Samurai Jack’s Phil LaMarr Gives A Masterclass In Improvised Voice Acting

He riffs on archetypes — thus the owl acquires a stuffy English accent — and even on industry trends. A typical school whizz-kid starts out geeky, before LaMarr adjusts his voice: “He might be a little bit cooler, cos, you know, nerds are running all the studios now!” The video also reveals the extent to which physical gestures can enter the process of voice acting.

LaMarr made his name in sketch comedy before his career as a voice actor took off in the late 1990s. When he started out, “Voice acting wasn’t a thing.” Although he says he stumbled into this line of work, he nevertheless has advice for those who wish to emulate him:

With acting — or with anything — the key is: find a way to do it. If you have friends who are artists or animators, they’re going to need voices. Go in there, help them out. You’ve got to get in your mic time, you’ve got to get in your practice… Every role you’re given is a problem to be solved. There’s a character on a page — how do I make that real for an audience?