“Conversational Read” isn’t really a voiceover style. It’s shorthand for a desired relationship between the speaker, the listener, the copy and the medium.
The confusion, misinterpretation and struggle (if you’re a voice actor like me) arise when everyone in the production chain uses the same word to mean something different.
The conversational performance isn’t going away. It’s more in demand than ever. But the phrase itself isn’t giving actors enough information to work with and voice actors and production creatives alike are experiencing frustration and looking for solutions to this communication gap.
Warm. Authentic. Conversational. Not announcery.
Asking on behalf of all my fellow voice actors: “Conversational with whom?”
- Your best friend telling you something ridiculous over coffee?
- Your doctor explaining a test result?
- A colleague showing you a better way to use some software?
- A friend yelling something to you across a noisy room?
Every one of those is conversational…in the sense that it involves one human in dialogue with another human.
The Creative Intention
What are we actually talking about here? What does “conversational” actually describe?
At the simplest level, the Global Voice Acting Academy glossary defines a conversational read as: “A direction often followed by “non-announcery” and meaning to speak naturally, as in everyday conversation—without fanfare or embellishment.” [GVAA]
Which I agree with, in theory. In practice, though, this definition doesn’t help me decide how I should approach a piece of copy.
As Gabrielle Nistico points out, actors have sometimes overcorrected from the traditional “announcer” or “salesy” read. Conversational/casual/real gets interpreted as dull, disengaged or boring. But actual human conversation isn’t necessarily subdued. People get excited, passionate, amused, irritated, concerned, fascinated, etc. [Gabrielle Nistico]
Jeff Howell goes further and argues that casting should effectively retire the word altogether. His alternative is “connected.” What matters is that the actor appears to own the thought rather than merely perform copy. [Howell Productions]
OK. So far we’ve established:
Conversational ≠ casual. Conversational ≠ quiet. Conversational ≠ flat.
But conversational can mean: “I believe you’re thinking these thoughts and telling them to this particular person.”
Interpreting the copy aka “Putting the Actor in Voice Actor”
A frustrated voice actor on Reddit reported that a producer amended an audition notice because the more than 90 submissions to date apparently sounded “too commercial.” The producer wanted the actors to sound as though they were “telling a story to a friend.”
The actor’s frustration was that the copy itself contained advertising language that nobody would plausibly say while telling a friend a story. [Reddit]
I admit to having snarkily rolled my eyes at more than one page of creative direction in my voice acting career.
Tina Morasco has an answer for this common actor complaint that commercial copy isn’t written like conversation. Her response is essentially: “it often can’t be.”
Commercial copy may be structured around shots and visual beats, so joining phrases together the way you would in literal conversation may destroy the relationship between VO and image.
This is because Tina understands all the other creative constraints that go into a TV commercial or online video.
Essentially, the answer to the actor’s question: Nobody talks like this.
Is the creative team/video editor’s reply: I know. But this sentence has to land over that shot.
And yet the performance still needs to feel spontaneous.
So yeah, it’s tough. If it were easy, everyone could do it!
That’s why it’s called acting. Benedict Cumberbatch had to make us believe he was a dragon in The Hobbit. Our job as voice actors is to make written advertising language sound believable.
Not sure which is the bigger ask!
It sure would help if “conversational” meant one thing. But if it’s not one tone, as we’ve already discussed, it’s not one emotional state either. Conversation can be frightened, enthusiastic, relaxed, irritated, intimate, authoritative, amused, etc. The common factor is personal relatability rather than a specific melody, sound, or energy level.
The problem isn’t that actors, copywriters and producers don’t understand the word conversational. The problem is that there is no single industry definition to understand.
Connection over Conversation!
Thank the stars for Tina Morasco.
No, I mean it.
She addresses this problem head-on. I’ve taken her course and she is very much about putting yourself in the scene and reacting to what’s just happened before you say the first line. In other words, what did someone say or do for you to respond with that first line of copy?
The answer to the question can usually be found right in the copy. Especially if it’s a TV commercial and there is a little sketch of events illustrating the product or service. The characters and their problems are easily identifiable.
That’s not always true in brand narration or explainers.
Samantha Boffin points out that there is a tendency for the creative team to rely on a generic narrator. When the writer hasn’t imagined who the person behind the words actually is, the actor has very little human specificity to work with. [Samantha Boffin]
Very often, the only directions given are a few adjectives, or maybe a reference celebrity voice, but that only tells the actor a sound, not a feeling or a POV for the narrator.
Terry Berland makes some good suggestions from a casting director’s viewpoint. She says she sometimes effectively translates the agency’s written direction for actors because she’s looking beyond generic descriptions such as “warm non-announcer.”
The performances that stand out have a point of view. She may use product, imagery and context to infer performance: intimate imagery may call for intimacy; luxury products may imply refinement; financial products may require trust in order to help communicate a POV to the voice actor. [Casting Networks]
So the casting director version of “conversational” seems closer to:
Who are you? Who are you talking to? Why are you telling them this? What just happened? How do you feel about what you’re saying?
So, it’s acting direction. Not a vocal description.
Now we’re getting somewhere.
Voice coaches are also teaching voice actors techniques to compensate for the artificiality of scripts. They aren’t teaching us to “sound casual.” They’re teaching techniques that simulate the subconscious behaviours of spontaneous speech.
In essence, voice actors shouldn’t manufacture a “conversational sound.” They should create the circumstances that cause conversational behaviour.
Why does this copy conflict with the requested performance?
Samantha Boffin’s advice to scriptwriters who intend their scripts to sound conversational is that writing shorter, informal sentences isn’t enough.
Ironically, lots of short sentences and certain punctuation choices can cause the actor to produce a choppy, staccato delivery. Her basic advice to writers, which I agree with, is very simple: read the copy aloud before approving it.
GVAA identifies yet another conflict: copywriters/client teams can request “natural” while simultaneously loading a script with numerous COPY POINTS that ALL need EMPHASIS. The more words the actor is expected to sell, the harder it becomes to make the result resemble spontaneous speech.
So you end up with directions like this:
“Conversational, authentic, like you’re talking to a friend.”
And a script like this:
“Introducing the ALL-NEW innovative solution. Designed to TRANSFORM the way Canadians manage their financial future.”
And I look at that and think
“…You want me to say this like me and my BFF are having coffee and it spontaneously popped into my brain?”
Challenge accepted! But I don’t have any friends with whom I would have that conversation. So I’m going to need more help.
So, in the interest of getting everyone in the production process on the same page, to get to the vocal performance that will best suit a project’s needs, I offer the following table as a guide.
| Variable | Possible Range |
|---|---|
| Relationship to listener | stranger → boss → colleague → customer → friend → intimate partner |
| Distance | crowd → small group → one person → inner thought |
| Energy | restrained → engaged → enthusiastic |
| Polish | imperfect → gritty → normal speech → highly polished |
| Authority | peer → expert → institutional authority |
| Selling pressure | sharing → recommending → persuading → hard sell |
| Pace | reflective → normal speech → compressed commercial timing |
| Medium | Podcast/streaming audio → brand film → corporate/explainer → TV → radio |
| Actor objective | reassure → explain → amuse → excite → persuade → provoke action |
Two reads can therefore both legitimately be conversational while sounding dramatically different.
You don’t need all of the variables in your project brief, but adding a few of these will give a voice actor, and others in the creative team, clearer boundaries to work within.
For example:
- A healthcare explainer might be conversational + expert + reassuring + measured.
- A sneaker spot might be conversational + excited + irreverent + fast.
- A bank brand film might be conversational + confident + thoughtful + polished.
- A podcast ad might be conversational + intimate + peer-to-peer + lightly imperfect.
This gets us closer to what producers actually want than merely treating conversational as a preset.
So what does this look like in practice for voice actors and the people directing them?
How can I indicate in the script the emphasis I want without filling it full of punctuation and bolded text?
If there’s a product name or a grouping of words the client wants emphasized, just write it in the brief: “Please give more weight or emphasis to the product name and the company name.” This allows the voice actor to highlight the importance of those words in different ways unique to their conversational style without necessarily being louder, pitching higher, landing on them heavily, or projecting. It allows them the space to make them important with feeling and intention.
What other information can I provide to voice actors in the brief so they stop sounding like they’re reading!
Anything that can give us context so we can make an informed choice about who we are, who we are talking to, what about and why it matters. Images. Music. Links to celebrities or performances, but only if you tell us what about that celebrity or performance you liked. The feeling you want the audience left with. For me, this is the most important piece of information.
Isn’t everything said aloud conversational?
No, not all speaking aloud is a conversation. Some speaking aloud is an announcement (hence the “announcer read.”) Conversation implies an interlocutor. That’s why it’s always helpful to indicate to whom the voice actor is speaking.
Why does the audio distribution medium matter?
Conversational definitely changes with the medium. It’s true, there are many campaigns that record audio to be used across TV, radio and online media. If it’s for a single medium, or primarily for one medium, I would approach as follows.
Podcast / intimate digital audio → I’m talking directly to you in your ear.
Brand/explainer video → I’m talking to you while the images and edit share some of the communication load.
Commercial TV/video → I’m talking to you, but I’m also supporting timing, visual beats, product moments and a CTA.
Commercial radio → I’m talking to you, but my voice may have to carry considerably more of the structure, information, branding and momentum since there’s no visual.
In other words, the relationship remains conversational while the performance mechanics change, so for a multi-platform campaign, Note in the brief at what distance/intimacy level the voice actor’s performance should sit.
Fine. You don’t have to stop asking for “conversational”
Keep “conversational” if you like. Just finish the sentence.
Conversational…like you’re explaining this to a colleague who knows the industry but hasn’t seen this product.
Conversational…you’re excited about this discovery and telling one friend about it.
Conversational…you’re the expert, but the listener isn’t, and you don’t want them to feel talked down to.
Conversational…intimate headphone delivery; don’t project.
Conversational…high energy, but you’re sharing your enthusiasm rather than selling.
This way we get what creative wants, what the copy permits, and what the voice actor actually needs to make a playable choice.
If you’re a producer or videographer working on your next brief, check out my producer’s checklist for a smooth voiceover session. Or hop on a discovery call with me to talk more about your project.
