Voice Technique Quotes

I've worked with some teachers and coaches over the years, but I didn't really study theater or technique or voice or any of that stuff extensively.

Americans are very good at animating voices. I don't know why. They have a freedom with them that we British actors find more difficult to get to.

I'm trying to enlarge what I do with my voice, not through technique but just through the sounds. I think we all make noises, and particularly when we get involved or emotional about something, the colors and the tones of those noises change.

But when you are doing an animated voice, it has to have more energy than usual or it falls flat and doesn't work. For myself, I found that I had to put myself in the same physical or emotional state as Sid, in order to make that voice sound alive and authentic. So if there was a scene in which he was running, I would be running beforehand to sound out of breath. That's important because the audience can tell intuitively if it does not sound real.

When I had my first voice lesson I was 15 years old. And I had a really good teacher. This is what made all the difference. A good teacher will teach you the technique, but also how to listen to your voice.

With voice overs... you're not thinking about the camera. So your voice becomes this thing that you can manipulate. And depending on the character you're doing, it's all concentration on your voice.

When I got back from London, I started with a new voice teacher in the experimental wing, who trained me to have my own artistry as opposed to forcing a technique upon me.

One of the things I learned in animation is that you never, ever want to start doing a voice that you can't sustain for four straight hours.

Originally when I went off to work on 'The Lord of The Rings' I got a call from my agent saying that I was just going to do a voice. But I couldn't really approach it like that. To get Gollum's voice I had to play the character.

You are born with a sound; everyone is, less or more. And this sound has to be developed. I am not talking about vocal technique; I am not talking about how to sing. I am talking about how to produce a sound.

I wasn't so stupid that I didn't realize the implications of what they were saying. In my live work I was going for the quick thrill, rather than spending time concentrating on my voice. I figured I'd get on, make as many quick movement as possible, dance my ass off for five minutes, move into the insult portion of the evening, and then, at the end, create some kind of chaos until the 55 minutes were up.

Sometimes when you do voices next to each other, especially when you're first starting out, they tend to bleed into each other. Working on a show like 'Futurama,' we do multiple characters there, but we've been doing it for a while, so the voices are really well-defined in our heads.

I had a teacher who stressed for me the importance of diction in terms of... I want to be very careful about how I say this... in terms of supporting one's voice when one is singing. In other words, if you hold on to your words, your voice will pull through for you when you're singing. So be true to your vowels.

I love voice over work. To me, voice over and animation is such an art, because you focus solely on your voice. You do not focus on how to speak, combined with facial expressions, movement, etc. You as the actor need to convey all those things with only your voice.

I focus a lot on my voice because I want it to be an instrument as well. I want my voice to add color.

I was trying to do something that seemed very natural and easy but which bridged that gulf between the singing voice and the speaking voice.

I knew from a young age that I could sing and it was impressed upon me that if I got a classically trained education in voice, it would serve as a foundation for whatever I chose to do.

I went to a lot of theatre schools, got a lot of training, did a lot of repertory where you do a different play every night. I took a lot of voice, movement, and acting classes.