Holy crap voice acting! (Destiny)

by Dagoonite, Somewhere in Iowa, lost in a cornfield., Wednesday, March 25, 2015, 13:50 (3779 days ago) @ Fuertisimo

I'm sure I'm in the minority here but I've always felt that celebrity voice actors are pointless. I can think of countless examples of amateurs who delivered excellent performances and celebrities who either phoned it in or were just tepid. Dinklage of course is the 800 pound gorilla in the room when you talk about that but, to me it feels like lots of times studios just cast big names for the sake of casting big names, rather than seeking the objectively best candidate.

It's like when they put Giancarlos Stanton in the live action trailer. What the hell did that accomplish aside from being able to say: Hey look! It's that guy from breaking bad and he's in our trailer! Celebrity buzz.

There's a really interesting documentary whose name escapes me now about Rockstar when they cast the guy who voiced John Marston in Red Dead Redemption. The guy was a total amateur, hadn't even done any voice acting parts before, but ended up being perfect for the role and was memorable in it. To me, that's smart casting. Find the right person, not the big name.

For the most part, I feel the same way. Dinklage wasn't the best choice, not by a longshot. But most of the rest of the celebrity casting was spot freaking on. Fillion works well for Cayle, Torres played a role type that she genuinely excels at, Reddik is Morgan Freeman Jr. Claudia Black genuinely enjoys voice acting and got the role of Morrigan in Dragon Age by asking to be in one of their games.

THAT SAID, voice acting and regular acting are two different beasts. It surprisingly requires a different skill set. Some actors make the transition extremely well, such as Keith David. Some struggle more before finding their way in it. Others never do.

But voice acting is starting to become more appealing to big name actors for a variety of reasons -- it's a good way to make money on the "off season," the kinds of roles that demand voice actors are gaining more legitimate respect, and it's a new challenge. You wouldn't believe how many actors will gladly pass up a good paycheck for a pittance role that offers them a challenge.

For the people doing the hiring, casting a celeb also has a certain marketing appeal. Add those two factors together, and we're entering an era where more celebs will be easing their way into voice acting, like it or not.