Voice Over Work-A Lot Harder Than You Think

Animation voice over work is a lot harder than you think. When Anna Faris was cast as the voice of Sam Sparks in Sony’s Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, she reveals, “I thought it was going to be a total cakewalk. Animation movie? Easy! But it was so hard.” Bill Hader chimes in. “Yeah, it was really tough.”

Although Bill has done voiceover work before, he volunteers that he usually just did different voices. This film required him to use his normal voice. Bill adds, “I wasn’t sure how to do that and they had to scrap my entire first day of work.” The directors said that they hired Bill based on the quality they heard in his voice from a behind the scenes clip from the movie Superbad. They said he displayed the voice of a nerd with just the right amount of cool.

Both Anna and Bill found the pace of animation work insanely draining. “For four hours you are working at the level of ten, screaming and yelling into a microphone” explains Bill, “And then when you think you are done, they ask you to do Efforts.”

Efforts, is the industry term for the sounds that go with movements, like panting, gasping, moaning, sighing, etc. Each sound must be recorded a minimum of three times and in various levels of intensity. The director is looking for specific reactions for the imagined animation that hasn’t even been drawn yet. Anna describes a particular example she got from a director, “Now she’s hoping from one french fry to the next through a river of hot, boiling oil, now make that noise.” Anna goes on to add that the directors had a very specific vision of what they wanted to do.

Bill and Anna were asked if they approached their roles any differently than they would for a live-action film. Bill said that this film was very different for him. In the past he would be doing little character parts using accents and such, but in this film he had to think of the emotional part, especially in the relationship with the father. There was a real emotional through-line that needed to be consistent throughout the film.

Anna said that it was difficult sometimes to remember to connect with the realistic aspect of the action. Without the animation to work from the directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller had to walk them through the scene and describe what was happening to them. Sometimes they would get so caught up in trying to visualize what was happening with their characters that the directors would have to remind them to keep it real.

Bill explains that even if the tornado that was approaching them was made out of spaghetti they were still expected to react as if it were a real twister. When asked what the most difficult part was, Bill answered, the two-minute gasp. “Film has the ability to splice takes together and you can make Golem and you can make food fall from the sky, but apparently you can’t do a gasp for two minutes. So Phil and Chris were like, so Bill, yeah, give it to us, two minutes. I thought I was going to die.”

For two days Anna and Bill had the luxury of recording together. This is unusual in animation but both of them found it very useful and they were comforted in knowing that they were both coming from the same place. When Bobb’e J. Thompson did his voiceover work, all he had was a recording of Mr. T. to work with. But Bobb’e finds that voice work is particularly easy for him, this being his second animated film and all, and he looks forward to doing many more. Bobb’e previously performed in the animated movie, A Shark’s Tale.

Bill Hader and Anna Faris are both happy with the end result. “I love the way my character looks.” says Anna. And when Sam Sparks shapely appearance is commented on, with her generous hipline, Bill Hader adds in a deep sexy voice, “Oh, Yeah!”