OCTOBER 1 2008
AMERICANWAY 39
Although these men are some of the most
active actors in Hollywood, you won’t find
paparazzi skulking in their bushes. LaFon-
taine,whoappeared inacommercial for the
insurance company Geico, was even an ex-
ception in thathewas recognized inpublic.
GEoRGEDElHoYo
hasheard itall before—
from friends, strangers, and even delivery-
menwho come tohishousewithapackage.
They can’t believehe gets paid sowell todo
what they’re convinced is such an easy job.
“Everybody thinks you just talk. ‘All youdo
is talk?Ohman, where do I signup?’” says
DelHoyo, whowas a longtime theater, film,
and televisionactorbeforea friendhectored
him into trying voice-overwork as away to
earn extra money. Now, DelHoyo, who is
fluent inSpanish, getsasteadystreamofbi-
lingual voicework forTVpromos, commer-
cials, and film trailers; he has worked on
The Happening, The Polar Express
,
Hitch
,
and
SharkTale
.
Clearly, though, if voice-over work were
as easy as most people believe it is, there
would be a lot more folks working in that
capacity regularly. One indication of how
difficult it is is the fact that the small coterie
of trailer narrators is usually sought out by
theproductioncompaniesmaking the trail-
ers, so there are rarely auditions for roles.
MattWright,whostartedoutasawriter,di-
rector, and producer of radio commercials,
work he still does, says there are plenty of
people who have a technically better voice
thanhedoes. ButWright—who creditshis
entrée into thevoice-overbusiness toamid-
1990s shift away from the so-called “voice
of God” narrator and to a more informal,
conversational tone— has come to believe
that the quality of a person’s voice, while
important, ishardly sufficient by itself.
What matters, he says, is the ability to
performunderpressure— reading theone-
or two-page script should typically require
only two to three takes, and at most, five
— and with authenticity. “If you can walk
into a studio situation under high pressure
and lookat somethingonapage that you’ve
never seen before and read it cold in away
that sounds likeyouare thinkingof it at the
moment, thenyouhaveashot,” saysWright,
whohasbeen thevoiceof trailers formovies
such as
Indiana Jones and theKingdom of
the Crystal Skull, Pirates of the Caribbean
,
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isit:
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