Landing a BIG Fish
Sometimes the timing of big opportunities stinks, but you gotta give it a shot!
I’m told your voice never changes, regardless of age. Which is a big incentive to get into voiceover (VO) work, where you are the voice for a cartoon character in films and TV shows, because you won’t “age out.”
I had VO work on my radar, among the list of many things in entertainment that I wanted to do, but never really got a chance . . . until one late night I saw an email from an agent. I admit that I opened the email a day or two after it was sent. The agent told me his buddy worked at Disney studios in LA and was in charge of voice overs. He was looking for a female comedian to do some pick up lines for a movie.
Pick up lines (if I’m using the right term??) are lines that need to be re-done or added in by the main actor. The lines are usually not huge chunks of dialogue, so the studios really don’t want to bring in the big celebrity and pay them the big celebrity bucks, so they bring in someone who can imitate the actor for a LOT less. That’s ME!
The actor was Ellen DeGeneres and the movie was a little animated thing called “Finding Nemo.” Did I land a big fish on my first voice over audition or what?? They wanted a female comedian who could say lines in a rhythm that a comedian would use. Perfect!
I had to be in the studio the NEXT DAY, ready to read Ellen’s missing lines. This was 20+ years ago (movie debuted in 2003), and so finding a clip of Ellen’s voice to practice with was difficult, but I found a few seconds. I didn’t have a coach, and it’s REALLY hard to hear your own voice, but I did what I could.
I arrived at the Disney studios the next morning and was whisked into an elaborate sound studio. Very cool – just like you see on TV, with mics all around, a booth full of people staring over at you, and you stand at a table with a mic in front of you wearing headphones to do your thing.
They first played a clip of Ellen’s lines from the movie, and I mimicked them pretty well. I remember that the guys in the studio were cracking up – my comic delivery was working! Then the real test started – I had to say the new lines in HER voice without her saying them first. And that was HARD. I just couldn’t nail it exactly, and you gotta have exactly or the audience will be thrown for a loop. I tried, but I really needed her to do the lines first . . . which kinda defeats the purpose of me doing them. I did not land the big fish.
BIG BUMMER. I was already day dreaming about the money this would bring in and the doors that this would open, but the money and doors did not appear. When the movie came out, I saw a commercial for it, and my 5-year-old niece Abigail said “is that the movie you were almost in Aunt Jan?” Ouch!
I’ve since taken a few VO classes, but haven’t had time or energy to focus on it . . . YET! It’s still on my radar and I can dream. These big far-reaching goals are sometimes called “swinging for the fences” and we should all remember to sprinkle in a few possible big hits in-between the day-to-day small hits (or fish in this case?). It at lease makes for a good cocktail story.