TLJ 8: Voicing Luke Skywalker

Voice actor Anthony Hansen, who played Luke Skywalker in the first Battlefront game, joins me in a deep dive of Mark Hamill's voice and weighs in on the soundscape of minutes 36-40 of The Last Jedi. We talk vocal placement, pitch, cadence, accents, ADR, and compare the vocal characteristics of young Luke, old Luke, Yoda, Snoke, Darth Vader, and Obi-Wan.

Theme-spotting: (Altered) Force theme, Rose's theme. 

Soundtrack: "Fun with Finn and Rose"

Discussion topics:

• Voicing Luke Skywalker for the first Battlefront video game: the process and challenges.

• How voice acting works in a film, how voice acting differs from physical acting, and what the ADR (Additional Dialogue Replacement) process is like.

• Andy Serkis, Snoke vs. Golem vs. Stitch.

• Chewbacca's different vocalizations.

• Different interpretations of Holdo's Force theme teaser.

• The qualities and cadences of Mark Hamill's voice, from young Luke to old Luke.

• Our first impressions of Rose's theme.

• Vocal placement and the head as a resonance chamber.

• A demonstration of different accents, vocal placements, and voices (Obi-Wan, Luke, Yoda, Vader, etc).

• Tips on exploring the limits of your own voice at home.

Note: While leitmotif names are completely up to interpretation, I use the names from Frank Lehman's Complete Catalogue of the Musical Themes of Star Wars. I find this resource to be the most careful, objective, well-organized, and up-to-date guide of its kind.  

Anthony Hansen is on Twitter @anthonyhansen and Instagram @anthonyhansenVO and at anthonyhansen.net

Star Wars Music Minute is on Instagram @starwarsmusicminute, and Chrysanthe is on Twitter @chrysanthetan and Instagram at @chrysanthetan. Chrysanthe's Patreon is https://patreon.com/chrysanthetan. 

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