Behind the Mic, Inside the Game: Lessons from David Fennoy
The voice I learned English from
I have to start with a confession. Before I ever stood in
a booth, before I ever coached a single student, I was a little girl who spoke Arabic first and English second. And when I spoke English, I spoke it with an accent. So I did what a lot of kids do when they want to fit in. I listened. I found a voice I loved and I copied it until it became mine.
That voice was Dave Fennoy's.
So you can imagine what it meant to me, on October 20, to sit in our virtual room and introduce him to my students as the guest for Behind the Mic, Inside the Game. Most of the world knows him as Lee Everett from The Walking Dead. He is also Bluebeard in The Wolf Among Us, Finch in Tales from the Borderlands, Lucius Fox in Batman: Arkham Knight, and the Hulu guy millions of people hear every night. For me, he will always also be that voice from back in the day announcing Guiding Light and As the World Turns on CBS.
I have written about this for SOVAS, but telling it with Dave right there listening was something else. He answered the way I hoped he would. He said he tries to be kind and to be a good guy, because you never know whose lives you are touching. I am living proof of that. When you put your voice out into the world, you truly have no idea who is on the other end, learning from you.
I almost didn't make it on time, by the way. I ran straight out of my vocality class at NYU and into the session because I could not miss a minute of it. Dave was running a little late too, from a session that went long, so we were both a little breathless. That felt right. We are in a working industry.
What I took home
I have been sitting with that evening for a few days now, and a few things keep coming back to me.
The first is how simply Dave put it: voice acting for video games is acting. The words are just the words. They are the exhaust of the acting engine. I have spent years as a Meisner instructor telling students that acting is reacting, and hearing it from Dave, in his own language, reminded me why I teach this way. The line only comes alive when you know what you are responding to.
The second is how generous good direction can be. Dave did not just tell people what was wrong. He painted pictures. He gave my students a room full of tired, wounded people to talk to, or a reason to whisper, and then he let them find it. Again and again I watched a careful first take turn into something true on the second. Nothing about their voices changed. What changed was what they were thinking about. That is the moment I live for as a coach.
The third is something I needed to hear myself. When someone asked Dave what newer actors should focus on, he did not talk about gear or accents or vocal tricks. He talked about truth. Success comes from bringing truth through your voice.
I thought about the little girl working so hard to lose her accent, sure that the sound was everything. It took me years to learn what Dave said in one sentence. The sound matters. The truth matters more.
If you want one thing to carry into your next session, take the five questions Dave asks of every script. What just happened? What is the inner dialogue? What is the attitude? What is the action? And who are you talking to?
Thank you, Dave
Dave, thank you for your kindness, your humor, and your truth. You touched my life long before you knew my name, and that night you touched a whole room of new ones.
To every actor who stepped up to the mic, took a note, and tried again, I am so proud of you. That is the work.
We train with heart. If you’d like to train with us, join the next session of the Hanne Rickert Voiceover Workshop Series or book a one-on-one session today. Feel free to share this blog with others, and download David Fennoy’s Video Game Acting Tips to take his workshop insights with you.
Hanne
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