Lennie James Quotes

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.

I don't aspire to just play things that are like me. Whether the accent is Taiwanese or British or Canadian - that is the very craft in which I was trained. It is my absolute privilege and honor to do that.

I played a Siamese girl from Thailand. I played an Arabian girl. I did a lot of American Indians. I never, ever was able to do a part without assuming some kind of accent.

An accent always helps me ground a character. It also helps to remind me what age I'm playing.

With voice-over, you have to pretend like you're three, except you can talk and read.

I love doing impressions and I love doing accents.

I had to change the shape of my own voice. It was quite hard to pull off and so once I had it, I stayed in Hitchcock's voice all day on set.

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

I like playing accents, and doing things like that, it was fun. It was fun.

I like to mumble when I act, 'cause I think it's more realistic. For some reason, the impediment has given me the accent of a Mexican gangster.

I've played American characters so many times now, it's so natural to me. But when I play American, I stay in the American accent from the minute I get the job till the minute I wrap.

The thing with being able to do accents is that it's still completely separate from being an actor.

I have always like doing accents; I find it much easier to get into character for me.

The more I know about America, the better I'll be at performing American characters and American stories.

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.

I can do so many accents that I'll never be able to use. There aren't casting calls for a black guy to play a Scottish highlander. I can hope. I've got my brogue ready. I just need the opportunity!

I think I'm really bad at voice acting.

As an actor, you can do what you want with your role. That's why they hire you; to take the role and make it real.

Voice acting is very interesting, I've done several animated projects, and you have to make the voice reflect the character and try and do as much with a word as you can with a look in a live-action film.

I actually love working with accents. I don't know, something about it unlocks something in me. It makes me concentrate on getting into character a little more, helps me find a focus.

Actors love mental disorders, dialects, and corsets. Give them one of the three and they're happy.

American actors who voice animated movies are so brilliant at it, because by the nature of American speak, it's full of energy and full of commitment. And as a British actor, we have to kind of learn that.

I always enjoy impersonating my characters in the first-person singular.

I'm always telling students when I do a master class on audiobooks: 'Watch Meryl Streep. Watch her disappear into a role; watch what she does.'

Every time I create a character, I don't assume they speak like I do, even if they're Australian.