This week in the world of voiceover auditions I was asked to be a small wheel of cheese, a zebra and an eight ball. I don’t know what any of those things would sound like personified, but that’s half the fun of my job. I get to imagine how the character sounds. Delving even deeper into it, I imagine how the character feels, thinks, laughs, cries, sighs, etc. Having a connection to the copy and to the character is key to booking a job.
A few years back I booked a promo for a Dora The Explorer DVD. I remember they were looking for an older abuela or grandmother-type read. I channeled my inner “abuela” and thought about how her kitchen smells, how proudly she displays photos of her grandkids, etc. and I recorded the script, sent in my mp3 and waited. The result? I landed the job! When I got to the studio they said, “We chose you because there was a connection there. Most of the auditions we got were “cartoony” and yours sounded like a real person.”
That’s not to say that sometimes a cartoony read isn’t warranted. For the Dora spot, I took a chance and it worked out. Auditions always involve taking a risk. Sometimes those risks work out and sometimes they don’t. There will always be another audition around the corner, so I try not to get too hung up over them.
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