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Voice Actors and the Screen Actors Guild - part 2

Writers: Teri

At the Austin GDC, Trina and I had a chance to sit down with New Media Director Mark Friedlander, and SAG members David Anthony Pizzuto, and David Sobolov. This is part 2 of our interview.

When asked about what they thought of video games being demonized by politicians, David S. stated his personal belief, "Any adult over 18, as long as they're warned about what's in the product, has a right in this country to buy anything they want as long as it doesn't exploit children or animals."

Trina: On a lighter note, what has been your favorite character and why? Pick one character out of all the games which you've done.

Pizzuto:What comes to mind the most is the wizard from Spyro: A Hero's Tale. I didn't work on the game, but they brought me into the trailer for E3. They were going to make a movie-style trailer and run it at E3. They had the script and they had basically what they wanted to do, but they didn't have the guy put together. I did my method thing, which is more of a classical thing, and kind of let him show up. (In the wizard's voice) "And he turned out to be an old wizard sort of a creature. Five new heroes shall fight the forces of evil. Let the battle commence!" And there was huge, triumphant music and all this stuff. He was a great character and they were like, "Yeah! David, you're the man!" So they did their thing and it came around to start marketing and it went to the ad agency. Apparently they were instructed to look at this thing and they went, "Wow! There's the ad. There's the campaign. We're done." So a call went out with my name on the casting sheet in the spec and a description of the wizard guy and they never booked it. That's the wins and vagaries of the business.

Sobolov: I showed up for an audition for Transformers and they said they were looking for a David Sobolov-type. At the end of the audition I said, "Was I David Sobolov enough for you?" My favorite characters are the delicious villains that are tortured yet powerful and are feeling all this inner turmoil, but then they use it to strike out at people. Again, it's not who I am, but it's fun to play. There was this character called Malebolgia in this game called Spawn. (In Malebolgia's voice) "Down low, and they put the microphone close to my lips and blow it up huge." And it sounds like I could kill a thousand people at once.

Pizzuto:They are the best, in a general sense, the dark twisted guys. It's kind of like a delicious meal that you wouldn't eat every day. I think it's a universal thing with actors, especially if they allow you some latitude and breathing room with this thing, no pun intended, because a lot of these guys are very down low and just kind of wallowing in this sickness and evil. It's a cathartic thing.

Trina: What's the most difficult thing about being a voice actor?

Sobolov: I think there's a technical thing that's really difficult because a lot of these games require a huge amount of intensity. For instance, I did Call of Duty 4 and there's a very intense character and [I needed] to do it for hours. You also have to be consistent, make sure that you provide the same character every day. That's why we limit our sessions to four hours because physically it's not humanly possible to scream for twelve hours. Another thing, I think, that differentiates it from other types of acting is because it's all in your head. These situations seem so much more extreme sometimes. Things can happen to you in video games that couldn't happen to you in a film. I had one video game where they asked me to die fifteen different ways.

Trina: My last question would be what advice would you give to women who want to go into voice acting for games?

Sobolov: Do community theater. They love theater performers in this business. They'll find very quickly if they're coming right off the street to try to do this that it doesn't work. You need some experience. Also, don't let anyone squish your dreams. You're going to have a lot of people saying no to you, a lot of people saying that you're not good at what you do. If you believe in yourself, you'll get there, no matter what it is.

Pizzuto:But do remember that it's show BUSINESS so there is some work. I would say the number one thing is to be open on your path. Maybe the point of initiation was just to get you moving in a direction. Be open to new things and influences. Don't be afraid to ask for help. And, specifically for voice talent, if you don't have dramatic or theatrical training, get [into a community college in your area] and get a 100-level acting class. Minimally what will happen is a person will go in and come out with a new way to interact with people and things they did not realize about themselves which may have not been attributes will now be tools that are accessible to them at will. If they continue on, they'll continue to build this kit of tools. They can't lose. When they go into auditions, even after that minimal training, they'll have a lot more to bring to the project and thereby a greater chance of work.

Mark: If you want to work in games, take every opportunity that can to learn whatever you can and use whatever tools that will help you move in that direction. You never know what tool is going to get you there. You just keep your eye on the prize and pick up whatever opportunities you can along the way and try to use those to your advantage.

Trina: Good advice

With that, we ended the interview. It was a pleasure to meet these guys and we found the subject so much more engrossing that we had anticipated. We hope that some of their advice will be useful for those of you interested in this area of the gaming industry.

Mark Friedlander is the new Director of New Media for the Screen Actors Guild as of May 21, 2007. For more information on Mark, go to this page from the SAG website. David Anthony Pizzuto is a voice actor and member of SAG. He's been in the entertainment industry since the 1970's and has provided his voice for several video games including SWAT 4, Steel Horizon, and Star Wars Empire at War: Forces of Corruption. For more information on him, go to his IMDB page. David Sobolov is also a voice actor and member of SAG. He has been involved with the entertainment industry since the early 1990's and has provided his voice for video games such as Rogue Galaxy, Call of Duty 4, and EverQuest II. For more information on him, go to his website.