Rachael MacFarlane – HuffPost 10.10.12
Mike Ragogna: Rachael, what advice do you have for new artists?
Rachael McFarlane: You know, I think I can say this without a shadow of doubt–if you keep working hard at this, you can make it happen. I mean, for me, this was a dream that I really thought had passed me by. I’m not a teenager, and music can be a young persons’ endeavor these days, and I had sort of gotten to a point where I resigned myself a bit to the fact that this was going to be something I would do as a hobby and that I would have my voiceover career, which I love, but that the dream of recording an album and being a singer professionally maybe wasn’t in the cards. But once I recommitted myself to it, it was amazing how all of the pieces came together. I will never forget that feeling of being in the studio thinking, “I can’t believe this is happening. I’m actually doing this.” So I would say it’s just all about perseverance and commitment and not giving up. I know it’s such old advice, but it’s the truth. I feel like I’m sort of living proof of that.
MR: And for voiceovers? I know there are a lot of people struggling, I know I was struggling to get voiceover gigs years ago. What advice do you have for those guys?
RM: Yeah. It’s really hard. You get into one little niche of it, and your career can flourish. I’ve had a lot of luck in animation, but you struggle in other areas like film trailers or on-camera commercials or whatever it is you want to do. So again, it’s all about practice, practice, practice, and when you find yourself in that lucky situation where you’ve got the ear of somebody that can take you where you want to go, put together your best demo and let the chips fall where they may.
MR: Seems like everything is “a difficult field,” everybody wants to be an actor, but it’s such a small niche to get in. And voiceover is an even smaller niche of people.
RM: I agree with you. It’s almost comical, the little voiceover community, because you just run into the same people over and over and over again. Part of it is wonderful because it feels like this great little family, you know? And it feels like this wonderful little niche of acting, which is great. But it’s really, really competitive and really challenging, too.
MR: Yeah, and I imagine the producers really feel comfortable and appreciate the good working atmosphere with the people that they trust and have used.
RM: Exactly. To use an example of one of, I think, the best voice actors in the industry right now, Dee Bradley Baker, who’s Klaus on American Dad!. The guy is on every show you could possibly think of, because when people hire him, they know they’re going to get an incredible product. People get comfortable with those actors and they use them over and over again.