You May be More Ready for Voiceover than you Think

It is actually crazy the amount of people who have an insane amount of experience, but when they book a voice reel with me, one of the first things they say is something like, ‘I do not have any experience in this.’

And I’m like... well, do you have a degree in acting?

Then I think you can probably do a voiceover.

If you know character, if you know performing, if you know how to listen and imagine and take direction, then you have more to start with than you think.

I have seen fantastic people come into sessions and make me question almost everything I have spent on acting classes and coaches. Some people can just walk in and imagine. They can feel it instinctively. And ultimately, that is what so much acting training is trying to get you back to.

Someone once told me that acting is subconscious. You make it conscious to make it subconscious again.

I love that, because it feels so true.

You learn the tools. You learn what the director wants. You learn where the thought changes. You learn how to shape something. Then, somehow, you have to make it look like you are not thinking about any of it.

Voiceover is no different.

‘I do not have any experience in this’

I hear this all the time.

Sometimes it comes from people who have trained for years. Sometimes it comes from people who have done stage work, screen work, self-tapes, classes, short films, workshops, all of it. But because they have not booked a voiceover job yet, they feel like they are starting from nothing.

And I just do not think that is true.

Of course, voiceover has its own skills. You have to learn microphone technique. You have to learn how to take very specific direction. You have to understand pace, intimacy, breath, energy, and what a line is doing when the audience cannot see your face.

But you are not coming in empty.

If you have talked to a person, if you have watched a film, you can do it.

That does not mean you will walk in and be perfect straight away. Nobody needs that. But it does mean there is already something there. There is already an instinct. There is already a sense of story, character, rhythm, feeling, timing... even if you do not fully trust it yet.

And that, really, is the job. Learning how to trust it enough to use it.

Feeling nervous does not mean you are not ready

I think people often wait for this magical moment where they feel ready.

And I understand that. I have done it too.

But a quote I once heard about confidence is that confidence is not a feeling, it is an action. And if I look back on my life, that is literally true about most things I have ever done.

Most things, including starting Blooom, I have been kicking and screaming, going, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing? I am so out of my depth.’ But if my brain is going, ‘Ahhh,’ and my feet are still going one in front of the other, the progress will still happen.

That is not a neat, pretty version of confidence. But I think it is the more useful one.

Because waiting until you feel completely ready can become a way of disqualifying yourself before a casting director, agent, or client ever gets the chance to hear you.

You tell yourself, ‘I’m not ready for this voice reel.’

Or, ‘There is no point prepping this audition because I am not going to get it anyway.’

I have done that too. And what happens is you give it 80%, then you do not get it, and then that feeds the mindset that you could not get it in the first place.

Whereas the things I have booked, or the things I have felt proud of, are usually the things where I have gone, ‘I am going to give this 100%, and I do not care.’

Because then, even if I do not get it, I can look back and go, ‘That was a great audition. I know I gave everything.’

That matters.

The room changes the read

For me as an actor, I will act better if I feel supported.

That is just the truth.

If I feel like I can make a mistake and it is not going to cost me my reel or a job, I am better. I am less gripped. I am not trying to get it right with my hands around its neck.

With acting, when you want to be relaxed and delicate and imaginative, if you are holding it too tightly to get something good, that is sometimes the difference between a take that has something in it and a take that does not.

So with Blooom sessions, I try to create as supportive an environment as possible.

I give everyone extra time. Sometimes an extra hour, sometimes even two hours over what their voice reel will really take. Not because I expect them to mess up, but because I want them to know that if they do mess up, if they get in their head, if they get stuck on a line, they are not rushed in and rushed out.

They have time.

And then what you find is... they do not need it.

They relax. They breathe. They stop trying to force the read. They stop trying to sound like a voiceover artist and start actually doing the job.

Then they get a nice surprise because they are going home early.

Good direction should not make you spiral

A lot of Blooom sessions, for me, are psychology.

That is informed by who I am as an actor and what I feel like I need, which is not everyone, of course. Some people thrive off criticism. Sometimes I do too. I come from a sporting background, where those sharp, whiplashy coaches can make you go, ‘Okay, fine, I’ll show you.’

With sport, when you have that adrenaline, it can work.

But acting is different.

Voiceover is different.

If you want someone relaxed, open, imaginative, and able to make a line feel alive, you cannot just throw a vague note at them and hope for the best.

I have worked with directors who are not really directors, sometimes marketing departments on corporate voiceovers, and they give you notes that make you overthink everything.

‘Can you be more emotional?’

Then you try.

‘No, less emotional.’

And you are stood there thinking... what am I meant to do with that?

So if I suggest something in a session and I see the voiceover artist go back in and lose that little spark, I will do everything to embed the note in a way that does not make them feel like they are failing.

Sometimes I will drop the note for a moment. Not because it was wrong, but because they are now focusing on the note instead of the read.

Same destination, different route.

The best take is not always the perfect take

This is still something I have to remind myself of.

I was recently re-recording a sample on my own commercial reel because there was a tiny little croak in my voice. I did not like it. So I went back into my cupboard, which is my voiceover studio, but... cupboard, whatever, and I spent ages trying to make it sound as lovely as possible.

I focused on the resonance of my voice, holding the diaphragm when speaking, all the technical bits.

Then I came out and listened to the two samples back-to-back.

One was nice. Fine. Technically cleaner, probably.

But it did not excite me in any way, shape or form.

The other one had the tiny croak, but it had something in it. It had life. And that is the one I would send.

Because that is what books.

Not perfection.

Which is so counterintuitive, but it is the truth.

You do not need to be finished to begin

I think that is the thing I want actors to know.

You do not need to feel completely ready before you make your first voice reel. You do not need to have everything figured out. You do not need to walk in already knowing exactly who you are as a voiceover artist.

You need somewhere safe enough to try.

You need scripts that give you something to work with. You need direction that helps rather than makes you spiral. You need room to make a mistake, adjust, and go again. And you need someone listening for what is already good, not just what needs fixing.

Because actors rarely get told what is good.

We perform and immediately go, ‘Okay, what was wrong? What do I need to work on?’

But sometimes the most useful thing is to notice what is already there. What is already working. What can be brought out, rather than what needs to be corrected.

The minute someone shifts that in their head, they can become incredible. So if you are waiting until you feel ready, I would say... maybe you are closer than you think.

If you have talked to a person, if you have watched a film, if you understand character, if you can imagine, listen, and try again, you have somewhere to start.

And a good voice reel session should help you hear that.