Let’s Talk Voiceover - Episode 36 - Gillian Brashear

LTVO has a new host! An actor and director with production chops, Gillian came from the stages of New York City to the big (Chekhov and Maria) and small screens (CSI: Cyber, Criminal Minds, Legends) in Los Angeles before delving into voice acting, and then directing.  She also narrated the Emmy-winning series Wonder Women.  Her vo credits include Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded, Lord of the Rings Online, Chivalry 2, Vacation Simulator, and World of Tanks.  Smart, curious, glib and with a wicked wit; she's the perfect person to sit in the virtual cocktail bar and converse with anyone in the industry.  So, welcome, and Let's Talk Voiceover, Gillian Brashear!

Gillian Brashear:

When I was in New York, there was, oh darn it, a show that it was all about the nudity, but I was seeing it probably 20 years past its prime.  So, I was this acting student…

 

Randall Ryan:

Like Emmanuel?

Gillian Brashear:

No, it wasn't that, I…OH! (laughs)  I see…is it Oh Calcutta?  But no, it's not that.

 

Randall Ryan:

No that was, wasn't it?

 

Gillian Brashear:

It is Oh Calcutta?

 

Randall Ryan:

Yes, as soon as you said it, it’s like yes

 

Gillian Brashear:

it was still going in New York.  It was…you know, when you go to the strip bars like we do and ther're tired gals, they've done it a lot, it was a bit like that.  Like yeah I'm naked, I'm on stage. Meh (laughs) It just was such a bizarre experience in New York going, okay,well uh, yep, that's a job, I… I guess that's acting.  I don't know!

 

THEME MUSIC

 

Randall Ryan

Let's talk so Let's Talk Voiceover, Gillian Brashear.

 

Gillian Brashear:

(laughs) Okay let's do it.

 

Randall Ryan

Welcome to this thing that we do called Let's Talk Voiceover, and thanks for doing this, and thanks for wanting to get in and do this. So, I'm curious because even though we talked about it and it's like, would you like to do this thing and you're like, I'd love to do this thing. We never talked about why. So why?

 

Gillian Brashear:

Why do I want to do it?  Well, ultimately I like to play and you're a great play partner.

 

Randall Ryan:

Yes!  you're already better than Brian!

 

Gillian Brashear:

And I love learning about people. I'm excited to hear people's stories. I am excited to hear what they know and what they want to share and what they want to talk about, and actually, honestly, there are questions that I have for people that I've done their work, worked on their work, shall I sa,y on their files and what not that we've recorded and I've worked on, and I have things I want to know and that I want to ask them.

 

Randall Ryan:

Right.  So you're talking like some of the people that you've worked with, the kind of things where you say, I don't know why she chose or he chose to do this, but that's really interesting?  Or are you talking more the techniques that they use to get a specific sound or specific delivery out?

 

Gillian Brashear:

I think both.  You know, when I'm working on somebody's recording, I get into the world that they've created and I become very curious.  Sometimes it's I'm curious how did you come up with that as your portrayal? Sometimes it is literally, how do you make that sound with your voice?  ‘Cause I don't even understand how that comes out of anybody's human body. Yeah. And then sometimes I notice people have incredible technique and I'd like to know about that.  A lot of things.  Sometimes they just sound like they're really fun and I want to hang out with them for a while.  So this might be as close as I ever get.

 

Randall Ryan:

You never know.  And the thing that's really interesting to me listening to the comments that you've said back to me about stuff, because again, you come at this from being an actor, and this may not be accurate, but in my head, you really come at it first from being stage actor and everything else kind of came 2nd 3rd, or is that accurate? Is that not accurate?

 

Gillian Brashear:

Yep.  When I decided that I wanted to actually dive in and be an actor and admit that that was the passion that I had, I wanted to do it in the best way possible, or what that meant to me at the time was I wanted to learn in the place that I thought I would get the best skills and that would really challenge me to be the best that I could be, and for me that was New York stage.

 

Randall Ryan:

So, you probably have told me this before, but I don't remember all the details if you did, because I know you went to drama school. 

 

Gillian Brashear:

Yeah.

 

Randall Ryan:

Obviously, not everybody that comes into, at least the stuff that we talk about while they may have had an acting background or a singing background, not everybody has gone to drama school.  You went to acting school.  What led you to do that?

 

Gillian Brashear:

Well, I had always had a passion for it.  I started acting just casually in the things that you do when you're a kid, and then I put it away to do other things: go to school, be a little crazy.  I ended up traveling to Australia and spending some time there and I think getting away from the United States and being in a different place, which was marvelous, for a very long period of time allowed me to look back at my life and really assess what it was that I wanted to do.  So away from the drive and ambition and the, the courses that were sort of served up as young people. You know, this is a path and this is a path and this is a path.  And there just came a point where I realized I this is what I want to do. So, I auditioned for acting school in New York.  I let that decision guide me. I was accepted and there I went.

 

Randall Ryan:

That's really interesting.  This is a total sidebar: what things did you see differently leaving the United States?  And it may have absolutely nothing to do with acting, but just, how do you think that kind of just shaped you as a person and maybe lead you to make some different decisions?

 

Gillian Brashear:

I can say that my time out of the United States has profoundly changed my outlook on life in a good way.  I went there, I had extreme culture shock and given that it's an English-speaking country that's saying a lot.  But I was.  I mean, I was kind of paralyzed for a while.  It took me easily six weeks just to be able to relax, and relax into the environment, and be able to relate to people on the pace that they have there.  But spending enough time there really allowed me to identify the fact that they actually, really they actually enjoy living life more.  They're really invested in enjoying their lives and not so much ambition-driven. Now this, frankly, is when I was there, and it's not that they weren't out doing stuff. There were people doing great things and having businesses and, and doing such, but it was the balance.

It's that they had a healthy balance of enjoying their life and socializing and being extremely jovial while also doing the other things in life that you have to do.  And I think that's really my big takeaway.

 

Randall Ryan:

So you think that allowed you in some way to say: yeah, acting.  Because, maybe because acting is not If you're going to get into it to make a lot of money, that's probably not, you know, your top 10 picks? Or some other reason?

 

Gillian Brashear:

Well, again, I think I had a passion for it. I had a desire to do it from the time I was really young.  I mean, honestly, probably six years old, it was a thing for me, and something I got deep joy out of.  The act of pursuing it was very frightening, which is really why I didn't do it, and why I didn't go any farther with it for a really long time.  And at that point, while I was there in Australia, I could no longer deny the fact that, even though I was terrified to do it, I would never resolve the wanting unless I went ahead and tried.  And I just realized, I don't want to spend my life wishing I had done something.  So just go do it, and let the chips fall where they may.

Randall Ryan:

What was the terror for you?  I ask as a person who went out and did music the same way

 

Gillian Brashear:

Uh, . putting yourself out there.  Really, honestly, it's throwing all the chips on yourself.  It's a big move.  It's bold.  I didn't grow up in a family of artists of really any kind, so there's no system of support for “hey, yeah, and I know this is what you do.”  I mean it wasn't like anybody was holding me back, but it was a pioneer move as far as any upbringing that I had.

 

Randall Ryan:

Right.

 

Gillian Brashear:

And New York is scary!

Randall Ryan:

Yeah, yeah.

 

Gillian Brashear:

If you haven't been and you listen to all the stories about it, it seemed like a really big, scary place.  Now, it's actually one of my favorite places and I love it, and it doesn't scare me now. But you know, it's all the stuff you don't know, it's your fear of the unknown.  And it's also, you know, the fear of figuring out, can you really, do you really have what it takes to follow through on a dream. 

 

Randall Ryan:

Well in New York, while maybe differently than Australia, New York is culture shock. It's culture shock to people who live in the United States, and I would argue that New York is culture shock to people who even come from other big cities.

 

Gillian Brashear:

Absolutely. 

 

Randall Ryan:

I love Chicago; Chicago is not New York and vice versa.  New York is its own thing. It's just absolutely its own place. And, sure there are some parallels, but they're just very…you know, L.A.  Those areyour big three cities in the United States and they're just drastically different from one another.

 

Gillian Brashear:

Yes, they are.

 

Randall Ryan:

So one of the things I'm really looking forward to with you doing this; really, I've worked with you in all stages.  I've worked with you as an actor. I've worked with you doing editing and mastering.  I've worked with you where you are directing and I’m fly on the wall with that.  I'm just really fascinated by how in some ways how lockstep we are with a lot of things, but how also very different we are with things. You will hear things and do things that I didn't hear, but that what you heard is correct. And you will do things that are not right or wrong compared to what I do, but they're different.  And sometimes quite frankly, a lot of the things that you have done, I think “Wow, that is different than how I would have done, and I think how you approach that is much better than I would approach that in that situation.”  So that's one of the things that for me I really want to hear, because you have a tremendous amount of insight and I learn from you, and I've watched how you've made me think differently.  So I think, when it comes to talking to somebody, your thought process with that person is a little bit different.  And I also think that there's a lot to be said for just you being a woman actor and how you just are going to have a different kind of sensitivity to stuff than then I certainly will.

 

Gillian Brashear:

Great, thank you.  First, thank you for all of that. (laughs) Um, I think it comes down a lot too for me is that I am essentially a very curious person.  And, so even when I'm listening to somebody in a directing session, I become really curious about the lines and how they're saying it.  And somehow there's something to that, that if you're curious about something, a door opens and suddenly whatever direction needs to be said makes sense.  Does that, does that make sense? (laughs)

 

Randall Ryan:

Yeah, of course, absolutely. It does.  You know, I think all of us are curious in some way.  It's just the angle of curiosity that I will often listen to you go down, or the way that you will talk to an actor and say “I have an idea.”  And I do that too, and other directors that I've seen who I admire do that, but everybody's got a different way of approaching it, and a different way to say it. And I also think again, you know, I look at somebody like you, like my friend Tom Keegan, where you both have an acting background, and sometimes you come up things very differently than say, like myself or Andrea Toyias, who come from a music background, and you also have that music background.  Which by the way, may I say, while I always knew it was there…

 

Just to tell a little story on Gillian.  There's this Austin singer-songwriter group that I've been in for, you know, 5, 6 years, and it's this really intense thing of, you get a prompt and you got one week to write a two-minute or more song.  Usually fully produced.  I mean, sometimes people don't fully produce them out, but all the people that are in the group, for a lot of them, this is what they do for a living.  So you have like these heavyweights in there, and you're just sticking your little old songs in there.  And I asked her if she wanted to do it, and she kind of said, oh sure.  And I thought, well, it'll be interesting to see if she makes it through the whole semester.  The very first song I heard of hers, I'm listening to her sing…you never told me you could sing like that!

 

Gillian Brashear:

(laughs)

 

Randall Ryan:

And then we had some weeks where we were asked to collaborate, because that was just part of the the prompt, and we collaborate on a song.  And so now I'm giving her stuff that I would have sang, and I'm not a great singer, and I'm just listening to her bring this whole thing alive and like: why did you never tell me this?  Why did you never tell me that?  It's like you didn't even, you didn't even bother.  Like oh yeah, this thing I do. Sure. Yeah, it's it's this thing. I mean, you're a really, really solid singer.

 

Gillian Brashear:

I…well, thank you again.  I can't say that that's something I really embody thinking about myself.  I go around singing, but it was a whole different thing to write something and then actually sing it and actually record it, and actually put it together.  I've never done that before.  And again, I found the process of being curious about it, curious about writing a song, curious about singing, curious about recording. It was fantastic. Yeah.

 

Randall Ryan:

So what's your takeaway from that? Just for you personally.  Not for the process so much, because you made it all the way through.

Gillian Brashear:

Yeah.

 

Randall Ryan:

What's your takeaway with that?

 

Gillian Brashear:

My takeaway is I'd like to do more.

 

Randall Ryan:

So what about it makes you want to do more?

 

Gillian Brashear:

Well, the process itself was so invigorating, and opened up this whole new avenue about myself I didn't even know.  I really didn't know.  I know you say it sounds like I was hiding something from you, but I frankly didn't know, Plus the fact that

 

Randall Ryan:

(laughs)

 

Gillian Brashear:

(laughs) that I have these songs, I have these baby songs now.  And when I go back and listen to them I'm really happy about it.  I mean they're not perfect, but I love them!  And I would like more of that. 

 

Randall Ryan:

Right.

 

Gillian Brashear:

I think anybody, everybody, even if you don't think you should do it, you should do it, because it's an amazing process.  And fun.

 

Randall Ryan:

So relate it to acting.  What did it teach you about acting?

 

Gillian Brashear:

I think it's that it allowed a creative process that you don't often get.  The issue with acting is that you need someone else to act.  You really do.  And it's hard to explore by yourself.  And this was a way to explore my creativity and my voice and words, and having words come out of me in some sort of a framework of a song.  It's a satisfaction that you get.  It resonates with the same satisfaction that you get as an actor, but it was a way to really let it bloom in a new way and in a new capacity that feeds acting, most certainly.  But just allowed for some…was like a sweet dessert.  Just yummy.

 

Randall Ryan:

(laughs) I love that. And with that: thank you for doing this.  Really, really look forward to however long you and I are engaged in doing this.

 

Gillian Brashear:

I'm looking forward, too.  It's going to be a good adventure and, well, I hope I don't embarrass you too much, but, maybe once or twice I will have to embarrass you. (laughs)

 

Randall Ryan:

You know, that was never an issue for BT.  If he ever had the opportunity to, he would.  So what's new?

 

Gillian Brashear:

Okay.  Game on! (laughs)

 

Randall Ryan:

(laughs) And now we need to come up with a sign off.

 

Gillian Brashear:

Okay. I could go “Alright.” (laughs)

 

Randall Ryan:

That would actually be a fun little inside joke.

 

Gillian Brashear:

(laughs) That would be funny.  Alright.

 

Randall Ryan:

Sure. 

 

Gillian Brashear:

(laughs)

 

Randall Ryan:

Oh sure.

 

Gillian Brashear:

(laughs) Alright.

 

Randall Ryan:

sure.

 

Gillian Brashear:

Alright

 

Randall Ryan:

sure.

 

Yeah, it's gonna be a fun ride.  Probably at my expense.  Let's Talk Voiceover is hosted by Gillian Brashear: actor, director, visionary.  And me, Randall Ryan, owner of Hamster Ball Studios, delivering the world's best talent, virtually anywhere.  And I can also be found at thevoicedirector.world.  Got comments, questions or just want to let us know what you think, reach out at info@letstalkvoiceover.com.  Find us at all your favorite places to get podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Podbean.  If there are podcasts, we’re probably there.  In the meantime, thank you for listening, and we'll talk again very soon.