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May 24, 2018 8:55 pm  #1


Remember those Morgan Freeman voiceovers?

Well that's all they'll be in the future, a memory, now that his voice work, and film work is impacted by the latest series of sexual harrassment allegations reported about the actor.

VISA has just announced that they're pulling their ads featuring the velvet voice of Mr. Freeman, and the story continues (as Newstalk 1010 would say).. Somewhere there are a few voice actors with similar pipes who are going to be getting more gigs in the future, and there's a whole lot people who won't see The Shawshank Redemption in quite the same way.

I won't go into detail, because if you love Shawshank, and for many people it's comfort food in a movie, the best chance to keep the suspension of disbelief, and continue to love the movie, is to skip reading or hearing about his behaviour.

His voice work is, was? unmistakable....

 

May 24, 2018 8:58 pm  #2


Re: Remember those Morgan Freeman voiceovers?

There is the guy that voices the "Dear Kitten" series of commercials for Purina, and that gentleman sounds VERY VERY much like Morgan Freeman.  I'm still saddened and disappointed by this news.

 


Cheers,
Jody Thornton
 
 

May 24, 2018 9:32 pm  #3


Re: Remember those Morgan Freeman voiceovers?

If I had a dollar for every audition I did where it was specified they wanted someone who "Sounded like Morgan Freeman" I wouldn't need to bother doing voice work!    If you want Morgan friggin Freeman just hire Morgan friggin Freeman.  Of course, the voice they wound up using sounded nothing like him.

As for dear kitten:



 

Last edited by Peter the K (May 24, 2018 9:33 pm)

 

May 24, 2018 10:08 pm  #4


Re: Remember those Morgan Freeman voiceovers?

A long, long time ago, in a radio galaxy far, far away, the station I was at had a dispute with the guy who voiced the intro of one of their regular and much listened to on air features. After they announced one day that his services would no longer be necessary, he demanded an outrageous amount of money to let us continue using his voice, or he threatened to sue. (I’m not sure exactly how he was able to make this threat, since they paid him for his work, but that was never disclosed to me.)
 
Instead, as the guy in charge of these things, I was asked to simply cut him out altogether and have someone else do the intro. And incredibly, they got me one of the best voices in radio at the time, Don Parrish, the old CHFI veteran. But my boss insisted that because everyone knew the old intro, we had to make it sound like it was almost the same.
 
Needless to say, my boss left me to break this bit of news to Mr. Parrish. “YOU WANT ME TO SOUND LIKE WHO?” he thundered at me in that amazing baritone after I told him about the read we needed. “Hey, I’m Don Parrish!”
 
Now I know that seems egotistical of him, but he wasn’t really like that. He just couldn’t figure out why someone would hire such a well-known voice only to have him mimic somebody else. In the end, though, pro that he was, he did it and – after listening to the original a few times – he was near perfect. I’m not sure if anyone ever knew that first guy had been replaced. But I’ve never forgotten that session or how the people I worked for hung me out to dry!

 

May 25, 2018 12:01 am  #5


Re: Remember those Morgan Freeman voiceovers?

Vancouver transit has announced that they will no longer be using the Morgan Freeman voice work that they've been playing. Wow, he really was everywhere. I believe he also voiced personalized voice mail greetings for fans, to raise funds for charity.

The sound of his deep, smooth as honey voice will be around forever with the work he's done, and I agree with Jody, it's sad when someone whose work you enjoy and admire is.. not the fine fellow you thought they were.

Bit of trivia, if you've ever watched Suits, and thought the guy who plays Harvey sounds familiar, it's because Gabriel Macht was a successful voice actor before his television series.

I'm enjoying all the stories about voicing spots. Lots of us on the big yellow board either do/did them as part of our radio show gig, as well as being a professional voice for hire. I've done both, and I think of all of the different things I've done in my life, bringing a few sentences to life is the most fun I've ever had with my pants on.

Last edited by betaylored (May 25, 2018 12:08 am)

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