by Claire Sterling

Created on: June 20, 2009

Actors only make the big bucks by portraying the big roles and making the biggest appearances in a film, right? Wrong. The truth is some of the world's most sought after celbrities are payed for their voices at times. Be it as a narrator Morgan Freeman played in 2005's "War of the Worlds" or as a baby's thoughts we experienced through the voice of Bruce Willis in "Look Who's Talking" series. When an actor plays his or her cards right they can sometimes find the voice over role that makes him the biggest star in the flick. For instance, actress Brenda Strong starred in the first and most captivating season of ABC's hit show "Desperate Housewives" as a caring, loving and devoted mother and wife who's mysterious death is the talk of the town and certainly the biggest cliffhanger viewers just needed to tune in to find out more about. In a sense, she had just as much importance; if not more than, the other housewives. Therefore, due to the show's success she raked in a more than decent paycheck for that season and the following 5 seasons to come.

A-list celebrities do voice overs for commercials, animated features and even translate foreign films as I recently learned even one of my favorites at the moment Shia La Beouf did for a Japanese anime film called "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind." There is no reason that just because it's an actor's voice the person should make less money. A lot of the time an actor is chosen for their distinguished voice and is widely sought after for the popularity of such. Throughout the years I've recognized the likes of James Earl Jones; for his deep basso and Vincent Price; for his ability to sound as eerie as the program he is narrating. The two are "voice over legends" and although they obviously have other talents, Vincent Price being the prince of horror and all, when they speak you hear it and that's what they were paid to do.

There will always be cartoons and foreign films in need of a voice. As long as there are; someone will be willing to pay for the voices provided. Whether it be a small time cartoon, or a low budget foreign film you never know how popular your voice will be. Also radio commercials or even TV commercials always have a spot open and why not go for it if you can. Doing a voice over is not always just as easy as speaking into a Mic. It's as much of an art as acting itself. So why would there not be money in that?

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