Commentary: Alan Tudyk And The Different Styles Of Voice Acting
by Frank Martin
Voice acting is an interesting profession. Many traditional actors lend their voices to animated shows and television — and they do a decent enough job — but there is a very particular skill set to masking one’s voice and crafting an original character. Sometimes, on-screen actors simply act as themselves, which doesn’t give the character a unique personality. The actors are able to display emotion very well as they are still actors, but voice projection and manipulation is very difficult. Professional and trained voice talent work very hard at their trade and it’s often hard to hear their true voice in their work. This is compared to a great actor like Alan Tudyk, who leaves remnants of his voice in all the characters he portrays.
This can be heard in two shows, both of which feature him in multiple roles. The first is Harley Quinn, where he plays Joker and Clayface. Another example is Grimsburg, in which he voices a child’s imaginary friend and a criminal who believes himself to be the arch-nemesis of the main character. All of these parts are unique and Tudyk does a great job voicing them all. They each have individual personalities that come through in their voices, but Tudyk’s voice is always recognizable within them — even though characters can be identified just by their voice, it’s also possible to recognize the actor.
Even given his skill in voice manipulation, Tudyk is also a on-screen actor. This is in contrast to a pure voice talent like Nancy Cartwright. She most famously voices Bart Simpson from The Simpsons, but she also voices many other characters such as Ralph Wiggum, Nelson Muntz, and Todd Flanders. All of these characters have recognizable voices that fans of the series can point out. But they are also extremely distinct from her own voice. It would be very difficult for someone to detect Cartwright as the voice behind all those characters without knowing it beforehand, which is fine. It’s great for fans of Tudyk’s to be able to recognize him in his characters while Cartwright’s voice is hidden. It’s just a different style of voice acting that can have a different effect on the audience.
Harley Quinn is now streaming on Max. The Simpsons is now streaming on Disney+.