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TYLER COLEMAN COURTESY E.G. DAILY really depressed. You can hear old and young. You can hear if someone's not feeling well — not just the obvious hoarse voice — but I can hear it. The voice is a powerful thing," Daily said. "You can hear if someone's having anxiety, joy, bliss; it's all in the voice. "I do a lot of listening and watching children and watching people. I sit in a room and instead of getting bored when there's a conference or something going on — let's say there's a panel of people — I can imagine what the voice would sound like coming out of them. If you were to give me 10 voices and 10 faces, I could match up the face with the voice." Clockwise from left, voice actors E.G. Daily, Townsend Coleman, Kimberly Brooks and Diane Pershing. Depending on the kinds of work they do, voice actors have to tap a wide spectrum of skills. Doing animation or commercials allows them to flex their acting — and sometimes singing — muscles, audiobooks require the ability to switch between characters quickly, and promos and video games are a more technical art form. In the popular Mass Effect video game trilogy, Kimberly Brooks plays Ashley Williams, a potential love interest for the protagonist. Despite having to play some emotionally intense scenes, Brooks largely had to do it solo. "I have these scenes where I'm getting see Them in Action Promo pro Ben Patrick Johnson and many of the voice actors featured in this story sat down with SAG-AFTRA to talk about the challenges and rewards of their profession. Visit SAGAFTRA.org and log in to the digital issue of this magazine, or watch on SAG-AFTRA TV at SAGAFTRA.org/ sag-aftra-tv. 52 SAG-AFTRA 50-57_voiceover_F.indd 52 drunk and we're making out," Brooks said. "I never acted with one other person." Video games are also a challenge because actors have to be ready to shift gears quickly. "You don't get to work with anybody. You're in a booth for four hours, standing there in a room with a microphone. I think it's some of the hardest acting to do because you're all over the place. You have to convey one emotion to the next. One scene could be in the middle of battle, and the very next scene is an intimate moment between two people and someone has died. You have to really be on your game. It's very technical. And I love it," she said. Being verbally and emotionally nimble is important in audiobook narration as well. There may be a large cast of characters or there may not be any, but the narrator's voice has to do it all — and simultaneously convey the tone of the text. A well-written, well-performed audiobook can be an emotional experience for the listener, but it can be just as moving for the narrator. Audiobook narrator Cassandra Campbell recounted the sessions she spent recording Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956 by Anne Applebaum. "That was one of the hardest books I've ever read, both in terms of the pronunciation — it was full of Hungarian and Russian and Polish and German and Czech, and proper names of historical figures I had to get right — and, it was [emotionally] crushing. It was about this terrible time in history when so many people were killed," she said. For Campbell and her director, getting through it was a rewarding process. "At the end of it, it was kind of a triumph," she said. "It was like we went through a kind of linguistic war together. I was really proud of it at the end." Voice acting also offers work opportunities for SAG-AFTRA members living outside of Los Angeles and New York. After moving from L.A. to Portland, Ore., 20 years ago, National Board member Mary McDonald-Lewis continues to make her living in the field. "With technology, we have access to nearly everything V.O. actors in the two major markets have," she said. McDonald-Lewis, who records from her home studio, noted, "With the chops and D | Fall 2013 | SAGAFTRA.org 11/13/13 12:06 PM