You're listening to Voice Acting Mastery, episode number 207.

Welcome to the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with Crispin Freeman.

Voiceactingmastery.com is your place to learn both the skills and the mindset you need to become a professional voice actor, even if you're just getting started.

In each episode of this podcast, you'll discover valuable tips, tricks and insider information

to help you portray characters in animation, video games, and beyond.

And now here's your host, voice actor Crispin Freeman.

Hi there, my name is Crispin Freeman, and I'll be your guide through the world of voice acting.

If you'd like to know more about me, feel free to check out my personal website at www.com.

While the majority of my podcast episodes in recent years have been interviews,

I wanted to take this episode to talk about a problematic misunderstanding that I see too often lately amongst people who are thinking about getting into voice acting.

It's a misunderstanding that I'm finding more and more common in my students as well, so I thought it would be a good idea to address it head on.

I get the impression, both from reading online comments on social media sites, and from

my interactions with my students in my classes, that too many people out there think that

voice acting is the easiest form of acting, that it requires less of you than other forms

of acting like film or theater acting, and that

acting as an activity should be comfortable and easy to do. This mindset often boils down to a

belief that goes something like this. How hard could it be to talk into a microphone, get attention,

and get paid? There's many reasons for this flawed belief.

Some of these reasons have been around for a while, and some have been exacerbated by social media

and the increased mental and emotional health challenges reported by more recent generations.

Never in my teaching career have I had so many students citing anxiety as their number one stumbling block when it comes to acting.

And never have I seen such a mismatch of expectations versus reality

...