I've been wanting to do a series on "why I became a voice actor" for awhile, so why not start now?
Early Exposure
Our mom, like most good parents, took us to various things to find out what we liked (when I say "we," I mean my twin sister and I... it's a habit even today). And you know, they say the earliest memories you can recall are ones that had a big impact on you. My very first memory I can clearly recall is walking across the hospital parking lot on a rainy day in Lewisville, TX with my dad and sister to go see my mom and new baby brother. The excitement of seeing my new brother must have been immense to be such a clear memory. I've verified with Mom that it was actually raining that day too haha.
Anyway, I have a very clear memory of going to a voiceover audition once we'd moved to Las Vegas. It was for a Smucker's commercial, and all you had to read was "with a name like Smucker's, it has to be good." So obviously I could read, but we were taught to read early. If we were in Las Vegas already, I must have been 4 or 5 years old. I recall being confused, because they kept asking me to say it different ways (ABC takes!) and I just did not get it. No one explained to me why. They never even gave specific direction, just wanted it said differently each time. Well, we neither of us booked that audition, yet the memory of the sound room - kind of dark, low-lit - and my annoyance with them not telling me what they wanted, remains clear.
A second early audition was for the 90s movie Baby Geniuses. Of course it's super useful to have twins in child casting. I don't recall much of this one other than a very large, well-lit room. I can't tell you if there were tons of children there, but for some reason I associate this memory with Grand Slam Canyon, that giant, pink glass, indoor amusement park in Las Vegas, so maybe it was around there or like in some hall there?
Grade School Acting Moments
One time at a soccer game (2nd grade, 7 or 8 years old), there was a piece of paper on the field. I was a defender this game, so not as much action. I had this amazing notion that I would be reading the paper, the ball would come flying towards me, and I'd kick it away without looking, as if I were some hotshot player (makes me think of Kakashi now from Naruto, training the young ninjas while always reading). I picked up the paper, which I believe was just some newspaper ad, started to read it, but the only outcome was that my coach yelled at me, and I never got to live out my dream of impressing everyone. But is this not a theatrical mind at work?
Now the next example involves emotional manipulation, which most kids are good at when it comes to getting attention. However, I count this in the "always knew I was an actor" lineup simply because of the clarity and because I was aware of what I was doing. This comes from third grade, where I began to tell my teacher I hated my life. Look, it is true that I started to get pretty emotionally unbalanced with the upcoming move to Orlando and going to two funerals for my grandparents, during this 3rd-4th grade time, so I do give my 9-year-old self some grace here. But I knew that writing something so drastic like that would get me attention, which it did.
(Illustration with a model and paint instead of sad words: Pay attention to me!)
A second school example comes from after the move to Orlando, in the gifted once-a-week, pull-out-of-class program in 5th grade. We were making some film or news or something, but I purposefully kept a stony face because I was mad about something in the film or the class (can't remember towards who or what now). Watching the final product, one friend sarcastically commented, "great acting," looking at my unemotional performance. In my head though, I was glad because I had been acting the whole time. While she thought I hadn't tried and was just unemotional from bad acting, I actually knew what I was doing and fooled her.
One final example for today is the infamous 4th grade poetry reading day. It might have been for Mothers' Day, because there were a lot of moms in the room, though really I don't remember. We had an audience, that's what's important. While other kids memorized the shortest poems possible from Shel Silverstein, I took on something more ambitious (always the over-achiever). First of all, background, my grandma died in January, 2000. In December, 2000, the first Christmas without her, one of the relatives had emailed some poem about "spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year." It was fairly long for a 10-year-old, but memorize it I did, and that was my contribution to the poetry show. Wouldn't you know, I had parents in tears! This was an eye-opening, "oh, I can affect people" moment, another "I was meant to act" solidifying event.
So next week, we'll focus on more memories from middle and high school. See you then!
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