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Monday, October 23, 2006

The Ins And Outs Of Voice Acting

"David is the voice of 'Halo's' Sgt. Johnson," Lopez says. "He even gets fan mail, just on account of his voice. 'Halo' is a pop cult now, like 'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars.' " (The sergeant died at the end of "Halo 1," but he was so popular that he was resurrected for "Halo 2.")

In the upcoming Peter Jackson feature film version of "Halo," however, Scully is not a casting contender. "Sgt. Johnson is really big, really muscular," Lopez notes, "a sort of Olympic sprinter type." Scully is short and wiry.
Actor/director Jeff Steitzer, for 20 years a conspicuous presence in Seattle theater, is featured in "Halo." He is billed as "The Voice of God."

Cortana, an artificial intelligence that is pretty much in charge of things in "Halo" 1 and 2, is played by Book-It Repertory Theatre regular Jen Taylor. Cortana, of course, is a necessary factor in "Halo 3," which is in the process of development. Taylor is in Australia working in a Seattle Children's Theatre co-production.
"It's not a problem being at the other end of the Earth," Taylor says. "All they need is the voice. I just find a recording studio in Sydney or Adelaide, and they patch you in."

A recurring role commands extra money. For "Halo 1" Taylor got about $500 for a four-hour session. For "Halo 2" she got twice that. "But the technicians had gotten so good at what they were doing," Taylor notes with some regret, "that they got twice the amount of work done in half the time. So my actual pay was about the same."
-- Video-game voiceovers are a lucrative sideline for local theater veterans


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