Blind Items Revealed #4

August 4, 2020

One of the subjects of this story is a voice actor. He does commercials, live action and animated shows, and films. Those with ties to the voice actor industry consider him to be one of the best in the world but you’d probably have no idea who he is. You have most likely heard him somewhere and he can do anything from an authoritative voice to a lot of damn  good impressions. This story is not about him.

Our voice actor was selected for work in a Super Bowl ad for a large corporation with a CEO who everybody knows. This CEO has a history of not always being nice and sometimes allows their ego to get the better of them. The voice actor was brought in to record dialogue for an ad campaign which the CEO approved of from the moment it was first presented and the CEO wanted to be there for the dialogue recording as it was to mimic a character from one of their favorite films.

The recording session was scheduled and the CEO came in with a full entourage while the voice actor just commuted in as usual. The CEO walked in and was in utter prima donna mode. Several people to attend to their every need, including one person to take instructions from the CEO and give those instructions to the director and the voice actor. If either the director or voice actor had a question for the CEO, they were to ask the member of the entourage who would then ask the CEO despite all three of them being in the same room and no more than 5-6 feet away from each other.

The actor did his work, the CEO gave some direction to the director (who had all but given up any semblance of directorial control) and the voice actor via the specified entourage person and it was declared to be good enough after an hour or two of recording. Pleased with the end result, the CEO told the entourage that all was good and to prepare to leave.

The voice actor was wrapping up and watched as the room cleared out of all but him, the director, and the CEO. The CEO then sheepishly walked up to the voice actor, shook his hand hurriedly, and then jammed their cell phone into the voice actor’s hand while asking something to the effect of “Um, hi. I was, um, wondering if you would, um, record my, um, voicemail greeting in, um, *character’s name’s* voice?”

The voice actor and director exchanged looks, both wondering just who the hell had taken over the body of the CEO as it didn’t at all seem like the same person they had shared the room with a minute earlier. Not knowing what to make of it, the voice actor agreed and did it all in one take. The CEO was happy, smiled and gave an enthusiastic handshake to both as they left the room with a giddy grin. The second the CEO got back to their entourage, the prima donna act started right back up again as if nothing had ever happened.

Steve Jobs/Apple HAL 9000