Frank James Bailey 

Are you a voice over whore? What I mean is, would you do a voice over for a client, even if that client works for or is with another political party or has other political views then you, just to make some extra cash?

With the November elections coming up right around the corner, it will just be a matter of time before a mayor or congressman comes to YOU and wants YOU to voice their radio or TV spot? Do you take a stand and ONLY voice commercials for the party you back and vote for? Or do you do the requested voice over because, well…it’s money in your pocket! Thinking to yourself, “I’ll voice his or her commercials for the money, but I won’t vote for them!”

Or, are you one of those people with a very recognizable voice, (when people hear YOUR voice they KNOW it’s you!) For example, a voice like Randy Thomas who does the announcing for Entertainment Tonight. Or Ben Patrick Johnson who does a lot of the voice promos for major TV networks, movie trailers and the announcing on the Dr. Oz Show. And even the late great Don LaFontaine! These are voices MOST people know who they are and WHO does them right away. If you have one of these type of popular voices and you hold “family values” near and dear to your heart, would you do a voice over for an abortion clinic? If you did, people might think your switching parties or you now support something you didn’t before?

The same goes the other way around too. What if you’re very liberal and someone hears your voice supporting a republican candidate.

I’m sure a LOT of us professional voice talents have turned down jobs before. Maybe it was because it didn’t pay enough. Maybe it was because the job was for a Chinese translation and YOU don’t know Chinese! Or maybe you’ve turned down a job because the job wasn’t what you specialize in.

No matter what the reason you turned down a job before, the big question remains here is…would you do a voice job for the political party you DON’T support, just because you need the cash?

For me…it depends. I do need the money, but I have to draw a line when a party wants to show a dead bloody fetus and has the balls to say, “why do pro-choice people support this?!!” I may be pro-choice, but there are more constructive ways to show that you don’t support abortion. If those people want to be very graphic they have every right to. I just don’t want to be a part of it.

On the other hand, I have voiced a few political spots for a candidate of a political party I didn’t support. Of course, I don’t have an extremely popular voice…yet. LOL Besides, that person wasn’t running in my home state of Ohio anyway.

And even if that person was from Ohio, it wouldn’t matter to me. Because the way I see this is…I’m a Professional Voice Actor!

My JOB is to make YOU believe that I use this diet pill.

Or, that I eat that kind of bread.

Or…that I vote for this candidate!

Even if I don’t, I’m an actor. It’s my JOB to make it sound great!

Besides, the people who REALLY now me, know where I stand on issues. I don’t have to explain that the commercial I just did was just me “acting”, they know what I do. They know…it’s all part of the job!

Frank