Will Harrison-Wallace: The one with the Private Detective! | How Do You Say That?! 78

coming up you don't want to do it like that oh my God that's just extraordinary you're more prepared than I am the clue was in the second word yeah it's never Sam is it it's never Sam I don't think there was any need for that level of sarcasm job done having made the decision I probably should have been a little more pure we'll be the judge how do you critique that I mean you know that was great you're not trying to reach the back of the room strangely it was quite extraordinary oh you know I'm a little bit out of my depth here and we all know it's lift your herbs to the nose and smell them thank God you didn't do that and now enjoy the podcast how do you say that how do you say that how do you say that how do you say that hello and welcome to today's episode of how do you say that sponsored by British over. co.uk this over here is my podcast co-host Sam boffin hello hello and this is Mark rise the other podcast host there the other podcast host well this is going well so far absolutely how did you say that I don't think we did indeed we will meet our special guest in a moment this week we are chatting to him as we set out to prove there's more than just one way to read some scripts yes if you are used to talking to a mic unlike M Me Oh Me week unlike me this week if you are used to talking into a mic maybe you're also a voiceover a podcaster or a director or maybe you just like microphones then this is the podcast for you now today's fun fact about Sam is that one of her favorite contempor authors is Kate Atkinson I don't know Kate Atkinson really no I don't ah Kate Atkinson's amazing she does a sort of well she does a lot of one-off uh novels but she does a great series with a with a detective called Jackson Brody and I'm wait she's got the sixth one is coming out this oh it sounds like it's just up my street I'll go and check her out it's amazing oh Kate ainson is brilliant yeah so she's got Death At The Sign of The Rook coming out in September this year I'm so excited for it and Mark's fun fact is that when he was about four yep he said that his best friend was called idiot so what what was his actual name his best my best friend was actually called Elliot but I hadn't realized that so I called him idiot my mom and my sister found it hilarious obviously poor poor poor Elliots out there now are just kind of indeed poor Elliot absolutely well let me introduce you to that voice we have a special guest who this week is actor of voice over will Harrison Wallace hello will greetings greetings friends it is lovely to have you here are you uh with us from Vox Hall today that is where I reside yes yes I'm on the 11th floor of a of a block overlooking the temps actually lovely well no surprise then will is a Londoner his route into acting and Voice work was slightly unorthodox because he actually spent a number of years in the financial markets the financial crash of 2008 presented an open door for him and he walked right through it he did a oneye ma at drama school and then began a very different chapter in his life now acting work has mostly been on the stage UK tours regional theater London Fringe and in the last few years at the National Theater and in the West End I've seen him a number of times and he's amazing well one of his very first vo jobs was providing the voice of a bingo caller for a Facebook bingo game and he enjoys character work obviously Audio Drama video games dubbing ADR Museum exhibition characters that kind of thing this year's game titles include Warhammer 3 Total War and age of water he also voices three characters in Thomas and friends the latest disseration of Thomas the Tank Engine very different from the Ringo Star days though will these days you remember that just he voiced everything didn't he sort of narrated it have you got a fun fact for us will I do I do well I don't know is it fun I mean Loosely fun be the judge my first acting job and it was professional uh was at glin born festival Opera I was uh cast as a street urchin I was aged 12 oh in LA and so I can claim to be a professional opera singer my uh professional opera singing career didn't last very long but nice so yeah I I went to school near um there we lived in suss and they auditioned kids nearby and uh I think there were 12 of us who were gosh that must have been gorgeous to do blind yeah it was extraordinary yeah wow I know you don't real at 12 you don't realize actually no you don't what a thing it is you know true amazing wow well on that operatic child star note let's have a look at the first script of our show and ask how do you say that how do you say that okay so this is something that I did last week in fact okay uh it I see the word mindfulness so I'm automatically transported into a specific kind of area is that correct or not correct well it's the mindfulness area yes it's um obviously it's um I don't think there was any need for that level of sarcasm it's actually clue was in the second word yeah mindful p no it's oh just shut up actually it's it's it's audio book ah okay that that tells me more okay you do some audio books but shorter kind of book this part of a series and these are everyday books and this happens to be the is this Sam is it narrator is it a character who's talking it's never Sam is it it's never Sam but um yeah it's it's a sort of you know supportive encouraging okay warm narrator I suppose right okay I was seeing this as a I don't know an that you you would kind of plug into and I'm going to look at intro to mindfulness or something and it really would be good as an app because it's it's it sort of takes you through um how to weave mindfulness into everyday tasks right and this happens to be the cooking one so yeah okay and it would be really you're absolutely right it would be a fantastic app I might mention that to yeah exactly more money for Sam all right well I'll have a go first okay um I'm going to put myself I'm thinking slightly slower and slightly more gentle than I would normally attack something with I was going to say than you would normally I would normally do that is so I'm not going to go embracing mindfulness in the kitchen gentle gentle I see how gentle I can go with it then and get away with it all right embracing mindfulness in the kitchen allows you to turn an everyday task into a moment of peace and presence the best part your incorporating mindfulness into something you already do making it an effortless addition to your routine job done start by setting the stage for mindfulness take a moment to breathe deeply and clear your mind gather all your ingredients and tools arranging them neatly notice the colors textures and shapes of the ingredients lift the herbs to your nose and smell them as you wash your hands feel the temperature of the water and the sensation of cleanliness nice that was a lot softer than I was expecting beautifully caling and I'm closing my eyes yes did I go down far enough then you went down further further than I did what what did you think uh will when you say down what do you mean down in in tone and sness probably yeah uh I liked it I mean I thought it seemed to fit I mean to be honest I'll come and do mine and that's I think similar to kind of what's going on in my head I mean that your style is uh but I agree halfway through I then suddenly remember that Sam said book not app it's like and I kind of think that I was aiming more app style perhaps you'll see on the page anybody that's looking at it it's in sort of two different paragraphs and I do think there's a difference between the two paragraphs agreed I think one of them is is introducing the idea of it and can be quite Breezy and the next one is almost stepping you through it yeah a step-by-step instruction isn't it yes so will right you want to have a go yeah embracing mindfulness in the kitchen allows you to turn an everyday task into a moment of peace and presence the best part you're incorporating mindfulness into something you already do making it an effortless addition to your routine job done start by setting the stage for mindfulness take a moment to breathe deeply and clear your mind gather all your ingredients and Tools around arranging them neatly notice the colors textures and shapes of the ingredients lift the herbs to your nose and smell them as you wash your hands feel the temperature of the water and The Sensation of cleanliness oh he's good good yeah I loved I loved the um I love that uh smell them I love that yeah that did that extra improv well when you I got slightly put off by it because you said was a book and that in my head it's it's this app you know you're literally the person's in the kitchen listen you know with the voice in their her ears or his ears being instructed you know what to do yes cuz it looks like an instructional doesn't it yeah absolutely and of course people will use it like that I mean this is an audio book it's a sort of I mean I listen to when I'm cooking I listen to audio books all the time so it may well be that that is one of the ways that people might use it it's a very short little book so it is the sort of thing that you might dip into um when you're when you're doing you know different things and is it is it mindfulness kind of 101 is this is this basic basic yeah it is it's an introduction to it's a yeah absolutely it's an introduction to the idea of mindfulness you had a slightly harder Edge I I think in the way that you spoke in in in the voice you were using that's fair I mean maybe I do soft to a certain certain level beyond that it wasn't wrong it works absolutely brilliantly okay it's just that I went softer than that and I think I went the other other way in almost too soft in in in s's mind well let's see what you did then Sam yes let's embracing mindfulness in the kitchen allows you to turn an everyday task into a moment of peace and presence the best part you're incorporating mindfulness into something you already do making it an effortless addition to your routine job done start by setting the stage for mindfulness take a moment to breathe deeply and clear your mind gather all your ingredients and tools arranging them neatly notice the colors textures and shapes of the ingredients lift the herbs to your nose and smell them as you wash your hands feel the temperature of the water and The Sensation of cleanliness nice yeah more instructional again than I thought you were going to do it after your um after your description of it but that really good literally you're following each action through and because it's not going too fast you can do them in the kitchen as you are I think so speaking Yeah do you know what jumps out of me is when you get the the repeated work you you get ingredients repeated and that it didn't it threw me a little bit in in my head cuz I I always wanted to try and say if I'm going to repeat a word I want to say it slightly differently yeah yeah and I I was trying to look out for yours and I don't know whether you did it or not I can't quite remember you it kind of harks back to the fact I've already said ingredients yes yeah exactly you're doing that nod back you're absolutely right CU it it there's another one right up at the beginning I mean that well that the the opener of that second paragraph you're right start we've talked about mindfulness and now we're setting the stage for mindfulness I know you've got to is finding those cuz I find repeat words happen a lot they do You' got to somehow make them feel a bit more grace when you read it the second time you go ah that just for some reason although it's the same it it doesn't feel like just something is sticking in my thing and I I was conscious of it and I don't know whether I did it but and I was therefore I was trying to listen to yours and I weirdly how fascinating um how do you critique that I mean you know that was that was she's always perfect isn't she will I was very there's me going right come on think of something I wouldn't have done it like that but well I don't know that I I could critique myself very easily in that but um in so far as I'm not sure for instance I wonder if I could have made more of the uh you you know the verbs in the second half of the second paragraph So basically the the point what we're trying to say no notice lift smell I wonder if I could have lent into those a little bit more but I I don't think you needed to I think we we got what as an audience we got what you were saying really very clearly anyway and then if you if you try to I remember getting this as a note on stage you know if you try and sort of you sort of act the verb you know it's too much you know the word is doing it and it's you don't you know the only other thing is the is the there's two exclamation marks or sorry two two pun the best part question mark and and job done job done and I don't know and I tried to put a sort of smile in that I don't know if that was right you know it's kind of job done is a sort of to say is it I agree but Sam always says ignore the punctuation anyway so okay okay bit of levity it is worthwhile remembering that these are real scripts we're working on but we have changed names and some of the details to avoid copyright issues so will you've got a very different script so it's very different isn't it absolutely this is different so this script I've picked actually worked on a few months ago uh it's an e-learning thing it was given to me by a financial company who would doing training for AML um anti- money laundering right I don't know I've done three or four AML things uh before and they are as dull as you like it's like reading out I don't maybe you've done reading out a rule book you know section one States this section it's like some of the cyber security stuff that that that I've brought before it can be very very dry yeah yeah and there just and and that was the way they wanted it done and you do it you go all right fine you know there's no room for humor it's just boom what I loved about this this was written there were about 10 characters in this piece um and it was done as an audio drama so it was uh the whole piece I I didn't unfortunately see everything I only saw my characters and then the bit that I was interacting the characters that I was interacting with um so it's it's the setup is a company that is going through some kind of turmoil and the investigator has to kind of figure out by interviewing people what's what's happened and actually yes it is caught up in a whole lot of money etc etc so my guy here that I was given is uh he's he's the narrator but he's um he's that he's that detective you know the voice in the head you know that guy who operates along uh so that gives you a kind of you know an idea I suppose is there any particular accent here do you know what for the purpose of this I would say go with what what what you want um I wanted to do this American and we started doing it American because I was think you know Philip Marlo that kind of this is what I was thinking absolutely we got to um he goes to go and see a PC in it you know um it it just became so British that you know you kind of thought well he could be an American here but it it started to kind of we went you know film yeah film Noir style but not necessarily the accent H film Noir style yeah yeah Sam do you want to go first with this one yes yeah I'm I'm I'm happy to and you're the same character both on the ph and thetion that's very much um dialogue to on a on a ending the phone conversation and then we go into that that archetypal you know uh I don't know who you introspection yeah yeah exactly exactly okay okay all right then of course I'll be there right away May 21st I receive a call from Goodwin known to his friends as Dave he's CEO of a finance company called evasion and they're in a whole world of trouble caught up in the middle of a money laundering crisis from hell and I already have a bad feeling about this case I better not keep him waiting sounds like he needs help fast or my name's not private inspector Deca I take off into the night and make my way to evasion HQ I was a touch confused halfway through there Sam cuz you brought in a tiny bit of American towards the end there I was hearing it because I wanted to do it American I wanted to do May 21st I receive a call from good you had already made a decision not to I know yeah got them there were two or three little little vowels that came out oh where are we going because I I wanted to do it American you want to do it American and I when I was with the I was with the you know I was getting directed on this um not by the end client uh they were just listening in you know you know you know how it is but the producer so you know so it was a production company and then the end client was kind of listening it and so I was talking to and we wanted to do it American and I although I'd read through the script I'd kind of forgotten that he goes to go and see a you know he goes to a police station he sees PES it was so British I thought oh we can't you know it's just it feels so it feel that they're in a whole world we want to do that kind of and it's kind of written that way bad feeling about this case I I just wanted to do it American no I don't blame you I don't I can hardly critique you for that but yeah I mean but yes having made the decision I probably should have been a little more pure anyway yes I'm going to have a try but I I've got an idea and it might completely backfire come on let's see let's see be bold B make a choice of course uh of course I'll I'll be there right away May 21st I receive a call from Goodwin known to his friend is Dave he's CEO of a finance company called evation and they're in a whole world of trouble caught up in the middle of a moneya laundering crisis from hell and I already have a bad feeling about this case i' better not keep him waiting sounds like he needs help fast or my name's not private inspector deer I take off into the night and make my way to evasion HQ oh okay he was a different guy wasn't he absolutely was he was Watson wasn't he he was much more like w yes yes that's right and I and I don't think he's that comfortable with this either you know no I don't mean you I don't mean you I mean your guy is agre agre this is oh you know I'm a little bit out of my depth here but yes how the hell did I become private inspector Deca yeah yeah yeah absolutely yeah no no no I I I'm glad that I'm glad that came out I took him to archetypal RP Brit probably slightly posher than RP deliberately after after our discussion there and I didn't think it would work but I think it did yeah I why not why does you know he could be Northern he could have any kind of regional ACC they did actually say they didn't want a regional accent that's fine but um yeah you know why why why shouldn't he making the choice of that rather clipped British accent gave it a you know anything up to about 1950s feel to exactly um so it would then depend on what is it interesting isn't it that we we don't hear that accent as much no um you know in a in a contemporary setting but anyway but yes will can you tell us and show us what you did with it yeah sure um this is I think pretty much what I something you along the lines of what I came up with okay of course I'll be there right away May 21st I received a call from Goodwin known to his friends as Dave he's CEO of a finance company called Evas and they're in a whole world of trouble caught up in the middle of a moneya laundering crisis from hell and I already have a bad feeling about this case I better not keep him waiting sounds like he needs help fast or my name's not private inspector Decker I take off into the night and make my way to evation HQ oh that was a real character unlike mine that was an AB real person and and and suspect certainly in my mind a fully rounded real character even at that point yes I mean obviously had I had I had the luxury of seeing the whole script of course and you know you make a I I just saw him as oh uh corant strike that that sort of guy you know um so downbeat you know just cynical it's it's you know every man yeah yeah yeah see in a script an every man character he's definitely that isn't he yes and what I loved about that is that yeah you you you you kept that absolute believability I think I skated through it with a sort of not really taking much notice of what I was saying almost I I did in I said the words but you know I I didn't imbue it with the kind of um reality that you did what is this it's a it's a diary he's kind of you know it's it's a very very unnatural I mean he's not actually talking to anyone you know he's talking to himself he's talking to the list I decided he's just talking to one listener you know but yes but not really you know it's not it's very is it not a sort of you know stream of Consciousness is it not sort yeah it is it so you could H this is it's in his head and he's talking to himself but he's and obviously it's you know they've got to fudge it a bit because they've got to get out facts and they've got to get out you know and that's the it's still e-learning at the end of the day it's e-learning yeah yeah it's an it's a really engaging way of doing it though oh I wish more people would do that play how do you say that and of course here is the Wild Card picked in the show so it is time to approach these scripts in a very different way so will can you pick one of the scripts and give one of us a new motivation or character please right um yeah okay I'd like Mark to tackle script one again right and you are uh think Shakespearean tragedian you you know think think King Leah in the storm it's that lovely kind of um bigness um uh you know ranting against everything it not maybe doesn't care who can hear him it's just ra loud and okay okay no that's a great one will well done well done I like it all right okay okay embracing mindfulness in the kitchen allows you to turn an everyday task into a moment of peace and presence the best part you are incorporating mindfulness into something you already do making it an effortless addition to your routine job done start by setting the stage for mindfulness take a moment to breathe deeply and clear your mind gather all your ingredients and tools arranging them neatly notice the colors textures shapes of the ingredients lift the herbs to your nose and smell them knew he was going to do that as you wash your hands out damn spot feel the temperature of the water and The Sensation of the cleanliness oh darling you are marvelous marous oh now thank you will because I loved that I bet you did I wanted it in iambic pentameter but oh okay yeah that's more difficult wow uh no really enjoyable good good good I thought I was trying to think of something that probably wouldn't really fit that well but strange you never know you never know quite extraordinary it was very it was very Peter Dixon I have to say it had that that do you know what I noticed that in the first paragraph and I tried to come away from that a bit in the second you and you managed to yes you did you did the moment of peace and presence was Ram through R but I think that's an interesting thing if you spot yourself doing something within a character that you know you can do and you have done and you base other characters on it I think you can then move slightly more away from it yeah yeah yeah and you never know I mean you find this on stage so you muck around with deliveries and stuff okay as a whole that's going to be ridiculous but there might be a phrase in there yeah exactly actually yeah that might maybe I do lean a bit more into that you know and we all know it's lift your herbs to the nose and smell abely but no and you're right it can give you even if you don't then do it in that style overall it can unlock something within the text you know it could be a phrase I love it will I would like you to descript one as well actually okay but I would like you to be a tight RPP Walker and you're a tight RPP Walker you are walking over a beautiful Canyon it's gorgeous and because you're quite experienced you can look around yourself and really notice it now you can work out you can be on a good day or a bad day but anyway you're a tight rope Walker and I'm I'm a skilled I know what I'm doing so I'm not nervous no I don't think you're nervous but who knows what might happen Okay as you plun down the canyon yes embracing mindfulness in the kitchen allows you to turn an everyday task into a moment of peace and presence the best part you're incorporating my fulness into something you already do making it an effortless addition to your routine job done start by setting the stage for mindfulness take a moment to breathe deeply and clear your mind gather all your ingredients and tools arranging them neatly notice the colors textures and shapes of the ingredients lift the herbs to your nose and smell them as you wash your hands feel the temperature of the water and The Sensation of clearl oh no he got so far and then fell I loved that because you could really really hear that that I'm giving yourself uh you know having an action to do really concentr honestly I'm out on tiptoes and my hands are out yeah I bet I bet you could really feel that you know that that that was so careful at the beginning and then ask lovely well that just leaves Sam to go now and I am going to go to will script because we've done two of the other ones so and I and I wonder if you if you thought that that might happen Sam no I didn't was just thinking that okay I'm going to be nice to you here because I would like to hear this in your full American yeah oh god really yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah okay okay but in the narration part yes you realize that there's someone in the room and they're not supposed to know any of it so whether it's whispery or talking in code or whatever it happens to be you've still got get all those thoughts out okay but they they can hear it and they're not supposed to okay I'll give that a go in whatever way you think okay so okay of course I'll be there right away May 21st I receive a call from Goodwin known to his friends as Dave he's CEO of a finance company called evasion and they are in a whole whole world of trouble caught up in the middle caught caught up in the middle of a money laundering crisis from hell I already have a bad feeling about this case I better not keep him waiting sounds like he needs my help fast or uh my name's not private inspector Decker h i take off into the night and make my way to evasion HQ love it brilliantly done and and we could tell the moment that you realized there was someone there how you had to change that completely and to bring back or my name's not private inace dat I thought it was really clever yeah yeah so you it sounded like you were on the phone in fact you kept kept that phone conversation going if you like um and then uhoh yeah and it's like hand over the receiver and all to yeah yeah I think I turned away in the boo yeah and where whereabouts in America were you from Sam oh just generally around just just around just around the bit well if you would like to play along in the privacy of your own booth we've put the scripts in the show notes so you can have a try yourself indeed indeed you can yes please do now will please please play around with these things well our question this week is you do a lot of stage acting how tricky is it to move between the stage work you do and the voice acting you do CU they're very different um approaches I would imagine yeah yeah yeah I think the I mean acting's acting you know and I remember when I was at drama school it was like we were as students you were really Keen to kind of well what's the difference between screen and and the tutor would kind of say well acting's acting and that is true of course you want to you want to be true but the social difference for me it's just remembering to bring it back back when I'm when I'm you know I I am in the amount of times I've been told is H just you know you're you're very strident to this kind of stuff all and it's like oh yeah that's it's that defense barister I've just been playing or or whatever um so when I when it's when I'm in sort of I guess full flow or whatever and I'm you know I'm in a long run of a of a show I do voice work during the day and it it's it's a lovely marriage in fact um so there are you know I've just got to remember where I am and remember the space and everything but I have definitely been told uh to kind of you know respect the space and where where you are and who you're talking to you know it's that's an obvious thing isn't it it's is that more difficult if you are in an outside Studio when we step into our own space Booth you know we kind of adapt to it almost immediately because it's a familiar place we know how far away the mic is all that sort of thing but I find sometimes if I'm out in a different Studio things change and it's more performanc yeah I almost yeah I find that too and you're absolutely right Sam I think you are more performan when you're out and about I know the exact proximity from the mic for whichever character that I'm doing and I think that that does make a big difference yeah I think you know video games uh lend themselves you know marry marry with Stage work I think quite well but even that I've you know depending on depending on the character you can I've still had Direction with kind that's you know you just know I've had feedback that's kind of yeah just bring that down and certainly in Audio Drama certainly in Audio Drama where I've just had to kind of go oh check myself you know I'm not you know there aren't 500 people out there type you're not trying to reach the back of the room absolutely and dubbing I find dubbing really tricky to move between the two things cuz you've got to actually be aware of what's happening on the screen and modulat your voice yeah that's well I I do this I do this um Thomas thing which which is which is great fun that is dubbing because it's it's the the uh the franchise now is owned by an American company so it's so is it done first in America it's done first in americ you know so it's all the little trains it's very very different from our day and very very different from you know the stop motion all the little trains all the little trains are kids so they're done they are voiced by I don't know 10 12 13 year olds and then they're about four or five adults in the C Cast you know but you've got to take the American put that back into British English and just kind of yeah look at the screen and dub along you know interesting it's fun oh incidentally little fun fact about about Thomas is one of the episodes I did what couple of weeks ago and two of the characters are talking and it's Gordon and cranky the crane and in in the American episode Gordon is a sort of what do you call it mid attic sort of accent quite a posh anglicized American and cranky is Brooklyn and they're talking about tomato you know and cranky is going oh you know you say tomato and I say tomato you d i voice both of these characters in in the British one so my Gordon is a sort of uh School masterly sort of you know rpsh kind of he's a kindly elderly older guy MH and my my cranky is East End Giza but my cranky now has got to say you you say tomorrow and I say tomato I mean it's like the joke is kind of I love that so what did you do well I just had to kind of say tomato and it just sounded ridic I had to kind of really emphasize the posher RP of tomato I love that and then but the and I said this this doesn't yeah tomato that's what I did tomato and it the joke isn't really there cuz they're both rather than may you anyway well now we're all going to go and watch it will thank you so much for being on the podcast channel five excellent stuff I will I will put it in the show notes as well a reminder that all of will Harrison Wallace's details can be found in the show notes so go and have a look yes they can and also today's scripts can also be found there too so do subscribe to the podcast and give us a review on Apple podcast yes please so that's it for this week thanks again well I hope you enjoyed it I have thank you so much it's been a been a blast um thank you for inviting me on to what episode 78 78 will Harrison Wallace everyone and we'll be back next week with more scripts and another voiceover guest when we'll be asking and this is where we do the title of the show all together will we'll be asking how do you say that how do you say that