How to Become a Good Voice Actor

The voice of the person who plays Homer Simpson is sure as familiar to you as the character himself, and that's because the voice of that voice actor has crept into your home day after day, being remembered as a member of your family. However, and contrary to what you probably think, to be a voice actor is not so important the voice as the ways in which you know how to modulate. If you want to train in this field you must know how to convey emotions, feel a certain sensitivity, have the ability to change the interpretative register, have a sense of meter, and have a good memory.

Preparing yourself and learning everything you need to dedicate yourself to this field requires that you take a good course to learn how to educate your voice and master the techniques of dubbing. Having a good tool will be useless if you don't know how to use it. That is to say, having a good voice is not synonymous with being a good voice actor. 

You will need to learn all the knowledge and skills that will allow you to make with your voice a credible interpretation for the ear, which accompanies the story, movement, and psychology of the character. You will also have a lot of papers at the university. You can ask professionals to "write my essay online" if you are working part-time and practicing.

Therefore, the dubbing actor course focuses on four key objectives to train the student:

• Educate the voice with the best exercises in vocalization, intonation, projection, and imposition of the voice, practicing all registers of accent and interpretation.

• To detect and correct the vices present in the breathing, placement of the voice.

• To sound out the voice with documentaries, trailers, TV commercials.

• To dub sequences of movies, television series, and cartoons.

To perform this profession, it is necessary to acquire knowledge and techniques that will later guide the actor in his dubbing. There are characters for all types of voices, hence the importance of having adequate preparation and experience.

Characteristics of the Dubbing Actor

Let's think, for a moment, of a good American actor interpreting in his own language. Don't you think it is difficult to imitate him with your voice and for the character to remain credible throughout the film? And so, in such cases, the level of professionalism and complexity is high enough. Therefore, you should prepare yourself in the best way for such a case.

In addition, you must develop some of the following personal characteristics:

• Knowing how to convey emotions

• A certain sensitivity

• Great ability to change register

• Sense of rhythm

Having just a nice voice is not synonymous with being a good dubbing artist; having a good tool and not knowing how to use it is like having a good voice and being a bad interpreter. Therefore, it is important to develop the interpretation: a credible interpretation for the ear, that goes with the story, the movement, and the psychology of the character.

Also, you must have a good memory or develop it with practice; good pronunciation; correct vocalization, and perfect reading aloud. These are some of the characteristics and requirements that a voice actor must have.

The best tips to become a Voice Actor

1. Read out loud every day: this action will help you get to know your voice and feel comfortable with it.

2. Record your voice in different registers with different moods, from sadness to euphoria. Listen, even if it is not in good audio quality, it will help you to improve vocalization errors, be aware of pauses, rhythms, and breathing.

3. Imitate voices and phrases of famous actors or actresses so that you can change the sound of their voice and be able to transmit their personality.

4. Gesture without any fear, you will not be seen on the screen, but you will be heard. So, if the actress laughs, make the same laughter. If the actor cries, bring out your inner cry and do the same. Feel the rage, the love, the terror... feel it with your body and transmit it with your voice.

5. Empathize with the actor to be dubbed, you must perfectly transmit in your language the feelings that the foreign actor provokes.

6. Start memorizing phrases that you hear and that you like. Pronounce them with different moods. Make this a habit. I'm sure you will soon become a good dubbing actor or actress.

7. Try to improvise a phrase about the text you are reading. Sometimes, dubbing directors want you to improvise to show some genius that comes from inside you.

8. Create a short demo with your best phrases and don't be ashamed to show it to your friends and family. They will be able to listen to you objectively and offer you good advice.

9. Like yourself, this way you will transmit the feelings you have inside; the more you like yourself, the more you will be liked. Like everything in life…

10. Identify a genre that attracts you and try to be the best in that genre. It can be an educational tone, journalistic...

11. Do preliminary work with the texts and record your voice when you have mastered it.

12. One last piece of advice: if you want to be a dubbing actor or actress, you should train with the best.

Final words

We want to emphasize that having a beautiful voice is not essential. In many professional cases it is important not to have a voice that stands out or is striking. There are characters for all types of voices. The profession of a good voice actor has many job opportunities in different areas of the audiovisual industry.

In short, the profession of dubbing actor is very original, artistic and if you want to work with your voice, the audiovisual sector is full of opportunities that you can reach with a good training that will guide you in your first steps.