JB Blanc on the Relationship Between
Actor & Director and the Future of the Industry
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By Kayla Bowles, July 14, 2024
Kayla: I recently had the pleasure of interviewing renowned actor of stage, screen, and voice acting, JB Blanc. Born in France and raised in the UK, Blanc has worked as a performer in almost every area of the business. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, and had an extensive theatre career before moving to Los Angeles in 2002. His film and TV credits include Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Pirates Of The Caribbean: AWE, Moonlight Serenade, Garfield, Prison Break and NYPD Blue. JB has voiced over 400 characters in animation and video games including The Jetsons, Kung-Fu Panda, Scooby-Doo, Star Wars Jedi, Wayfinders, Fortnite, League Of Legends, and several Call Of Duty games. He is also a leading director in games and animation such as Call Of Duty, World Of Warcraft, Overwatch, Heroes Of The Storm, Hearthstone, Lego Dimensions, Lego Batman: Beyond Gotham, and Horizon Zero Dawn. JB, thanks so much for talking with me!
JB: It’s my pleasure!
Kayla: Your roles span a wide range of characters across animation and video games. How do you approach developing the unique voice and personality of each character you portray?
JB: After some 300 hundred projects, being ‘unique and different’ becomes a little more difficult. But I believe that ‘unique and different’ is not what you should be aiming for. If you’re making choices based on those criteria, you’re not looking at who the character really is and what makes them tick. I rarely think of trying to be different with every voice that a character has, but that the voice is driven by the character choices I make based on the information I have – do that, and the voice will take care of itself.
Kayla: That’s such an interesting perspective. Voice acting often involves portraying culturally diverse characters, as well as well as bringing life to inanimate objects that can have a rich, imagined cultural heritage of their own. How do you navigate the cultural nuances and ensure authenticity in your performances, especially for global audiences?
JB: I think it plays into the old adage that you are never ‘doing a voice’—you are always being a character. Culture, nationality, physicality, emotional history, dialect choices all play into this. And I think that can be true of a person or of a park bench. The most obvious denotation is your choice of dialect, but that in itself is heavily influenced by, culture, weather, history physicality and emotional life. Two people from the same place can speak and use language in different ways, based on their own personal history and cultural family differences. The layers of character development go deeper and deeper and they are all relevant to that work. One thing I will say is don’t risk submitting work in a dialect unless it is near-perfect, and you have someone who knows tell you you’ve nailed it.
Kayla: I love that so much. ‘Being a character’ rather than ‘doing a voice,’ is something that every voice actor should keep in mind. There is so much that goes into voice acting for animation and video games, both physically and mentally. Out of your many roles, which would you say was the most vocally challenging/taxing to perform? Which was the most emotionally challenging?
JB: Roles can be taxing for very different reasons. Recently, I recorded a narrator role for a game. It was 5500 lines and because I was leaving the country, I had to aim for about 250 cues per hour. That’s a tough ask even if you’ve been doing this as long as I have. There comes a point in the session where your brain and your mouth just decide to stop working. Time to reset, breathe and attack again. Vander, a character I played in Arcane, required a tricky balance between strength, power, authority and caring sensitivity. I personally find audiobooks to be very difficult—others find them relatively straightforward. Vocally I’m asked do a lot of physically challenging roles and surviving those comes down to good technique that was taught to me many years ago in my training at RADA 35 years ago still stands me in good stead to this day. You can never underestimate the value of a good training. I wish everyone could get a drama school training like I was lucky enough to have. It’s the single most important reason for the length of my career.
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Kayla: You’ve also directed voice actors in various projects. How does your approach differ when directing others compared to when you’re performing as a voice actor yourself?”
JB: As a director, my job is to help my clients (the game developer or animation house) to tell their story clearly and in the best way possible. I think many believe that a good actor automatically makes a good director, and I just don’t think that’s the case. The danger can be that an actor approaches the gig with ‘This is the way I would play it’ which is not serving the project the way it needs to be served. You are telling their story with the actors you or they have cast, working to those actors’ strengths and weaknesses, not yours. I’m also a big believer that this entire process is one of collaboration: the developers, the producers, the actor, the director and the engineer. It’s a group effort.
Kayla: The concept of ‘self-direction’ has gathered a lot of steam in the voiceover world, especially since we’re often left to our own devices, alone, at home in a booth. VO coaches now claim it as a special skill that they teach. So, what are your thoughts on self-direction?
JB: I’m skeptical that self-direction can be taught. I believe that it is something that is learned through experience. The first hurdle is always what I call the ‘voicemail syndrome’—when in the good ol’ days you would hear your own outgoing message on the telephone and balk with embarrassment that that’s how you sounded. That’s the first hurdle to jump. For me, you record your audition as an actor, and you edit and analyze your audition as a director – as if they are two separate people. If you separate the two roles in that way, I think it’s easier to retain an objective perspective on your work.
Kayla: That’s brilliant; I had never thought about separating one’s roles in that way. Having been on all sides as director, producer, actor, voice actor, casting, etc., what words of advice would you offer to voice actors to help them become better collaborators from their side of the microphone.
JB: Trust your director – they have more story information than you and they know how the lines surrounding yours have been delivered – for that reason, they may occasionally need to give you a line reading based on how the responding line was said. I wouldn’t do it if I were directing a play or a film of course but whether you like it or not, on occasion in games it is necessary – don’t be precious about it, do your job and contribute to the work healthily. Collaborate. Help us tell the story. BE ON TIME. Being late to a session can say a lot about your attitude to your work. Believe it or not I’ve had actors roll their eyes at me when I tell them that, but few things will piss off a studio more. Another one is this: you have auditioned, you have been hired based on the audition, your past work and your reputation. The actual session is not an opportunity to show us whether else you can do in terms of impressions or voices. In fact, it is distracting and frustrating and shows me that you’re not focusing on the task at hand. Sometimes we know more about what you’re capable of than you do.
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Kayla: What is/was the most rewarding piece of advice or training you’ve received?
JB: Punctuality. A collaborative instinct. Acting is breath. Acting is empathy. You have to be able to lose yourself to find someone else. Don’t be a dick. Casting is about whether you’re good and right for a role; for directors and producers it’s also about can I spend the next 3 months working with this person. Another one; casting directors are not judges. They have a problem; you’re offering a solution. There are a million reasons why that may not be the right solution, and that’s ok. Next!
Kayla: Are there any actors who have inspired you as an actor and director? If so, how so?
JB: Too many to count. My first film was with Anthony Hopkins. I’ve directed Gary Oldman, JK Simmons, Michael J Fox (dealing with the challenges that man has with the grace and enthusiasm he does—THAT’S inspiration…) Ron Perlman, Stephen Merchant, Adam West and many more. In my London theatre days, I worked with and got to see some of the greatest actors in the world. I am inspired by actors every day be they very good or not great. I love actors. I love the process. I love the problems we have to solve together. I love writers. I love turning the 2D on the page into the 3D on the screen. It’s a privilege to do it and I feel like I have been incredibly fortunate to be able to do what I get to do every day.
Kayla: That’s amazing. I can only imagine everything you learned working with such incredible artists. With advancements in technology and techniques, how have you seen voiceover production evolve over the years? What innovations have had the most significant impact on your work?
JB: The affordability of being able to acquire a reasonable mic, pre-amp and software interface has made working in the industry much more attainable. When I started, having a studio at home seemed excessive, exotic and something of a lofty aim reserved for those who were already working successfully! That’s all so much more accessible now – even more so since the mini-revolution of home recording caused by the pandemic. Having said that I still hear auditions that are clearly recorded on a phone in someone’s untreated kitchen or bathroom and there’s little or no excuse for that these days! At least do it in the car – it’s been a lot more acoustically treated than your kitchen!
Kayla: My last question for you is: Looking ahead, what trends do you foresee shaping the future of voice acting and voiceover industry globally? How can voice actors and directors not only adapt to changes but continue to innovate and enhance the creation, delivery, and consumption of voiceover?
JB: AI, AI, and AI. Did I mention AI? This is the most egregious existential threat to our industry that we have ever experienced. The first stage has to be to establish that one’s voice is one’s intellectual property and an incredible new advocacy group has been doing important work lobbying congress to secure legislation to achieve this. I know AI is not fully there yet, but it gets closer by the day. The deception is that this issue is just about Voice Actors’ income protection but I think it’s so much bigger than that – the group and collaboration that production involves could be headed towards extinction and that would be a horrific loss for us as human beings. VO production is a complicated and wildly variable process and a character can be taken in so many diverse directions over the course of one session that I’m not sure that AI will ever be able to achieve that level of instant adjustment and nuance that we go through and strive for every session – not to mention that it would take so much of the joy, fun, inspiration and communication out of production. And that would be a damn tragedy.
Kayla: JB, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to have this conversation with me!
JB: Thank you, Kayla! ♦♦♦
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Kayla Bowles is assistant to Rudy Gaskins and Joan Baker, founders of the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences (SOVAS), creators of That’s Voiceover! Career Expo, and the Voice Arts Awards. She currently studies the art of voice acting with Joan Baker, and has studied with Real Voice L.A., The Acting Studio, and Broadway Evolved. Though new to the voiceover business, Kayla has already booked a local TV commercial, a role in an indie animated series (in development), and has lent her voice to various passion projects. She is currently an undergrad at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY.
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