A while back, I decided to go on a quest to discover what the secret is to a great performance. I wanted to know the one element that elevates us from all the other actors and voice actors – that makes us stand out and be remembered. While reading acting coach Lee Strasberg’s book “A Dream of Passion”, I found that he too went on the same search when he was first starting out as an actor. Lee said he attended a theatre performance one night, with an actor he had never seen before. The performance was so moving and profound he was on the edge of his seat. He decided to go to the performance again the next night, and was deflated. That same actor was flat and lackluster. What had changed? After much analysis, Lee came up with one word: inspiration. He believed the actor whom he was astounded with in his first performance, had somehow lost his inspiration in the following night’s show.
What is inspiration, and are we doomed to mediocrity if it doesn’t magically appear? The Oxford dictionary defines it as: “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially something creative.”
Inspiration may be the key element for success in voice acting, but the challenge is, how do we bring it, if we’re just not feeling it?
I’ve had countless students tell me they “can’t get into” certain scripts; and I’ve experienced this many times myself. Do we just give up, or ask for another script? In the real world we can’t re-write an audition script or copy for a client.
The work of the voice actor is to get inspired with the script we’ve been given. Sometimes this is easy, because we may already have a personal connection to what we are talking about. But what if we just aren’t feeling passionate about toothpaste?
Pretending to be excited about a product doesn’t work; the listener can sniff out pretense like a bloodhound. Today’s audience wants us to be real, believable and relatable. We can achieve this heightened level of performance, by utilizing some of the foundational teachings of the great acting coaches. Sanford Meisner once said, “Acting is behaving truthfully in imaginary circumstances.” Making the situation presented in your commercial copy truthful for you is one of the most important steps you can take as a voice actor.
Meisner also said, “why” is the most important word in an actor’s vocabulary. Ask yourself: why am I saying what I am about to say? When we do this, we open up a Pandora’s box of possibilities. Sort out your options, also called the actor’s “choices,” and find the one most meaningful for you.
In a commercial script, it’s your job to find your nugget of truth. Actor Jeff Bridges was asked, how do you play these roles that are so far from who you really are? He replied; “I find the one thing I can relate to, and I throw the rest away.” He finds that truthful nugget that he can build his character around. We can teach ourselves to do that too.
The renowned acting coach Stella Adler once chastised a student, saying in part, “nothing affects you!” As voice actors, we need to remember that every word on the page is important. We need to let everything we say affect us. When we do this, we increase our chances of being inspired by the copy.
Notice the things in your life that make you excited to get out of bed in the morning. What feeds your soul? Do those things daily and take serious notice of what inspiration feels like to you. This is the feeling that you want to bring to your voice acting.
Stella advised actors to, “Never go on stage without your motor running.” Next time you are in front of the mic, ask yourself: “Is my motor running?” This could be the key to a great performance that gets you noticed.
