Here’s a wonderfully frank and candid interview with my friend, and voice acting superstar, Nolan North. Nolan and I have worked on a number of projects together, including the animated series Young Justice where he plays Superboy and I play Speedy who eventually becomes Red Arrow.

In this interview on Complex.com, Nolan talks about his experiences working on the Uncharted series of video games, the franchise people tend to associate him with the most. Nolan really embodies Nathan Drake and it’s a testament to the storytelling in the game that it’s been so popular for so many years.

What I really love about Nolan’s interview is his story of how he got in to the business. He says,

I eventually became an actor, starting with doing stand-up comedy in New York and then theater wherever they would let me. Finally, I moved out here to Los Angeles and got on a show. … For so long [my wife] put up with all my silly voices and accents and she kept hammering at me saying, “You got to get into voice over!” … I have to say that it is nice to be able to make a nice living doing what teachers gave me detention for in school [laughs].

Nolan just really enjoys playing with different character voices. It’s what makes him happy. That enthusiasm comes through, especially when you meet him in person. He also loves the anonymity that voice acting brings him. For him, his freedom is more important than anything else.

If you’re asking me what perk personally I have enjoyed, then I’d have to say that it’s the freedom. With success you make a better living, but money can’t buy happiness. The one thing it can buy in this industry, and I don’t make millions by any means, is freedom.

Nolan loves having his anonymity as a voice actor. No one bothers him on the street, he can go about his life without anyone looking over his shoulder, but he still gets to work on the characters and the stories that allow him to entertain people. I think there’s a lot to learn from watching someone who’s truly enjoying what they’re doing.

Here’s an amazing interview with one of the greatest voice directors in America, Andrea Romano. Andrea’s resume is littered with some of the most popular cartoon series of all time including the original Batman, The Animated Series from the mid 90’s, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Teen Titans and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Andrea talks about some very important ideas to remember when approaching voice acting:

1. Her first question is always, “Is this person I’m thinking of casting a good actor?”
2. Her second question is, “Do they have voice over experience?”

Microphone technique and animation acting, you can teach in a very short time. I can’t teach acting in a four-hour recording session. Acting is something that they’ve got to bring to the table themselves.

That is why I stress so much that you must be a capable actor before you can be truly successful as a voice actor. No matter how much time you spend in the booth, recording on a microphone or polishing your voice, if you do not have the acting ability to support all of your wonderful technique, you won’t be able to bring a good performance to the project.

So do whatever you can to get more acting experience. Take acting classes. Join your local or school theater group. Get online and join a voice acting group. Whatever it takes to give you more opportunities to practice playing pretend as characters.

Enjoy!

Welcome to the eighth episode 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 third and final part of my interview with Wes Davis. If you’d like to learn more about Wes, feel free to check out his voice acting website:

http://www.gimmeamic.com/

In this episode, we get into some of the most important issues when pursuing a voice acting career including:

1. Where does your confidence come from?
2. How do you warm-up before a voice acting job?
3. How do you achieve your goals?
4. What do you say to yourself to keep from being discouraged?

In the next episode, I’ll be addressing an issue that has been asked many times in the comments here on the website: “What can I do to be more confident?” I look forward to giving you my take on it in the next episode!

As always, I welcome your questions and feedback! If you feel inspired, please leave a comment on this blog post.

Thanks for listening!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #8 Here (MP3)

Welcome to the seventh episode 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 part of my interview with Wes Davis, a young and talented voice actor who was gracious enough to sit down with me and talk about his experiences breaking into the voice over business. If you’d like to learn more about Wes, feel free to check out his voice acting website:

http://www.gimmeamic.com/

In this episode, we get into some of the most important issues when pursuing a voice acting career including:

1. How do you get voice acting jobs?
2. What’s the most useful thing you’ve learned from your voice acting classes?
3. What’s the most common mistake people make in class?
4. What really kicked your voice acting career into a higher gear?

In the next episode, Wes and I will be discussing how he finds his confidence, his techniques for keeping a positive outlook and his ambitious plans for the future!

As always, I welcome your questions and feedback! If you feel inspired, please leave a comment on this blog post.

Thanks for listening!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #7 Here (MP3)

I wanted to bring your attention to a wonderful interview with my friend, the very talented Dino Andrade. Dino has been involved in the world of voice acting far longer than I have and has more war stories than either of us care to count! What I love most about Dino’s Interview, however, is his obvious enthusiasm for games and animation coupled with a savvy and practicality about the business of voice acting.

He’s got a lot of insight into what it takes to be a successful voice actor. Some of his more important points are:

1. He started as an actor on stage doing comedy improv.
2. He knows the history of the entertainment industry and understands how to navigate its currents.
3. He believes without reservation that games are in fact art.
4. He brings all of himself to a performance, especially when voicing the Scarecrow in the game Arkham Asylum.
5. He’s learned how to self-direct as a voice actor.
6. He affirms that type-casting is your friend as a voice actor.