Behind the scenes time: on how my guys sound.

You guys gave me a lot of really great answers this weekend in terms of how you think my O Human Star characters sound, and I really loved the feedback. Thank you!

I thought I’d put out my own personal thoughts of how I imagine them sounding, but don’t take this as a Voice of God thing where you have to imagine them exactly like this from now on. But the voices I imagine them also tie into their original character development, so maybe you would find that interesting. I dunno.

Al, from almost the beginning of developing his character, was Ron Perlman. Think super-gruff, low-register, blue-collar Ron Perlman from Hellboy or Sons of Anarchy. Or listen to this interview with him. That, for all intents and purposes, is how I originally imagined Al not just sounding, but being. Of course, as I kept working and heard from other people, it’s gotten a bit more fluid, too. My mom once told me Al reminded her of Sam Elliott, which is an awesome answer. 

Brendan isn’t so much based on one particular actor, but a kind of actor. A lot of his younger personality is inspired by young 1980s actors like Michael J. Fox or Real Genius-era Val Kilmer. After I started development I learned that Anthony Michael Hall actually played a young Bill Gates in a movie called Pirates of Silicon Valley, and that was pretty much as close to perfect as I could have imagined.

But the bonus of that is that all of those actors are in their 40s and 50s now. So you can actually see Michael J. Fox in something nowadays as an older guy while his voice is still boyish and recognizable. 

Sulla’s actually pretty tough to pin a particular voice actress to, and you guys gave me some good ideas. Honestly, the only thing I can say about her is that she’s definitely got a deeper voice for a girl, like an alto, but she’s so expressive that her range is all over the place. Mae Whitman’s a pretty good answer, and so is Nicole Sullivan. She’s pretty open to interpretation.

Do you guys like these sorts of things? I could always do another post like this if you were interested in more behind-the-scenes stuff. Or send me a note if you have any particular questions about O Human Star backstory.

Time to get some work donneeee