Art by Matthew Fleming.
This episode was written and produced by Marissa Flaxbart.
“Soundalikes,” also called “voice doubles,” are voice actors who perform as characters that were originally played by someone else. They’re used extensively by studios like Disney and Pixar, in order to keep their iconic characters consistent across games, rides, toys, and TV shows. In live action movies, soundalikes fill in for the leads, and record lines for the film’s many rough cuts. But being a great voice double is about much more than just being a good impressionist. Featuring Rick Dempsey, Holly Dorff, and a surprise guest…
MUSIC FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE
Original music by Wesley Slover
Mister on the Corner by Raymond Grouse
Strolling in Style by Raymond Grouse
Recognized By Accident by Stationary Sign
Bring the Bagels by Ofelia Moore
With a Light Heart by Ofelia Moore
None of My Business by Arthur Benson
Pxl Cray by The Fence
Road of Fury by John Abbot
Why Should I Admit by Stationary Sign
Art Culinaire by Raymond Grouse
Rushing Through the Mall by Raymond Grouse
See You Now (Instrumental) by Twiceyoung
Shufflin’ Feet by Nocturnal Spirits
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View Transcript ▶︎
Jim: This is Woody and you are listening to Twenty Thousand Hertz.
[music in]
That's Woody from Toy Story... And in case you’re wondering, no, it’s not a deepfake voice.
Now, as we all know, in the Toy Story movies, Woody is played by the one and only Tom Hanks. But a while back, I came across a Youtube clip of Tom Hanks on the Graham Norton show. In it, Graham holds up a toy Woody doll, and pulls the string on its back.
[music pause]
Graham Norton: You listen to this. 'Haha. Boy am I glad to see you.' Is that you?
Tom Hanks: No, it's my brother Jim.
Graham Norton: Is that really?
Tom Hanks: Yeah.
Graham Norton: Is that—that's so weird because that we were on the internet, somebody said that and we kind of, 'Oh, that just sounds like a load of old rubbish.'
[music resumes]
So, it turns out, that doll isn't the only place where Woody is voiced by Tom's younger brother, Jim Hanks. Jim's Woody voice is so good that it gets used in video games, rides, toys, and the list goes on.
Tom Hanks: There are so many, uh computer games and video things, and Jim just, he works on those all year long. As I said, 'You don't wanna do this.' I said, 'No, Get my brother Jim. You know, he'll do it.' So that's my brother Jim.
Graham Norton: That's, that's that amaz—that's incredible. Yeah. I, I, I genuinely thought that was an urban myth, but it really...
Tom Hanks: Nope. It's true. Absolutely true.
[music out]
When Jim Hanks plays Woody, he's acting as a so-called "soundalike," also known as a voice double. It's a special category of voice acting that most people have probably never heard of. Because when it's done well, you don't even know it's happening.
Rick: If a talent's not available, or they may not want to do a certain project, then we have to have a soundalike that represents the character, that has all the acting beats and the voice characteristics of the original.
That's Rick Dempsey. Rick leads a division of Walt Disney Studios called "Disney Character Voices International."
Rick: I've been there for 33 years and have been working in the Character Voice world kind of my entire career.
[music in]
Back in the 80's, Disney was in the process of revamping the audio in their theme parks. But they ran into a problem.
Rick: In casting the voices for all the audio in the attractions, we realized that there was no consistency of our voices, like we didn't have definitive voices for each of the characters. There were like seven people doing the voice of Mickey Mouse for the company. [4 old Mickey voices]
Mickey was originally voiced by Walt Disney. [clip]
But over the years, he was also played by Stan Freberg [clip], Alan Young [clip] Jimmy MacDonald [clip], and Les Perkins. [clip]
Disney wanted their iconic characters to sound consistent across theme parks, toys, shows, and anywhere else they may appear. So they built a whole department around it.
Rick: That was really the birth of Character Voices. And I was the first employee hired into that organization in 1988.
[music out]
First up were the classics.
Rick: When we started in 1988, we really were focused on Mickey, Donald and Goofy. So we'd cast the definitive voice of Mickey and the definitive voice of Goofy, and there was only one for each of those characters.
At the time, Mickey was assigned to voice actor Wayne Allwine. [Wayne Allwine clip]
Rick: But what happened in 1989 really kind of changed things, and that was that we released The Little Mermaid. [clip: The Little Mermaid]
The success of The Little Mermaid marked a new era for Disney characters. Suddenly, there were more toys and rides and tie-ins than ever before.
Rick: And then of course you saw the momentum build with Beauty and the Beast... [clip: Beauty and the Beast]
Rick: And then Aladdin... [clip: Aladdin]
There was The Nightmare Before Christmas... [clip: The Nightmare Before Christmas]
Rick: And then The Lion King... [clip: The Lion King]
And Pocahontas. [clip: Pocahontas]
Rick: So animation all of a sudden had all these franchises and all these characters that were now our responsibility to ensure consistency across all the different platforms of Disney.
[music in]
But there was a whole new set of characters coming down the pike. In the mid nineties, Disney teamed up with Pixar to make the first full-length computer animated film: Toy Story. In the lead role, they cast one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood.
Rick: Early on when we were working with Woody and we knew that Tom was, this is in the nineties. I mean, he is the biggest star on the planet and we just knew he just wasn't going to be available to do a lot of stuff.
That’s because Tom was busy making hit movie after hit movie.
[Tom Hanks montage then music out]
There was simply no way that Tom could record every Woody line for every possible tie-in. So, they needed a soundalike.
Rick: I think I was the one who suggested we hunt down his brother, or Tom might have suggested it. But I remember that initial audition and Jim came in as a… he had done some acting, but he certainly hadn't done Woody.
Not only had he never done Woody's voice, he'd never done Tom's voice.
Jim: It was the first time I'd ever even really tried specifically to sound like Tom...
[music in]
Jim: My name is Jim Hanks. Some people call me Jimmy. I fell into voice over years ago, with absolutely no training. And to this date, I still have no training. [laughs]
Jim's IMDB credits are pretty extensive. They include Scrubs and Dexter and Robot Chicken...
Jim: But if you Google me, it's all about my doing Woody in everything but the movies. I've been doing that for 27 years now, it's been a great gig. And I understand you talked to Rick Dempsey and he was the guy I first started working with, and a great guy, and a very good director.
Rick: Working with Jim, we kind of found the voice, and worked very closely together to ensure that he got that character up to where Tom had put him. And he does a fantastic job.
[music out]
Jim: Back in the day when I first started, it was mostly just about getting loud. The louder I go, the more it sounds like Tom.
[music start]
Jim: I came to realize that my Woody was my impression of Tom yelling at his kids. It was all, "Hey, get down from there! What are you doing?" You know, that kind of thing.
But with a little practice, Jim learned to hone that voice.
Jim: I realized that one thing Tom does naturally is project. And maybe that's because he did a lot of theater, or maybe he just wants everybody to notice him, I don't know. But Tom projects, and when I talk, I'll admit I'm kind of lazy. I just kind of let everything sink, I talk right from the chest in the lower throat.
Jim: And I notice that when Tom talks, he goes simultaneously into his diaphragm and his nose. So when Tom talks, he talks like this, and I have to press my diaphragm and push it up into my face. So whenever I'm doing recordings, the way I get to it is I say, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, here's Tom. Right there, there's Tom doing his thing, and he's loud and he's projected."
[music out]
Disney didn't waste any time putting Jim to work. They started with a video game that came out the same year as the first Toy Story.
Jim: At the time, the movie hadn't come out, I had no idea what was going on. They played me a few things that Tom had said. So I kind of mimicked that. I stepped into a booth and did, "Yeehaws" and "You're my favorite deputy.” [Toy Story Game]
But once Toy Story exploded, so did the merchandise and tie-ins, and Jim got better and better.
Jim: My voice is in the toys and all the games. [Toy Story game montage]
Jim: My voice is all over Disneyland and Disney World. [Disneyland clips]
Rick: If you go see Disney on Ice it's Jim, not Tom.
[Disney On Ice clip into music in]
Jim was the perfect fit to step in for his brother. But their situation is pretty unique.
Jim: There's not a whole lot of siblings who do voice matches for their famous brothers. It's just a weird thing.
Of course, the first choice for a character voice is always going to be the original actor.
Rick: In most cases, we get the original talent to voice our characters, the only time is usually when it's a scheduling conflict when they're not available.
There are some actors who always make themselves available to voice their character.
Rick: Mandy Moore for example, I think she's done every Rapunzel project, just because that's her character. She is Rapunzel.
Here's Mandy in the game Disney Princess: My Fairytale Adventure. [Disney Princess: My Fairytale Adventure clip]
But no matter how much an actor loves their role, a star's time is hard to come by.
Rick: There are times when we need to find soundalikes. Maybe like Eddie Murphy as Mushu in Mulan.
Here's Eddie Murphy. [clip: Mulan]
Rick: Eddie might not be available for, let's say, an interactive game that has 500 lines in it. So we would get our soundalike to come in and record the 500 lines. You know, making sure that people believe that it's Mushu, even though it's not necessarily Eddie Murphy.
Eddie Murphy's go-to soundalike is an actor named Mark Mosely. Here he is in Disney's Animated Storybook: Mulan. [clip: Disney's Animated Storybook]
Here's Mark again, doing Mushu in Kingdom Hearts 2. [clip: Kingdom Hearts 2]
Mark also voices Donkey in the Shrek video games. [clip: Shrek Forever After Game]
[music out]
Occasionally, an actor will have specific opinions about how their character should be voiced.
Rick: So like, uh, Robin Williams as the Genie in Aladdin. [clip: Aladdin]
Rick: Robin wasn't available to do everything, and yet we had restrictions, cuz Robin was opposed to finding an exact voice match to what he was doing. So that's a little different scenario, where now we're just trying to find someone who can simulate what Robin did without sounding exactly like Robin.
Rick: So the first one we used was Dan Castellaneta who is, um, Homer Simpson. [clip: Homer]
Rick: So we used Dan for a number of projects. [clip: Aladdin game]
Rick: And then Robin would come in and do other projects. [clip: Disney's Math Quest with Aladdin]
Now, voice doubling makes a lot of sense for animation and video games. But when an actor is on screen, they sometimes need a soundalike, too.
[music in]
In movies, a lot of the dialogue you hear isn't actually what was recorded on set. That's because lots of dialogue gets rerecorded after filming is complete. It's a process called ADR, or Automated Dialog Replacement.
There are a lot of reasons that filmmakers use ADR. Maybe there was too much background noise while they were filming…
[I’ll Be Back - Noisy]
Or maybe they decided they didn't like an actor's delivery on a particular line.
[I’ll Be Back - Bad Take]
Or maybe they want to change the line entirely, especially if the character is off screen.
[I Will Be Back]
Whatever the reason, the actors have to go into a studio, and record their pickups.
[I’ll Be Back - Real]
But movies go through a lot of rough cuts before they're finished. And oftentimes, they need a new version before the actors have had a chance to record their ADR. That's where soundalikes come in.
Holly: So a lot of times the main actor cannot come in for the temp dub, we call it.
Holly Dorff works in ADR Voice Casting. One of her roles is to find soundalikes to use in these rough cuts.
Holly: So they're screening the movie for the producers, or the executives, or for an audience, and they need to get a soundalike for that.
[music out]
In addition to dialogue, soundalikes will also record the so-called breaths and efforts. These are all of the non-verbal noises that the character makes. Maybe they're breathing heavily while they run down a busy street, [sfx] or grunting while they give a bad guy a roundhouse kick. [sfx]
Holly: Anything from breathing, coughing, things that maybe they don't have yet, and in that case I do find somebody who sounds just like them, so that the efforts, you know, whether they're climbing a tree, they still need to be in that same vocal tonality.
As it happens, Holly's also a voice actor, and she sometimes does soundalike work for Lucy Liu.
Holly: If I'm revoicing Lucy Liu, the lines would be on a music stand for me to look at, they would play the picture for me. I would put on some headphones, and I would typically have Lucy Liu in my ears so that I can hear her and match her perfectly as I'm talking.
As they record, there are three beeps that lead Holly into each line.
Holly: So it's [sfx] beep, beep, beep talk.
[sfx: "beep beep beep" into action scene + music in]
Holly: You're following with picture, right? So now I'm gonna watch her and go with her and just, the way I always say it, is “just be the ball, be the actor.” So I see her jump on the roof.
Holly: Ugh. Ugh. So that, that's an “ugh” I've landed. Right? And then [breathing]
Holly: And then let's say she takes a big jump from the roof to the ground. So, “Argh argh argh!”
[epic scene abrupt out]
Holly: Now, there I gave it too big of a "Aagh!" that probably—they wouldn't have wanted that.
[music in]
All those efforts take a lot of... well, effort. And casting the perfect soundalike is a lot more complicated than just finding a good impressionist.
Holly: A lot of times actors will be in the same range as that actor, but the way that actor delivers his lines is how they need to perform. The best example is Christopher Walken. [clip: Christopher Walken Tooth Fairy]
Holly: Christopher Walken's tone and tonality isn't necessarily hard to find, but finding someone who can deliver a line like Christopher Walken, and his pattern and his style, that's what I would look for.
In movies, a soundalike is meant to capture both the tone and the delivery of the original actor. But other times, a voice artist is brought in to do the exact opposite: to revoice a character in a way that sounds completely different from the actor onscreen. You've probably heard these voices countless times in movies, without even realizing.
That's coming up after the break.
[music out]
[MIDROLL]
[music in]
Soundalikes, also called voice doubles, are crucial to the world of entertainment. They're used in games, toys, rides, and even movies, during the post production process.
Most of the time, soundalikes intentionally develop their performance of a well-known voice. But occasionally, their natural voice just happens to be a perfect match.
[music out]
Actor Amy Landecker has done soundalike work for Julia Roberts. It all started back in 2004, when Julia Roberts did some voiceover work for an AOL campaign. [AOL commercial]
Here's Amy in an interview with the AV Club.
Amy Landecker: My dad called me and said, "You sound great on the America Online campaign." And I'm like, "That's not me." And we found out it was Julia Roberts. So then we told my agents, "I sound a lot like Julia Roberts."
Pretty soon, Amy was filling in for Julia, doing ADR on those temp dubs for movies. In fact, she's pretty sure her voiceover ended up in the final trailer for the movie Duplicity.
[Duplicity trailer]
Amy Landecker: And I was watching it going, "I think this is like all me." And I said to my husband at the time, I was like, "You're basically married to Julia Roberts." [laughs]
If it is Amy’s voice in that trailer, this would be really uncommon. In movies, soundalike voices are supposed to get replaced by the main actors before anything comes out. Then again, it's hard to say for sure. Because, if the soundalike’s voice is really spot on, the audience would never even notice.
[music in]
In rough cuts, soundalikes are used for more famous actors. But sometimes minor characters will get revoiced entirely by a voice actor.
Let's say there's a Hollywood movie in production that was shot in a small town in Canada. For a diner scene, they cast a local actor to play a server who says two lines to the main actor.
[Diner scene - Original Actor]
Fake Scene - Original: Hey there. What can I get for ya?
Fake Scene - Lead: Uh, I guess I gotta try this Poutine Burger, right?
Fake Scene - Original: It is our specialty.
Then three months later, back in L.A., the movie's in post production. The director decides she doesn't like the delivery on the server's lines. At that point, they have two options. Number one: They can get in touch with the original actor up in Canada, find a recording studio to send him to, and remotely coach him into a better performance that still matches the timing of his original mouth movements.
Or number two, they can call an experienced voice artist who lives twenty minutes away. That person can come into the studio and revoice the character exactly how they want it, perfectly in sync with the picture.
[Diner scene - Revoiced Actor]
Fake Scene - Replacement: Hey there, what can I get for ya?
Fake Scene - Lead: Uh, I guess I gotta try this Poutine Burger, right?
Fake Scene - Replacement: It is our specialty.
When the movie comes out, the audience has no idea that the server's voice doesn't belong to the actor on screen.
Holly: Yeah, that happens more times than not. That happens in almost every movie.
[music out]
Completely revoicing a live action character doesn't really qualify as soundalike work, because the voice artist might not sound anything like the original actor. That might actually be the whole reason they got called. But in the world of soundalikes, the closer you are, the better.
[music in]
Rick: We really try to get an exact match for most of our character casting, and of course it's difficult. You have talent with very, very unique voices. That's why we cast 'em in the first place.
When he's starting the search for a soundalike, Rick listens for something to latch onto in the original voice.
Rick: It's easier if there's a hook. Like John C. Reilly for example, he's got a very unique voice and it kind of comes from the back of the throat a little bit, the way that he talks. It's kind of just further back. It's almost Kermit the Frog-y, you know? [clip: Kermit the Frog]
Here's John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman in Wreck it Ralph. [clip: Wreck it Ralph].
Rick: It gives you a little something to hang onto, so that if you have to cast a soundalike to John C. Reilly, at least you can find an actor who understands where that sound is coming from in the palette of their voice.
[music out]
Finding that physical hook is a good start to matching a voice. But the delivery is just as important.
Rick: We really look at the rhythms of the character, how they speak, the tempo in which they speak, the pitch that they're at in different emotions. So you may have a high pitch when they're really excited... [clip: Wreck it Ralph]
Rick: And a little lower when they're somber and, kinda speaking quietly. [clip: Wreck it Ralph]
Rick: So you try to evaluate all those different areas of the original character. And then it's a matter of just coaching the new talent into really who the character is, and then kind of working those nuances out.
Here’s voice actor Brian T. Delaney in a Wreck It Ralph video game. [clip: Wreck it Ralph game]
The goal here isn’t to do a perfect impression of John C. Reilly, but rather, to embody the character of Ralph.
Rick: It’s not so much about the talent, it’s about getting the character right. But it really does come down to the acting. I mean, people who want to get into the voiceover business say, "Hey, I do really funny voices." And it's like, “Well, that's great, but you really have to be a great actor.”
Holly: Most voiceover actors are actually incredible actors. You can have a great voice, you can sound like Brad Pitt, you can sound like Matthew McConaughy, but can you act?
Rick: A real soundalike is someone who can act in that voice and create new material.
That skill is why Jim Hanks is such a great match for Woody. But being that good can be a double-edged sword.
[music in]
Jim: One of the problems that I have is that Tom's voice is so recognizable that anything else I do, I have to go completely physiologically away from that. Because, if I start yelling in anything, whether it's voiceover or on camera, I start sounding like Tom. And it's really hard not to because it's just a real natural thing for me to go loud and sound like Tom.
Jim: And then whenever I have to do anything like a Southern accent, I have to get away from Forrest. I cannot sound like him at all.
Jim: It's difficult. You know, I'm not complaining. I mean, it's pretty interesting being related to a guy who's arguably the most famous guy in the world. But as far as an acting career goes, I will never be a face in the crowd. I walk in, and they hear me, and they see me, and go, "Oh, you look like that famous guy. And you sound like that famous guy." And so, it's just, it's difficult to get parts because uh, you know, "Boohoo, boohoo, you know, here's the tiny violin." But, uh, I've heard people say that it's distracting.
[music out]
For Jim, watching a recording of a family gathering really drove this home.
Jim: Of course, Tom and I are on camera, at the same event. And he kind of MCed the thing, and I was the last one to get up and speak. And when I got up and started talking, I was watching myself going, "Wow, that I, I find that distracting!"
Watching that video, Jim could see why he often missed out on roles.
Jim: Because every other word sounds just like Tom did, and all these mannerisms. And I go, "Oh yeah, that's why no one..." because I'm close enough, but not quite.
That experience helped Jim accept that looking and sounding like his brother is just a part of who he is. And even if that means missing out on roles, it's not worth stressing about.
Jim: I watched that and pretty much, hit stop and called my agents and said, "Okay, I just watched myself and Tom in the same lighting situations and everything else, and yeah, I get it. Let's not worry about that anymore."
[music in]
Jim Hanks has been playing Woody for almost thirty years. But, he knows the gig won't last forever.
Jim: Who knows who's gonna be doing the voice 30 years from now. I'm gonna age out of it eventually.
But for now, this iconic role is staying with the Hanks brothers. Here’s Jim as Woody in the game Kingdom Hearts 3.
[clip: Kingdom Hearts 3]
Rick: And I think Tom is actually kind of proud of the fact that his brother's doing it.
Jim: I enjoy it. I'm proud of it. The fact that I've been doing it for 27 years means, to me, that I'm doing a decent job of it [laughs].
When a character is truly beloved, they often last for decades. And when they do, they usually outlive the actors who first gave them a voice. Mickey Mouse outlived Walt Disney. Kermit the Frog outlived Jim Henson. The Genie outlived Robin Williams. And voice doubles are a huge part of what makes that possible.
Rick: If you want the characters to live on, they've gotta be consistent. Audiences want to identify with that character, they want that character they fell in love with from the beginning to be the same character.
This is where a great soundalike steps in and does something magical. By keeping a character's voice alive, they can carry on the legacy of an actor who has passed away. For instance, in Cars, Doc Hudson was voiced by the legendary Paul Newman.
[music crossfade into clip: Cars]
Sadly, Paul passed away in 2008. But Doc Hudson lives on in video games, toys, and in Cars Land at California Adventure. [clip: Cars Land]
In all of these places, Doc is played by voice actor Corey Burton.
Rick: He's our Paul Newman soundalike, and he sounds just like Paul. He's just amazing.
[clip: Cars game]
[music in]
Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced out of the sound design studios of Defacto Sound.
Other voices: This episode was written and produced by Marissa Flaxbart, and Casey Emerling, with help from Grace East. It was sound designed and mixed by Colin DeVarney and Soren Begin.
Thanks to our guests Rick Dempsey, Holly Dorff, and Jim Hanks. I'm Dallas Taylor. Thanks for listening.
[music out]
Jim: [sfx: pull string + toy filter] Dallas Taylor? You sound like you design cowboy shirts!
