It is never too late to work on your ‘sense of play’

No matter your level as an actor, whether you are just starting or have been working for a long time, as a voice actor, there is always time to work on your sense of play and creativity within your work.

As a voice actor and voice-over coach, I firmly believe that there is always time to work on your creativity, regardless of your age, career path, or personal aspirations as a voice actor. Creating something out of nothing but a few lines written on a page is beautiful, whether it’s your profession, hobby, or simply a dream you hold close to your heart. There is no shame in pursuing your passion; it is powerful for everyone to embrace their creativity and pursue their dreams, no matter how unconventional they seem.

I worked with an incredible voice actor with limited acting training – who was told they were not a commercial voice actor and needed more ‘play’ to do animation. An industry professional told them, “Do medical text; that is all you can do as a voice actor.” the actor held on to that for many years. This actor grew stale, tired of the disconnected work, and lost their passion as a voice actor.

That industry professional who gave this actor this unfortunate advice – is no longer in the business – but this actor still held on to this sad, non-creative belief that they were only suitable for the SOUND of their voice and not for any sense of ‘play’ as an actor.

This actor came to me recently and was giving a video game audition but believed they could not ‘play,’ so they were still trying to figure out what to do with this character and script. Once we broke down the spec and became the spec, the picture, and found that inner child sense of play, this actor suddenly found that they had so much inside as an actor that was unexpressed. They were terrific and booked the job. More recently, this actor began to work on accents and found a new level of bringing characters to life with added accents they never knew they had inside.

Over the 25 years, I have worked with many actors who saw that they had so much more to give than the limited belief of someone else’s idea of who they were as creatives. Once these actors see past the prejudice of someone they thought was credible – they open up and blossom.

You will be told many things about your shortcomings as an actor by ‘business professionals’ in your journey. They do this, so putting you in a category makes it easy to keep an eye on you. The truth is that you fit in creatively wherever YOU see yourself fitting in. You must value YOUR opinion, DEVELOP YOUR creative skills, and step over the limiting views of someone else’s negative opinions about who you are and what you are capable of doing.

I advise ‘get a second opinion’ and return to class and play. It is never too late to work on your sense of play as a voice actor, and the field of voice acting is vast and always open for you to grow and find more of yourself in any part of it that you can see yourself.

Do you have any untruths you were told by an agent, casting person, or even fellow actor that you have let go of? Comment Below!

Written by Paul Liberti
Voice Actor and Voice Director for Animation, Audio Books,
and works as Casting Director for Animation, Audio Books, Commercial Voice Over