You gotta love life’s little curve balls.
For the past several months, I’ve been providing the voices for two of the four dinosaur characters that represent the world of Webosaurs. Most of the work has been for various parts of the world itself, but we’ve recently begun preparing some initial marketing materials that feature the characters interacting in short mini-stories. Most of these pieces have been written by members of the animation team, and it’s been fun working with them to craft the various scenarios they’ve developed.
We’re just about to put the first of these pieces into production, when out of the blue I’m approached by the production coordinator with some odd news: one of the characters that I’d been voicing is being re-cast. I won’t go into the reason for the re-cast here, but I was assured that the decision had nothing to do with my performance, and that I would continue voicing the other character.
My initial reaction was, I’m pleased to say, fairly even-keeled. Later, after having mulled it over for a number of hours, my feelings about the situation hadn’t changed all that much. I wasn’t mad by any means. If anything, I was confused. The explanation that I was given for the change would have been equally valid during the initial audition process, so why wasn’t this other person cast for the part then? Why did the change take so long to come about?
Confusion aside, my goal right now is to just let it go and move on. There’s nothing to be gained by feeling that this character was somehow “mine,” because it most definitely was not. While I developed that character’s voice, and used that voice over the course of several months to help convey the character’s personality, attitude, etc., I can in no way lay claim to those other parts. I can only claim the voice. As that voice is no longer required for that project, I’m happy to file it away for later use.
Perhaps it can find a place on my upcoming character demo. Hmmm…