Do I Need to Be an Actor to Be a Voice Actor?

DO I NEED

TO BE AN

ACTOR TO

BE A

VOICE

ACTOR?

WHY VOICE ACTING IS

ACTING FIRST AND VOICE SECOND

Jean-Francois Donaldson

The Deep Voice Guy

One of the biggest misconceptions about voice acting is that having a great voice is enough.

I hear it all the time.

“People tell me I have a great voice.”

“I’ve always been told I should be on the radio.”

“I can do a bunch of cartoon voices.”

That’s great.

But none of those things make you a voice actor.

What makes you a voice actor is…acting.

It took me a little while to learn that lesson myself.

01 THE RECORDING SESSION THAT CHANGED MY CAREER

During my second year in voice over, I was relying on the one thing I thought made me special: my naturally deep bass voice.

Every audition became an opportunity to put on "THE VOICE.”

I was trying to sound like what I thought clients wanted instead of becoming the person they had written.

Then one day, during a recording session, the client stopped me and said something I’ll never forget.

“You’re relying on your deep voice to carry the scene. Just be natural.”

That sentence completely changed how I approached voice acting.

I had spent years acting on stage, performing in musicals, working at theme parks, and even doing stunt work.

I had all of this acting experience…

…and somehow, the second I stepped into a recording booth, I forgot every bit of it.

I stopped trying to act.

I started trying to sound like a voice actor.

The irony?

The thing that finally made me a better voice actor was going back to being an actor.

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02 THE FIRST THING I TELL ASPIRING VOICE ACTORS

Whenever someone tells me, “People say I have a great voice. I think I'll get into voice acting” My response usually surprises them.

I tell them:

“That’s great! Now go take an acting class first.”

Because the question isn’t,

“Do you have a great voice?”

It’s,

“Do you actually enjoy acting?”

Voice acting isn’t a shortcut into acting, and it's not something you can just bypass.

It is acting!

A good acting class teaches the skills you’ll use every single day as a professional voice actor.

You’ll learn how to:

• Break down a script.

• Understand a character’s motivations.

• Build believable characters.

• Maintain those characters consistently.

• Take direction from directors and clients.

• Work with scene partners.

• Learn the terminology professionals use.

• Live truthfully in imaginary circumstances.

Those aren’t voice over skills.

They’re acting skills.

03 “I CAN DO VOICES.”

“I can do voices.”

Usually what people mean is,

“I can do impressions.”

Impressions are incredibly impressive. But they’re not the same thing as acting.

There are countless people who can imitate Mark Hamill’s Joker. There are countless people who can imitate Heath Ledger’s Joker. They’ve memorized the laugh.

They know the famous lines. "Wanna know how I got these scars?"

They’ve copied the cadence. But ask them to improvise as Joker ordering a pizza, talking about who is top 5 in the Legion of Doom, or reacting to Batman doing something unexpected, and suddenly the voice begins to disappear.

Why?

Because they learned what Joker sounds like. They never learned who Joker is.

What makes those performances iconic isn’t the voice. It’s the psychology behind it.

Joker isn’t just “crazy.”

He’s manipulative.

He’s theatrical.

He’s unpredictable.

He’s someone who views murder as the setup to the world’s darkest joke.

Most people think Joker wants everyone’s attention.

Personally, I think he wants Batman’s attention.

Listen to those performances.

You can hear the excitement when Batman plays into his game.

You can hear the disappointment when Batman refuses.

With Harley Quinn he could care less what she does.

Those emotional shifts aren’t vocal tricks.

They’re acting choices. They ae The Joker's real life choices.

Now imagine nobody had ever played Joker before.

Forget every movie.

Forget every animated series.

Someone simply hands you a script and says:

“This is The Joker. The Clown Prince of Crime.”

How would you make him sound? How would you make him think?

That’s the question an actor asks.

Not,

“How do I sound like someone else?”

But,

“Who is this person?”

That’s acting.

04 WHY I RECOMMEND SINGING LESSONS

People are always surprised when I tell them that one of the best things a voice actor can do is take singing lessons.

Not because I expect every voice actor to become a professional singer.

The goal isn’t to become a great singer.

The goal is to understand how your voice works.

Singing teaches you things that translate directly into voice acting:

• Breath support

• Mouth placement

• Tone

• Pitch

• Rhythm

• Cadence

• Resonanceimpr

Think about different styles of music.

Opera requires a completely different vocal approach than country music.

Rock demands something different than R&B.

Musical theater requires something different than hip-hop.

Each style teaches you different ways to use your instrument.

Those same techniques help you create accents, dialects, creatures, villains, heroes, announcers, and everyday people.

The stronger your understanding of your own instrument, the easier it becomes to build new characters and stay consistent throughout a recording session.

And if you’re ever asked to sing in character…

You’ll be glad you learned how.

05 WHY EVERY VOICE ACTOR SHOULD TAKE IMPROV

The third piece of the puzzle is improv.

People often think improv is about being funny.

It isn’t.

It’s about learning to react.

In theater, everyone eventually forgets a line.

It happens.

Improv teaches you how to keep the scene alive until your scene partner finds their place again.

It teaches you to actually listen instead of waiting for your turn to speak.

It teaches you to make bold choices.

And just as importantly…

It teaches you not to fall in love with those choices.

Some actors only know one way to deliver a line because that’s the way they rehearsed it.

Then a director says,

“Can you make it more protective instead of angry?”

Suddenly they’re stuck.

Improv teaches flexibility.

Now apply that to voice over.

Most of the time you’re recording alone.

You don’t have another actor feeding you the previous line.

You have to imagine how your unseen scene partner might deliver their dialogue in multiple different ways.

That ability comes from acting with real people.

Not from sitting alone in a booth.

06 STOP BUYING GEAR BEFORE YOU BUILD A SPACE

If you’re just getting started, here’s one of the biggest mistakes I see.

People spend a thousand plus dollars on microphones before they’ve created a good recording environment.

A properly treated recording space gives you something far more valuable than good audio.

It gives you peace of mind.

You’re not worried about lawnmowers.

Or airplanes.

Or barking dogs.

Or your refrigerator kicking on.

Or the air conditioner.

Or kids running through the house.

You’re free to focus on the performance.

Or atleast let those things pass before recording the next take.

Having to set up your equipment every time you audition also pulls you out of that creative headspace.

The less you have to think about your environment, the more you can think about your acting.

A great room can make an affordable microphone sound surprisingly good.

A bad room can make an expensive microphone sound disappointing.

Good equipment absolutely matters.

Professional microphones, interfaces, cables, and recording software all contribute to a clean signal.

But voice over isn’t hidden behind explosions and loud music.

Your voice is the product.

Clients hear every detail.

Make sure those details are worth hearing.

07 WHAT BOOKS MORE OFTEN: THE GREAT VOICE OR THE GREAT ACTOR

If you gave the same script to two performers…

One with an incredible voice but very little acting experience…

And another with an average voice but years of acting training…

Who gets the job?

In my opinion, more often than not, it’s the actor.

Not because the voice doesn’t matter.

It absolutely does.

But casting directors are trying to lose themselves in a story.

That’s why actors like Idris Elba, John Hamm, and Viola Davis are so compelling.

They’re not simply reading words.

They’re communicating thoughts, emotions, and experiences.

That said, casting is subjective.

You can give the perfect audition and still not book the job.

Maybe your voice reminds someone of an ex.

Maybe they’re hungry and listening to their stomach instead of you.

Maybe they had a bad sandwich.

Maybe they were looking for something they couldn’t even describe.

There are variables you can’t control.

So don’t obsess over them.

Focus on what you can control.

Your preparation.

Your craft.

Your professionalism.

Your acting.

08 ACTING MADE ME BETTER AT MORE THAN VOICE OVER

Acting has made me a better communicator.

It’s helped me understand different types of people and how to communicate with them more effectively, enhancing my ability to read people accurately and occasionally predict their reactions.

The public speaking aspect has enabled me to express myself with greater clarity and confidence.

When you spend years studying characters, you inevitably start understanding people.

And that’s what acting really is.

The study of people.

IS ACTING A TALENT OR A SKILL?

I think everyone is born an actor.

Because everyone is born to play.

As kids, we played superheroes.

We played cops and robbers.

We played with action figures.

We built imaginary worlds with dolls and toys.

We created scenes.

We invented characters.

Some people were allowed to stay in that imagination longer than others.

Some people were forced to grow out of it.

Some even escaped into it because it was the safest place they had.

But every single person starts there.

Acting is simply learning how to play again.

It’s learning to remove the barriers that convinced you imagination was something to leave behind.

SO... DO YOU NEED TO BE AN ACTOR TO BE A VOICE ACTOR?

Yes!

You need to become an actor.

Not because someone says you have to.

Because voice acting is acting.

Just like a doctor has dozens of specialties but first has to learn the fundamentals of medicine, voice actors have dozens of genres they can pursue.

Commercials.

Animation.

Video games.

Audiobooks.

Promos.

Trailers.

Corporate narration.

Documentaries.

Every one of them requires the same foundation.

Learn the basics.

Learn how to act.

The microphone doesn’t create performances.

Actors do.