Voice Acting Legend Jim Cummings Answers Voice Acting Questions

Hi, I am Jim Cummings, voice actor

and I'm here today to answer

all your questions from the internet.

This is Voice Acting Support.

[upbeat music]

Let's see, Ambrosem, tips on doing an evil laugh.

Well, the thing you have to remember about laughing,

it's a odd thing you have to get rid of all your air

because you'd think you'd.

[person laughing]

And then just throw your head back and laugh.

But it's actually more beneficial to go.

[person laughing]

That is an evil laugh, that's evil laugh 101.

I hope I didn't frighten any of you.

Voice Acting, lowercase.

How are kissing sounds handled in voice acting?

I am happy to say I don't do this very often.

None of my characters are very kissable,

but I've seen it done.

And you know what they do, folks go.

[person kissing]

And there you have it, that was easy.

I'm sorry you had to see that.

Potential_key, how to get voice deeper and fuller,

sort of when you just push a little lower,

a little less air, and you push that forward.

That's basically it in a nutshell.

And if you want to go higher,

then I would suggest imagine it coming out of your eyes

and it's up there

and all of a sudden it's a little squeaker.

And if you have a falsetto, I've had this told to me before

and it almost makes sense.

You gotta kind of play around in the mirror

and go, well, it's squeezing up there

and now it's a little higher.

It's like a placement thing, I guess.

It's not an exact science, I'm afraid.

Sorry about that.

Doctor_Sass asks, what is my method

for creating voices slash characters?

I always think of it in terms of creating a character.

It's just sort of a mindset, like Winnie the Pooh,

he's always a character and he's a character

who likes honey

and Tigger is a character that love to bounce.

And you let those certain things inform you.

I have a friend Jess R Nelson,

voice acting is small V but a capital A.

And that's what you have to remember.

And the thing about voice acting

is you have to get it all in the voice.

You can sit there and go all day

long and no one can hear it.

You have to have that mindset.

Arkhampatients asks,

who is my favorite Jim Cummings character?

Well, it might be Winnie the Pooh

and it could definitely be Tigger

'cause you never know, and hold on there pal.

It could be Pete,

he's the oldest Disney character out there.

And don't forget Ray from Princess and The Frog.

The women love a man with a big back poach.

And don't forget to remember Don Karnage from TaleSpin.

I was too fantastic in that role.

I know you agree with me.

And don't forget, get those turtles.

That was Shredder, he's a bad guy.

What makes them endearing to me is they're characters

and it's always joyous

to see other people's reaction.

Like for Winnie the Pooh, so many people,

I'll do a convention and knowing that it's so obviously

is so very, very meaningful to other people,

that means something to me.

You know, I've had people tell me that Pooh

has gotten them through terrible times

and many hardships and on and on.

And it's an honor, it's a privilege.

It's nice to know

because we do these cartoons pretty much flying solo.

Oftentimes we're all alone in a room

and we don't have an audience.

There's no reaction.

You don't know, you're kind of flying blind a bit

to get out there to the public

and see everybody's genuine reactions

and how meaningful it is to them is meaningful to me.

Yay for you.

How do voice acting auditions work?

It's always good to see a picture.

I always enjoy seeing a picture of the character,

'cause that informs you, you know, if he's a big guy,

he is gonna sound big, from there, you ask questions,

is this guy sneaky?

Is he smart?

Is he dumb, is he from England?

I always do it this way, you know, follow their direction.

Follow what they say they want, they want this.

They want a guy who sounds like he's

a tough New York City cop

and then you throw him a curve ball

because sometimes that works too.

It goes against what they thought,

but they didn't think of it

and it hits them the right way and boom.

So give them one as they want

and then give them the next one as you want.

It also shows a little bit of versatility,

and that's not bad either.

This comes from LunaticJellyMan.

How do I convey genuine emotion?

Wow, that's a question, all right,

well, you can start by feeling genuine emotion.

You know, it's called acting.

You know, for instance, get into the scene

and it always helps to know the scene

before you're going into it.

You know what's going on, you know, the context.

One of the hardest things to do is to cry on cue.

If you try not to cry and fail,

that's a little more genuine

than trying to just, oh, woe is me, you know,

'cause it's a bit put on and it feels a bit put on.

But if you're trying not to cry

and you say and you can't do it, well that's better.

Couches wants me to comment

on today I learned Jim Cummings,

the voice actor for Winnie the Pooh

calls sick kids in hospitals and talks to them in character.

It's not like I do it every day, but I have done it

and it's very rewarding and it's nice.

One of the cutest things we did was we had a situation

where kids who were on the spectrum

and different levels of maladies

and God bless them, they were out there

and it was Pooh, Tigger, Dark Wing, Mickey, Minnie

and Donald talking to the little kids on the phone.

And we were able to see them, it was very rewarding.

They were just so cute, you couldn't even stand it.

Hello, Winnie the Pooh.

Hello, have you got honey?

You know, and oh yes, of course.

And I shall share one with you as soon as I see you.

Oh, that's great.

Pooh's gonna gimme some honey.

It's just so nice.

Here's a good one.

Fuzzy-Accident wants to know,

What does this guy sound like?

He's got a pretty good snout on him there,

so might have some of that in there.

And it doesn't look like he's the smartest guy in the world.

So, well, I was just thinking

to myself, self, oh no wait,

that wasn't me thinking that, that was somebody else.

And he's got these big teeth out there,

so you might wanna do something with those, you know,

give them a little whistle, something like that.

And I'm sorry, what were we talking about?

Don't try that at home, actually, go ahead.

Selecto asks, How do you do gravelly

slash raspy voices without damaging

your vocal chords?

Well, you want to keep hydrated, that's for sure.

I put a couple cough drops into a little bottle of water

or a glass of water and I sip it.

I think like for instance, Taz, when we were doing Tasmania,

he's probably the roughest character on me,

that's for sure.

I requested that we do him on Friday afternoons,

so I had the weekend to recover

because it does get you a little crispy.

You know, you want it to be authentic,

you want it to be real, but you don't wanna hurt yourself.

Know your instrument, first of all.

Know what you're capable of and know your limitations.

Know that it's okay to say, okay,

that'll be enough for today.

Can we finish the rest of the show tomorrow?

Vajj8, How many takes per scene is too much?

And when do actors begin getting sick of it?

Once you're at a point

where you're kind of just repeating yourself.

I always go back to this, I did the Dancing Jalapenos

for an ad years and years ago.

[person humming]

Tequila, we did that about 40 times

and I realized that we were never going

to make it sound any different.

And you can only hear that.

[person humming]

So many times,

and I can tell you that the truth,

they used the fifth take and not the 45th.

I say instincts are the best stinks.

So follow your instincts.

Let that be your guide, believe me.

Corncob wants to know,

who is your favorite male character

with a female voice actor.

Well, I gotta go right to Nancy Cartwright.

I mean, surely Bart Simpson

is one of the most endearing little characters out there,

certainly one of the most famous.

And Nancy Cartwright, she's a girl

and she does a heck of a Bart.

So I would have to go with Nancy, how about you?

Adrianavecc,

Why does my voice go all actory when I perform?

Anyone else struggle with this?

I think that what's happening

is you're maybe taking it too seriously.

It happens, you know, we get all impressed

with ourselves and you know,

you're looking at the right camera angle

and how am I addressing the mic in the proper way?

And you get caught up in that

and next thing you know, it's less genuine.

Nobody wants to be all actory at that point.

Prestigious_Truth.

Okay, how did you, how did I get into voice acting?

How did I get into voice acting?

Well, I always knew I was going to do this since I was five.

I saw Mel Blanc on the Jack Benny program

and my dad said, you see this guy?

See this guy?

Yeah.

He goes, well, he's the one that does

that Bugs Bunny and the Taz and the Daffy Duck

and all those characters that you get up

and watch on Saturday morning.

And I thought, well, he doesn't have

to stand in the corner for being weird.

I'll do that, everybody seemed to like him,

so I knew I was going to do this when I was five.

Nic0 asks, How do you practice

the movie trailer voice?

When it comes to doing a movie trailer,

you push out a a very slowly with the air,

drop it down in the world

he never made, trapped.

And that kinda slows it down

and drops it down all by itself.

Use a lot of air.

You're pushing a lot of air in there.

Hello, he said, sincerely.

That's my official movie trailer voice,

coming to a theater near you.

The Purple_Guy wants to know,

how do I voice a drunk character?

Well, you can do an impression of somebody

that you know that's often drunk.

There was a guy named Crazy Guggenheim,

Frank Fontaine on the old Jackie Gleason Show,

and he was always drunk.

You slur your words

and have a few shots of tequila before you record

and then you will be a drunk character.

No, don't do that.

Well, this comes from Poopoopeepee, don't ask.

Why is it so much easier for me

to get into character when I have an accent?

Well, it's funny that you ask me this

because people tell me all the time

that I have this crazy accent

and I don't know what they're talking about.

That was my buddy, Don Karnage.

It's kind of fun to do a character with an accent

because it gives you a little something to hang your hat on,

gives you something to hide behind.

You know, right off the bat, you can tell

that this guy's from somewhere, but you don't know where.

It's just a little acting trick that you can use.

Doodles_n_Scribbles,

What is the craziest same voice actor

realization you've had?

Robin Williams was an amazing actor.

I just loved Mrs. Doubtfire.

I mean, here he is playing a Scottish little old lady

and that was pretty amazing, hearing that come out of him.

You know, it knocked me out.

We have a question here, in your opinion, meaning me,

what is the best cartoon voice casting of all time?

Boy, that's an interesting one.

I think Bugs Bunny is pretty perfect.

You know, that voice coming out of that face,

that character, pretty spot on.

For that matter, Taz.

[person groaning]

By no coincidence,

they were both Mel Blanc, he's like the dean.

He's the godfather.

BatFan wants to know,

which do I prefer, recording alone or with others?

Well, I always prefer recording with others

because if you think about it, acting is part reacting

and if there's nobody there with you,

you're not reacting to their line.

Mentally, I read the line or two ahead of mine

and then I deliver mine,

so that I kind of keep it in the moment.

But I think almost everybody that you ask will say

that they prefer having somebody else there.

MrOonter wants to know,

I'm considering getting back into VO.

So what has changed in the past 10 years?

One thing that's popped up in recent years is AI,

artificial intelligence.

And nobody I know is very pleased about this.

I mean, the name alone,

artificial intelligence, what else do you need?

It's artificial and it's not very intelligent.

You know, the idea that they can simulate a voice or a face

or this or that and then imbue it with human emotion,

I just hope it crashes and burns.

But other than that, I don't have an opinion.

Cewallace9 asks, Why is there no Oscar category

for voice acting?

Now I ask that same thing, I'm a big advocate of that.

In fact, if we can get a few people to write a few letters,

whoever is out there watching right now,

it's almost like a no brainer.

Look at all the casting directors.

They're getting their own category

and I'm a huge advocate for that.

If anybody's out there in the academy

and rattle your cage a little bit, join on, won't you?

Sonicsaber25 asks, Do voice actors get paid

if a piece of media reuses one of their lines?

And the answer is yes.

You can't basically lift work that you've already done

for A, B, or C and use it over here to sell shoes.

So yes, you do get paid.

Positive_Resident263 asks What happens when a voice actor

for a long running cartoon dies or can't do it anymore?

Well, that's a sad state of affairs,

but usually they will recast it

to sound much like the original.

I do Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, but I'm not the original.

That was Sterling Holloway and Paul Winchell.

So the trick is, you have to be true to the character,

stay in character and keep it to the original.

I dare say I've been Winnie the Pooh much,

much more than the great Sterling Holloway was

all those years ago.

MildlyUpsetGerbil wants to know,

How important is voice acting in gaming?

Well, I think it depends on the game.

Some games are action driven,

some games are story driven.

And obviously, the ones that are more story driven

and more dialogue driven, it's pretty darn important.

But if it's all running around

and throwing grenades, probably a little less so.

Well that's all the questions we have for today

and I hope you had a good time.

I know I did, thanks for stopping by and saying hi.

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