I think what people really hate is stunt casting. Mark Hamil is allowed to go crazy with his voices but Scarjo has to sound like ScarJo because she was hired for marketing reasons. Her performance is going to be knee capped because of it.
This is basically what it comes down to. There's three steps here instead of two, and that leads to confusion and frustration between 1 and 3. Step 1: People complain due to forcing actors into va roles for no purpose other than to get audiences to go "Wow! Celebrity I know is playing Shadow the Hedgehog!", resulting in stunted stunt performances. Step 2: Content creators who want clicks see that and twist it further, because it draws a reaction: "No actor can become a voice actor. They're bad". Step 3: Littlest Joel sees step 2 and assumes that is also the complaint of step 1.
Marketing reasons aren’t always bad. In video games we hire actors based upon genre associations so that their audiences might take a gamble on our game.
Yeah I'd say a lot of the anti-celebrity-VA sentiment comes from people who come from animation and gaming spaces where their main experience of celebrity VAs is the industry replacing original iconic VAs for film adaptations or recent releases just to give a way more boring/generic performance a la Chris Pratt's Mario, Kiefer Sutherland's snake, Cumberbatch's Grinch, etc And so that combined with how the film industry largely refuses to let career VAs break into movies to even get a chance to prove themselves creates frustration with the general trend of disrespect even when a lot of celebrity VAs are still fine or even good
Because people would definitely want to listen extremely annoying stereotypical Italian accent for 90 minutes... Super Mario gets an annoying stereotypical Italian accent only after Nintendo 64. Before that, he had a Brooklyn accent in animated shows.
Not to mention Charles Martinet is an elderly man, who would coincidently go on to retire shortly after the movie was released. It would be unfair to make an elderly man act in a feature length movie. A lot of people disliked Indy 5, because putting a man who should have retired on the screen was off-putting. The Super Mario Movie would have been a bit of an Indy 5 to put Charles in. Considering his resume, Chris Pratt was the kind of generic safe pick a studio like Illumination would make, wasn't he. It was annoying, not bad or surprising. This is a criticism of Illumination.
I remember the story how when Space Jam came, out none of the voice actors for the Looney toons where initial invited too any of the openings or parties and that people had too push for them too get invites
@@ExtremeMadnessX What is with you people misrepresenting what we wanted? We wanted an actual voice actor to voice Mario. Not some bible thumping POS named Chris Pratt
Broke: Stop hiring Akwafina Woke: Voice actors tend to be better at voice acting but lots of screen actors are good voice actors Bespoke: Stop hiring Chris Pratt
I think tying Awkwafina hate to the “screen actor versus voice actor” issue was a huge mistake, now that I’ve had time to digest it. She’s not even “not a voice actor!” People just find her annoying for various other reasons. Chris Pratt is right there!
Yeah he dropped the ball on this video. It really didn’t have to be about one singular person (who has done a very reasonable share of both screen acting and voice acting). The original video made that mistake and Little Joel kinda fell into the same trap here.
Absolutely. Chris Pratt could easily replace all of Awkafina's roles. In fact, I think we ought to do away with having different voice actors for each character, just let Chris Pratt voice everyone.
@@BradsGonnaPlay she; I’m talking about the person who originally made the video he’s responding to. I also disagree with much of Joel’s take here, but I don’t think he deserves all the blame for missing the point, because the point was muddled to begin with
@@wesshiflet2214 i know that now and I knew that when I responded- He, I’m talking about Henry based on your original comment talking about the original video. Other than that completely agreed.
Listen, I'm just a regulat guy who believes in freedom. If you want to like Awkwafina that's your business, but you should do it at home and not shove it down our throats
Awkwafina reminds me a lot of Adam Sandler in a way: she has shown she can be a great actor with a ton of dramatic range in movies like The Farewell, but she’s often typecast as a very specific archetype in comedies/family films and to such a frequent degree that a lot of people forget she can be a great voice actor without being annoying.
its probably worse because adam sandler decides to do that and he prefers it, seeing a lot of schloco movies as excuses to chill out on vacation no one knows awkwafina's choice
@@internetguy7319This is the huge difference for me. For her I can excuse it more as she is mainly an actor. For Sandler, he makes the film equivalent of Shovelware on purpose because he's just kind of a cynical asshole. I don't really care how well Sandler does in stuff like Uncut Gems when he won't stop producing ableist and misogynistic trash.
If you squint closely you can see Awkwafina is in the background at 0:03 so I think Medium Joel is being held hostage and forced to make this against his will... Was this even Henry, or was Awkwafina simply voice acting for him???
Awkwafina RUINED my Angry Birds The Movie 2 - 2019 Animated Film viewing experience. She just didnt have what it took to portray Courtney the entitled millennial pig.
Apropos of nothing, there's a podcast that's all about how the Angry Birds drink piss in the first angry birds movie, and it has over a hundred episodes
Of course we can make the argument that kids don't need the highest quality, but sometimes there's an animation that aims at all ages. It's also annoying when people get hired for name, and not skill, which was the point of the video.
@@PKM1010 I think kids deserve the best quality, the fact so much animation for kids is slop is sad, i dont think Awkwafina is the problem and the way the video talks about her voice is fucked.
Celebrity VAs frustrate me because it means that hugely talented industry VAs who could play these roles just as well or better are very often barred from doing so for the purposes of marketing, much in the same way sequels, remakes, and reboots are prioritized over original IPs. The ultimate example of both of these phenomena is the Lion King remake. Chiwetel Ejiofor is an amazing actor, but he was not cast as Scar over Jeremy Irons because he was the better choice, it was because he was more famous as a recent oscar winner. John Oliver was not picked over Rowan Atkinson because he was more talented, it was because he currently hosts a popular talk show, and Rowan does not. The Lion king was not remade because they had an interesting new direction to take it, it was because it would be easy to market to nostalgic millennials. I understand how important marketability has become in the modern film media landscape, but at some point I want to see unrecognized talent and ideas brought to the forefront for no other reason than that it will make a good movie, and celebrity voice acting as it currently stands can work against that.
@@bluester7177agreed. I love Troy Baker but he's on fucking everything! Yet, using less celebrities would probably give more chances to other VAs alongside the established ones to make a living
Counterpoint: James Earl Jones reprised his role as Mufasa in The Lion King (2019) and he did a terrible job. Who's to say Jeremy Irons and Rowan Atkinson would've done as good of a job today as they did in 1994? Were these people even interested in reprising their roles?
They're not "barred", you think they don't get to audition even? Makers of a piece of art have every right to make that casting decision regardless how it feels
Idc about Awkwafina, but I do care about talented VA’s losing out on jobs or fair pay just because a studio decides to blow their budget on star-power as a marketing tactic. This is the whole reason Robin William’s didn’t want to be used in the marketing for Aladdin.
But more talented actors often lose parts to more famous actors, whether they are voice actors or not. A big name can sell a film. I don't think that's something that's unique to voice acting.
Going a bit deeper, I find it interesting this criticism often comes up around women, minority or queer actresses than say, when The Rock and Kevin Hart get cast as voice roles. For some reason, people feel really, really comfortable shitting all over her specifically. It's some combination of who she is, how she rose to fame (AAVE) and the current safe pattern Hollywood is trading in. There will always be actors with limited ranges or very specific sounding voices, iconic to them alone. You don't hire Arnold Schwarzenegger for his Shakespearean delivery... You hire him to kick ass with a thick Austrian accent, maybe while smoking a stogie. So, there are people who just don't like how this lady sounds, I get it. I'm gonna let you in on a secret- that's going to happen no matter what. Even if you stop watching movies completely, you'll eventually run into an Awkwafina in real life; and they'll be your roommate, or your teacher, or your landlord, or or or and you'll have to fucking learn to deal 😢or idk kill that person. Atleast you can just choose not to watch movies with this lady in it...
@@willpalmer615 The issue is that voice actors don't have the ability to rise to the same status as other actors, it's not a very respected career because being freakishly into games or animation to the point of following the actors is not mainstream in the same way it is for film actors, it's considered nerdy and sometimes even childish. That's why people are frustrated. It doesn't mean celebrity VAs are bad it's just frustrating because animation is so underlooked compared to live action and the people who work primarily in animation don't get their due credit.
@@willpalmer615this would only be true if the celebrity has an iconic voice. You couldn't tell Chris Pratt from a man off the street without seeing him and you know it.
"I thought Scuttlebutt was the most interesting part of that movie." And I thought the car wreck I drove past was the most interesting part of my commute home from work the other day. Really damning with faint praise here.
For me I don’t think it’s so much that celebrities are incapable of also being good voice actors, but that they end up being picked over someone who would end up being a *better* fit because having a big name is good marketing Like I don’t want to listen to a fine voice acting performance if it’s gonna sound just like that celebrity so I can go “oh hey that’s so and so”
yea, if I can recognize the voice it breaks the immersion of the movie for me. I think often celebrity VAs don't change their regular speaking voice enough to not be immediately recognizable so I spend the whole movie just picturing them in a sound booth. The worst example of this for me was definitely Benedict Cumberbatch's Grinch movie because it had so many celebrities.
But this is also true of every other kind of Hollywood movie. Why frame it as an animation problem? Hollywood studios always want big names in lead roles.
@@AdamOfNebbjust because the problem also exists elsewhere doesn’t invalidate the complaints of it here. Choosing star power over a better actor sucks in live action and in animation.
@@AdamOfNebb honestly? because I don’t want to see my beloved niche be consumed by hollywood. Animation isn’t the same as live action movies. It has its own group of artists doing distinct work, its own group of “big names.” bringing in celebrities from outside this is a sign that they would prefer to cater to a wider audience that wouldn’t otherwise really respect the animation for the work that those artists do alone- for profit. And that sucks!
for those who are wondering, the reason a lot of people don't like awkwafina is because for a long time her whole shtick was putting on a Black american accent and using it for comedy. a lot of people think she took it too far and that she was just mocking Black americans, only to drop it when she started getting more serious acting roles and had a whole rebrand. this often gets brought up on certain online spaces but i don't think people outside of it are aware of this at all. idk if this is the reason why ModernGurlz even made that video, but it's definitely part of the reason why it went viral lol.
Thank you, I was hoping somebody pointed this out (it seems a few others have, too). The fact she is STILL getting work under the name Awkwafina is WILD.
It's crazy people do this thing where they hate someone for one reason, but instead of criticizing them for that, they hate on them for anything they do, and people who don't know about the original reason just think the person being hated on sucks. It's insidious.
@@greyfox4838 she does suck tho lol, there’s nothing insidious about having a bad reputation for performing, and profiting off, a racist caricature. she burned the good faith she had by doubling down when ppl were challenging her, and stopping only when it benefitted her.
@@greyfox4838 i think this is a natural thing tbh, no one wants to provide a paragraph of context before writing a silly little tweet. sometimes i want to be a hater and not have to explain why lol. if anything people should do a little research before adopting someone else's opinions. but in this case people disliking awkwafina doesn't seem terrible to me, especially because the online hate hasn't affected her career and she hasn't had a lot of irl pushback for continuously mocking black people.
I did too. I found th original animated bird kinda annoying but was suprisingly more palatable in the live action with her voice acting. "Did she kill the prince yet?"
Idk I always feel a bit bad that a lot of leading roles for voice acting are given to celebrities for what seems like marketing purposes. There are plenty of professional voice actors who could probably do a better job so it just feels unfair
this happens in live action cinema as well tho, big name actors whose presence could conceivably drive up ticket sales are prioritised over actors that would actually be more suitable for the role
At this year's MomoCon I asked a couple of seasoned voice actors - Richard Horvitz and SungWon Cho (aka ProZD) - what they think of celebrity casting in feature animation, and they both told me that they didn't have all that much animosity over it; they both acknowledged that it's all about the talent for them and many celebrities known for live action are also trained vocalists. Funnily enough though, SungWon was told at some point - I believe after that panel or at least after I left (asterisk) - that he was ALMOST cast in Kung Fu Panda 4 but executives told the co-director that he wasn't famous enough to be cast in the film. 🙃 (asterisk: I don't know EXACTLY when or where he was told this info, but I follow him on Twitter and I'm pretty sure he tweeted about it after the panel AND on the same day. I have no way of knowing for sure, but I like to think my question spurred someone to tell ProZD about Kung Fu Panda 😁.)
Recently Rachel Lillis (original VA for Jessie, Misty in Pokémon) lost her battle with cancer but her family had to open a gofindme because she couldn't afford decent hospice. Fans ended up paying for it. Maybe celebrities get enough work; they don't need to take away work from others.
That is not at all the fault of celebrity voice actors and is 100% the fault of both the massive corporations paying people as little as they can so they can give their CEOs another billion dollar raise, and also America having an absolutely awful health care systems that bankrupts people all the time. Blaming celebrity voice actors for it is absurd and misses the whole point.
Lmao that’s a problem with US healthcare not fucking voice acting. If I work really hard and I make 200,000 dollars at my job and poor Joe only makes 40,000 and does of cancer because he can’t afford his treatments would you blame me? That’s such a dumb example
100% an issue with American healthcare, but also why blame the celeb voice actors when the more clear blame falls on the people deciding how much traditional voice actors should get paid. Support the voice actors union if you want voice actors to get paid more.
You cant say with a straight face the industry is not now HUGELY skewed towards preexisting talent- which more often than not leans towards bland or just awful performances
Oh, so two years ago when it became the past is your issue, that you're just never going to get over someone growing up in Queens then talking like they grew up in Queens.
@@nimroderyAwkwafina grew up in Forest Hills, Queens - a majority white neighborhood, and went to la guardia high school, also majority white. She‘s acknowledged that her Blaccent was a result of media consumption, and not a result of her environment. She was a comedy rapper, so her use of AAVE was aimed to be funny, a parody. There’s historical significance to a non-black person creating and using a caricature of blackness to be funny, and pursue fame. The punchline/angle of the bit is rooted in anti-blackness. Her motivations were not genuine, which is why people are critical of her pivot to a neutral speaking voice after gaining mainstream attention. And why people continue to be critical and weary of her. This is not isolated to Awkwafina either, you have other examples like lil dicky who “rebrand” once they achieve enough success. It’s endemic to North American media in general.
@@RogueCityDynasty Not sure how "majority white" makes the difference here, I went to a "majority white" school too yet my friends don't sound like Mr Rogers. In her statement (after two years of no posts) she said the accent came from her environment and media consumption (like basically everyone). She didn't say it wasn't from her environment but the exact opposite. Also she mentioned that Asian Americans were still learning where they do and don't belong, which is a hard part to miss if you actually read it. But you think she said something else entirely. So I just don't know.
@@RogueCityDynasty wait, so people were criticizing her for speaking AAVE, then she stopped, now they're mad because she "pivoted"? That seems inconsistent to me.
Awkwafina is in the Chris Pratt camp of "old executives just now figured out that that she's hip so by God they'll typecast her and put her in everything!"
i feel like the problem with chris prat is like the oppositie of type casting, he just gets shoehorned into every VA role that does not fit him in the slightest
I haven't seen the video that you're talking about, so I won't try to defend whatever point she was making, but I don't think there's any inherent contradiction between saying "always hiring celebrities to play the big voice acting roles is bad" on the one hand, and "some celebrities have become great voice actors" on the other. The problem, as I see it, is that there are people who have devoted their entire careers to being great voice actors and work their asses off doing television cartoons, anime dubs, and video games, but when the time comes to cast the latest big-budget, high-paying prestige animated film or Studio Ghibli dub, they get completely neglected in favor of already-wealthy big-name stars who were cast less for their voice talent and more for audience recognition. Some actors prove equally adept at both screen and voice acting, like Mark Hamill, and it's perfectly reasonable for them to get cast in both types of project. But I think it's kind of messed up that career voice actors can't get the most high-profile voice acting roles because those are always given to the big Hollywood stars instead.
I didn't watch the original video and have zero toughts on Awkafina. But I think while some actors did a great job, you are overlooking the slew of terrible celebrity voice acting that has been plaguing animation since forever. For every good celebrity voice actor you mentioned theres like five that just suck and should've been replaced by real voice actors. Its not about never hiring a celebrity to play a voice role, its about giving those voice roles to the people most suited to playing it.
It is a stone cold fact that studios would much rather hire an actor you know from live performances than a voice actor who's right for the part, and there are hundreds of examples of bad casting choices as a result. Voice actors are looked down upon by big studio productions because they're not worth as much as 'real' actors to them. Chris Pratt was chosen as Mario based on how popular he was at the time from his live action films, not based an audition or anyone thinking he was right for the part. That is a real actual industry problem, no matter how many of these performances you can point to as adequate, good or even great. Voice actors face genuine discrimination within the medium they excel in, simply because their name on a poster won't bring in as many sales (in the mind of an executive). A big studio would rather pay Robert Downey Jr. 10x as much as someone who's voiced the same character in games or TV in the movie adaptation simply because he's seen as a bigger draw, and that is, no matter how you look at it, bullshit. That isn't to say that we should gatekeep live action actors or singers or whatever from being cast in voice acting roles, sometimes they really are the best person for the part. But we can't pretend it's always just a merit-based situation that harms no one.
i personally dislike awkwafina because she's very antiblack. this isn't to say people can't change or if you dispel any harmful ideas ever you shouldn't be redeemed- but it's very inseparable from her personality and career branding
Celebrities _can_ do good VA work. However, it's a problem when their name becomes a bigger part of the promotion than the premise of the story itself. Are you there because the movie itself sounded good, or for the novelty of seeing a celebrity's voice come out of a cartoon character's mouth?
I think the point of these videos is that star power is taking too much of a weight in the casting decisions, where talent and character fit should be the most important thing. Though this has been the case for all acting roles for all time, and I think people just think about this for animation because previously it was an entirely ignored medium in Hollywood, but now it is much more present.
I just think there should be more than 10 voice actors. Yuri Lowenthal, Steve Blum, Matt Mercer, Troy Baker, Jen Hale, Laura Bailey, and Tara Strong dont have to be in everything... There are plenty of talented aspiring VAs out there who get like no big roles, and the people they lose to tend to be these few being in like 20 series a year
i get that overplaying "confusion" is kind of part of the brand, but this really felt like a bad faith interpretation of the original video, as it didn't really engage with what the video was saying - e.g. that many conventional celebrities don't do interesting voice work when cast as VAs as the studio is banking on their recognizable voices to help sell the film and/or they're not trained to change their voices in the same way
I actually like Awkwafina, but she has a very distinct voice and I’m tired of her essentially being cast for the exact same voice acting role in every animated film she’s in. Please, PLEASE involve her as something else than the same wise-cracking goober. It’s a big part of why I love Angela Giarratana in Starkid Productions. She has a distinct voice, but she’s also played such incredibly different roles in the performances she’s done that it doesn’t feel like the characters are just Angela in a different hat.
It's not celebrity voice acting that's an issue, it's celebrity stunt-casting. Jack Black playing a panda who does kung-fu? Perfect role for him. Frankly, it's a little odd it took that long for that role to exist. But no one in their right mind thinks that Chris Pratt is a good fit for playing Mario for any reason other than getting butts in seats.
just throwing this out there, but Rockstar Games ALWAYS hires voice actors and actresses that are out of the spotlight, and they're usually all very talented and gives them their big break when people say "stop hiring awkwafina.." its because she's already VERY famous and has a VERY recognizable voice, taking away spots that could've been filled by newer fresher voices
I just want VAs to be hired for the role, the best person for the role. That could be a screen actor like Mark Hamill, who remember was actually fighting an uphill battle getting hired for Joker because of type casting but killed the audition so hard he got hired for it. Screen actor or not, the best VA for the role please thank you.
I think Saberspark's video "What's RUINING voice acting? (Hollywood just doesn't care)" does a better job explaining the issues with celebrity voice casting
I mean, it's not recket science. Hollywood likes money, slapping a celebrity's name on a movie brings more money, the performance quality doesn't matter
Okay but the hatred of the celeb voice actors for that is silly. It's not their fault they were cast over traditional voice actors for their name recognition: it's the studio's fault. This is such weird cognitive dissonance to blame the people doing the work not the people doing the hiring and I think people only do it because they know who Jack Black/Awkafina is but they don't want to do the research to find out who decided to hire them and/or just hate that specific actor.
rare little joel L i have no idea how “please hire more voice actors to voice characters” translated in your mind to “so you HATE screen actors as voice actors???? so you hate eddie murphy as donkey???” the whole point is that hollywood uses celebrities as a draw for animated films regardless of how good they are at voice acting rather than hire people who voice act as a main thing. That is in fact a big talking point in animation circles and i suppose the video just took it as a given that you’d heard it before, but like. you know, it does exist. The hatred for awkwafina mainly comes from her oversaturation and annoying fake blaccent.
2:17 is the main point, I think. The Awkwafina video starts with a title and thesis that alludes to the argument you're referring to, but there's no substance to it. It just kind of gestures at the popular idea of 'celebrity casting is a big, problematic trend' and then immediately abandons actually exploring/justifying that argument in favour of complaining about Awkwafina specifically. So why put 'bring back real voice actors' in the title at all? The video could just be called 'Awkwafina is a bad voice actor' and then there would be no confusion. And saying 'bring back real voice actors' implicitly does suggest that screen actors shouldn't be voice actors - that there's something wrong with it. The actual thing that people are mad about is simply bad casting of voice roles. That's it. It's stunt casting of people who are a bad fit for the role, which happens on stage and screen too. It has nothing to do with 'real voice actors', but somehow that's the direction the rhetoric has gone, probably because people who are aspiring voice actors want to have some kind of moral high ground to stand on.
@@stuart5824lmfao ur just making the same logical gaps, the last bit is unique and funny though. apparently aspiring vas are a group of ppl able to somehow spark conversations
I don't know about that video Joel critiqued, but most people I've heard who don't like so many celebrities taking over voice acting are annoyed that in many cases, the casting decisions are made on the basis of celebrity rather than talent and appropriateness for the role. It doesn't mean it's always badly done; it does mean that sometimes bad decisions are made (e.g., John Oliver as Zazu), while many voice actors are losing work.
John Oliver is particularly egregious- I like the guy fine, but he’s barely an actor at all! They thought he was “born to play Zazu” just because he’s English and nebbish?
My problem with celebrities in voice acting is that they've started using them more in animation than they used to, so they're just soaking up more of the roles and money and not giving other people a chance. It's just getting harder and harder for anyone to break into the industry.
Arguably it's easier from a technical perspective now, you don't need a huge budget to make a decent looking film. We're maybe not in the heyday of animated movies but there's still a ton of them.
Okay, so why blame the celeb voice actors for that and not the studios hiring them? Pretty sure Awkafina didn't call each of these movies studios to ask them to hire her over traditional voice actors.
@@NoHiro-qc4dv Who's blaming her? They're saying to stop hiring her specifically. It's not her fault that she's getting the jobs necessarily, but studios need to realize that you can oversaturate a market by hiring the same person over and over.
@@jamalgibson8139 stop hiring her specifically won't stop celebrity voice actors from being hired so why make this about her and not about the studios? Why aren't videos like this being made about Jack Black? Really makes you think.
Isn't this just an issue with celebrities as a whole then considering the fact that by them being in any movie whatsoever they are preventing an up and coming actor from making their debut? I don't really understand how this is much different from that.
@@shavonI think people really started calling her out after she dropped the “accent” and started perusing different types of roles and left rapping behind. The fact that she could drop it so easily after leaving a black cultural space makes it seem like the accent was fake the whole time. And tbf she is not the only celebrity people have called out for this. I’ve seen plenty of people call out Jack Harlow for dropping his whole aesthetic to make more money in more traditionally white cultural pursuits. Awkwafina gets brought up the most because I think she’s just such an egregious example of this phenomenon
Yeah people just think she’s corny and look for other reasons to criticize her. And like half of Not Like Us was basically about this. Tbh, even though he’s black/biracial, Drake is less likely than Awkwafina to have spoken AAVE growing up. Because he’s literally not American.
(Not to get off topic- I’ve lived in both NYC and Ontario and I haven’t noticed black ppl in Ontario speaking AAVE natively or at all really. There is an accent/dialect associated with black people (and other minorities) in Toronto but it’s closer to Caribbean dialects)
@@shavon That definitely could be the case. She has said in the past that Awkwafina is like the alter ego to her more quiet and passive personality, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. I didn't realize she wasn't using AAVE as much anymore... I have heard the critique that she can turn off her accent to her benefit before but it was more about an interview she was doing. but then again, even people who naturally speak with AAVE can code switch. i do agree that there are many other celebrities that are more egregious AAVE users. Still, i think that people find that awkafinas accent sounds especially forced and obnoxious but who knows if it really is or not. I was reading an article about her responding to criticism of her using AAVE and her response seemed pretty good and genuine.
@@sethlattner6679 I'm not super well-versed on these sorts of issues but wouldn't that fall under the umbrella of code switching? Now that I think about it though, Boots Riley made a whole movie about - among other themes- how code switching reinforces white supremacy _(Sorry to Bother You)_
honestly, my problem isn't with people like Jack Black or Eddie Murphy being voice actors, they're already professional Actors and Comedians. my problem is with people like, say, Rihanna or Lebron James. i.e. Celebrities with little to no prior acting experience being shoved into Animated Features to sell Tickets on Name Recognition alone
Is Awkwafina really famous? I barely know who she is, is she pulling in huge money for voice acting? What a weird focus - if this is about getting VAs more work and better wages, I just doubt Awkwafina is the key to it all. She’s no Jar Jar.
Mostly she’s just in a lot of movies atm. Probably because she has a very iconic voice that works well for animation because it’s a little bit over the top, but she’s just in so many movies and some people don’t like her style I think
@@acoelomate2984 This and she plays the same character in each movie. If you don't like one, you're not gonna like any of them, and that can add to the "i keep seeing her everywhere" feeling.
@@FungusTrooper i hadn't even heard of her but i honestly thought all those characters were played by different actors who just happened to fit into a really prevalent archetype to the point that they just became interchangeable lol
I can understand not being a fan of celebrities doing voice acting. And Awkwafina seems to be playing the same role almost all of the time now. Which can be definitely annoying. But I also think you can also just not like someone without being that deep. And that's fine! Not everyone has to like each other without someone being evil. I honestly think if Awkwafina tried doing some more "prestigious" movies, people would be less annoyed with her. Because I'm honestly just tired of her recent roles lol.
I do genuinely think that celebrity voice acting becoming the norm in movies has not been great. Ever since Aladdin, its become more and more common, and while sometimes actors can do seriously good voice acting, they are entirely different skills, meaning that some will be WAY worse. (People have already pointed this out, but Chris Pratt in Mario, Beyonce in Lion King, Taylor Swift in the Lorax are some examples.) It doesn't seem like that big of a problem until you realize that ACTUAL voice actors aren't getting hired for voice acting roles at nearly the rate they should be! So I think it is pretty cool to push back against sub-par celebrity voice acting, though I hold no grudge against Awkwafina lol, I thought her voice in Bad Guys was good and haven't seen her in anything else animated.
Feel the need to point out that the youtuber who made that video has said (and I quote directly) "i’m not obligated to cite my sources nor am i inclined to" on twitter in response to criticism of her not citing or crediting any of the sources in a video heavily based on information she got from a small niche community lol. She's a content farm
Disney writer: so we have this sassy female character... Disney casting: I'm calling awkwafina now. I really don't care for her. In every role I've seen her in she's just awkwafina. She's like the rock, whe plays the same part in every movie, and really can break any suspension of disbelief because you say "oh it's awkwafina." As soon as you hear her first line.
How is Awkwafina not a voice actor? She's voice acted in tons of movies. I think that's what makes one a voice actor. The lazy ass video teeny tiny joel is talking about is pretty bad. Go watch it if you haven't. It doesn't make any sense. It's not even internally consistent about why "celebrity" voice actors are bad? She just plain doesn't like Awkwafina.
I was going to say because she had a normal acting background first and only voice acted in movies, never TV. But it turns out she did play the voice of “skekLach the Collector” in the Dark Crystal series. That happened before any of her famous animated movie roles (she was just in “Storks” before that, no one cared about Storks), so… yeah. Voice actor, I guess
Yeah, voice acting is one of her strengths. I find it funny how strongly people praise these non celebrity voice actors, when most of them are not good. Video games especially have a lot of bad acting.
I used to be subscribed to her a while back, the channel is pretty weird, once she said that white women profited off of other people’s cultures by wearing feathers in their hair, what do Native people own feathers now? And now she’s doing this? Someone needs to knock her off her high horse
I mean I understood that the issue was they were solely hiring screen actors for their star power and not their actual worth as a voice actor. Having screen actors be voice actors isn't the root problem, but prioritizing big name screen actors over competent or talented voice actors is hurting the industry. At least that's my interpretation of the bulk of complaints being made and directed towards Awkwafina. I mean even Jack Black isn't always considered the best voice actor. Yes everyone loves him so they enjoy seeing him, but I've seen very many complaints saying "oh yeah he was the best thing in borderlands/mario/other movie but he isn't really the best pick for that specific character". And for Awkwafina most complaints is that she plays herself in every role, which I can't quite comment on since I haven't really seen much of her stuff. I guess its a personal choice as to whether you like the humour of Awkwafina or not, and if she truly does play the same character in everything like everyone says, then I guess it would makes sense as to why some people love her in everything or hate her in everything if the thing they love/hate is present in everything she does
yeah I honestly think criticism over actors "only playing themselves" being directed at those actors is generally unwarranted because typecasting is such an effective way for studios to fill roles, theater seats, and wallets. I would more readily criticize the actual producers/bankrollers of projects that typecast well-known actors over and over for their star power than I would criticize the actors themselves
I also watched the video and it felt weird to single out one lady and when giving examples of good screen-to-voice actors she only used men. One thing that stuck out to me is she argues that they make roles to fit her but one example she uses is the spider from that animal criminals movie, that's based on a series of childrens books. Either that spider's character got changed to fit awkwafina, which would have supported the videos claim, or the spider already was like that and thus ruins the argument. This feels like when people hated on the new voice actor for Ada in RE4 because she has a distinct voice and they called that bad even though she acted good. If a woman has a distinct voice that's bad. Also generally screen actors make for bad voice actors for the same reason a theatre actor might not be fit for movies, a screen actor uses their entire body and especially face to show emotion while a vocie actor has to use only their voice. That's why cartoon people don't talk like normal people. Also why tf are you watching ghibli movies dubbed
The criticism I've seen of Awkwafina is that her characteristic "voice" is her trying to emulate an urban African-American accent, which the Black people offering that criticism see as cultural appropriation and/or a mockery of Black people. I wonder if there are any Black viewers who have thoughts on that?
But wasn't she controversial because she did a blaccent or sth? Am I misremembering? I thought it was "awkwafina bad because racism" not "awkwafina bad because voice actress"
@@igormarcautan8888she wasn't "acting an accent," she was using it and saying it was how she regularly spoke because "she's from Queens." but she doesn't talk like that at all
It's whatever reason people decide she's bad because they can't articulate what they don't like about her. Most I can gather is that her voice annoys some people. "Did a blaccent" that was addressed 2 years ago and it was silly then. Move on.
@@sunnyblossom_711all people speak multiple dialects. You can say she was faking it, but her being able to speak Standard American English isn't evidence of that. Otherwise all African Americans who speak AAVE are also faking it, cause they can code switch too.
celebrity VAs themselves aren't the problem, the problem is that their notoriety robs a production of adequately paying the people behind the scenes like VFX artists or the lesser known performers who have not and will never reach celebrity status.
No it doesn't. The labor aristocrats are bad, but they aren't in charge of budget allocation. Behind the scenes workers underpaid because they can be, because of economic incentives. The celebrity faces are complicit but not the cause.
I'm sorry but this is the same logic as "we can't have more immigrants or native workers won't get paid enough". Capitalists will hoard as much money for themselves as possible no matter who works under them.
And that's the celebs fault? What about the person who decided the budget? What about the person heading the studio deciding how much budget the project should get? Like why blame the worker and not the boss for the failings of the company?
I think Awkwafina is a fine actor, voice or screen. Wasn't really on board a few years ago when everyone loved her in everything, but I'm also not on board with everyone hating her. She does a good job, yeah. Not my favorite ever, but she's good in places
Regarding the general sentiment of movie actors taking the role of voice actors, I think I don't like it generally because it's specifically taking chances at fame and giving it to people who are already famous. Voice work is already quite a bit more niche than movie acting simply because you're much less exposed to the audience while doing it. Taking away the leading voice acting role from someone who is specifically trained for that type of art and giving it to someone who's already famous is removing a big opportunity. My mind immediately goes to the Mario movie. A voice actor could have just had their big break to become THE new voice of Mario. But now that goes to Chris Pratt? Even if Chris did a good job, it just feels like an utterly corporate monopolization of fame For perhaps a comparative example, imaging if the leading role in every broadway musical was now almost exclusively featured a big budget movie actor. Idk, it just seems like a bit of a waste. My criticism does mainly fall on the taking of leading roles. Movie actors voicing side characters is a bit of a counterbalance between the fame they're taking away from a VA, but also the fame they're granting to the others by pulling audiences in who are drawn to their existing fame.
I don't like it when people go after the person in instances like this. When an actor does a subpar job, there were a chain of other people who also failed, both in giving directions and also finding the right person for the job.
I disagree so hard about the Ghibli dubs being good. They've always sounded so stilted and awkward to me, going all the way back to seeing Kiki's Delivery Service as a kid.
I watched the video. Was pretty good, until it pretty much started devolving into “I hate Awkwafina because her voice is raspy,” which has nothing to do with her talent.
A lot of good screen actors are also good voice actors, but ones that aren't definitely do get cast in animated movies for name recognition sometimes. I actually think the Ghibli dubs have a lot of examples of that, unfortunately. That said, I do think Akwafina is good at both.
looking back at her filmography, I’m actually not convinced Awkwafina can be called “not a voice actor” lol. She was probably a bad example to begin with, creator just wanted to lump together two separate gripes with voice casting
Okay I feel like it's tough because her conclusion is right - Akwafina *is* super obnoxious and annoying, but I also feel like it's pretty hard to come up with a whole video essay to justify something grounded based on basically vibes
The only thing I can actually think about with Awkwafina is the fact that she did a lot of using of black slang and fashion on and off in her works pretty clearly for jokes. I don't care one bit she does voice acting I am shocked that if you're gonna make a video on how she's in everything you don't bring up the fact she awkwardly dances around the fact she acts black for comedy. I also know that for that dragon Disney movie a lot of south east Asians were mad she was even in it when again she'd make fun of them and look down on them yet she was in a movie playing a god in some south east Asia cultures. This is kinda how I view voice acting in general I don't care about who's behind it most the time because that's the point but what really matters is when the person doing it is an asshole and how that effects me seeing the movie. Chris Pratt is great at voice acting I don't even care he was Mario but I sure as fuck ain't seeing the movie now after all the weird shit he said about his sound and going right wing christian
i think the issue is that so often rather than allowing immensely talented voice actors do the role they hand the job to celebrities because they have more name appeal. thats why you end up with people like awkwafina and john cena in animated movies, when simply having a voice actor could work better. yes sometimes screen actors are good but voice acting and screen acting isnt the same thing, so let the group focused on voice acting do the voice acting
i think another issue is that akwafina isnt exactly a VOICE actor, shes an actor. she only has one voice, and its pretty clear that shes being hired because of that big brand name she has, not because of her actual talent maybe the video little joel watched was disingenous (havent seen it myself) but perhaps a better argument to make isnt that awkwafina bad, but big hollywood execs that keep hiring her are bad
She might not have the RANGE, but she's absolutely a Voice Actor, using her voice well. I guess her sound is just popular right now and like... Yeah! I enjoy hearing her sound. (Her politics are kinda ass, but she is much more charismatic in any role than say Chris Pratt nowadays... And even he was GOOD in the Lego Movies!)
I agree, the mark of a good voice actor is that they have range not that they use their speaking voice well or not. Every time I hear Akwafina in a voice role she sounds exactly the same and it just absolutely takes me out of the movie. This isn't a problem unique to her obviously, but her voice is just so distinct with very little effort to make it unique for the character that I find she rarely works for me as a voice actor.
@@emily_8687I have no idea how experienced either of you are in the industry but range is not what they look for at all. It’s actually the opposite, they are looking for a specific character/voice. My biggest examples are Ben Schwartz, Patrick Warburton, and Justin Roiland.
@@newthejsterjacob408yes, theres different types of voice actors. Some have one voice but that voice is really good or unique and they are skilled in their delivery. Others have multiple voices they can do. Both are just as skilled and it really comes down to delivery and experience imo.
@@crystalrose043 well yeah I never said that they are untalented of course they aren’t they are extremely talented and a big inspiration to me. I’m saying that the most popular voice actors all have their own niche. You’re like “oh I want a character who is too cocky for his own good but we love him anyway and we also want him to be/wear blue” you choose Ben Schwartz. Sorry for the double example I just find it so funny
On one hand celebrities taking voice acting roles is bad but on the other, voice acting has zero new rising stars besides like Sungwon Cho so like maybe some of the worry about voice actor roles going to a limited/exclusive pool of actors is a bit misplaced. Akwafina could definitely be like the new Cree Summers for a voice actor niche, and I think most of her hate comes down to people not knowing how to vocalize "Hey it's pretty weird you still go by Akwafina, like even Rich Brian changed his name"
Why should we just by default agree that actors "taking" roles is a bad thing? On one hand? I'm totally open to being persuaded but lots of comments are just acting like we all agreed about that
"All the Ghibli dubs are really good, like the star-studded cast of Princess Mononoke" Lost me there, that dub just makes me absolutely lose my shit with how much it sounds like Billy Bob Thornton is literally doing it over the phone. Also, while obviously this person just doesn't like Awkwafina (and honestly that's fine), there is an impulse I've noticed in myself and others to be annoyed at overexposed celebrities in VA or movie casting in general. At various times I've gotten kinda annoyed about overcasting of Kristen Schaal, Idris Elba, Chris Pratt, Giancarlo Esposito, even Pedro Pascal. I have really enjoyed all those actors in specific roles, but come the fuck on, they don't need to be in EVERYTHING. Also some of them get really typecast (especially Giancarlo Esposito, you know pretty much exactly what role he's going to have every time, please let him do anything else) and that is further annoying.
