VAM 233 | Interview with Ben Diskin, Part 2
Welcome to episode 232 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 eager to share with you the second part of my interview with the multi-talented and Emmy award winning voice actor, Ben Diskin! You may know his work from animated shows like Hey Arnold!, Codename: Kids Next Door, Spectacular Spider-Man, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., and the Muppet Babies! You may also recognize his voice in games like Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, the Kingdom Hearts series of games, and Date Everything! You may even have heard him in anime shows like Blood+, Naruto Shippuden, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, and Aggretsuko.
In the previous episode, Ben and I explored in detail how he got started as a voice actor. Ben was effectively offered agent representation before he was even born and was acting in commercials at the ripe old age of 3! Since his parents were both actors, they were able to help guide him through the industry, both artistically and professionally. They knew what it took to be believable on-camera, and they had a realistic understanding of the demands of pursuing an acting career.
Ben was exposed to both the joys of acting, and the possible negative ramifications of being a performer at a very early age. He was often typecast, which he found artistically limiting, and he also had to deal with negative feedback from his classmates at school, who assumed he was far more rich and famous than he actually was. All of this contributed to Ben’s desire to pursue voice acting, instead of on-camera acting, as a way to not only escape the typecasting trap, but also to be able to keep his private life and his professional life more separate. As a voice actor, he could act, and still keep his anonymity in everyday life.
While all of that might help explain why Ben left the on-camera world to pursue voice acting instead, I was still curious as to why he wanted to be a performer in the first place? Did he just start at such an early age that it seemed natural? Did he feel like he didn’t have any other choice? Ben answers me quite bluntly: he thinks that he’s an incredibly boring person, and so any opportunity he had to role play as someone else was appealing to him!
As my regular listeners might realize, this surprising answer does seem to contradict many of the ideas I’ve shared on the podcast about an actor valuing themselves and their inner universe of possibilities. So Ben and I dive deep into this subject to see if we can discover if there’s any way to reconcile his approach to acting, and my ideas about the acting process. We get very specific about how he thinks about characters, and what exactly he does to embody them, especially when he’s given very little information on which to base his acting choices.
Since Ben started acting when he was so young, it can be challenging for him to articulate his process. Nevertheless, I encourage you to listen closely to our conversation as I help tease out exactly why Ben got so good at voice acting. You’ll notice in his answers some familiar themes from earlier episodes: he watches a ton of media to understand the different styles of shows, he closely analyzes performances he admires in order to be able to reproduce them himself, he studies his fellow professional colleagues to see what he can learn from them, and he makes sure to physicalize his characters as much as possible. Ben has internalized the fundamentals of voice acting through immersion, intense focus, and repeated practice. Hopefully his story will inspire my listeners to do the same!
VAM 232 | Interview with Ben Diskin, Part 1
Welcome to episode 232 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 multi-talented and Emmy award winning voice actor, Ben Diskin! You may be familiar with his voice acting work in animation including Eugene in Hey Arnold!, Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 2 in Codename: Kids Next Door, Eddie Brock and Venom in Spectacular Spider-Man, Keldor/Skeletor in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Skaar, Bulldozer, Fandral and Miek in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., and both Gonzo and Rizzo the Rat in Muppet Babies for which he won a Daytime Emmy award! In games you may have heard him as Glenn Lodbrok in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, Young Xehanort in the Kingdom Hearts series of games, and Franklin Lieste in Date Everything! Some of his anime roles include Kai in Blood+, Sai Yamanaka in Naruto Shippuden, Char Aznable in Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, and Haida in Aggretsuko.
In the first part of our discussion, Ben shares with me how he got started as an actor. As crazy at it might sound, for all intents and purposes, Ben was signed to his first acting agent in utero! His parents were both actors in Los Angeles, and when his mother was pregnant with him, her agent offered to represent Ben once he was born. As a baby, Ben started getting cast in commercials and other acting roles on-camera. It certainly helped that both his parents could not only coach him on his performances, but that they also had a realistic understanding of the challenges of pursuing an acting career. Unlike some stage parents, they didn’t need Ben to become a big star, they were just happy if he was enjoying himself. Any money he might make they planned to save for his college fund.
Little did they know that Ben would not only enjoy acting, he would became passionate about it. Acting was so important to him that even as a young child, he was willing to put up with the tedium one regularly experiences on a live-action set. Shooting actors on film can be a slow and laborious process. Often you have to arrive very early to be put through hair and makeup even though you may just end up sitting around for hours after that, waiting to be called to perform your one scene. You can imagine how frustrating this might be to a young person, but Ben was so eager to act that he was willing to endure it as long as he got his chance to play pretend.
In fact, Ben was so committed to the process of acting, that he soon felt frustrated as producers began to typecast him. He was hungry to play all sorts of different characters, not just the slightly nerdy kids he was often hired to portray on screen. He discovered that voice acting could offer him the opportunity to play a wide range of roles, and he need only be limited by his ability to act, and the sound of his voice, rather than by his physical appearance. He quickly set about expanding his vocal range so he could play as many characters as possible.
One of the things I find most interesting about Ben’s journey is that he experienced both the highs and the lows of acting at such an early age. For example, his young psyche had to come to grips with how being famous might affect his relationships with his peers. Early in our time together, Ben shares with me his story about letting his friends on the playground know that he had been cast in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Kindergarten Cop, and how through a series of misunderstandings, this actually damaged some of his friendships. He also shares with me an experience he had with a casting director who told him to his face to stop trying to play characters outside of where he was normally typecast. This experience made him so frustrated, that he resolved to find a way to prove that close-minded casting director wrong, by booking as many different types of characters as his vocal instrument would allow.
The pivotal mindset that supported Ben in the midst of these challenges was that he was fascinated with being an actor who could express things that were original and meaningful, and he cared very little about getting attention or approval from others. He was truly living the advice that I often repeat on this podcast, “Love the art in yourself more than yourself in the art”. I hope Ben’s story and his deep commitment to acting inspire all of you in the audience to do the same!
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!