It's fun to do voiceover work, although you still have to act. But it doesn't involve memorizing lines, and you don't have to dress up.
I think reading an audiobook is a real skill - for one thing, you have to be able to do impressions and voices, which I cannot do - and it's just not a skill I have.
It's tricky when you're doing a recording, because the only weapon you have is your voice and the delivery of that voice. You don't have a gesture or a facial expression, there are no costumes or set pieces. Everything needs to be present in the voice.
I've done a lot of radio in my life. I've done radio plays for the BBC when I was young so I was absolutely used to that style of work, of working with the voice. I have a very distinctive voice so it's always great for me because I open my mouth and everybody knows who it is.
There may be a parallel between woodcuts and radio; radio plays are a living art form everywhere except the USA.
Voice work is fun. But about three-quarters of the things you enjoy about acting are just not there. You're not working with another actor; you're not working with an audience. You're just working with a bunch of writers and a microphone. It's very abstract.
It's quite different to do a vocal performance, opposed to a performance where you are seen, because in some ways, you don't need to worry about what you look like - you don't have to sit in a makeup chair for a long time!
Doing audiobooks is kind of an actor's dream because you get to play all the parts.
Performing on radio is great, you roll up with no makeup in pyjamas and nobody will know.
We want PC makers to have better audio because these things are used as home stereos by a lot of people, and that makes it suck.
