a humble voiceover brag about voiceover humility
If you ask most actors, unless the part is really wonky, they are glad to accept the voiceover work they’re offered.
To be an actor, you’ve gotta be acting. We love the big parts (as they often bring bigger money and exposure) but the smaller part also pay the bills and can be a lot of fun to perform (and can get you noticed – you’d be surprised).
I bring this up because I get that “big part/small part) question asked a lot from my students at the VO Workshop. Ego rules some actors to the point where they may turn down work that they feel is beneath them (even in voiceover).
If there was a moral or ethical question within the project…that I understand and I’ve turned down a few jobs (most pro folks have) with those issues.
But small parts…especially character work…have been a nice portion of what I have voiced over the past four decades as a professional voice actor.
A recent case in point is a corporate voice project I was signed to do for Lowe’s Home Improvement stores. With over 2,100 store locations, countless divisions within the chain and over 300,000 employees, I’m sure educating them all is a huge task. Hence their on-going training activities including the project I worked on.
LISTEN TO PETER’S LOWE’S PROJECT….
2 lines.
In the Lowe’s project, I had a grand total of two lines…but they were comedic and payoff lines for the narrator so the producer needed someone who could pull that off convincingly, effectively and comedically for what he had in mind.
And who he had in mind was me. No auditions – ‘I want Peter’.
Remember when I said you’d be surprised how small (and big) parts can get you noticed?
These producers had worked with me before, knew my versatility and knew I could be trusted with getting the right character and versions for their script. If need be, I am very directable but this director let me go and I got him what he wanted.
Bang. Zoom. Done.
My point is, for voice actors, I’ll take jobs like this all day long and gladly cash the checks they bring because there are lots of small parts. Yes, I get lead spots too and I love ’em!
But be humble and professionally enough to graciously take all of it.
Be the person a producer can rely on to always get the job done for them…no matter the size of the role. Size is nice but quantity is great too. Aim for both in your voice acting career. Hope that helps.
