Jim Cummings Quotes

There were two things that became apparent, pretty quickly into the process. One was that the muscles didn't take as much reconditioning as I thought they would. It was more like voice acting than I thought it would be. You're using your whole body and there are things that are different, but when you are doing a character, even in the booth, nobody is watching but my face will do different things when I do different characters.

Voice acting is very different from live-action. You only have one tool to convey emotion. You can't sell a line with a look. It's all about your vocal instrument.

Voice acting is very different from live-action. You only have one tool to convey emotion. You can't sell a line with a look. It's all about your vocal instrument. Doing voice work is also great because you don't have to get your hair done, which I despise.

I guess voice acting is just fun, interesting to say...but it is.

It's a little strange, after all these years of working on camera, but once you start to watch the other people who do this a lot and realize how much of what you're doing has to just come through your voice, I found it really interesting.

Many people think voice over artists just read, there's much more to it. Without acting beats, scene study and improving skills, you won't make it.

I've never had my own accent in a film. It's something I schedule into my preparation. That's one of my favorite things, hearing all the voices.

If you're doing live-action, you have to learn how to actually do whatever it is that you're doing. If you're doing voice-over, you can fake it.

I play a lot of characters where I don't even speak in my own voice. I learned about focus and I learned to trust that things can work when they're not heightened and that it's interesting when things are pared down.

I had a very low voice for the character in the show. I said, "That's not actually my voice. That's the character's voice." I'm being such an actor.

Doing the voice for something [cartoon] requires an enormous amount of energy and you really have to use your whole body. It's cool.

With voice overs... you're not thinking about the camera. So your voice becomes this thing that you can manipulate. And depending on the character you're doing, it's all concentration on your voice.

You have to show the character is confused or scared or happy through your voice instead of with your face and body.

To me the voice has always been the way to start any character. Once I find that, I'm good to go.

I'm so into playing different characters, even when I was on Nickelodeon. I just observe.

I love playing characters with different accents. It's a lot of fun.

In voiceover, you have to restrain yourself when you're acting in the sound booth in front of the microphone. If you lean left or you lean right, you're going to lose the voice. Yet you yourself become animated when you're doing the part. So you'll see a lot of flailing arms, but a very still face.

I used to love watching Angela Lansbury and other people when they were doing voice-overs for Disney shows. You'd see them doing these wild gestures in front of the microphone. I used to think, 'Is that really necessary?' What you realize when you're doing it is that that's the only way.

Voices have always been my way into a character. I usually approach the voice first.

I'm happy to do voice-overs. I always have a good time doing them. I like to explore vocal nuance and accents and different people, different personalities. In a way, it is a lot more freeing than having your face up there.

A really good impressionist, even if they don't look at all like the person they're impersonating, it's a weird thing where they start to look like that person. It's kind of odd.

I found it more challenging to act in a small scene, especially if it has no dialogue and if it is a close-up with only expressions.

I love observing people. Each face tells so many stories. It lets me understand emotions, and that, in turn, helps me apply my skills as an actor.

I try to keep my voice natural for each character, but the spirit and the cadence and breathing for each character is totally different. It's those things that set each role apart from the others.

I think I'm really bad at voice acting.