Many people are not aware of how to get a good speaking voice. But if you do have one casting directors (especially in stage) take note of that. If you have a good voice that people want to listen to it will get you one step closer to getting that role. People don’t want to hear someone talk if their voice is too high, bad articulation, speaks too fast, speaks too slow or has a lisp. It is very important that you are training your voice just as much as you are training your acting chops.

The way to get a good voice is through daily exercise. It has to be done if you want that golden voice. You should be doing articulation exercises, placement and breath support. Later I will post a few exercises on each of these so you can get a better understanding of how to achieve these goals. But as for know, understand that having a good speaking voice is essential in this business. It is an easy way to cut someone out of the running for a role no matter how talented that actor could be. If the director can’t understand what you are saying you will not be able to achieve greatness, which is what people want in this acting business.

Further Reading on Voice and Acting:

1. The Actor Speaks: Voice and the Performer

2. The Actor and the Text (Applause Acting Series)

3. Voice and the Actor

4. The Complete Voice and Speech Workout: 74 Exercises for Classroom and Studio Use

5. Freeing the Natural Voice: Imagery and Art in the Practice of Voice and Language

I hope you enjoyed this post.

Question: What actors do you think use their voice effectively?

Matt Damon – The Informant!
Mark Whitacre has worked for lysine developing company ADM for many years and has even found his way into upper management. But nothing has prepared him for the job he is about to undertake – being a spy for the FBI. Unwillingly pressured into working as an informant against the illegal price-fixing activities of his company, Whitacre gradually adopts the idea that he’s a true secret agent. But as his incessant lies keep piling up, his world begins crashing down around him. -imdb.com

Daniel Day-Lewis – Nine Arrogant, self-centered movie director Guido Contini finds himself struggling to find meaning, purpose, and a script for his latest film endeavor. With only a week left before shooting begins, he desperately searches for answers and inspiration from his wife, his mistress, his muse, and his mother. As his chaotic profession steadily destroys his personal life, Guido must find a balance between creating art and succumbing to its obsessive demands. -imdb.com

Robert Downey Jr. – Sherlock Holmes
After finally catching serial killer and occult “sorcerer” Lord Blackwood, legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson can close yet another successful case. But when Blackwood mysteriously returns from the grave and resumes his killing spree, Holmes must take up the hunt once again. Contending with his partner’s new fiancée and the dimwitted head of Scotland Yard, the dauntless detective must unravel the clues that will lead him into a twisted web of murder, deceit, and black magic – and the deadly embrace of temptress Irene Adler. -imdb.com

Joseph Gordon-Levitt – (500) Days of Summer
He’s Tom, from New Jersey, working in L.A. writing greeting cards even through he’s an architect by training. She’s Summer, in from Michigan. Day one is her first day as an AA in Tom’s office. We jump back and forth in time: by day 67, they’ve become an item when she decides to put aside the lovemaking and just be friends. Tom, a romantic who’s sure Summer is the one for him, wallows in self pity. We go back to the early days and see the relationship begin. Summer tells him right away that she doesn’t believe in love. We mopes well past day 100. Then, as day 500 approaches, they find themselves at a wedding together. Does the old flame rekindle? Is Tom right that destiny controls love? -imdb.com

Michael Stuhlbarg – A Serious Man
A black comedy set in 1967 and centered on Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern professor who watches his life unravel when his wife prepares to leave him because his inept brother won’t move out of the house. -imdb.com

Sandra Bullock – The Proposal
For three years, Andrew Paxton has slaved as the assistant to Margaret Tate, hard-driving editor at a New York publisher. When Margaret, a Canadian, faces deportation for an expired visa, she hatches a scheme to marry Andrew – he agrees if she’ll promise a promotion. A skeptical INS agent vows to test the couple about each other the next Monday. Andrew had plans to fly home that weekend for his grandma’s 90th, so Margaret goes with him – to Sitka, Alaska – where mom, dad, and grams await. Family dynamics take over: tensions between dad and Andrew, an ex-girlfriend, Andrew’s dislike of Margaret, and her past color the next few days, with the INS ready to charge Andrew with fraud. – imdb.com

Marion Cotillard – Nine
Arrogant, self-centered movie director Guido Contini finds himself struggling to find meaning, purpose, and a script for his latest film endeavor. With only a week left before shooting begins, he desperately searches for answers and inspiration from his wife, his mistress, his muse, and his mother. As his chaotic profession steadily destroys his personal life, Guido must find a balance between creating art and succumbing to its obsessive demands. – imdb.com

Julia Roberts – Duplicity
Ray works for MI6, Claire for the CIA. She burns him in Dubai. Jump ahead five years: he sees her in Grand Central and confronts her. Both now work in industrial security for corporate giants whose CEOs hate each other. Flashbacks fill us in: is it coincidence that he sees her in Grand Central? In about a week, one of the firms is going to announce a revolutionary product. Under the guise of helping that corporation’s rival, can Ray and Claire work their own theft and find an independent buyer? To work together, using the corporate rivalry to their advantage, they would have to trust one another – difficult, if not impossible. Or, is one playing the other? – imdb.com

Meryl Streep – It’s Complicated
During his son’s college graduation, Jane hooks up with her ex-husband, Jake, who’s married to a younger woman. As if being your ex’s mistress isn’t tough enough, Jane also finds herself drawn to Adam, a smitten architect. – imdb.com

Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia
Julia Child and Julie Powell – both of whom wrote memoirs – find their lives intertwined. Though separated by time and space, both women are at loose ends… until they discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible. – imdb.com

Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician. – imdb.com

George Clooney – Up In The Air
Ryan Bingham is a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is threatened just as he is on the cusp of reaching ten million frequent flyer miles and just after he’s met the frequent-traveler woman of his dreams. – imdb.com

Colin Firth – A Single Man
A story that centers on an English professor who, after the sudden death of his partner tries to go about his typical day in Los Angeles. – imdb.com

Morgan Freeman – Invictus
The film tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s rugby team as they make their historic run to the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match. – imdb.com

Tobey Maguire – Brothers
A young man comforts his older brother’s wife and children after he goes missing in Afghanistan. – imdb.com

Emily Blunt – The Young Victoria
A dramatization of the turbulent first years of Queen Victoria’s rule, and her enduring romance with Prince Albert. – imdb.com

Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
“The Blind Side” depicts the story of Michael Oher, a homeless African-American youngster from a broken home, taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do white family who help him fulfill his potential. At the same time, Oher’s presence in the Touhys’ lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own. Living in his new environment, the teen faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome. As a football player and student, Oher works hard and, with the help of his coaches and adopted family, becomes an All-American offensive left tackle – imdb.com

Helen Mirren – The Last Station
The Countess Sofya (Mirren), wife and muse to Leo Tolstoy (Plummer), uses every trick of seduction on her husband’s loyal disciple (McAvoy), whom she believes was the person responsible for Tolstoy signing a new will that leaves his work and property to the Russian people. – imdb.com

Carey Mulligan – An Education
In the early 1960′s, sixteen year old Jenny Mellor lives with her parents in the London suburb of Twickenham. On her father’s wishes, everything that Jenny does is in the sole pursuit of being accepted into Oxford, as he wants her to have a better life than he. Jenny is bright, pretty, hard working but also naturally gifted. The only problems her father may perceive in her life is her issue with learning Latin, and her dating a boy named Graham, who is nice but socially awkward. Jenny’s life changes after she meets David Goldman, a man over twice her age. David goes out of his way to show Jenny and her family that his interest in her is not improper and that he wants solely to expose her to cultural activities which she enjoys. Jenny quickly gets accustomed to the life to which David and his constant companions, Danny and Helen, have shown her, and Jenny and David’s relationship does move into becoming a romantic one. However, Jenny slowly learns more about David, and by association Danny and Helen, and specifically how they make their money. Jenny has to decide if what she learns about them and leading such a life is worth forgoing her plans of higher eduction at Oxford.

Gabourey Sidibe – Precious
Claireece Precious Jones endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother, raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. So what better way to learn about her than through her own, halting dialect.

Avatar
Lightstorm Entertainment; Twentieth Century Fox

The story’s protagonist, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), is a former Marine who was wounded in combat on Earth and paralyzed from the waist down. He is selected to participate in the Avatar program, which will enable him to walk again. Jake travels to Pandora, a lush jungle-covered extraterrestrial moon filled with incredible life forms, some beautiful, many terrifying. Pandora is also home to the Navi, a sentient humanoid race that is physically stronger than humans, although considered primitive. Standing three meters tall, with tails and sparkling blue skin, the Navi live in harmony with their unspoiled world. As humans encroach deeper into Pandora’s forests in search of valuable minerals, the Navi unleash formidable warrior abilities to defend their threatened existence. Jake has unwittingly been recruited to become part of this experiment. Since humans are unable to breathe the air on Pandora, they have created genetically-bred human-Navi hybrids known as “Avatars” . The Avatars are living, breathing bodies that are controlled by a human “driver” through a technology that links the driver’s mind to the Avatar body. On Pandora, through his Avatar body, Jake can walk . He is sent deep into Pandora’s jungles as a scout for the soldiers who will follow, and encounters many of Pandora’s beauties and dangers. He also meets a young Navi female, Neytiri, whose beauty is matched only by her ferocity in battle. Over time, Jake integrates himself into Neytiri’s clan, and begins to fall in love with her. As a result, Jake finds himself caught between the military-industrial forces of Earth, and the Navi, forcing him to choose sides in an epic battle that will decide the fate of an entire world. [ jshelleh196 ] – imbd.com

The Hurt Locker
Voltage Pictures; Summit Entertainment

An intense portrayal of elite soldiers who have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: disarming bombs in the heat of combat. When a new sergeant, James, takes over a highly trained bomb disposal team amidst violent conflict, he surprises his two subordinates, Sanborn and Eldridge, by recklessly plunging them into a deadly game of urban combat. James behaves as if he’s indifferent to death. As the men struggle to control their wild new leader, the city explodes into chaos, and James’ true character reveals itself in a way that will change each man forever. Written by BWR Public Relations – imdb.com

Inglourious Basterds
The Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures/A Band Apart/Zehnte Babelsberg GmbH Production; The Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures

During World War II a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as “The Basterds” are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish woman who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers. – imdb.com

Precious
A Lee Daniels Entertainment / Smokewood Entertainment Group Production; Lionsgate

Claireece Precious Jones endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother, raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. So what better way to learn about her than through her own, halting dialect. – imdb.com

Up in the Air
Paramount Pictures; Paramount Pictures

Ryan Bingham is a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is threatened just as he is on the cusp of reaching ten million frequent flyer miles and just after he’s met the frequent-traveler woman of his dreams. – imdb.com