Joanna Ruiz: 'A lot of
people reckon they can do a funny voice, but it's not enough – you have
to bring the script off the page for an audience who can't see you.'
The impish boy on the end of the phone line is superseded by a
lisping little girl, before the boy's mother and then an elderly lady
from somewhere up north take over. Just as an alien is clearing its
throat, Joanna Ruiz reclaims the conversation.
Ruiz, 42, has
supplied voices for a range of children's shows, including the Horrid
Henry cartoons, and her more formal tones will be familiar to many who
have endured computerised employee programmes on health and safety in
the workplace. "I've just done one of those for Fife NHS on heart
surgery about which I know nothing," she says. "Often I have no clue
what I'm saying, but the trick is to sound as though I do, so I have to
learn how to pronounce all these strange medical terms."
The skill
of a voiceover artist is so singular that even established actors can
struggle. "A lot of people reckon they can do a funny voice, but it's
not enough – you have to bring the script off the page for an audience
who can't see you," Ruiz says. "It's amazing how many famous people want
to do it, but don't get offered the part because they are too used to
acting with their whole body."
Ruiz enrolled at the Royal Welsh
College of Music & Drama with a conventional acting career in mind.
During her course she sang in a band and was introduced to a woman who
sang jingles for TV adverts. "She suggested I do the same and one day
the chap who ran the recording studio we used mentioned that the
original soundtrack to Casper the Friendly Ghost was being re-recorded,"
she says. "He urged me to try out for a rabbit, so I practised and
practised from the old soundtrack and ended up getting the lead part."
Ruiz
discovered that she excelled at emulating small girls and decided from
then on to divert her acting skills into voiceovers. "It gives you so
much more scope," she says. "In Toby's Travelling Circus, for instance, I
play Toby but also his mother and several other characters."
Adult
female actors are frequently called upon to impersonate small boys
because their voices are lighter than their male counterparts and the
recruitment of children involves so much additional red tape. Ruiz,
through dogged practice, has learnt to produce the right sound from the
back of her throat. She is a collector of voices. "I'll often have [BBC
children's channel] CBeebies on to find a new voice. I'm starting
something soon in which I have to be an alien, so I'm casting about for
the right sound for that."
Cartoons, unsurprisingly, are the
highlight of a job that can encompass home learning videos and vacuum
cleaner ads. "Those are hard because you have to sound excitedly
enthused by a product you care nothing about. The trick is to smile
while you're talking because that makes your voice sound bright and
cheery," she says. "If I know I've got a couple of days of animation
work, it feels like a holiday. You're in there with the other actors and
the interaction makes the script come alive."
The secret of
success in a competitive market is a strong showreel to demonstrate your
range. "Listen to TV ads and practise, practise, practise," Ruiz
advises. "Take a script and read it with silly voices because you have
to remember to act, too. You need lots of ups and downs in your voice
and more expression than in straight acting roles since the audience
can't see you."
A drama qualification is, she reckons,
unnecessary, for voice workshops teach every aspect of voiceovers,
including specialist courses for voicing computer games – "that's less
voice and more reactions like cries and yelps when you're hit with a
brick or knocked off a cliff."
Agencies such as
The Showreel
in London will help beginners put together a professional standard
voice demo as well as offering coaching and courses. "Listen to the
reels of actors on the websites of voiceover agencies to get an idea,"
Ruiz says. "And when you've got your reel, go round production companies
and approach local radio stations to see if you can do an ad."
Versatility
and persistence are qualities almost as important as an accommodating
larynx. "I always struggled to do old-lady voices, then found I could
only manage it if I gave them northern accents," Ruiz says. She adds
that a natural passion for the human sound is also a must.
So
thoroughly does she embed herself in a character that voices will often
come unbidden after she has left the studio. "I find, especially if I've
been doing an American voice, that I'll be speaking it for a couple of
hours afterwards, and my children have grown used to the many different
sounds of mummy."
