Besides being an awesome voiceover talent (150+ "As Seen On TV" products & narrations, 35+ Leapfrog toys, and numerous video games including Sims 3 and The Godfather), Debórah also happens to be a Certified Sound Therapist, making her a perfect fit for our VO Health: Mind and Body department. Well, we are delighted to announce that Debórah has agreed to be a regular contributor at IVC where she will use her work as a sound therapist to help demystify the connection of mind and body, both behind the mic and in your daily life. So make sure you stop on by the VO Health department to gain more wisdom from Debórah Eliezer and others.

Part 1: Approaching Character Work
If you think doing an accent is the key to doing character voices, you're mistaken. It can be part of the process, but it's only the beginning. Debórah Eliezer explains how to build characters from the inside out, and back again. Debórah plays every female character in the most recent SIMS computer game, and shares the secrets of her success.

Part 2: Embracing Your Femininity
What's it like for women in the voice/over biz? Are there more parts or fewer? Are there stock characters to play? Debórah 's experience conjuring up characters provides a window into the world of opportunities available for women. She also defines the approach necessary to creating fully realized character voices.

Part 3: Providing Variety, & Benefits of Being Female
Ever wondered how to portray death vocally? Now, do it 10 different ways! Debórah demonstrates her chops, and has more advice on getting into character, even when you're doing narration.

Part 4: How She Does It
Voice/over work can be tough even when you have a script to work from. When Debórah Eliezer does the SIMS she isn't given words to work with, only emotions and information, such as the occupation of the character she must portray. Find out how she breathes life into the female SIMS characters, so players of this popular computer game can do the same.

Part 5: Advice from an Actor Turned Producer, on Goals, Rejection and More

Debórah says that you'll please your producer if you provide him or her with confident choices. She also shares advice for dealing with rejection, and achieving your future goals.

Transcripts

IVC embraces the use of audio and video as teaching tools -- and you should too. Examples come to life when heard, and become 3-D when seen and heard. We provide a transcript to help you with note taking or searching our site…but recommend that you push "play!"

Part 1: Approaching Character Work

Mary: Embracing your femininity in voice over acting.

Our guest today is Deborah Eliezer, and I'm Mary Windishar. Deborah has voiced everything from museum tours to video games. In the SIMS, she plays every single female role. Her work has been featured in the LA Times, on CNN, in the New York Times, and others. Deborah has been an acting, VO and integrated voice and movement coach for fifteen years. Here's a small sample of Deborah's range.

Deborah: "Hey Seymore. You've been tapped for the paper's special technology section." "I gotta get out of here, but how?" "Do you want answers flashed on my screen…" *battle cry* "One part Julie Andrews, two parts Tracy Ulman and a pinch of Minnie Driver." "Come with me! I'll lead you to the rainbow forest!" "I was expecting your call. I've got a hot new deal I'm determined to deliver on." (singing) "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, I can't stand it. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, let's just end it!" "Before I die, (cough, cough) I just want to tell you…" "Sometimes, when I'm walking in the park, um…" "I bow down before Nikki." "So! He said okay, and I said okay, and we said okay, OKAY??" "You never could resist beauty." "What is this word? I can't read it." "Millicent Walker does the hog-foot pie." "I'll take it."

Mary: Welcome Deborah!

Deborah: Thank you Mary!

Mary: I'm looking at your CD and it says. "Gamma Girl, your voice over superhero." Tell me about her.

Deborah: Okay, well I thought it would be fun to brand my voice-over persona, and one of the reasons is that "Deborah Eliezer" is a mouthful, and it's hard to spell, and it's like…you know? So I wanted something that was catchy, and also that's very…says something about me. So, my energy, and what I bring, and I like the idea that I come in, I swoop into a job, and I take care of it. I make it easy for people, and if I can do that, then people like it. The client really likes it.

Mary: And do what I love to have happen to me, which is, to invite you back.

Deborah: Exactly, and then they want to work with you again.

Mary: Is there a voice for Gamma Girl?

Deborah: You know, I think eventually there will be, but…I've certainly dressed up as Gamma Girl at parties.

Mary: In your purple-ness huh?

Deborah: Yea!

Mary: Yea, cool.

Deborah: I mean, work it any way you can, and that's kind of the way I thought it would be fun for me.

Mary: Speaking of fun, is that part of how you work?

Deborah: Well, I do a lot of video games, and I do a lot of characters and animation, so this sort of, bigger than life energy, is definitely a part of what I bring to the studio.

Mary: Should everybody? Or is that, once again, just you?

Deborah: Um, it depends on the projects your voice is best suited for and your skill set at the time -- where you are in your career. You know I came to voice over from theater acting, and I have an acting degree, so it's like, I was already doing dialects, and accents and playing characters that were not my age. I'm a physical actor, I do a lot of different physical disciplines, so, to me, I mean my first demo was actually all characters. With maybe one or two small tracks on my first cassette.

Mary: Ha ha, yep, been there.

Deborah: So, I was playing to my strengths. And so, here in the Bay Area, we do a lot of video games! And it's just, you know, it's a natural bridge there.

Mary: I know a lot of people who say, "Oh! I can do a French accent. I can do a British accent, I can do an Italian accent -- I can do characters!" Weigh in on that.

Deborah: Well that tells me, if someone tells me that, I have a lot of follow up questions. Like, okay, um, where did you learn them? And can you do them if I asked you to do them right now? Because if you are going to be doing three accents in one audition, you'll have to switch from them oop-ba-boop, really fast.

And then, are you an actor? You know, are you able to bring a full embodied character to that accent? Is this commercial work that you're looking for? Are you playing a spy in a video game? I mean, what are you doing with that?

Mary: Let's drill down a little further on that, because it is so much more than being able to say "ze" instead of "the" if you're doing a French accent.

Deborah: Absolutely.

Mary: What you mean when you say, "Are you an actor?" What do you have to bring to that French accent?"

Deborah: It takes a lot of your knowledge of the IPA, your musicality, all of that, for just the accent work.

Mary: What does IPA mean?

Deborah: International Phonetic Alphabet.

Mary: Oh, okay.

Deborah: So, I mean, there is that. You can get all technical and drill down, if you really are scientific about language.

Mary: I mean drilling down, on the acting part.

Deborah: This is what every performance is: whether you're bringing a whole character to your script. And you have one line! Or five lines! Or five pages. You still have to make these big choices, you have to know "what is my physicality behind them like? How am I holding myself? How does my mouth hold myself?" You know I work a lot on physical cues in order to get where I need to go to make a psychological choice.

Mary: So if you're an old lady, your back hurts and you're bent over.

Deborah: Absolutely! And my face is kind of squinting and maybe I talk out of the side of my mouth! You know?

Mary: So there's the physicality.

Deborah: Absolutely. I might even have the engineer adjust the microphone if I'm like, if my body is literally not meeting the mic stand you know? I mean, I insist on that you know? Because it has to be, I have to be able to inhabit physically the character.

Mary: So that's first and foremost. The physicality. What else?

Deborah: Yeah, and thenI talk about working from the outside in and the inside out, so the psychological. You know, "who am I talking to" and like, "where am I, what am I, what are my stakes?"

Mary: Yeah.

Deborah: And in video games, the stakes are very high, usually. Although the trend right now, for example I did "The Godfather" and it was very like, "No, we're going for this really tossed-off thing that's really casual." So it really depends. But in all of that, you have a very high energy output. So, it's like animation, it's larger than life.

Mary: Oh!

Deborah: Video game characters are larger than life, you have to make very specific choices.

Mary: That's interesting, I never even thought about that! What size is this thing you're playing? Well if you're playing a mouse, even though you're playing a mouse and it's small, it's big, because it's on a big huge screen!

Deborah: Big screen! Like it needs to contrast with the other characters and, "Well if I'm playing a mouse, maybe I'm playing for a children's audience," I need to know that. I need to know the genre. If I'm doing a character for a LeapFrog toy, that's very different than a character for "Godfather" where I'm very scantily clad. You know, the characters I play. Or some of these others, like 12-65 year old target age for men, versus like, 0-36 months for little babies! You really have to understand who your audience is, in order to give a character treatment that's going to be good for the product.

Part 2: Embracing Your Femininity

Mary: You mentioned playing a scantily clad woman. Let's talk about playing women! In fact, in this business, is that something you have found yourself, lucky to be a woman? Or having to fight for your life because you're a woman?

Deborah: As a professional like a voice over actor? Or in the characters?

Mary: No, as a person in the business.

Deborah: Um, I don't know if I would characterize it as fight for my life, but, I mean, there's just generally more male characters being written, being created.

Mary: Yep.

Deborah: And then, I'll speak, since we're talking about video games, there is still, you know, pretty much, like a whore/Madonna kind of thing. Where you're either like this scantily-clad, like "boy if I looked in real life like some of the characters I play, wow." You know you've got thigh high boots, and you've got snakes coming out of your head and you've got torpedo tits, and you've got all these things happening! That's one aspect of it, and the other aspect of it is, you know, sweet. I just came across an audition I did where I was like, this pure princess. Princess of the castle. And that's not even for little kids! You know, you're the princess of the village.

Mary: It's almost like a melodrama where you have stock characters. I mean they are developed because you develop them, but they are what your audience expects.

Deborah: Yeah, yeah. I would also say then that the third category would be, the sort of kick-ass "Warrior girl." And I did have a really great experience with that in "Sands of Destruction" where I got to play the lead, and I had this like double-handled ax sword. The ax was more like a sword, but it was double-handled, anyway, I saw a picture of it, it's like curving. Anyway, you gotta think about that. And when I'm talking about it, I'm like holding it right now, cause, I didn't have this thing, I was shown a picture.

Mary: But you are embracing it!

Deborah: But I have to wield it! Physically while I'm…

Mary: Yeah, I see her doing it. I'm afraid everybody, I just want you to know, she could hit me at any time!

Deborah: But she was this like, sort of, bad-ass girl, who was able to, like, get everything done. And she got it done. She was like, the one who led…I had a couple of characters like that. And that's kind of where it gets really fun because you can play with, when she's being really sweet, when she's using that, but when she's like really terrorizing her victim.

Mary: They write these heroines that way! Like you said, kick-ass, but they also put in this tender side.

Deborah: Yea, I mean she looked hot you know?

Mary: Yea, I know. As she's leaning over nursing his wounds.

Deborah: Yea or whatever.

Mary: Okay, right now I'm "Salaaming" I am not worthy. I can't find the boundaries of somebody like that. Where you have "man" on one end of the spectrum but on the other end, you're their mother. You know? Educate us.

Deborah: Uh-huh. Well, I would say, for example, with "Sand of Destruction" I mean she maybe had one or two mothering traits, that's true. You kind of need to pull out all the stops and really, in a character like that where you actually are the breadth of the game, and you do have some actual scenes, you know? You actually have the opportunity to develop your character and have a character arc. So there were moments of like, awkwardness when the guy that she's...you know? And cute kind of romantic flirtation and then running the gamut to these like, warrior girl, you know, enjoying….

Mary: But it's not just your voice.

Deborah: No it's not.

Mary: It's not, "okay she's got the right voice," because, I've tried! And, if I can find the tough thing, I can't find the warmth anymore! And I have to thing "you stupid moron" after every line I say that makes me sound tough. How do you do it? Do you know? Sometimes you're just that talented, I mean I'm willing to admit that.

Deborah: Well, I owe it to my theater training.

Mary: Okay.

Deborah: I would say, the opportunities to express complex characters happen on stage because we are allowed to go on a character arc, a performance arc. So, that's where you can have your laboratory, your character laboratory. And I think that's also where improvisation can be really good? Like classes.

Mary: Well and the other thing you just said is that the magic is in the arc itself, in the distance that's traveled. You don't just go from A to Z in one leap, you move to there. So you grow, the character grows, in the same way it would if it were literally traveling through that time and space.

Deborah: Yeah. I mean, I have to do that work, it's not given to me. And I would say that the whole thing, for training, and going to class, and getting together with your friends and getting on the mic and whatever you're doing to support a discipline, is all about when you walk in there and they say, "I need you to do it this way." And she's this open and now she's going to be sensitive, open, now she turns around and she axes the other guy's ear off. And that you can do that! You have to be able to have those, the dexterity, the emotional dexterity to go there. So, that's practice and skill.

Mary: In this post-feminist world, have you ever found yourself at a disadvantage because you're a woman?

Deborah: I still think that comedy is king with men. And I think that that's on camera and behind the mic and I would say, I mean, we're still embracing very old, standard body types in women, we still have very standard, like I mentioned the Madonna/Whore and the sort of older, evil witch.

Mary: Yeah.

Deborah: Although sometimes that's different, cause I'll find the young, beautiful witch. But you know, I'll walk into the booth and it's like, how do I do honor to this like, wise woman? You know? And make her really powerful in this power, this like, medicine woman, whatever I want to conjure, that I think is honorable about that position and that status. And yet, I also know that they want her to get angry, and that she's also the antagonist in this game. So how do I find that line?

Part 3: Providing Variety, & Benefits of Being Female

Mary: I can also tell you're the student of a great story.

Deborah: Okay, yeah.

Mary: I really can. And not only should you come into a job with fully developed characters who have a whole back story, you need to figure out what that character would do several different ways, like: die. How do you conjure up one way to die, much less five?

Deborah: Well you know, I mean, I don't know, I did a little bit of like, dying and killing when I was a kid, but most of the time it was like playing house. I didn't do martial arts, I was doing dance. I had a very feminine upbringing. You know as an adult, I've kind of had to figure it out, cause that's what will happen in a video game, you're playing this kick-ass warrior character or whatever it is, you have lots of engagement in fighting, and then at some point in the session they say, "Okay now we're going to do all the dying wild lines."

Mary: Okay, and wild lines are?

Deborah: Wild lines are lots and lots of choices that you're going to give them.

Mary: Oh, you make them up?

Deborah: Yea absolutely! I'll explain the directions they would give. They would say, "Okay there's three levels of pain, I want you to take a hit on "One" which is light, you take the hit to the stomach. So give me a whole bunch of wild lines on that." And then you just go. And then level two is more painful and level three is you die.

Mary: Wow!

Deborah: Or they'll say, "Okay, we're only going to do level three, but I want you to die every way possible." So I'm going to die being choked, I'm going to die by falling off a cliff, I'm going to die by being bludgeoned to death, I'm going to die by falling on the ground and hitting my head, any way I can think of.

Mary: Wow!

Deborah: So that's a half an hour of death. All these different levels, with all these different hits being taken with my body, and then I will also give those hits. So it's both, it's not only the * groan * but it's also the * grunt. * You know there's an energy difference absolutely. And I'm acting out all those things.

Mary: Have they ever said, "No, not good at all," have they ever told you, you didn't know how to do this? I mean how many of us know how to die? How many of us know how to get hit by a sword and then a hammer, you know what I mean?

Deborah: Right, you know, I practice.

Mary: Do you? Do you practice dying before you go to the session?

Deborah: Absolutely. I mean dying, I don't practice before I go to a session, but I practice in the form of improvisation and on stage, maybe in my own studio. Yeah, because you know, choking is very different from getting your throat cut…you gotta pay attention to these things people!

Mary: You should see my face, I am stunned! I never thought about the difference between choking and getting your throat cut! Sorry. Do it! Let's hear you die by choking!

Deborah: * choke * And maybe with a line while you're choking.

Mary: Wow.

Deborah: * choke * I curse you! Right? Whatever. But also, I would say…

Mary: And you guys should see her neck right now, her neck is all red because she literally put her hands around her neck and choked herself.

Deborah: I'm still here, I'm still here.

Mary: Yea, that's what you mean by physicality though.

Deborah: Absolutely. But also you have to know about vocal health. Like screaming open mouthed, screaming, that's fine. As long as you're supporting it with breath, you can scream. I mean, it's a duration thing, I mean you might not be able to for three hours, but a few times is fine. But when you're doing what I was just doing, which is constricting the larynx and the vocal chords, that's actually very taxing on the voice.

Mary: Yeah.

Deborah: So I would do that at the end of a session, and if they asked me to do it in the middle, I would say, "let's save it for the end."

Mary: So you took control, that's good.

Deborah: Yeah, and if they're a good director, they know that already.

Mary: Has it every helped you to be a woman when it comes to working? Or getting work, let's say it that way.

Deborah: I would say being funny and being able to play with the boys is a really good asset when it comes to camaraderie and stuff. When I'm doing the SIMS it's usually me, my male acting partner and one, two, three, four people in the studio and many people going in and out, who usually are all male. So, it like, becomes this kind of, boy room.

Mary: Yeah, right.

Deborah: And, you gotta keep up, you know? And sometimes that'll affect the takes! And it'll affect the way we're…cause the way the SIMS is recorded is very different from other things, but, um there's a back and forth that happens all day long, and our sessions are six hours long.

Mary: You're kidding!

Deborah: With breaks and stuff, and lunch. But it's uh…

Mary: That's a long time though!

Deborah: It's uh, yeah, I mean most sessions are an hour. This is a very unusual circumstance. But um, yea.

Mary: But you're talking about being a woman who's able to make it in a man's world. Has there ever been, for instance, I do a lot of webcasting and I know the only reason they want to hire me is because having a female voice in this world of male voices, is a plus. Is there ever a time where you found that just being a woman was an advantage?

Deborah: Uh-huh. I would say especially for leapfrog toys. I'd say I've done over thirty projects for them and they definitely want that kindergarten teacher, young mom, and I've taught kids that age. I mean that's absolutely, because I was a woman, I got to do that narration for kids. And that's because they want someone who's kind of like a mother figure.

Mary: Yeah, that's good, that's good.

Deborah: I mean, most kindergarten teachers are women, so that was very helpful.

Mary: Have you ever had to downplay your female traits?

Deborah: That's a really…

Mary: I'll let you think about that, and I'll tell you where I have had to.

Deborah: Okay, good.

Mary: In narration! I think it's a female trait to want to be in touch.

Deborah: In process.

Mary: Yeah, and in connection, whereas in a lot of narration, it's very impersonal. Let the words to the work and highlight the credibility instead of the connection. So, you go down at the end of your sentences and you find a way to sound like you created the product instead of being a user of the product.

Deborah: Yes, yes! When I do narration, I think of different clothes that I'm wearing. So when I did a Chevron narration, and it was for lawyers within Chevron, it was all this legal-ese, I didn't even understand what I was saying, and we ended up doing it like four times because the client kept, there was like a hierarchy of like four levels of client.

Mary: Duh! Lawyers!

Deborah: Right, and nobody could agree on what the wording was. Fine! I got four jobs out of it! But anyway, when I would go into the studio, and I told this to the engineer too, I said, "hold on I gotta put the suit on," I had my hair, I would even imagine my hair completely back, kind of like Wonder Woman before she became Wonder Woman.

Mary: Glasses!

Deborah: Here's gamma girl's version of it. And a suit, like a really good suit, grey. That's what I would wear for Chevron.

Mary: Interesting!

Deborah: "Wear" and then for this other stuff I do, like security and safety, I'm wearing like a police officer uniform.

Mary: Wow!

Deborah: It's in my head.

Mary: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! Maybe you could design your own line! Deborah's imaginary voice over line!

Deborah: Here's Gamma Girl's line. What she wears, see her mix and match! It's totally cool!

Mary: And by the way that was not Mary doing the "Valley Girl" just to give full disclosure. (laughs…)

Part 4: How She Does It

Mary: What about when you embrace totally, your female traits, like you just did? I'm thinking the SIMS. Because you did that without lines? Did you think to yourself, what does a woman do? How many different women did you play?

Deborah: Uh, well, okay so in the URPC, the U-R-P-C, URPC, you they had these urban environments, and each different environment, there were nine of them and in each one of them was a different character. So these are gibberish characters and they have like professions and different things, and they'll be like "Techies, Celebrities, Punks."

Mary: And gibberish literally means what?

Deborah: Gibberish is basically made-up language. Right? We probably did it as kids, so, "aldkfjakjhgkjafhjfm vnmcoiwe," right? So, maybe my Techie, and there were ones that were more like detectives. So we kind of had these slight variations on what that would sound like you know? Like, Techies were kind of, you know, Asian influenced, cause, you know, there's a lot of technology coming from there, so, "churslkdkjhflakdf aldkfqeoihgp wur sandlkja ldkjf nah alkdjflkdjah." You know, so there's that.

Mary: And you probably didn't get a writer's credit, did you?

Deborah: Exactly, ah Mary! I should go for that. No, all I want is residuals, that ain't happening. That's all I want, that's my mantra, "residuals, residuals…"

Mary: So, they'll say, "Give me a techie woman, who's asking a question." And then you give them that as gibberish.

Deborah: Yeah, and then, with my partner, we came up with certain words that were key words that would lock us in to each one of those suburban environments so we could easily go into them.

Mary: A trigger.

Deborah: Yeah, absolutely. A trigger word, a trigger phrase and then we would be there, and you know, the engineers could help us out with previous takes, like we like this match take, match this file to what you're doing now. But that was, I would say, super challenging, and great character work.

Mary: Oh yeah.

Deborah: But mostly now, the SIMS work is, has a very um, California ease to it. Most of the stuff that we're doing these days. And then it's just stuff like, "okay you're telling a joke," you see the animation of someone telling the joke and you have to say this joke. But you have to do it eight to sixteen times.

Mary: Differently!

Deborah: Yeah, so, 1. Aldkfhdajhkjdah dalkfjldkahlfjha. 2. Uytuepirpoinfngkj akdhfuaiywgelk. Alkdfjaljhdf? Adlkfjaldkj? Euyriwuepoiue? So yeah you get the plot?

Mary: I get it!

Deborah: Did you guys get it? I don't know…

Mary: I think they did.

Deborah: I have to do that, like whatever, like eight, sixteen takes, until they're satisfied.

Mary: Yeah.

Deborah: They need about six takes of everything we do.

Mary: And how do you work, I mean clearly you're a woman, you have a female voice, but do you do anything extra to make yourself, to make them sure this is a woman?

Deborah: Actually, that is where technology is not serving us very well. They're using microphones that are so picky and sensitive that the tones of a woman's voice are often, like they're constantly adjusting me on the mic. And my partner now, he has this fabulous, you know, lower register that he can just give, and that's so well suited, cause the sound travels beautifully, resonates really beautifully. A woman's voice is narrower, and doesn't travel as long.

Mary: On mic? Yeah.

Deborah: So, it's just music theory or whatever. So um, our needs are very different. And so like, something emphatic? Like, "mnckjhdae!" Like, that? They don't want that at all, because it like pops out. So, what I have to do is actually modulate down more. And actually use more in lower register and stuff.

Mary: Oh yeah.

Deborah: I have to work against the female register. Being emphatic naturally is all about, like, you know, we go to a higher register. Oh my God! Like, but that's not what like, can actually work.

Mary: You're hampered by! I mean aren't they making enough money so they can buy a microphone that's going to work for you? So, you're not then, hyper focusing on the female aspects of yourself, even for the SIMS where you're playing characters that have to be identified as female, strictly by, well obviously by the video as well, but by the voice! It's not the words she's choosing to say or anything, and yet the technology's preventing you from focusing on your female side, in fact you've got to press it down a little bit huh?

Deborah: Yeah, and frankly, I see what they look like, and what they animate, it's undeniable that my voice associated with the character that they're going to create in the SIMS is going to look and sound female. Yeah the animation itself is going to do that work.

Part 5: Advice from an Actor Turned Producer, on Goals, Rejection and More

Deborah: I did casting for a web project, a series, a web series. It had an education focus and it was target age 8-12 year olds, and then a video game. Being on the other side of it helped me appreciate so much, the actors that could come in, and in the booth, can just make a choice or change it. Everybody invariably has gone to an audition where they're just like, "We don't really know what we want."

Mary: Right.

Deborah: And then they'll either tell you that, and you'll think, "these people don't know what they want." I mean everybody's experienced that. And you've got to be able to deliver two or three really strong choices, so that I can make my job easier. Make the casting director's job easier. And the people that can do that, are the people that got cast.

Mary: How 'bout that. So you're not even casting their read, you're casting their ability to decide, their ability to create for you.

Deborah: Yeah, their versatility. Because, I mean, the project, it gets cast, it's still breathing, it's still living, it's still being changed, the dialogue is being changed in the room, when we're recording it! So the more that I can work with somebody who's versatile, doesn't get tripped up on changing circumstances, and can make those choices quickly and contribute to that process, the more I want to work with them.

Mary: And what's the biggest mistake you've seen people make?

Deborah: Mmm. I think holding onto ideas, when they walk into the room.

Mary: Meaning they've practiced one thing and they can't stop doing it.

Deborah: Sure, they can't get out of it. Or, that they don't ask for another take. Or, you know, "I've got another one in my pocket and I really want to share it with you." And, you know if you did that, and you had that, I really want to hear it.

Mary: See, I love that idea. And you just gave us the words to say it with, which is also pretty cool. "I have another idea in my pocket!" Use that guys, it's what your membership got you." Alright, how about kids? You work a lot with kids, and how does that inform your choices as a voice over artist?

Deborah: Oh, well, I would say I teach kids because kids teach me. I mean as an actor, another word for actor is player, well HELLO! kids are professional players! They teach me about the value of spontaneity and the value of letting things go, and improvisation, and inhabiting character in a second. So, I mean you may have kids, or you may be around kids, but to teach kids, I get to sort of analyze the process of what that is and how I can set up the circumstances to play.

Mary: You know, we can put our own brick walls up that stop us from being the best we are. How do you talk yourself out of a hole like that?

Deborah: So, are you talking about…

Mary: Fear! I'm talking about fear and nervousness and the thing that causes you to shut down. I mean, what do you do?

Deborah: I think that has to do with balance in your life. You know, you have to eat well, you have to sleep well, you have to have a good personal relationship with your partner. Okay, if you set up a situation where your only way to get confidence as a voice over actor is by getting a job, you're setting yourself up for a fall. So what you need to do is you need to set up other circumstances where you can gain confidence and support. That doesn't have to do with getting yourself a job.

Mary: So, what do you do in your life? 'Cause you're a star and we want to know your secret to life.

Deborah: I have a theater company. And in that world I massage all these artistic ideas of mine, and I feel a lot of support, and it's like an artistic home, family for me. So, if that's not your deal, find a creative group of folk, find another one person who can support you. And have fun days. Go get into the studio. Take a class. Please people, if you commit to being an actor, you must continue to constantly learn. If you don't, you will stagnate. If you stagnate, somebody else is going to get your job. A job that maybe you thought you were right for. They're fresher than you because they're in class.

Mary: Because they're warmed up. They're greased, they're ready to go.

Deborah: It's greased and ready to go and it's also willing to stretch yourself, to learn, and that's sort of keeping yourself at this, the emotions that are right under the skin is what keeps us really active and alive, as actors.

Mary: The thing you said that I really loved is you create your own success. You make your own dreams come true. I think that's really what you've done with your theater company.

Deborah: You said it better than I said it, Mary.

Mary: But it's true! Because that's what I see you doing! "All right, if that's what put them in their play, I'll put me in my play." And I do it through knitting! I just love to create a project, that way I have something I can look at that I did. And okay, maybe I don't get to hear that thing on the radio that I wanted to do, but I get to see and feel and also give away the thing that I did.

Deborah: I like that. I like that a lot, because if we are artists and we are looking at a life being an artist, a professional artist, your artistic expression, hopefully, will come out in many different ways.

Mary: Yeah, yeah. It's all about art. Tell me about the voice over job that has been the most challenging for you, and what you learned from it.

Deborah: Ooh. Well auditioning for the SIMS was interesting because I had to audition four times to even be considered for the first game. And so I had to pull out every skill that I have. And you know how I got the SIMS job? It was because I had to puppeteer.

Mary: Wow!

Deborah: And, while I was doing puppetry, I was doing gibberish, with puppetry, and beatboxing. That's what I was doing with my puppetry. And they said, "here's this thing," and I was like, "Oh, well this is like this," and I just transferred it and started doing it behind the mic.

Mary: Talk about the interlacing of art! I mean that really is that. And what are you proudest of?

Deborah: I'm proud of all the educational stuff that I've done.

Mary: Oh I would be too. You're on "Reader Rabbit!"

Deborah: And it's very linguistically too, cause I'm such a kind of a little voice geek. Greengorilla.com the work that we're doing there that's about sustainability in the world, that's all really great. That,makes me feel super good.

Mary: Alright, so the other thing I really believe is that if there's something you want, you have to put it out there.

Deborah: And I'm telling you, one year, maybe four, five, six years ago, I put into the fire at new years, I wrote on a piece of paper, "I want a recurring voice over job."

Mary: Yeah.

Deborah: And I burned it. And that year was the year I got "LeapFrog" you know. You really have to set your intentions, like anything. I want to do some national commercials; I want to grow my website…

Mary: What's your website?

Deborah: Oh well, swivelarts.com but I want to take Gamma Girl out and pull her out and make her, her own thing. But right now you can look at everything on swivelarts.com: my coaching, my summer camp, all my whatever.

Mary: Alright, well coming to a national commercial near you, Deborah Eliezer. Thank you so much for coming today.

Deborah: Mary, thank you it was lovely!

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