Questions for voice actors

ColdfireSerge

What are some good questions to ask a voice actor having a Q&A Panel?
We've all heard the ones about how they got started, or someone in the audience asking for tips on getting into the industry. One of the most random questions I heard in a panel was the actor's favorite kind of pie. Sadly, I don't recall which actor it was or the type of pie.
Are there any good actor specific questions? Something you'd ask Steve Blum, but not Greg Ayres?

Apreche

Ask personal questions, not about their families or other stuff they won't say, but about their hobbies and interests. What do they do for fun? What books do they read? What anime do they like? How did they discover anime? Also, get their personal opinions on pressing issues of the day. What do they think about the fansub issue? What's their take on dub vs. sub considering it's their job to make dubs? These are the interesting questions to ask.

tuttle88

Ask what they think about the fact that in most animated movies these days the characters are all voiced by celebrities not voice actors. Do they think it means less depth to animated films.

Apreche

Ask what they think about the fact that in most animated movies these days the characters are all voiced by celebrities not voice actors. Do they think it means less depth to animated films.

I actually kind of like when celebrity actors do voices in animated movies. Most of the time when somebody becomes a super famous actor it is because they are usually a very good actor. Voice actors are actors, so someone who is a very good actor in general can usually do a very good job of voice acting. Robin Williams as Genie in Aladdin or Billy Crystal as Calcifer in Howl's Moving Castle are great examples.

HMTKSteve

Apreche,

Do you know of any instances where a well known actor was used as a voice actor with horrible results?

Is that better?

Apreche

Apreche,

Do you have any bad examples of actors being used as voice actors?

Yes, the Utena dub. Terrible job. Remember, voice actors are actors. I'm talking about super famous actors. Just saying actors doesn't mean anything.

Rather than picking apart your poor semantics, I will now answer the question I know you meant to ask. Are there instances of non-voice actors or famous actors doing a bad job of voice acting? You know what? I can't think of any. Every instance of voice acting by famous actors I can think of has been phenomenal, or at least well above average. Shrek, Toy Story, Princess Mononoke, all of these had celebrity voice actors, and all of them were great. Can someone else think of an example where a famous actor did a bad job voice acting? I'm only thinking of examples where they did great.

Jason

Keifer Sutherland and Elizabeth Berkley doing the voice-overs in Armitage III was pretty rough. XD

Rym

Keifer Sutherland and Elizabeth Berkley doing the voice-overs in Armitage III was pretty rough.

I don't know how much I can blame them versus their director, but the evil deed was done nonetheless. One of Keifer's unenthusiastic yells became something of an in-joke back in high school.

(You know, it probably didn't help much that Armitage was pretty lame to begin with, and Polymatrix was Poly-lame).

HungryJoe

Last week I checked out Hoodwinked from my local library. I refused to spend the money to rent it because I was extremely suspicious it would be crappy.

My suspicions were correct. It was very kiddy-ish and the actors all sounded like they were phoning it in, except for the guy playing the villain, who sounded a lot like Syndrome. Does anyone know if it was the same guy?

Apreche

Keifer Sutherland and Elizabeth Berkley doing the voice-overs in Armitage III was pretty rough. XD

I know Armitage III, but I've never heard of those people.

Andrew

I know Armitage III, but I've never heard of those people.

Isn't Keifer Sutherland that 24 guy?

Rym

I know Armitage III, but I've never heard of those people.

Scott takes pride in being ignorant of anything that vaguely resembles American pop culture. It's annoying sometimes when I say a name like "Val Kilmer" and then have to explain at length who it is. ^_~

Jason

He was born in the 80s. He must have seen at least one episode of Saved By the Bell. Anyone who hasn't... well, they haven't truly lived.

HungryJoe

He was born in the 80s. He must have seen at least one episode of Saved By the Bell. Anyone who hasn't... well, they haven't truly lived.

I think that we all have at least some infection by pop culture, but I actually haven't seen "Saved By the Bell". This is most likely because I was in college and so nearly every night was devoted to either studying or drinking. Is that the series that had "Screech"?

Apreche

He was born in the 80s. He must have seen at least one episode of Saved By the Bell. Anyone who hasn't... well, they haven't truly lived.

I've seen many episodes of Save by the Bell. The only thing I can tell you about the actors is that the tall girl was in Showgirls, and that Screech is poor and does bad stand-up.

It's not so much that I take pride in being ignorant of pop culture, it's that I just really don't care at all. I care so little that I rarely, if ever, take the time to find out. If someone says the name of someone famous in a conversation, I'm able to recognize that it is the name of someone famous. However, unless they are super-famous I will have a hard time picking them out of a crowd or telling you what they are famous for. It wasn't until extremely recently that I paid attention at all to who created or worked on any movie, TV show, comic, etc. that I enjoyed.

Here's an example. When I was in high school I couldn't tell you the names of any actors in Star Wars or The Matrix despite them being movies I had watched a zillion times. Despite that, if you said the name Harrison Ford I recognized it was the name of a famous person. I wouldn't be able to tell you if he was an actor or a singer or what he looked like, but I knew it was the name of a famous person. I could also tell you that Han Solo and Indiana Jones are the same person. I just didn't know the name of that actor. It's not that I actively avoided knowing stuff like this, it's just that I was absolutely 100% indifferent. I just didn't pay any attention at all.

I think part of the problem was that I never really paid attention to people across different works. I would hear two songs, and not realize they were the same band. I would watch two movies and not realize Tom Cruise was the star in both of them. Some were obvious, like Robin Williams in two different movies, but most of the time I didn't know unless someone pointed it out to me. To this day I know that Robert Redford is in The Sting, but I don't know which character he is.

I kind of wish I still knew so little about which actors were which. It sometimes takes me out of the movie when I recognize people and start thinking about them outside the context of their character.

HungryJoe

It sometimes takes me out of the movie when I recognize people and start thinking about them outside the context of their character.

The whole time I was watching Dragonheart, I couldn't stop thinking about Sean Connery standing in a sound booth.

Apreche

It sometimes takes me out of the movie when I recognize people and start thinking about them outside the context of their character.

The whole time I was watchingDragonheart, I couldn't stop thinking about Sean Connery standing in a sound booth.

Ok, I've always known who Sean Connery is.

HMTKSteve

It sometimes takes me out of the movie when I recognize people and start thinking about them outside the context of their character.

The whole time I was watchingDragonheart, I couldn't stop thinking about Sean Connery standing in a sound booth.

I kept thinking, "Why is Sean Connery standing in a sound booth for this movie?"

Jason

Yes, Scott, the Striptease chick did the voice of Armitage III. Growing up in the 80s was confusing. I didn't know if I wanted to emulate Captain Picard or Zack Morris.

tuttle88

My point wasn't so much about your Robin Williams type it was more the shift that seems to have happened in recent movies. The old animated films used to have maybe one or two 'big names', usually a comedian, but if you take something like Happy Feet, it was ALL actor actors rather than voice actors. I just think that if you look at the cast of the Simpsons, those people are mainly professional voice actors who bring their experience to the show. Not that all screen actors are bad at voice over work, I thought Elijah Wood did a great job in Happy Feet but some of the others just seemed superficial.

Andrew

Toy Story is perhaps the pinnacle of non-voice actor work in voice acting. I thought all the voices were extremely believable and well done.

Kiey

Pixar does good voice work. I also think that Disney has done a surprisingly good job dubbing Miyazaki's movies, even with actual "famous" actors.

Geo

Last week I checked outHoodwinkedfrom my local library. I refused to spend the money to rent it because I was extremely suspicious it would be crappy.

My suspicions were correct. It was very kiddy-ish and the actors all sounded like they were phoning it in, except for the guy playing the villain, who sounded a lot like Syndrome. Does anyone know if it was the same guy?

The person who played the villain in Hoodwinked was Andy Dick. The person who played Syndrome in The Incredibles was Jason Lee (who is prominent in nearly all of Kevin Smith's movies).

Omnutia

Pixar does good voice work. I also think that Disney has done a surprisingly good job dubbing Miyazaki's movies, even with actual "famous" actors.

Could that be more a matter of budget?

kage_rod

... I wanna be a voice actor...

I usually just sit and listen in those panels, when I go. People ask the questions that I have and usually phrase it better; otherwise, I just don't have much originality in creating questions.

I've never noticed anything about the actual actors when it comes to 'famous' actors as VAs or professional VAs doing their job... >> I'm a bit like Scott in that... I just never cared.