The Unseen Actress
An interview with voiceover ar st Deby Cedars
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W
ithout it knowing it, you may have already heard of Deby Cedars. Well, heard Deby Cedars’ voice at least. Voiceover work is the hidden art that seems to pass many listeners by. But as with many other ar-s-c fields, the less it is no-ced, the more successful the ar-st’s job. Deby Cedars from Derby, Connec-cut is a full--me voiceover ar-st but her ac-ng roots started in her younger years. “I guess it all started at home. I was one of the last to be born in my family. By the -me I came along, I think my mom was bored with having kids. I’d shout and make a noise to get her a.en-on at the side of the pool for instance, but she’d put her face back into her roman-c novel. “When I was in kindergarten, I
The Unseen Actress had a best friend and we did everything together. We had to audi-on for parts in a musical play although I didn’t know it was an audi-on as such at the -me. I was picked, but my best friend wasn’t which I felt pre.y bad about, but I realised that I had some sort of talent that I could work with. “So I decided to get into ac-ng. It wasn’t for the glamorous side of it - I wanted to enjoy the process of finding a character and performing that role to the best of my ability. I didn’t care if I had an audience of two or thousands - of which I have had both by the way! “I had been doing stand up comedy in bars in the Rainbow Club in California. I had also been dancing and singing in Browsnville and had people recognising me in grocery stores. I even got a stalker, which freaked me out a
li.le and I wasn’t en-rely comfortable with that way of living.” Deby’s ac-ng skills saw her through a decade of work, but by the -me she was reaching 30, she was becoming conscious of the fact that cas-ng agents were becoming more picky: “Being only 5’2, I was playing teenagers un-l my late 20s. But my height was becoming a problem. I had one guy call me up a er an audi-on and told me that I read the best, and that I was the most talented, but physically I wasn’t what they were looking for. ” Deby started ge/ng work for radio commercials but there came a turning point when a rou-ne examina-on found that I had lumps in my breasts. I had a lot of tests which involved a lot of wai-ng. I was very scared. During the long days and weeks of
wai-ng, I had -me to put my life into context and I decided that if I had the all-clear, that I would take more care of myself.” The all-important all-clear came a few long weeks later and Deby threw herself into her work. “I had first understood the concept of voiceover work when I was at film-classes in Houston. The teacher had up an advert for Grape-Nuts and then asked for a volunteer to do the voiceover. No-one put themselves forward. I hadn’t as the adverts for GrapeNuts at that -me was usually done by a middle aged guy but then I thought ‘What the hell?’. “I moved to Connec-cut where I knew I’d have access to a studio. A guy called David Goldberg helped me a lot but it was at his studio where I met Paul Liberwho really taught me the basics. He taught me so much about voice ac-ng – the different microphone technique, the breathing, and tongue placement. He taught me how to create a character that I could never create on stage by adding accents, rhythm and speech pa.erns. I realised that with these new skills that I could make a living and be compe--ve.”
Deby was soon hired for book trails, video games, celebrity impersona-ons, cartoons and documentaries. “My work and my repertoire has become very diverse. It’s hard for cas-ng directors to define me as a result. Being diverse can work against me so I have to market myself to each genre in different ways. “I'm very proud of the book trailers I've done but, the biggest role to date is the video game Phantasmat, where I play a dead girl. It has not been released yet.” But for any ar-st, ge/ng a contract can prove a tricky experience. “Most of the work I get is from marke-ng that I have done. It means that I have more control over the things I do. Most of the big studios are in New York too but I do have my own studios here. I work mostly out of my living room. As a consequence, I tend not to get out of the house much!” she laughs. “Voiceover work is different to other ac-ng roles in that you don’t really have other actors to bounce off. I therefore have to really think about the audience. The diversity is staggering - one minute I’ll be a geeky teenager, the next I’ll be a sultry woman talking ero-ca! “My career has certainly been interes-ng so far. I’ve worked on movies like Face Off (with John Travolta), Deep Impact (with Elijah Wood) and America’s Most Wanted. Bob Bergen, the voice of Porky Pig, has even complimented me on my voiceover work. He told me that I was very, very talented and even compared me to Tara Strong. That was nice.” Deby’s chameleon-like ability to transform her voice into many different characters is the result
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of many years of dedica-on and hard work. Deby’s latest role is Sebas-an, the li.le boy slug character who will be teaching children how to dial 911. It’s a role that Deby is very excited about. “When I finally get -me to myself, I think I’d like to get my poetry published someday and write an anima-on script. Un-l then, I’m quite happy being the unseen actor and the voice that makes the difference to the project I am working on.”