclaim, but the day-to-day effort it takes to get good at acting. Without that work ethic, that stick-to-it-ivness, an actor may become disappointed or even despondent when their career goals don’t manifest quickly. Alejandra even has a great manifesto: The process of acting has to be so satisfying to you that even if you never book that one role you’ve been dreaming of playing, that the rest of your professional accomplishments will feel satisfying and worthwhile. It’s a fabulous way of looking at one’s career and I’m eager to share that and more of Alejandra’s wisdom with you!
VAM 226 | Interview with Alejandra Reynoso, Part 1
Welcome to episode 226 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 excited to present to you my interview with the very talented Alejandra Reynoso! In the world of animation she’s probably most famous for playing Flora in Winx Club for Nickelodeon and Sypha in the popular Netflix animated series, Castlevania. In games she’s played Gallica in Metaphor: ReFantazio, Neon in Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, and Dawnbreaker in DOTA 2. In anime she’s Monica Everett in Secrets of the Silent Witch, Hitomi Takamine in The Medalist, Asa in the series of Mononoke films, and the lead character Liko in the new Pokemon Horizons series!
I first came across Alejandra and her work when we were both cast in Pokemon Horizons where I play the adventurous Pokemon professor, Friede. I heard Alejandra’s performance as Liko and found it hopeful, idealistic, and endearing. Then, I was pleasantly surprised when right after Pokemon Horizons, we were both cast in the anime movie Mononoke: Phantom in the Rain where she voiced one of the main female leads, Asa, and I voiced the Medicine Seller. In that film, Alejandra played a grounded, confident young woman who was negotiating the complicated politics of the Japanese Imperial court. After hearing her in both roles, I was really impressed by her acting range and I knew I had to get her on the podcast!
The beginning of Alejandra’s acting journey almost sounds like it was lifted from a Hollywood fairytale! Her father worked as a film projectionist in Los Angeles and she would often accompany him to work in order to spend time with him and watch movies. When she was only 9 years old, an agent saw her playing in the lobby of the movie theater and thought she might do well as a child actress in commercials. Initially, Alejandra’s parents were nervous about her becoming an actress. They were all too familiar with the pressures put on child actors and they worried it would affect their daughter negatively. However, they didn’t want to restrict Alejandra from doing something that might bring her satisfaction, so they decided to ask her if she’d like to take acting classes to see if it would be something she’d enjoy.
Alejandra was open to the idea, and started studying at a school for child actors. It wasn’t long before she had caught the eye of another agent who wanted to represent her for commercial and on-camera work. After working with that agency for around 6 years, her agent then recommended her to their voice over department which was looking for young talent. Alejandra happened to book the very first audition the voice over department sent her which was for the animated show GI Joe: Renegades, where Troy Baker played her father. Alejandra instantly fell in love with voice acting and realized she wanted to make it her primary focus!
After graduating college, she had to make another choice about what career path to follow. She had been offered a job at a technology company who wanted her to work in their marketing department. While it seemed like a reliable choice, she lacked enthusiasm for the opportunity. She couldn’t stop thinking about pursuing an acting career instead. Fortunately, her parents supported her decision, so she notified her agents and told them that she’d be back in LA soon and was available for auditions. Her agents then sent her an audition for a character named Sypha for a new Castlevania animated series which she booked. It was an auspicious sign! It was as if the universe was endorsing her decision to pursue acting!
Much of Alejandra’s journey to becoming a voice actor can seem so serendipitous as to be almost magical, but if you listen closely, you’ll begin to detect the methods and principles that were supporting her on her path. The actions each aspiring voice actor must take in order to be professionally successful will obviously be unique to every actor, but the fundamental skills and mindset underneath those action journeys is very consistent. Pay attention to the things Alejandra did and the mindsets she adopted in order to be in the right place at the right time to take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves. I think you’ll find it very helpful as you pursue your own voice acting goals!
VAM 217 | Interview with Mara Junot, Part 2
Welcome to episode 217 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 the vocal shape-shifter, Mara Junot! As I mentioned in the previous episode, Mara identifies as non-binary, but accepts both “she” and “they” pronouns. For the purposes of this podcast, I will be using “she/her” when referring to Mara so as to avoid pluralization confusion during these episodes. You may know Mara’s voice acting work in animation on shows like Curious George, Boss Baby: Back in the Crib, Blaze and the Monster Machines, and Arcane. In Video Games she’s been in Destiny 2, League of Legends, Mortal Kombat and Marvel Rivals. In Anime she’s worked on Ishura, Tezuka’s anime, Pluto, and Mara and I are both cast in Pokemon Horizons.
In the previous episode, Mara explained how she got started as a voice actress. She originally started in voice over as a radio DJ, and thought that was going to be her dream job. However, because of management changes at the station, and her own desire to grow artistically, she decided to leave radio and pursue voice acting full time. After spending 16 hours a day on average researching and studying voice over, she began to build a career for herself working remotely, first in Louisiana, then later in Colorado. After booking a role in the hit animated series Arcane, she realized she needed to move to Los Angeles to take her career to the next level.
In this episode, I ask Mara what inspired her to become a performer in the first place. She shares with me a vision that her mother had of Mara standing on a stage, speaking to a large audience who was enraptured. This idea of Mara using her voice to uplift others became a guiding principle in her life. She and I then talk about how important it is to have a good work/life balance as a performer. Mara has found it too easy at times to overcommit and burn herself out! She’s a big believer in naps, which I endorse heartily as well!
We then go back in time to when Mara first performed in the theater as a child, and how an experience she had on stage which could’ve been very embarrassing, actually helped her feel more empowered as a person and as an artist. It’s a formative story from her youth, and discussing it on the podcast helps Mara realize just how much it has influenced her artistic journey ever since! She then shares with me her advice for the aspiring voice actor, and how important it is to be patient with yourself as you pursue an acting career. Mara is a big believer in finding your authentic self and sharing that in your performances. Finding and revealing your true self can take a lot of introspection, self-honesty, training, and courage. The world is full of actors who seem to have become overnight successes, but if you ask them about it, you’ll find out that they’ve actually been practicing their craft for years! Mara encourages you to be good to yourself as you grow as an actor. She is courageous not only in the pursuit of her career, but also in how willing she is to share her own trials and tribulations as an artist. So without further ado, here’s Mara!
VAM 216 | Interview with Mara Junot, Part 1
Welcome to episode 216 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 the vocal shape-shifter, Mara Junot! Before we begin, I want to acknowledge here that Mara identifies as non-binary, but accepts both “she” and “they” pronouns. For the purposes of this podcast, I will be using “she/her” when referring to Mara so as to avoid pluralization confusion during these episodes. Now, you may be familiar with Mara’s work in animation where she’s played Marlene in Curious George, R&D Baby Simmons in Boss Baby: Back in the Crib, Superhero Narrator, Tiger Statue, and Betty Blueprint from Blaze and the Monster Machines, and Shoola in the hit show, Arcane. In Video Games she’s played Ikora Rey in Destiny 2, Evelyn in League of Legends, Sindel in Mortal Kombat and Storm in Marvel Rivals. In Anime she’s played Elea the Red Tag in Ishura, Helena in Tezuka’s anime, Pluto, and Mara and I have the great pleasure of working together on Pokemon Horizons where she plays Orla, the chief engineer of our airship the Brave Olivine.
In this episode, Mara and I begin our discussion with the question I ask all of my guests: how did she get started as a voice actor? Mara’s path to voice acting is a bit unique because she actually began her career on the microphone as a Radio DJ! She was living in a town called Houma in Louisiana, about an hour southwest of New Orleans, working a corporate job that she hated. She then found an opportunity to audition for her local radio station. She reached out to a friend of hers who had some experience in radio, and he helped her put together a recording demonstrating her DJ skills. The station liked what they heard, and she was fortunate enough to get hired to host one of the shows on their county music station. She eventually expanded into DJing at two other stations owned by the same company: a classic rock station, and a soft rock station. Working as a radio DJ was a dream come true for Mara and she thought she was on top of the world!
Unfortunately, after about 7 or 8 years, Mara began to feel like she had stopped growing. She was working all the time, but didn’t feel like there was any more career advancement for her in radio. There was also a change of management at the company which resulted in some personality conflicts amongst the employees, and Mara realized she needed to switch careers.
She had always enjoyed acting as kid in school, but had never felt comfortable embracing what she thought was the acting lifestyle. Mara is an introvert who values her privacy. She didn’t know how to pursue acting without having to become a public figure. That’s when she realized that voice acting might be a way for her to pursue her acting ambitions, retain a sense of anonymity, and still work from her current location in Louisiana. It wasn’t going to be easy, but she was determined to figure out a way to make it work.
Mara began by finding out everything she could about pursuing a voice over career. She scoured websites for information, she started signing up for pay-to-play sites like Voice123.com where you can pay a membership fee to get access to auditions for certain types of voice over work. She even listened to this podcast to help her find out more about the industry! Early on, Mara knew that she wanted to become a household name in voice over. She wanted to have similar name recognition to someone like Morgan Freeman. She also understood that such an ambitious goal would require a lot of commitment. She would spend all day studying voice over, sometimes 16 to 18 hours a day, doing everything she could to expand her knowledge and her skills.
All of that hard work started paying off. She began getting work, building up a list of repeat clients, and discovering that she could in fact have a career in voice over outside of her experiences in radio. However, in order to become as recognizable as Morgan Freeman, there were some major hurdles she had to overcome. Initially, she had to learn to overcome her reluctance to meet with industry people in person, especially at big voice over conferences. Once she overcame that hurdle, she then realized that in order to get her voice acting career to the next level, and work on the types of projects she had always dreamed of, she was going to need to move to Los Angeles. After moving to LA, she still had more work to do: looking inward to come to grips with who she really was as an artist, and how best to share her authentic self in her performances. It’s a compelling and heartfelt journey, and I’m grateful to Mara for being willing to share such very personal details with us. Let’s get started!