The Art of Voice Acting: the art and business of performing for voice over by James Alburger

When you feel yourself beginning to react, acknowledge the feeling and remind yourself to step back a bit from your emotional response.
    ACCENT REDUCTION OR MINIMIZATION
    Many people feel their natural accent or dialect is a problem when doing voiceover. This can certainly be true if you are unable to adapt your style of vocal delivery. In some cases, an accent or dialect can be used to your advantage to create a distinctive style for your performance, when you create a character, or when you are working in only a certain region. However, if you want to be well-received on a broad geographic level, you will need to develop the skill to modify your delivery style to one that is expected, and accepted, by the general population. In the United States, most people have come to expect a certain “sound” for a voiceover performance, commonly referred to as “nonaccented American English.” But even though there may be a generally accepted “standard,” different regions of a country may respond better when hearing a message in their regional accent. If you want to do voiceover, and have a foreign, or thick regional accent, you have two choices: 1) develop your acting skills to a high degree and create a niche for the sound of your voice, or 2) learn how to adapt your voice to create characters with an accent different from yours, and that includes the “expected” generic accent. This may require some time spent taking some training for accent modification or accent reduction.
    Many famous actors have learned how to either use their accent to enhance their performance image, or have learned how to adapt their voice to create uniquely believable characters: Sean Connery, Mel Gibson, Patrick Stewart, Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, and Tracy Ullman to mention only a few. Mel Gibson has a thick native Australian accent, yet he can play a very believable American. Tracy Ullman has a native British accent, yet she creates dozens of characters from around the world. And Meryl Streep has developed a reputation for creating incredibly authentic and believable foreign accents, even though she is American.
    When we first learn to speak, we imitate and mimic those around us as we develop our speaking skills. By the time we are two or three years old, the mannerisms and vocal styling that we adopt become the habit pattern for our speaking. Over the years, we become very comfortable with our speaking patterns to the point where it can be difficult to modify them.
    Accent reduction, modification, or minimization is, in essence, a process of learning new habit patterns for speaking. For most adults, it is impossible to eliminate completely their native accent. However, reducing the accent or modifying the way words are formed is certainly possible. There are many good books and audio programs designed to help people speak with a more “natural” American, regional, or foreign accent. An Internet search for “accent reduction” will result in a wealth of resources.
    The process of retraining your speaking habits can be lengthy, and may involve working with a dialect coach or speech pathologist. Contact your local University’s speech department for recommendations of a licensed speech pathologist, or look into an English as a Second Language (ESL)program in your area. The time and energy required can be more than most people are willing to invest. But a basic level of accent reduction or modification can be achieved if you simply listen to someone with the desired accent, study the sound of their speech, mimic the sound of their words, and practice the speaking pattern until it feels comfortable. This is essentially how actors do it.
    In the United States, most voiceover talent perform with the standard nonaccented American English. Regional inflections, dialects, and other tonalities are, for the most part, absent unless required for a character in the script, or unless the production is intended for a regional audience. Although this