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Whether you're into historical fiction about the escape from Alcatraz or into futuristic billionaire murdering power fantasies, or just say you really love Rick and Morty and Venture Time, Oni Press has something for you. Discover more over at OniPress.com or visit your local comic shop today. Hey everyone, this is Jennifer Hale and you're listening to the number one show on the Citadel, the Oblivion Bar podcast. I should go. Welcome to the Oblivion Bar Podcast. with your host Chris Hacker.
and Aaron Norris. Joining us this week on the Oblivion Bar is by far the most prolific voice actor of all time.
Her incredible filmography includes roles such as Naomi Hunter from Metal Gear Solid franchise, Rosalyn Luteche from BioShock Infinite, Felicia Hardy, AKA Black Cat and Spider-Man the animated series, Bastilla Shan from Star Wars, Nice to See You Republic video game series, Kiara from Rick and Morty, Gigantic Killer Frost, Intent and Inza in the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited animated series, and of course, Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect franchise.
If you go to her IMDB page, it will take you three days to scroll down to the bottom. It is amazing. This is honestly only a small portion of your extensive and incredible career thus far. And it is an honor for us to introduce you and welcome Jennifer Hale onto the show. Thank you so much, Erin. I cannot in good conscience not share that particular title with incredible people like Steve Blum and Robin Atkin Downs and Dee Bradley Baker and Gray DeLisle and Tara Strong. Thank you.
I enjoy the stage with all of us and all of our amazing work we get to do. Thank Absolutely. mean, as Chris and I were preparing for the show, we're just looking at your catalog of characters and voices and roles. it's just, so mind blowing. I mean, you're literally in the Guinness Book of World Records for how many roles you've had. It's incredible. How do you feel about that? It's awesome. I have the award for the most female uh video game roles and Steve Blum has it for the most male.
So it's good company. Very happy to be in it. I'm very happy to be working. It means I can buy a house and feed my kids. So I'm super happy. And I also have to say that, you know, when I close my eyes and like during this interview, it's amazing because I can just listen and I can hear all these characters from all of my entire life and love of nerddom and whether it's, you know, and just to find out even like Samus Horan, all those like some incredible characters.
We were talking about that before the show as well. We're just, you know, we're incredibly, incredibly honored to have you as well. You know, it's it's, you my first reaction to start of our conversation is just to shut up and let you tell us about your insane career. um know, so let's just do that. What are the some of the some of the first steps you took when first getting into voice acting kind of what would brought you to the career field?
How did you how did you like were there any particular voice actors you looked up to inspirations? Let's let's hear it. I didn't even know it existed. I didn't even know. There was one that I looked up to. Her name is Jane Trexel. It still is. She's wonderful human being. So funny. I was listening to your intro and I was like, oh my God, that takes me back so much. I started singing in clubs when I was 15. That's my first love. And we did a lot of loud rock and roll.
And I think I have lost a little bit of hearing in my left ear because that was always the ear that faced the drummer, right? And we, I mean, we'd play in places the size of four closets and our sound man would still mic the drums. I'm like, okay, okay. Okay, just turn me up. um But our guitar player's mom uh was a wonderful actress and a voice actor. And I went to the School of Fine Arts, which is where I met half the band. And they're in Birmingham, Alabama is where I went to school.
anyway, she helped me kind of meet some people at a video production house, which is where I recorded my first commercial for Bargain Town USA. And then I was actually working at a plant store. started working there when I was like 15. And they came in when I was 17, the production house came into that plant store. I think I was just turned 17 and like started scouting the location, but then asked me if I wanted to come work for them. And I was like, yeah.
So I worked at a video production house next door to an audio studio. And they asked me to come over and do a voice. And I was like, what? You paid me for this? How much? $30 or $30 $35. I was blown away. And I think it was like a Valley girl, because I could totally do the Valley girl. ah And so I just kind of hit my little, have a very strong survival instinct, which includes a particular flavor of capitalism that I have to say is really sustainable. Like I give stuff away.
I don't just like, you know, me first it, but I'm all about it. I'm all about how can I make this work? How can I make this work? Well, and so I went door to door. that little capitalist piglet, as my second dad used to call me, ah went door to door, cold calling at agencies when I was still in my teens, on a little suit, put my hair up in a bun, and we didn't have any agents that, we didn't have any agents back then. So in that town, and we had them in Atlanta.
And then I went over to Atlanta and got my first audition for a film, and that made a lot of sense to me. And I booked that one and I kept booking those things. And that's what eventually pulled me out to LA. in LA, I got my, I struggled for a couple of years with the on-camera stuff. I mean, I booked stuff, but I mean, where I had been, I had built a business in Birmingham in Atlanta where I was like, boom, I was working like clockwork.
I was full-time working actor from the time my second year of college, like bam. And it wasn't magic. It was a lot of hard work, but a little bit of magic and a lot of great mentors. Anyway, I uh moved to LA and a couple of years of kind of banging on the door of the on-camera world and not quite paying my rent. thought, well, let me just make a voiceover type mix of money. And I got my first audition was for a cartoon series and it was called We're on Earth as Carmen Sandiego.
And that was in like 1993, the audition was and the show came out in 94 and that was it. That was on the road. That is an incredible story. I mean, I don't even want to call it a story, you know, biography, if anything, knowing that, you know, so my wife actually does voice acting as well. And, the struggle of, you know, trying to land roles and do that, that grind. Cause some people, yeah, some people, like I said, some people think it's just all magic. It all just happens.
You just get discovered one day and you're like success from there. And no, I totally understand. It's the struggle there. It's, it's a, kind of, motivated you to, to just persevere. Again, what were your motivations and your inspirations in that time? I had a knack for it and I had all the things in place. You know, it's nothing I ever even knew existed. I wasn't allowed to watch cartoons as a kid, much less play a video game.
And m you know, when the universe hands you something that feels like a path, just say yes. You'll end up somewhere that's different than where you're sitting. And um it's funny, that path that you're talking about for your wife is why I founded um Skills Hub, this site. that I've come up with to kind of make the doors and the path easier for other people. But yeah, it's just persistence, man. I'm stubborn as they make them.
Yeah. Well, let's say, mean, we definitely wanted to pick your brain about skills hub. I mean, we're hearing all about it. And from what we understand about skills hub, this is an on-demand one-on-one acting class. It's a tool that houses some of the most successful industry professionals in the world. Yes. And you are one of the coaches. Can you us more about that? Because I'd love to get people to, you know, our goal is always to help other people in the industries that we're in, you know?
And so I'm sure that that's something that just like you said, you're that capitalist portion of you wants to help up and comers as well. tell us about that. Tell us about, you know, the rewarding experience and teaching young and hungry actors. Yeah. Well, you know, and first of all, I have to uh modify, have to qualify that capitalist moniker by saying it's sustainable capitalism. Sustainable. It's not the eat, it's young and me first kind. It's the, it's the all boats rise together kind.
Yeah. So the URL is acting.skillshub.life. And we have right now 52 coaches. And I say right now, cause we're literally adding more coaches every week. And these are people who work in AAA games. you know, top cartoons on, you know, DreamWorks, Netflix, Cartoon Network, Disney, LucasArts, Blizzard, um Sony, Warner Brothers, like all the companies, all the people that I've worked with for years. Many, many, many of them are coaching.
We have incredible coaches and we've laid it out in three levels. Like we have levels one, two, and three. And in level one, it's for people who just want to figure it out, just want to try it out, just want to test it. Maybe they want to book a 10 minute conversation with one of our coaches to go, how would I even do this? And then from there, like I do that with people.
And from there I go, okay, go see this coach for this and that coach for that and pick three more coaches and do some time and hit me up when you're done. We coach I think 27 or 28 different skills, because there's all these crazy skills inside voice acting. There's everything from ADR, looping, which is the dialogue replacement, the way anime is done and the way movies are kind of. sweetened before all the background noises and stuff to audio books to games, animation.
uh We even coached, we have people come in to get their D and D games to level up their D and D game. know, yeah. One of our coaches, Charles Ross, he did a fantastic coaching for one of our members on, on their D and D game, which was really fun. And, it's all super private and it came out of my need. to get just a second opinion on my auditions. We used to go and be directed all the time. Now we audition blind in this kind of vacuum, in this void of our home studios. Especially these days.
And you got no feedback. And the way coaching's traditionally set up is that you book an hour with a teacher or you take a class, whether it's like a three hour, one night class or an ongoing five week, four week, six week, three month, two year, whatever class. But sometimes you just need 10 minutes with someone you trust. Or you just want 20 minutes to figure out why you keep getting to a certain level and then you're not booking past that.
Or half an hour to go, okay, okay, okay, I'm doing this right now, but I want to be there. How do I get there? And our coaches are incredible for that. And plus we wanted it to have value because it's $12.99 a month. And we wanted there to be value for people who came in and just like hung out. They weren't ready for coaching. So we've got these killer, we've got a great forum. We've got this um opportunity board that we've built, which is really exciting.
I just found out that independent creators, like if you're making a game in your basement or your animated series out of the corner of your kitchen or something, and you're just like a hobby person, you're a hobbyist, you love it that way, or you're barely starting and you need a few voices, but you're not gonna go through the whole process of like becoming part of the union and doing all that or trying to find a formal casting process. You just need a couple things, a couple lines.
I found out that people do that through other services, I won't name names, but they charge you a fee to post that job. Or if you're the actor, they charge you a percentage of whatever you're making. We are not doing that. We just want to bring these two groups of people together for free on our board. mean, of course, our actors who are members of the site, have their monthly membership, but that's it. Creators is nothing. Just come in. It's called the Opportunity Board.
So again, it's connecting people. And you get access to that just for paying the same subscription service that you would for the classes. Yeah. Yeah. And it's not, that's just a cool thing. It's not formal classes either. It's, it's your personal recipe. You just go and pick some coaches and start some stuff. 12. That's like cheaper than Netflix. I right? I think so. right at Netflix. Now Netflix is not going to make you money. Take your money, your neck looks and chill yourself into eternity.
Right? No, that sounds incredible. Because I that's you know, like I think about it now and it might be going on a little tangent. Like I do. I help my wife with her self tapes, you know, and because because of COVID and quarantine. That's what a lot of people are doing. You see all these commercials that are airing now with people film them in their in their bathrooms or in their closets, using them as sound studios.
And that's the hard thing for me is because, know, as much as I love my wife, you know, when I when I film her and she gets all nice and gussied up, I'm like, You look beautiful. Like you, knock that line out of the park, but I'm, can't give her feedback like a professional would. So this sounds like something that would greatly benefit even my wife. like, this is something that, you know, just even talking to you, I see it. I see a ton of value in it. And even I would love to use it.
Yeah, it's really cool. are we have podcasting coaches. We have coaches about demos. We got on camera coaches. We got all of it. So yeah, come on in. Yeah. And we also have like, I'm creating this library, I sit down with each of our coaches one at a time. I think we've got 12 of these done so far. And I interview them. It's called a minute with and it's more than a minute. It's like 10, 15, 20, 25 minutes long.
But the ones who are casting directors, right and voice directors, I get to ask them things like, Okay, you get anywhere from 100 to 300 auditions or more for this single role. Are you listening to all of them all the way through? okay, so, seven to 10 seconds. Okay. What has you listened longer than that? What do you wish the actors would stop doing? What do you wish more actors would do? You know, like I get to ask those questions and it's all there and you guys get to listen to it.
Yeah, I'm the same way. I'm a huge proponent of if I send in an application for something or if I send in uh a submission of a video or a picture and I don't get it, tell me what I can do better the next time. And I know that a lot of actors, voice actors, they don't get that. And it can be like insanely frustrating, but you're giving people almost like you're giving them a one-on-one face-to-face time uh that helps them grow. That's incredible. Thank you.
That was what I wanted when I came up with the idea. Yeah, we're lucky enough to have the most amazing developer, Bill Reed. He's incredible. And he's really designed something amazing with this. Well, awesome. mean, is there anything else you want to tell us about skills hub? Because it sounds like an incredible service. Just come in.
know, one of the things we really want to see now, we haven't, we, I'm curious to see who's going to be the first one to post a job or a role that they want to cast on our opportunity board. I'm waiting for that. I'm really excited about it. That's one of the things I'm super excited about. We're also putting together a thing right now we're in beta mode, which really means we released uh the very end of June, just kind of in beta mode to make sure we had the bugs worked out.
did hours and hours and hours of one-on-one beta testing, but Now the summer has been about like, okay, people come in and use it. So in about a week, we're taking the beta off and we're full on. Are there any pieces of equipment that somebody would definitely need to be a part of this? This is what I say, if you can Skype your grandma or FaceTime your friend, you have everything you need to learn how to do this. know, later there's conversations on the forum about which mic to get, which this.
One of our coaches, Randy Coppinger, is an audio guy who's brilliant and you know, there's all kinds of resources, but to just jump in, just get started, that's all you need. FaceTime your friend, Skype your grandma, you're good to go. I don't want to dig in this too much. I feel like I'm overdoing it, but I gotta ask one last question. Is it just for in front of the mic or do you do coaching for people who want to be like soundboard techs or anything behind the mic? We have resources for that.
Again, I would suggest Randy. Randy Coppinger is amazing that way. And if there's something that you want on that site, and you don't see it, email support at skillshub.life because this whole site happened out of what people said they wanted and needed. And if we don't have it, we will go find it for you. We will. Or pop it in the forum and go, hey, I need to figure this out. And people will answer or a coach will pop in and go, hey, I've got 15 minutes next week.
Hit me up and we'll talk about it. Awesome. You heard it here people go and check this out, especially if you're interested in any kind of, I mean, if you're listening to this show, then you love podcasts. So if you want to do your own podcast, check out skills hub. have everything that you need to grow as a professional actor, voice actor, whatever, get in there and get some coaching. um Let's talk about your extensive career. If we don't mind segueing into that.
Yeah. Already knowing the impact you've had on the world of voice acting and every Jennifer Hale super fan out there probably has a different favorite role of yours. This is probably a question you received the most. But do you have a favorite role and which and on top of that, which role felt the most rewarding? man, that's a great question. ah Well, in terms of my favorite roles, honestly, my favorite role is not a particular role. It's the sheer variety of roles I've been able to do.
That's my absolute favorite thing. And there are several that are really, really rewarding. They are the roles that have incredible teams and great stories and It's not necessarily the gig that sets out to be a triple A repeat of its hit self. It's the thing with a team that sets out to make something just really cool in a really wonderful way. think of Course Mass Effect and I think of um even the beginning of Powerpuff Girls, back when Craig had just... was his Craig and Gindi.
was their first big thing that they sold and it was amazing. m know, Justice League back when it was just us just doing our thing and like Ratchet and Clank, that was an incredible team and an incredible experience. And Bioshock Infinite working with Ken Levine and the way that we got to do it was incredible. mean, they're all, when I think of them, I think of the teams and I think of, yes, the characters and the cool characters. And I think of just the joy I had working with those people.
Yeah, I have to say that like, you know, I love your passion. This conversation is not as by far not over, but I got to say, like, just hearing you talk about the roles that you've done and the passion that you have for it. You know, I I'm going to gush for a moment while still telling a little bit of a story. I every like I feels like everything that you voiced, I am just a huge fan of. And I guarantee you, you would never remember me out of millions of people that you've signed.
You've actually signed. two of my copies of Mass Effect 1 and 2. Your face looked familiar. Where did we meet? I want to say it was either Sakura Khan up in the Pacific Northwest, I think up in Seattle, if you've ever done signings up there. it might have been Emerald City, because it was actually probably over 10 years ago that you did it. I'm in the military. Chris and I met in the military. That's our background is he actually was one of my soldiers years ago. He got out of the military.
I'm still in. But I've moved all over the country and all over the world. I've gone to... many, many, uh, know, uh, conventions and that's where I actually got my, my Mass Effect copy signed by you. But, but the, the point is that you've had such a, uh, an impact on so many people, like you and the, and obviously your teams that you've worked with have had such an impact on people's lives, their imaginations.
I know for me, video game is like a stress relief, you know, it's a, it's it's a past time and an escape. So you, you and your teams have created these worlds. these universes, these Mass Effect stories, like how does that, how does that feel? Like to know that you are formative and Pete, like everything you've done, you've just, you've touched billions, millions of lives. Like, how do you feel? It's incredible. It's a huge honor. It's amazing. I feel incredibly lucky. I feel grateful.
I really do. I'm so grateful for the experience. I'm so grateful for the time. I'm so grateful that I got to be the one to play these roles because the truth is, everyone I work with, everyone I quote unquote compete against, and I don't believe in competition in that way, ah Everyone of my peers are phenomenal and could have done a fantastic job as well. And I feel really lucky that it got to be me. Yeah. It's amazing. I mean, even now I'm like hearing, Bob, get in there. Bob, do something!
Love it. Yeah. So let's, I want to round out our conversation here. Like I said, I've gushed enough and I'm sorry, don't want, the audience is not here to hear me and my adoration of you, but what would be your ultimate piece of advice? Cause I don't want to take anything away from skills hub. I know that's your passion. That's where you're putting all your, you know, your coaching and mentorship powers.
But what would be your ultimate piece of advice for somebody trying to get into the world of acting or voice acting? Yep, all right, I'm gonna name all the URLs. Okay, of course, acting.skillshub.live. um Also hit up Iwanttobeaviceactor.com, an incredible site that's completely free, which is just kind of a beautiful brain and experience dump from Dee Bradley Baker, who is one of the most incredibly talented and generous and lovely people in this industry. Okay, there's some basics.
There are some basics. So if you really want kind of a little bit of a roadmap. Listen to um demos. Find a way to listen to people's demos. If this is the career that you want, go to a voice bank or someplace. You can search for voiceover demo, find voice actors, whatever, and just start listening to the people that you really respect and admire and hear what they have out there. Don't go make a demo yourself yet.
Do what I call, what one of my mentors, Lisa Carpenter, calls the Chop Wood Carry Water activities, which for this career, they are kind of big basics. take an acting class or two or three. Not all at once, but just kind of get in some acting training. Get some improv training. Take a formal singing training class. And by formal, I mean like a Broadway belt training or opera.
And that's really specific because it's in order to create an instrument that's really strong and won't fail you when you have to do hours of talking like this. So those... Those three things, the singing lessons, the improv class, and the acting class, do those. um also, one of your big ones is learn how to manage money. Because there's going to be times in this business when you're in fashion, and there's going to be times when you're out of fashion. And it's not personal.
Again, read the four agreements. The first one is do not take anything personally. spread your money out. Be smart about that. Now, one of your best daily Chopwood carry water activities is reading out loud. Take your phone or whatever device you have that can record like a voice memo and read for one minute a piece of nonfiction you've never seen before. Just Google some news thing or some medical journal or some article or something. Read it out loud for one minute and listen to it back.
And then pick up a piece of fiction. It can be one you have or haven't read and read that. Something with maybe multiple characters and just kind of mess around. and listen back. And this is the most important thing I'm going to tell you right here. When you listen back, listen for what you're doing right, not what you're doing wrong. I don't care if you find one thing, find that one thing and put your attention on that. You're automatically going to note the stuff that you need to improve.
Don't dwell on it. Note it and move on, you know, and just... Because how you treat yourself is everything. It's not just everything in the arts and in performance. It's everything in your life. Make your life your biggest focus, not what you're going to get. As an actor, you also have to remember that the audition is the job. We aren't in here to, weirdly enough, like... Just remember the audition is the job.
And sometimes a second job comes along that's just like that other job and there's more people there and it lasts longer and there's a check attached. But the audition is the job. Because if you go in these auditions to get something, you're not 100 % immersed in acting the role. You're outside watching yourself to see if it's quote unquote good enough. And that's not your business.
Your business is to be your best on any given day and show up and let that writer see what his or her or their piece looks like coming through the little channel that is your soul, you know? And it is not a judgment on whether you're good enough. If you're walking around with that question, mm-mm, that question belongs nowhere but inside yourself. No one else gets to touch that. And have a good time.
Man, I'm a I need to take a moment after that because I feel like you're speaking directly to me and getting emotional. No, it's no, that's that's amazing. I mean, it's like a it's incredibly inspiring. like, know, you definitely again, that's you taking your experience, everything you've been through and funneling it into perfect words to inspire others. And I and I genuinely appreciate that.
We have, we're just about wrapping this up, but there's one, like two other things I really want to tap on before we close out the interview. And the first one is, you know, I noticed that you just a second ago, you were talking about money as well. I know that you have a podcast and I believe it's called the art of money. Tell us a little bit about that if you don't mind. I have actually transitioned that into a Patreon group.
And I initially did that podcast because money is one of the most powerful geopolitical forces today, right? It sort of makes the planet go round in some ways. It doesn't, but we're all into the illusion that it does. And frankly, you can't eat much without it. And I think that we're not taught a lot about money. And to me, I look at money like a table and it has four legs. And the first leg is knowledge. and second leg is the plan, and third leg is habits, and fourth leg is being.
And just to go into those for a second, knowledge is something that we're not given, sometimes quite purposefully. Because if you're England or Great Britain in the whatever century, you're kind of creating what we now know as school for a bunch of kids, and you're running a global empire without computers from a tiny island in the Atlantic, how do you do that?
you standardize reading, writing, and math, and you start programming people when they're really young to learn those things, and you teach them and you program them to obey and execute your orders. You don't tell them how it works. That won't go well for you. You don't tell them the inside stuff or they'll take over. So, knowledge is something we all could increase. That's a powerful thing. And when you have knowledge, then you can make a plan, right?
And when you know what your plan is, you can make up the habits that are going to help that plant, your chop wood carry water every day, things that make it happen, right? That fourth leg is a giant, big, fat, huge leg, disproportionately larger than the others. It's called being. And it's all the places that our mind and our unconscious are stuck. One of my mentors who I adore, his name is Jim Fortin. He's wonderful. He has a killer podcast as well.
And he talks a lot about money and stuff in our programming. And that whole being thing is... like the family you come from, what are the attitudes about money that no one talks about or does talk about or doesn't stop talking about? You know, what are your own attitudes about people with money? Are you judging people with money as a-holes? Because if you are, then you're unconsciously going to stop yourself from being one because you don't want to be ostracized and not belong and be hated.
So if you shift that and go, I love that people have wealth and money. I don't like the way those ones of those people behave, but it's not from the wealth and the money that they do that. It's, know, money just magnifies what you are. It just does. If you're a good person, you're going to go give a lot of it away. If, or not necessarily, you're going to create constructive things with it. If you're a person who destroys things, you're going to destroy more things with it.
You know, it's, it's, it's just a mirror and a symbol. One of my favorite things that I heard years ago from another mentor was if you talked about your friends, the way you talk about money, would you have any, you know, I love that question. anyway, I transitioned all of that into a thing that I do on Patreon. It's just a little group that we have. It's called The Haven. And it's where we come together and I kind of backed it up into that being space almost completely.
And we will start walking into money more and more. We've just been around for a couple months. I'm in the kind of baby stages of it. And in The Haven, we get together now twice a month. And we talk about, I have to update the website because it still says one month. once a month. We talk about um really you guys. I don't talk about myself and my career, any of that stuff, unless it's a useful example. And what I say in there is I'm not a therapist. I'm not a financial expert.
I'm a person who had a really hard start in this world. And I busted my butt. And I also spent a lot on therapy and recovering uh from all the road rash from my childhood. And then all the subsequent road rush from all the decisions that came out of all the programming from the childhood. And so I'm not a professional, I'm not an expert, but I'm a person who's lived that life.
And if my learnings and my experience and all that crazy money I spent recovering and learning about stuff can benefit anybody else, I'm just here to share. I'm just here to share and support and create a community. And we've got an incredible community. It's really awesome. We have three pillars. The first is... reconnecting you to your gut. Reconnect you to your gut. You know a lot. And don't second guess yourself. You know. Deep down in your quiet place, you know.
Not your fears and your paranoias and your thinky, thinky, thinkies, but your quiet place, you know. And the second thing is, uh let's get you what you want. Do you even know what you want? Or are you buying into what corporate America or whatever else has told you you should want? So let's strip that away and get you back to what makes you happy. Is it making shoes somewhere in the woods? Is it helping kids? Is it building an empire? What is it? What's your happy?
Are you not building an empire because you live with a bunch of people who think that's evil? Are you not making shoes or tossing cow patties because you live with a bunch of empire people who don't like that? Let's get you back to you. And then the third thing is we are the ones we've been waiting for. The current system works really well for what I call the corporate overlords. ah They're not going change it because it works beautifully for them.
Like in their own self-interest, they're taking care of themselves following their instincts and it's serving them really well and so are all of us. We're serving them. We are the ones we've been waiting for. No one is going to do this for us but us. And even in the group when people share them like, please don't give advice, give support. this get all get help this person get quiet and hear themselves and support them to do what they know is best for themselves.
And if they can't hear it, Let's sit in the quiet space with them and tell them we've all been there. We all know what it's like not to even know which way is up and I can't even flip and hear myself anymore. That's okay. We'll hang out here with you. Maybe we'll watch a show. know, like we won't watch shows on there, but you know what I mean? Like, yeah, we'll send you a binge list that helps us when things are hard.
Sometimes it's just about community sharing, sharing that those answers when you were, when you were suffering, what did you do to solve it? And maybe that can help somebody else. truly mirror that philosophy and that's something I actually followed myself very much because you know, as a, uh as a, I'm not going to call myself a leader, but I am a leader in the military.
I have soldiers and that's what I try and do is I try and use the lessons that I've learned throughout the mistakes that I've made during my life and try and make sure that my soldiers that come into the military and do the things after me, even though they'll there long after I'm gone, that they don't make the same mistakes. Can I invite you to something in terms of your language? You used the word try a few times in that last sentence.
And try is a really interesting thing for our unconscious mind and weirdly enough, our physiology as well. Another one of my mentors, Jill Renee Stevens, she had this incredible video where this guy was trying to say, he was using try in his language and he literally couldn't make this thing happen. He was like, what? And she took the word try out of a sentence and bam, physiologically.
So that word is, it's almost like a hedge that we use in case we're wrong, but you're never wrong about what you feel and you think and you believe and your job is to stand fully in that, especially as the leader that you are. You know what you know. It may not be everybody's flavor, but there is no try as Yoda says, there is only do or not do and you're right and you know, and you're not trying to impose it on everybody. You're simply offering what you know. Whew! Just food for thought.
No, I appreciate it. This is, you know, especially coming from you, that means the world to me. So I very much appreciate that. The last thing, if we do have time, I know we got to wrap this up. kind of getting long on time. But the last thing I wanted to ask you about is... your song that you have actually on your website that I listened to it a couple of times. It's been stuck in my head. It's called Never.
Yeah. And I wanted to ask you more about your singing career because I mean, we all know that you can speak well. Yeah, we all know that you can do characters. But a lot of people may not know that you are an accomplished singer. Like you were saying earlier, you used to play in a band or used to sing in a band. Tell us more, you know, or tell us as much as you want to about that. And if you don't explaining that song, Never, because it's a beautiful song. Thank you. Thank you.
I wrote my first song when I was 12. I was at camp and I borrowed some counselor's guitar and I wrote a song and everyone liked it. I was like blown away. And then I didn't touch it again because I had no self-belief, right? I had that high challenge plan beginning in life. And then I started the old first, I did not drink as a kid and kids don't drink until your age to drink.
But when I was 15, I did do a couple of shots of Jack Daniels that gave me enough courage to get up at a band practice and sing. And I was like, I knew I could do it. And then I didn't touch it again for like seven years. uh I've always loved singing. I've always loved writing. I keep trying to play these guitars behind me, but I'm not disciplined that way. And I got spoiled by working with such good players. But Kree Summer, actually, who's an extraordinary singer and songwriter.
And she said, honey, you don't have to know how to play it all. They do that for you. And I finally took her, like figured out what she meant. this like a year plus ago and I went in and recorded Never and I recorded Sea of Stars last year during the pandemic, ah virtually with Todd Herfindahl. We co-wrote that ah for Christopher Paolini's project, um To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, the fractal verse that he's creating out of an incredible novel. I did the audio book for that.
It was my first audio book. It was like 880 pages plus. wow. Let's go in the deep end, shall we? No, I love to sing and that song, thank you. Honest to God, I keep dropping in and out with guitar teachers and my guitar teacher gave me these exercises just to work on plucking strings. And I was like, okay, I can pluck these two strings. And then this song came through and I don't ever, I don't know who those people are. I love them and I deeply appreciate their story.
I have no idea, it just came through me and I'm super grateful. And I have tons of, I have a bunch more songs to record and to do. I walk around singing them and I'm, there was one, see. Gonna take off these wings, gonna set down this sword, gonna step out this car and slide into the dirt, into this herd, into the low, low tide. Like that one came along during the pandemic. Thank you. And I'll get that one laid down when I can. I have all the instruments. They all play in my head.
It's just, I literally will go on GarageBand and go, whee, whee, whee. know, like just make the sounds of the instruments. I'm like, okay, good luck guys. Let me know if you can figure it out. Sorry. I think we'll need to get a copy of that if you don't mind. I will. I'll send it out, I'll be out when it's time for sure. Thank you. I'm so glad you like this song. That means so much to us. No, it was beautiful.
I hate to end this interview, but I know you probably have a ton of stuff in your schedule. So we just want to say thank you so much for sitting down with us today. Like you said at the beginning, you are an icon, a living icon, within voice acting, within pop culture, and we cannot express how much we appreciate you being here with us. How much I can express you being here and your words of wisdom, your taking try out of that. And I will keep that. I will keep that close.
uh Before we do say goodbye, is there anything that you want to plug? there anything that you want to tell us about this more skills hub or if anybody wants to check out your album or your songs, they can go check them out on your website. You can find them. think they're on my website, jennifereale.com. They're also on all the platforms, Spotify, all the ones, Apple Music, all those. They're everywhere.
I always post when I'm up to on Twitter and Instagram, but I never post until uh somebody who started the project has posted because I don't want to get in trouble. Everything is under NDA. But no, really just, the one thing I do wanna say is a huge thank you to you guys. And I wanna say thank you to everybody out there for listening, for playing, for watching, for all that stuff. And I want you to remember, I've been saying this lately, because it's so true.
And we hear this all the time, right? There's no one else like you. But the truth is there's only one of you and you matter. Go be you, because if you don't do it, it will never have happened and that would be sad. So thanks for being here. Last thing I just remembered that I wanted to tell you is completely small and nothing and just it's random. It's a random thought. uh I am actually on like right about to finish Ratchet and Clank Rifts Apart. So uh I have been loving that game.
Obviously, you you're you you play Rivet, who is the brand new character in the Ratchet and Clank universe. So if anybody out there has not played Ratchet and Clank. rifts apart yet. It is an incredible game. once again, you know, she's here right with her. She's right here with us. Jennifer Hale voices the lead Rivet, the Lombax. So check it out as well. And with that, you know, I want to say thank you again. I'm going to gush a little bit more.
It has been such a pleasure and an honor to be able to just even speak with you and have you here on our show, the Oblivion Bar podcast. You are an icon and you are a beautiful soul and a beautiful person and thank you so much for you know everything that you do for all of nerddom and uh we hope to see you soon and we'd love to have you back anytime. Thank you. I would love to. Thank you so much, you guys.