Good Acting from Bad
I’ve been telling many actors that audio acting is pretty unique. Unless you’re acting for comic effect, you’re not playing large like you would on the stage. I remember Grace Lee Whitney talking about her cameo on Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. She explained how Leonard Nimoy was describing to her what was happening on the blue screen so he could get her initial reactions. When he explained how badly beaten up the Enterprise was after the battle with Khan her response was as large as she would have used on the stage. She needed another take to pull back the emotion. Audio Drama is like that. You can hear someone smile over the microphone. Don’t believe me? Go try it yourself sometime. I don’t understand quite what the difference is in the facial features, but it’s true.
This article by Christopher Hooton and the Independent does a good job of looking at Academy Award winning actors and their approaches to acting. Good audio actors are precious gems. I can only think of about a score that I consider stand outs in the public domain field. Who are your favourites and why?
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