Erin Fitzgerald

On the occasion of Erin publishing her e-book about how to get started in voice acting, I took the opportunity to talk shop and glean some wisdom from my very talented friend.

I asked Erin:

(1) How did you decide to create an e-book?
“There was a license plate in front of me that said, “write.'”
“I thought it would be a pamphlet… with some links. That’s how it started.”
“This one afternoon I sat down to start putting this pamphlet together – it poured out of me.”
“It’s written the way I talk, so it’s very conversational.”
“Even if you don’t like my opinion, or my stories, or any of the advice I give, just the links alone with be worth their weight in gold.”

(2) When you work with others — producers, directors, engineers, other actors — what can they do that really helps you act? What things make it more difficult?
“I mention in the book how important a good engineer and director are…”
“The best engineer: you don’t even notice they’re doing their job.”
“When I’ve become a character, there’s a flow…”
“If I’m blessed enough to be with other people in the room, which always makes it more honest for me; my acting always goes up to a much more real place when other actors are in the room. It’s a huge blessing.”
“A really is engineer is so intuitive, that they’re three steps ahead of me, and I don’t even know where I’m going!”
“The director says, ‘Did you catch that? And the engineer’s like, “Of course.'”
“The directors, the engineers, the other actors – everybody adds. I can’t speak for other people, but my acting gets better when there’s a beautiful team of people who are working together and each one of them have the permission to use all of their intuition, to use all of their talents and their strengths. And then we never have to pay attention to the weaknesses. We don’t have to because everybody compliments each other.”

(3) Tell us about recording ensemble.
“My favorite is prelay when we’re all in the room together. There’s no question. Or if I’m doing a videogame and I’m not going to get to have other people in the room, a video game where I’m not being pushed to deliver a hundred lines per hour, a videogame where the director, and the writer, and the producer in the room and we’re playing, and we’re really discovering a performance.”
“So to get the performance that you would get with another person in the room we have to do something more creative in order to really create the pacing, the flow, and that rhythm. So, that’s a real gift when that happens.”
“Things come up that would never come up one-on-one.”

(4) Who inspires you?
“I live in Los Angeles surrounded by the best talent in the world.”
“I love artists.”
“I love reading comic books…”
“I have to use my imagination. My eyes are closed most of the time. My imagery all comes from the inside because very rarely is the product already finished that I can look at it.”
“I like to go to art shows and just soak that in. And I feel like that helps build my inner universe.”
“I was a big fan of Emily Carr when I was younger.”
“There’s a great artist: Brian Ball… his artwork is so stunning.”

(5) What’s your favorite thing about being an actor?

(6) When you’re asked to create a character, what kinds of things do you want to know?

(7) What’s your favorite trick, tip, or secret weapon?

(8) If you could travel through time to have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be? And which of your roles would most likely delight that historical figure?