Jimmie Yamaguchi
Actor
The Silt Verses (2021-)
Role
“Hayward.”
Bio
“Jimmie Yamaguchi is a Japanese-American voice actor,who has given his voice to a number of audio dramas, video games, movies and commercials. When he is not performing in his home studio, he does IT for a school system and hosts trivia at local pubs and restaurants.
Prior to all of this, he was a teacher and a stagehand for 15 years. A huge fan of ramen, video games and of course his family, he hopes that he doesn’t wake them up too many times at night when he is screaming into a microphone.”
“The voice isn’t going to book you a role. The acting is.”
What was your aim in getting involved? What was the biggest challenge?
“Getting started in any creative endeavor can be daunting and a little scary. I had a huge fear of failure for years. Many, many years.
To put it into perspective, it took almost two decades for me to build the courage and the resources to begin. I even wrote my college capstone thesis on voice-over - but still didn’t begin until many years later.”
Have you continued to work in the field?
“Yes! I still work on many projects now. Most tend to be video games and audio dramas.”
What would be your dream project?
“I want to be in a large JRPG as one of the main characters - or, one day, be in a project with my daughter.”
How did you land the role? Any tips for a strong audio reel (or virtual audition)?
“I found the Silt Verses through a message board dedicated to voice over auditions. I don’t believe it exists anymore. There are still plenty of ways to find public auditions. Twitter, currently, has a lot. Use this link.
The most important thing to remember about voice acting is that the voice you make isn’t what is really important. Focus on your acting and making your performance as believable as possible. The ‘voice’ isn’t what is going to book you a role. The acting is. You may not be right for that particular role, but if your performance is good the casting director will remember you or perhaps have a different part for you.
If you create a reel, it is important to make sure each character and performance is distinct. They should almost feel like small performances with a beginning, middle and end (this isn’t an absolute truth, however). You want the listener to almost lean in and want to keep hearing more.”
How does acting for audio compare to other media, for you? Any skills or techniques you’d recommend learning?
“With audio, you can’t use any other part of your body to convey your emotional meaning. Everything must be done vocally. This can be truly challenging. Compile this with the technical aspects of microphone technique and you may feel a little overwhelmed.
Take your learning in chunks and please don’t beat yourself up if you don’t get it immediately (I’m looking at you fellow perfectionists). There really isn’t any ‘perfect’ when it comes to all of this.
Technical tips
If you have a plosive-heavy sentence - ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers’ - put one finger in front of your mouth as you speak to help divert the air from going into the mic (plosives are that popping sound you hear when people speak into a mic).
If you are in a studio that isn’t yours, never touch the mic. Never touch the mic. The audio engineer will do that for you if something needs to be adjusted.
Don’t digitally manipulate your voice for an audition. Generally, it won’t make it better or book you the job. Just trust that your voice is unique and that is what makes you special.
If you need some sound dampening and don’t have a lot of money, use moving blankets or a closet filled with clothes.
Acting tips
If they don’t give you a backstory for an audition, make it up. This can help you get a better idea of how your character might behave.
Take care of your voice. If a session is vocally strenuous, ask for a break. A good director will understand.
‘!’ doesn’t usually mean scream or be loud. It often just means: intense, cold anger, excited, growling, cold ‘mom’ stare-voice that lets you know how big you messed up and you had better get your butt into the kitchen and clean those dishes.
One of the hardest things to learn is natural speech, casual or grounded - which is currently the most desired style in all forms of voice over. Listen to the best performances in all fields. This will help you to understand how it should sound. But if you are truly in character, this will come naturally more often than not.
Learn and practice efforts (the sounds we make when doing things).
Sounds like: punching, lifting, walking softly, running, sighs, etc - the next time you listen to a drama, play a video game or watch a cartoon, pay close attention to how much they are used (it’s a lot). Getting punched in the face and getting punched in the stomach are two different emotes. And if the person doing the punching is a giant monster, you will be making very different sounds. We use a lot of efforts in audio dramas and video games.”