Lately I’ve been experimenting with playing an ageing woman, and voice-wise have found myself lapsing into Catherine Tate’s Nan – how does that happen?! I do hope to become an ageing woman one day (!) but in the meantime how do I achieve the breathiness, roughness and tremor characteristic of an elderly voice?
In the mid 90’s I attended a lecture given by the impressionist Rory Bremner and an eminent ENT Surgeon. Spellbound I listened as they dissected (metaphorically!) Rory’s different character voices and revealed where and how the vocal tract was being manipulated to create such a variety of sounds and vocal qualities. This had a profound effect on my voice work and teaching.
As an actor, the importance of exploring your own voice and speech and discovering those parts of a voice you didn’t think you could reach cannot be underestimated; have you been to the dark side? (impersonated Darth Vader I mean?!) At The Actors Centre, London (now sadly closed) I taught a course on playing characters with differences in speech and voice – these can be some of the most challenging aspects of a character, aspects that take you out of your comfort zone: Can you change your mouth posture safely for several shows a week/several takes without injuring yourself? Can you allow yourself to dribble? Can you maintain the stamina for a breathy voice?
And how do you ensure these voices, which are unclear by their nature, can still be understood and believable on screen and especially stage, especially if – in addition – the role demands emotion or access to something more primal?
Knowing your own equipment – your own natural speech setting, accent and physiology – can help lead to a greater understanding of the character voices you could reach for. John Leguizamo arrived at the ‘lateral lisp’ of Sid in Ice Age due to his own natural tendency to an open, lip-spread speech setting, realising that the character of Sid had a wide, toothy grin as he does!
Going for a run? – you would get fully acquainted with how to warm up and cool down large muscles; the same applies to the voice and speech muscles, especially if you are about to be more athletic with them which an actor usually is. Individual coaching sessions, and courses I run, will by necessity always include a refresher on the anatomy involved in voice and speech production and on how to care for your voice. As an actor it is imperative to monitor your own daily vocal qualities, not just those of your character voices.
If you have questions about a character voice or accent, please get in touch. It’s exhilarating when you not only find a new voice but also work out how to take it even further!
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