OCTOBER 1 2008
AMERICANWAY 41
approach. He says he usually reads a script
a few times,makessomenotes, andasks the
producerquestionsabouthowquicklythey’d
likehim to read,whichmusicwill fortifyhis
narration, and, of course, what tone they’re
looking for. “Is it
KnockedUp
?That informs
me of the feel or the attitude or the charac-
terof thepiece,”he says.Havingplayeda lot
of roles in Shakespeare plays, DelHoyo be-
lieves he has a good sense for whichwords
capture the essence of a sentence; he picks
thoseout andemphasizes them. “
[
Take,
]
for
example, the sentence:What if therewerea
secretworlddeepwithinourown?”he says.
“Tome, thewords thatmatterare
secret
and
deep
.”DelHoyosayshe takescarenot toem-
phasize toomanywords though, as that can
tire a listener. “If everything is important,
nothing is important,” he says.
Wright likes to see a cut of the trailer
whenever possible. That way, he can see
how the script integrates with the images,
music, special effects, and overall energy of
what the audience is watching. He equates
his role to thatof amemberof anorchestra:
Onlybyreacting towhateveryoneelse isdo-
ingcanheperformathisbest. “If everybody
in the orchestra had to phone in their part
and theywere unable to listen and react to
othermembersof theorchestra, youcan see
how thatmight not work aswell as getting
everyone together and rehearsing,” he says.
Havingdonemany,many trailers,Wright
says that he has built a repertoire of char-
acters that fit the varyingmovie genres.He
uses those as a startingpoint and then tries
to modify his performance based on what
theproducerswant. “If you’reasked towork
on a slasher film, youknow it’snot going to
be
[
lapses into quick, peppy voice
]
, ‘Jamie
Lee Curtis in
Halloween 4
. Rated R!’” he
says. “You know it’s going to be down here
somewhere
[
switches to a deep, slow, omi-
nous voice
]
, ‘Now the nightmare is back.’
Youmight start there.”
These varying techniques, though, are
just that; they’re not a secret formula for
success in the voice-over industry. Not sur-
prisingly,LaFontainewasaskedall the time
about how to get started in the business.
What he told people was the same thing
an established Oscar-winning actor might
tell someone struggling to get intomovies.
“I say, ‘Look, here’s the simple skinny of the
thing:Of the sixbillion–pluspeopleon this
planet, you are the onlypersonwhohas led
your life and you are the only person who
has your unique view of the world, so you
have to bring that to everything you do,”
he said. That means you somehow have to
bring your own experience of love or pain
towhat you’re reading— something that is
hard to do, much harder than focusing on
themechanics of readingout loud.
“Somany people are… concentrating on
the timbre of their voice. They’re concen-
trating on getting every word pronounced
correctly. They’re concentrating on all the
stuff they shouldn’t be concentrating on,”
LaFontaine said. “What they shouldbecon-
centrating on is saying what’s on the piece
of paper and saying it honestly.”
ChRIsWARREN
is awriter based inLosAngeles.
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