Jessica Blue, Voice Director, Casting Director, Voice Actor

00:00
Oh My God! This is where I die, at a voiceover job in a basement.

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Welcome to another episode of Chewing the Fat. I am your host, Big Robb. Thank you so much for tuning in, downloading the podcast. I certainly do appreciate that. Thank you for the new folks that have followed the podcast on Instagram. I really appreciate that. And of course, as always, the folks who have supported the podcast by buying me a coffee at ChewingTheFatBR.com. As I have come back from VO Atlanta, a lot of you folks know I'm diving into more voiceover. So I went to a conference and I've met

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just one of the warmest, most welcoming communities that, you know, other than theater that I've ever been a part of. And it's very theater adjacent for sure because they are actors, they're just voice actors. And so I'm sitting across now from a casting director, a voice actor. Please welcome to the show, Jessica Blue. Hello, thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. This is so awesome, Jessica. Thank you so much for being here. Joining me from.

01:09
Los Angeles. It's amazing the technology that we have now to be able to do this type of stuff. And I guess in your line of work, it's very advantageous too. And as for me, very hopeful to be able to talk to a casting director in Los Angeles from my home here in North Augusta, South Carolina. So when I was at VO Atlanta, you were there, you were one of the speakers. And at the time, the class

01:38
breakout session, not class, breakout session that I went to. I think you were doing one on dubbing, which is kind of replacing native language tracks with English, you know, dubs. And I just thought it was fascinating work that you're doing and we're gonna dive into how you got into that and what that entails. But has Los Angeles always been home for you?

02:06
No, actually, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. So I am a native California, one of the few that are here. But I grew up in the Bay Area in the little suburb in the East Bay. But grew up in my dad was a police officer. So I always had a feeling that I was going to be doing something.

02:31
in the legal field or law related. And so I went to high school and did a little bit of college and studied administration of justice, got my paralegal certificate, got a job in a law firm, ended up being a manager in a law firm for paralegals and case clerks. Yeah, that was like a whole nother lifetime ago. But while I was doing that job, it was kind of sucking the life out of me because I wasn't.

03:00
fueling my creativity or passion or anything. It was just kind of going through the motions and just really soul sucking. So at the time I was married at that time and my then husband had heard this woman talking on the radio about voiceover. I'm like, what is that? Cause I had always grown up on cartoons, Bugs Bunny. I love being a cartoon. I thought that would be the coolest thing. And it didn't really dawn on me that.

03:26
cartoons is voiceover. And so that was like, oh my gosh, this is how I could be a cartoon. This is amazing. So took all the classes, learned all about it, actually worked for a little bit at that school, being kind of an engineer, running the board, training other engineers to run the boards. And that was a great, not only taking the classes and learning voice acting, but also acting. And I took other acting classes outside of that, but also that.

03:53
allowed me to develop my director's ear because I would be sitting there, running the board, listening to actors go in the booth, do their thing. And in my head, I'm thinking, you need to be a little bit more this or do this or whatever. And then I'd hear the director behind me say exactly that. I'm like, Oh, I'm onto something. Cool. So really helped develop my director skills. And then I got to a point where I just decided, okay, I think I'm going to finally just make the move and

04:22
truck down to LA and so sold everything, sold the house, packed up everything, had no plan B, quit the day job. Wow. Of very cushy, secure, financially secure. Yeah. Saved my money, got the ducks in a row and just went on a wing and a prayer and decided I'm gonna try and make a go of this and moved to Los Angeles 2013. So I've been here 11 years now. Wow. And

04:52
immediately after I moved here, like four days after my dad died, which was like kind of through a whole wrench in my voiceover journey, kind of backtrack put me a little bit on the back burner, but finally got back on the saddle with that and still tried to make a go of it. And then a few years ago, my dear, dear friend and mentor Jeff Howell,

05:19
introduced me to live action dubbing because he needed some help with the projects and so I helped him and we ended up doing like six movies together I want to say and that's really where I cut my teeth and learned how to learn the whole world of English dubbing and just started focusing on that more and then got into directing my own stuff adapting scripts for English dubbing and now casting as well so let's go.

05:47
Kind of how I made it here. That's crazy. Yeah, I mean, but you know, it seems like, especially when you're talking about 11 years ago, pre-pandemic, you know, BC before COVID. Right. You know, that seemed to be what the, if you wanted to make it as any type of actor, that's what you had to do. You had to, you know,

06:16
sell the house, burn the bridge, and move to Los Angeles. And that's the way that you made it. You had to go there and just be, which I am a very big proponent of networking and being where the work is for sure helps. Thank God for the advancement in technology that allows us to kind of be there where the work is, but I'm still sitting here in a completely opposite coast, able to talk to you.

06:45
and have access to you and have access to opportunities like that because you know when I was coming along As a kid, I've said this before You know, I wanted to be a makeup artist. I wanted to do like special effects makeup, you know I was big into fangoria I would make my own prosthetics and Halloween was like big and I loved that stuff and I love it's like I hate horror movies As a as a genre just generally but I love the effects work in

07:14
You know, so like, I just loved seeing how, how, you know, oh, how'd they do that splatter? How do they do that? You know, where are those squibs at? Where's it, you know, and oh, look at the prosthetic and how they've built that and what kind of structures. I always thought that was so neat, but you know, as a 13 year old kid in, you know, Georgia, that opportunity wasn't here unless I planned on burning the bridge, moving to Los Angeles, and you know, that just wasn't in the cards for me at that time. So I kind of had.

07:44
put that dream away. But I found this other dream of, I fell into radio because everybody's like, oh, you got such a great speaking voice. Oh, you sound, blah, blah, blah. And so I started in radio at 15 years old. And just kind of, I fell in love with the entertainment part of it. Being the disc jockey, being the person, being the person in other people's lives, and being able to entertain. And that's just kind of how I got started. But like I said, that back.

08:13
before, you know, if it was something else, if I wanted to be that on-screen actor or something like that, and something not like, you know, radio station, I was like, I gotta move, I gotta move. Well, it's funny too, because I never really wanted to move to LA. I had no desire necessarily. I was perfectly content being a medium-sized fish in a medium, smallish pond, comparatively, you know, say, in the city of LA. And so it wasn't until a group of friends of mine

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we decided that we wanted to make this animation cartoon and that we would be the voices in it because it's so hard to get into, break into animation because you had to be in LA, you had to know someone, someone had to die to get in a room kind of thing. So it was very, a very tight knit group and very, very challenging to get into. And so I believe it was actually Jeff who suggested make your own content, make your own thing.

09:10
And that way you can be attached to it, you own it, you have the rights to it, and you can hopefully dictate that you will be the voices, or one of the voices. It might not work out that, because of course, at that time too, it was more of a, let's get a celebrity to be the voice, because they bring more of the cache, rather than these unknowns, even though they're just as talented actors, but they don't have the pull, the draw, to put butts in the seat to go watch this thing. So.

09:37
So we did that and I would, all my friends had already made the move from the Bay Area down here and I was the last holdout because again I still had the job, I was taking care of my parents, had all these responsibilities and obligations but I would come down once a month and it was so cool because I was able to telecommute from my day job and they didn't have to know where I was telecommuting from. Oh that's good, that's good. So what they didn't know, didn't hurt them. So I just came down here and

10:06
And I went from this one point was just like, I can't wait to come back home. I can't wait to go back home. I'm ready to go back home. And then one trip, there was just a shift like, I don't want to go back home. I think I am home. And that's when it hit me. I'm like, oh, okay, great. I think I, maybe I do need to move down here because the one thing, one of the things that I love about LA is that even though the premise was to move down here and do voiceover full time, everybody that I met.

10:35
was wearing multiple hats. It was this creative hodgepodge of just everybody had their foot in something. It wasn't just, they weren't just stuck, focused on one thing. Some were, which is fantastic, but it felt like everybody had, they were either doing makeup, they were doing hair, they were doing wardrobe, they were doing directing or writing or something, anything that was in that creative vein, which I just thought was so cool and fascinating.

11:04
It's just this community of just creatives that I was just very drawn to. And I think that's the, when I talk about being able to network, I think that's the advantage of a place like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, even Atlanta on a smaller scale is that there's something going on that you can be a part of. There are creative people creating.

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It's not people sitting wishing they were creating. They're actively out doing it. And so you can go and, hey, my friend's shooting this thing. I'm going to grip for them on the weekend. Or I'm going to be a DP over here. And I'm going to learn how to do this thing. Or they need somebody to do Foley. And I'm going to help them do this. Or whatever. There's always something going on that you can then be a part of. And you never know. It's kind of like travel. You never know.

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until you experience something, what fire in the belly is going to get lit and what new passion arrives if you hadn't taken that step, if you hadn't moved, if you hadn't burnt that bridge, if you hadn't trusted yourself and your own instinct to say, you know what, I would rather make a go of it and fail than to not make a go of it and regret. Absolutely.

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could happen. I mean, if you asked me 11 years ago before I moved here that I would have been an executive producer on an independent film twice, cast direct, I would have left in your face. I had no idea that this is going to be on my bingo card for later in life that my career was going to completely take this left turn and which I'm super grateful for and absolutely love but

12:55
Again, it's just that thing. Whenever I go on vacation, my motto is, the plan is there is no plan. I just go with the flow. And that's kind of how I view life. I'm very open to, like, I have very few expectations. I have some expectations, but the more expectations you have, the more you're setting yourself up for disappointment, in my opinion. So if you don't have any expectations, you're open and free to just.

13:20
go with whatever's gonna happen. As long as you stay open minded and positive about it, then it can be a wonderful, great experience. And you never know, like you said, what's gonna just flip that switch in you that's just gonna light that fire and make you go after a completely different area in your life that maybe you would never have known otherwise had you not taken that risk. Yeah, and I can't imagine a whole lot more extreme from, you know.

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paralegal legal office manager to, you know, dubbing director and independent executive producer and voice artists, you know, that's just amazing. And you know, and it's interesting though, those little things along the way that like, just the fact that somebody heard an ad about doing this on the radio or whatever, and you're like, hmm, well that may be me.

14:20
Let me look into this. Let me, you know, again, it's just those things if you're opening up yourself to whatever may come. You know? That, I think that allows you to be that sponge to say, okay, hey, all right, I'm not, you know, it's kinda like the people that do the year of yes. You know, we're like, I'm gonna say yes to everything.

14:43
I don't know that that's always a great thing. No is a good thing too. Right. Same. You need to take that with a large tablespoon of common sense. But you know, Yes if it makes sense to you and it's what you need. But maybe not everything. Life threatening necessarily. No. Things like that. Yeah, for sure. Well, what was when you moved to Los Angeles and so now you're you're trying to

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get going. This is you're trying to do the voice thing and you're learning, you're taking classes. What you mentioned about coming back and like, this is the time I realized I didn't want to go back home. Didn't want to go back up to San Fran. Do you remember if it was a specific thing you'd done coming out of a class or is it, or is it just a feeling getting in the car? Like, I think it would, I don't know if it was a specific,

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situation or a class, but I just I remember it being a feeling of just having a really good trip with because I had already made a really good group of people, the connection of to a good group of people here that were my people. And so I think just at that time doing whatever I was doing and hanging out with them and just, you know, driving around and getting

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more familiar with the area and learning the ropes of, you know, with shortcuts to take to avoid traffic and, you know, whatever, just, just like kind of becoming more of a local or feeling more like I fit in. I, it just was more of a feeling of just, this is my, these are my people. This is my place. I feel like I belong here now. Whereas before, I was just sort of a visitor and just like, let's, you know, stick my toe in the water and see if it, if it.

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if it'll work or if I'm a match. But yeah, I think it was just more of a feeling of just overall whatever that trip was. I don't know if there was an actual event. And do you think that though is also part of that is, when you're saying like dipping your toe in, you kind of like, I still kind of have this plan B that I'm still kind of holding on to. The more you- I didn't. Yeah, but like the more you, you went for the one thing. You went to go.

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learn to do this job, do this thing. But the more that you can ingratiate yourself into that culture, it's a new city. You need to find a new favorite taco place. You need to find a place that has the best pasta. You need to, you know what I mean? I'm a fat guy, I like to eat, so I have to know what a good restaurant, so I know where to see if she is. But yeah, but you know what I mean? The more you start to not just go from point A to point B,

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Go from work to the house, work to the house, and you start to take those side roads, start to figure out where the shortcuts are, start to say, hey, you know, actually, if I go to this road, I can be to Jeff's house, and then I can actually be to the really good taco place. I'm gonna pick up Jeff and go get tacos, or whatever it is. That then starts to get in your bloodstream. Like you say, before, you may have had to pull out a map, and be like, okay, well, if you wanna get here, hold on a second, let me see, and da-da-da-da.

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print out MapQuest. Whereas, whereas now you'd be like, oh no, no, no, you're gonna turn left at the place that has the good street tacos there and there's a food truck over there and then you're gonna turn at the third car wash or whatever. Right, right. You're there. You're a part of what makes that town, that town, and that town then becomes part of you to help you then. Yeah. Take off some of the pressure even on yourself.

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to do the job that you wanted to do because now it's okay. Yeah, now I can actually, there was a part of me that may have not been committing completely. Yeah. Now I'm here. Yeah. This is relaxed now and now I can actually pour myself more into this. Yeah, let's do this thing. Yeah. We're gonna figure it out. And I don't know, yeah, like once I did finally decide, okay, I'm doing this, let's make move and go. And yeah, I had no plans B, I just.

19:03
something innate in me always had this feeling, idea, I don't know, that I would, no matter what happens in my life, I'm gonna be okay. Even if, for whatever reason, if voiceover didn't work out, I was still gonna find something to land on. I would still, you know, there'd be couches to crash on if I absolutely needed to, you know? I wouldn't necessarily have to run.

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back to the Bay Area with my tail between my legs and figure something out or go back to law or whatever. Because also I made myself a promise that even if that got to the point where maybe voiceover didn't work out, but also I really didn't entertain that thought. Because again, I had no plan B. It's like, it wasn't even an option for me really. But I thought I could always go back and get a paralegal job if I wanted to because I have that skillset. But also,

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I was at that point where it's like, I don't want to go back to another soul sucking job. If I'm going to have to get a nine to five or job or something, it's going to be in the entertainment industry in some way, shape or form. I didn't necessarily want to backstep and go back to a life that I was, you know, kind of handcuffed to, even though, you know, the money was good and it was secure and financially stable and all that. And that's, there's a lot to that. Trust me. Golden handcuffs. Golden handcuffs is what I call it. Oh my God. I had them bad. Yes, I had those bad.

20:27
And it was tough to give up and that's why it took me a couple of years longer for me to actually make the move down here. But yeah, I just always had this feeling like I'm going to be fine, it'll work out, I'll figure something out. And thankfully I have, knock on wood. It always has worked out for me. So I'm very lucky and blessed in that respect. But it's not to say I haven't had my ups and downs for sure. There's definitely been peaks and valleys on this.

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crazy road these last 11 years, but I'm very happy where things turned out. So I love that. And it's very encouraging to me because, you know, I'm kind of at the beginning of the journey that you've been on for 11 years, basically. Yeah. I mean, I worked in radio and television for 30 something years, you know, got let go, industry changed, you know.

21:24
Me and 3,500 of my friends got like, oh, and then you're like, all right, what am I gonna do? And so there's been a lot of bouncing around, like how can I still make this work? How can I still keep my chops up? Because I enjoy the entertainment part. So it's doing some theater, doing some, but those aren't things that are paying the bills. So my last 10 years, I've been doing business sales for a retail company. And then at the end of January, I got let go from that. And I'm like, okay.

21:53
What am I going to do? Sometimes we have to get those kind of push over the cliff so that we will flap our wings. But part of it was to say, you know what? I want to do what I enjoy doing. I had made a promise to myself a long time ago that I wasn't going to have a job that I didn't enjoy. And I still found joy in even business sales because it was a relationship. It was talking to people. It was that type of stuff. But I was like, I want to go back into voiceover. I want to do that thing.

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I haven't been able to do fully and I want to do it right. And so that's why I went to Vio Atlanta. That's how I met you and to see this community and it felt like this big warm hug of people because I didn't find any like gatekeeping of information. Nobody was trying to like, hey, this is my lane, stay out of my lane. Everybody wanted to see everybody succeed, which is so rare in industries. I mean, I would think even so in like,

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acting, you know, face, you know, onscreen, acting type industries. There's still competition for sure. There's a lot more competition in on camera than there is a voice-over. That's why I love the VO community because of that, because everybody is a cheerleader for you. Everybody wants to see you succeed. We want everybody to work. There's plenty to go around, but yeah, you don't necessarily get that tight-knit group and camaraderie and on camera stuff as much, but yeah. It's rare. Which is great.

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which is great and why this has felt so good to me. And even though I've had days of like, ah, you know, have I made a dollar doing this yet? No, I have not made any money as a voice actor from January 31st till now, zero. But yeah, yet, yet, that's the thing, yet. And when I have those days where it's like, ah, I think I'm gonna just, you know, I'm gonna get some other job and I'm gonna go back to soul sucking, whatever. And it's like, there's a part of me that's like, nope.

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don't do it, don't do it. And then there's a dozen VO buddies that are like, yeah, don't do it, don't. You're at page one, quit looking at people that are at page 101, you just gotta keep turning to pages, keep going, keep going, doing the thing. One day at a time. And I think that's great. Do you remember like one of, I mean, I know you did the animation that you guys wrote and you did the voiceover. Do you remember one of your first

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like paying gigs that you were like, yeah, I mean, if as long as there's not like an NDA, you can't mention it. First gig would have been 20 years ago. Yeah. Well, I don't know if it was one of my first ones, but one of the funnier ones that funnier sessions that I had, I remember very fondly. And I have another story that's actually kind of funny, but this one was, remember those,

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like the Coinstar vending machines where you throw in all your change and then it gives you back money or whatever. Yeah. Well, I guess that company was going to go into the photo booth business and kind of create photo booths, I guess, but have a background that you could change. So you could be like a rock star on a stage or a fashion on a runway or an astronaut in space. And so you could take these photos with this back thing.

25:15
I was the voice of the machine to prompt you to put your credit card in and do all this stuff. And it was a remote session. And so I had, I can only hear them. They were somewhere in another state and did the whole session, everything. It was great. And I was very, you know, just a very medium, you know, professional, like, please enter your credit card now, you know, that kind of thing. And all of a sudden they're like, okay, we just have one more.

25:43
One more edit that we want to do. We just have a little change on this one line. Can you say, I'm sorry your credit card was declined, you idiot or something like that? And I'm like, I'm sorry, what? Excuse me. They said, yeah, we want to play a prank on the engineer. So, we want to have a couple of takes.

26:09
Oh, it's all let's do this. So I went and riffed like a whole bunch of like one liner things and like, and I dropped the bombs. I'm just like, I'm sorry, you're a total fucking loser. Your credit card has been declined, something like that, you know, and just went off and gave them a bunch. And they all like it here. I finished talking. And then it was like silence for a second, like, oh, crap, did I go? So I go a little too overboard. And then I just heard cackling, just laughing.

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nonstop in my ears. I'm like, okay, I guess they like that. Thank God. It was a fun, fun session. You don't get that too often, but that was super fun. That's awesome. Just to go nuts and crazy. Yeah. Any other memorable sessions? There was another one where I had to go to this guy's house. And I'm always a little sketchy about that, but it came from my agent at the time. So, I mean, it was booked through the agent. So clearly they had to go through some vetting process, but

27:04
It was, you know, I'm thinking this guy has, you know, a home studio in his house or something. And so I'm texting my my sister and my best friend, like, Hey, I'm going to this house. If something happens, you know, if I don't, if you don't hear from me in like two hours, this is the address, my last known address, come save me, because I don't know what's gonna happen. And I get into this guy's house, and I'm walking in and I'm all I'm already on like nervous a little on the like

27:32
guard and I walk in and I see like kids toys and a play area. I'm like, okay, they've got kids. So maybe it's okay. Maybe it's not too bad. And then the guy goes, all right, well, we're going to go down to the basement. And I'm like, whoa, wait a minute now. And then all the hairs in the back of my neck stood up. I'm like, oh.

27:51
This is where I die, I had a voiceover job in a basement. And so I go down and I'm looking like, where's the nearest exit? How do I get out of this thing if he somehow locks me in here? I'm like, my mind is just going all kinds of crazy. So I get down there and I see he's got this ghetto makeshift set up with a microphone and a blanket and his laptop's just sitting on a table next door. And it was just the most.

28:17
silly ghetto setup, but it was fine. I mean, he's paying client. It was some industrial narration type of thing. And I did it and he was great and he loved everything. And I'm just like, it took a minute for me to just like get I'm like, OK, my my life is not in danger. I'm OK. Right. Right. He's just a weird thing. He's going to lull me into a false sense of security with the with the dialogue. Right. I get a paragraph to the next thing I know. I'm at it. That's it. He's going to come jumping in.

28:47
That's crazy. He like spray something on me, chloroform me, or something. Right, right, like there's aerosol in the microphone itself. I know, I know. He was harmless, but I did not walk into that session feeling that way. Did you let your agent know, by the way, did you? I think I might have, I don't remember. I said, by the way, he did have, it was in his basement, it was a little sketchy, and I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous, but it all went well. It was fine.

29:16
That's wild. We talked about that you're doing dubbing now. You just had a project that was recently released on Netflix, Crooks. So you did the English dub of that. What is that project like? What is the dubbing process for you? I know in your breakout you talked kind of what some of that process is, but for the listeners, what is that like? Yeah, I'll give the 50,000 foot view. So

29:45
a company like Netflix or Amazon or Disney, they'll go out and they'll buy a project, a movie, a film, a TV show, they'll buy the rights to it in whatever other language it is, and then they'll farm it out to a studio who will then hire translators to translate the original language into English, and then they hire an adapter to adapt that script, which basically means they're lining it up.

30:12
to sync the mouth flaps on the video, and they're making it sound a little bit more conversational, taking some of the colloquialisms from the original language and making them make sense because some jokes don't translate. So we got to find equivalent jokes or equivalent dialogue to make it work. And then the casting person will come in and they will watch the show, cast the voices that match those faces.

30:42
And then the director will come in and record all the stuff with the actors in studio and get it all synced up. And then it goes to the mixer and editor and then goes through a QC process and then it comes out on streaming. And that's kind of the big, huge overview of the process. That's good. You used a term in there that I've not heard before. Did you say mouth?

31:09
Flaps. Mouth flaps, lip flaps. Lip flaps. Yes. So when you're talking, you know, my mouth is moving right now. You can see it because we're on video. But, but we have to make sure that it's kind of weird. Your brain is, is the magical thing. So if you can try to match the first part of a sentence and the end of a sentence, as close to matching the lip flaps that you see on screen, your brain will kind of fill in the middle of the sentence.

31:38
So, if the sentence is you know, like, vamos a la casa, so casa ends in an open mouth and we would say like, well, let's go home. Well, home is a closed mouth, so that's not gonna work. So, rather than say home, how about house? Because house is still open, so I will change casa to house instead of home or sometimes if it's not on screen and I don't see them saying casa, I will say home.

32:05
because I can get away with it. And it sounds more natural than saying, let's go back to the house or let's go home. It just depends on that. So we, yes, the adapter is trying to sync it up to match those lip flaps. So they will change the language, change the dialogue to try to find words that match as much of that mouth movement as possible to make it as seamless as possible for the viewer because we want the viewer to forget that they're watching a dub. And...

32:33
Well done, Dubb, we'll do just that. Which is awesome. Yeah, cause you wanna be able to enjoy just the art on screen, the movie, the series, or whatever it is, and not be taken out of it because of somebody's off place lip flap. Is that part, I mean, please tell me that's like part of a sub line on a business card or something like that, like mouth flap counter or something like that.

33:00
I feel like that would be amazing in a bio. You know, it's like executive director, voice actor. Mouth flaps. Mouth flap counter. Mouth flap, no, sadly there's not. Mouth flap inventory-ist. I don't know if I would want that out of bio actually. But as you know, but see, that's one of those like industry terms. I just think it's fascinating. And the more you get into it, the more you know some of that terminology and stuff like. Yeah.

33:29
I was talking to a friend of mine who has a radio drama podcast and You know, so so it's more of that radio theater style. So it's theater of the bind and He's talking about I want you to do a grunt here and of course I'd just come back from VO Atlanta and so I'm like, you mean you want me to do some efforts and he's like get out of here, you

33:54
and your proper terminology. I just need to sound like you got punched, okay? And I'm like, I'll work on those efforts for you, sir. Thank you. That's hilarious. Love it. So outside of your job and the amazing work that you do, that you do love doing, you got anything else that you're into? Are you a sport? Do you have pets? What's like bringing you joy right now?

34:25
Oh, God, that's an excellent question. Then it could be your work, too. I mean, I mean, yes, the work is fantastic. It's a little slow right now. It's a weird time at this juncture in the industry. But I love hanging out with my friends and just doing things with them, just hanging in, having experience with them. I love traveling. I'm a huge proponent of going on trips, whether.

34:51
their weekend trips or whatever, I'm taking a little road trip to Tahoe this weekend to see my bestie and hang out and just kind of get out of Dodge and get in nature for a little bit. And I love, it's gonna be weird sounding, but I love driving and I love driving fast. So, and it's weird because most people in LA, first of all, most people in LA drive like crap. They don't know how to drive. And...

35:18
and there's too many drivers. It's kind of impossible to drive fast, right? Yeah. But when I find those stretches, I'm like pedal to the middle. I feel the need for speed. We're going. No, I feel that. But I just like to drive to just wherever. And sometimes I'll go to usual places like out by the beach or up in the mountains or whatever, or I'll just kind of go on adventures and see where the road takes me. Because again, plan is a plan. So I'll just kind of see what where I end up and.

35:48
You know, just go with the flow kind of thing. So, but yeah, just hanging out with friends and driving and traveling. That's what I like to do.

36:03
All right, Jessica, this is the second segment of the show. This is where we dive a little bit more into your mental health journey. I'm a big believer that one of the things depression tries to tell us is that we are alone. We're the only ones that feel this way. And the more that we can talk about that, we take away the power from that feeling of being alone. So for you, how do you keep the darkness at bay? Well, that's a great question.

36:32
Um, excuse me. One of my big things that I rely heavily on is music. I'm a huge music fan. Broke in the 80s, so 80s is my jam. But that said, music is such a powerful tool to get your mind in a different space. And so I will rely a lot on music, feel good music, happy music. There's sometimes when I play the sad music because I'm not

37:01
feeling it and I want to feel down and I want to be in my feels for a minute. And I allow myself to do that, which I think a lot of people don't necessarily or they feel bad if they do. I think there's a fine line that you don't want to get too deep and stuck in that area for too long. So I allow myself however long, you know, an hour, a couple hours a day, whatever it is to...

37:26
to feel my feels and play my sad music or whatever. But then I'll flip the script and I'll put on my happy music. I'll get that dance vibe on the one that's gonna, you know, make my knee tap and foot tap and knee bounce and get me going. And that already puts me in a good mood and lifts my spirits a little bit because also music is, you know, certain songs can take you back to a time and experience a memory just like that, which is amazing.

37:56
So if there's, you know, there's this one song that I always play whenever I'm driving to the beach, my beach song, and I got to play that. So anytime I hear that, I just automatically get a smile because it makes me think of my happy place. So it puts me right back there. So I'd say music is number one. The second thing that I do also is as, as hard as it may be, I will try to reach out and, and just focus on someone else other than me.

38:26
because when I'm focused on myself and I'm in my shit, wallowing in it, can't see the way out. If I can shift my energy and focus on someone else and say, Hey, how are you doing? What's going on with you? Give me up to speed. Clue me in. I haven't talked to you in a minute. Like what's happening in your, in your world. And then I get to hear what's going on with them. And then I get

38:51
excited if it's positive stuff because obviously I'm going to be a cheerleader for them and I want to hear their successes and celebrate their successes but also if they're going through something then I'm like oh my god I'm not alone, me too, holy crap and that happens more often than not as you said we are never alone in whatever we're going through, someone has already gone through it or is going through it or is gonna go through it so there's a plethora of people

39:21
that you can talk to and bounce shit off of and have that conversation and relate and not feel so alone. When I actually just before Vio Atlanta, I went to Florida to visit a dear friend of mine who I hadn't seen in a couple of years. She used to live here. She moved out there during COVID. She is from there. And I was kind of in a funk, not the best place.

39:46
But yet I felt like there was some shift that was gonna happen and I thought maybe it would happen after Vio Atlanta or something. And talking with her, she was like, oh my God, I am feeling the same thing. What is happening? All this stuff I was saying, she's like, me too, me too, me too. I'm like, oh my God, why didn't I think of talking to you sooner? And it just, again, it's just that camaraderie, that related shared experience.

40:14
we're all going through it, you know, and I mean, yes, we're all special, but we're not all special because we all have it happens to everybody. So it's just Yeah, so focusing out on other people also kind of gets me out of my own way, out of my head out of my focusing on my own shit, you know, I love that. And, you know, that's, I think that seeing as

40:43
You're in a creative and artistic industry. The A is capital in actor and voice actor. There are things in our lives that we pull from to create connection with other people. And a lot of actors, voice actors, especially folks I found in this community, are already very empathetic anyway. They're already kind of, it is very much a group of this,

41:13
Not the same people, but the same, you know, same energy type people. Like-minded. Yeah, like-minded. We wanna see everybody succeed. We wanna see everybody, you know, not be down. We wanna see everybody happy and thriving and to be able to feel that and express it to your friend who's also feeling the same way. It's like, there's such a, almost like a,

41:42
Sigh of relief like okay cool. It's not as bad as I thought because I mean, yes our minds we will doom scroll We will tumble down into that well and it becomes so hard to get out when you really if you can realize that there are Other people that are out there if you just open up just a little Fine just a little bit to be so when so when someone says hey, how you doing? Don't just say okay You know as a knee-jerk thing sometimes you got to slap them with the truth and be like

42:12
I'm honest, not really great today. Yeah, absolutely. Well, that's the other thing too, is like a lot of people too, aren't ready to hear that, or they're not ready to sit and listen to, not that you're going to sit there and whine and complain or give a sob story, but they're already like, ah, you know, up or they maybe they just, they're not in that space. So yeah, you kind of, you have to gauge that. It's like, well, is this a person that I want to share this with or no?

42:42
You know, and there are certain people that I will do that. Like, I'm fine, everything's great, because you're not my person that I'm gonna get that vulnerable and share. I have those people and I definitely do and we'll go there. But yeah, you gotta kind of pick and choose your audience of when you're gonna share that information. But absolutely, definitely don't hold back and just give the party lens. Like, ah, everything's fine, cool, great. Hand is it, like bullshit. Yeah.

43:11
Because I definitely think that could be ultimately so much more detrimental. Because then you live in that mask. You live in that mask of, you know, and as an empathetic person myself, sometimes I get stuck as a people-pleasery kind of person. Just like, oh, my problems aren't as important as you, so I'm gonna change myself so that you're more comfortable or whatever it is. But you...

43:38
you have to realize that you have value. You are important. What you're feeling is important. And there are people that do care. Even if it has to be something on the 988 line. If you don't have someone personal that you can say, hey, can I have a conversation with you, honestly about, if you feel you don't have that.

44:05
I encourage folks to reach out to the 9-8-8 line because it's not just a quote, suicide line. It's a counseling line. There's somebody there specifically that wants to hear from you, that wants you to know that there's somebody there to listen.

44:24
And I think that's so important, especially nowadays. There are a lot of people that have, especially post-COVID, people who realize things that they were passionate about in that time capsule where we were all kind of stuck in the house. And things have changed. And sometimes people don't know how to deal with that. So being able to be vulnerable and reaching out to someone can be so helpful.

44:55
Yeah. And it's not easy. It's hard. I mean, it's still hard for me because I come from the thinking of I don't want to burden you with my problems, nonsense, BS, because I'm not special. Everybody's got issues. Everybody's got their own thing that they're going through. So why is my problem or my dilemma or darkness or whatever going to make a difference if I share it with you? But it does because again, for that very reason, just like when I shared it with

45:24
with my friend in Florida, I didn't know she was going through the same damn thing. So it's like, oh my gosh, now I have this partner in crime that we can like fight this together and we're on the same wavelength and we're texting each other more and checking in with each other more frequently because of that. So again, it's building that relationship and those connections as well because I was that vulnerable and I chose to share that part of me and fuck the, I don't wanna burn you. I don't.

45:52
I'm like, I don't need to be a martyr. Like, who cares? Is it going to at the end of the day, is this going to matter on my deathbed? No. I think I asked myself that often if I'm having a dilemma or I'm in the shit or whatever. That's another way it will get help get me out of stuff. Is this really going to matter on my deathbed? No. Am I going to even remember this on my deathbed? No, I'm going to be thinking of a heck of a lot of other things like

46:22
gosh darn it, why did I get to Iceland? You know, or whatever, you know, something more substantial or man, I wish I told that guy he was cute or that I liked him or whatever, you know, it's just like bigger, more important things that in the blink of an eye at this moment, this is like just a drop in the bucket. It's not gonna last, it's not gonna weigh that heavily down the road at the end of my.

46:51
when I'm looking back at my life. So, yeah.

46:59
All right, Jessica, this is the third segment of the show. It's time now for the Fast Five. The Fast Five. It's time now for the Fast Five. Fast Five. I love it. Thank you. I'm still working on a theme song there and I know it's been four. Fast Five, Fast Five. It's the Fast Five. I appreciate that. I love it when guests sing along. Fast Five is powered by Poddex. It's an app created by my friend Travis Brown. If you go to chewingfatbr.com slash poddex, it'll take you to the link to download it.

47:28
from your favorite app store. But it's five random questions, no wrong answers, just first thing that comes to the top of your head. You ready? I'm ready. You ready? You sure? Let's do it. I'm ready. Let's do it. All right, question number one.

47:45
What's the last thing you've done that you were really proud of? The last thing that I've done that I was well, it's not the last thing, but one thing that I'm really proud of doing was that I went and traveled solo, um, for like a month and a half to Australia and New Zealand. Oh, wow. So I did like a massive solo trip by myself and I was super proud of myself for.

48:13
doing that alone. That was a long time ago, so it wasn't like the last thing that I did. But actually, you know what the last thing I am very proud that I did was hold my first solo Zoom class teaching dubbing, and it was fantastic. And I had great feedback from my students and I'm super proud that I did that. And I've got another one coming up in May, so I'm super proud of that. That's awesome. Awesome. Love that. Question number two.

48:44
the best Morgan Freeman movie of all time. Shawshank Redemption. Yes. Woo hoo. Hello friend. Yes. So good. Such a great movie. Some of the, I could go, that is my favorite movie. The cinematography was amazing. Everything. It's so good. The script, the performances. So good. Yes. We should just stop right there. No, I'm just kidding. I love that movie.

49:13
Question number three.

49:19
What did your 15 year old self imagine you'd be doing right now? That's a great question. Honestly, my 15 year old self had no flipping clue what I was gonna do because I was interested in acting but too shy to be on stage. I was super introverted. And so, and I remember in, I think it was fifth or sixth grade, I had to take a...

49:47
one of those proficiency tests to see like where you're going to end up in a job. And I think my, my, my perfect fit for a job was a librarian. I'm like, Oh hell no. Like really? Like that's what I have to look forward to. Not nothing against librarians, but not, not my cup of tea. I couldn't imagine doing that. So, um, I know at 15, I knew I wanted to do something entertainment wise, but I had no idea what, and I was way too shy. And, and I just figured I was.

50:17
probably gonna go the route of doing something in the legal field to follow in the footsteps of my dad, which I kinda started doing, so yeah, no clue. Well, hopefully, I mean, if your 15-year-old self could see you now, she would be very proud of you at this moment. Very proud. Maybe disappointed in the legal part, but yeah. Nah, nah, she's like, this is way cooler, way cooler. Yeah, that's what I'm saying, that's what I'm saying. Yeah.

50:41
You're kind of like a librarian. You're a librarian of voices that get to do like, you know, you catalog and you find the right book slash person for the voice. Yeah, I'm trying to create a site where that doesn't exist. I'm sorry. Question number four.

51:02
Do you prefer live action or cartoon superhero shows?

51:09
Uh, I think I'm going to go with live action. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I'm a huge Superman fan. Henry Cavill is my future ex-husband. But, um, but also I grew up on the original Superman with Christopher Reeves. So I was just like my, my jam. So I, yeah, I want, I want to say I'm.

51:35
I don't mind the animated versions, but there's something about live action that's just like super cool. Yeah, and at the time of this recording, they just released the Wolverine Deadpool trailer. I know, I just saw the trailer for that. I can't wait, I know. Freaking out. I can't wait for that. It's gonna be so good. Yeah. It looks so good. And question number five.

52:01
What's the best compliment you've ever received?

52:10
It's actually not one you wouldn't you would expect, but I remember someone telling me once, you don't say much, but when you do, man, you just drop a bomb and it is gold. And I thought that was really cool because granted voice actor, I talk for a living and I listen to people talk for a living and a lot of voice actors like to talk as well and love to.

52:37
hear themselves talk. I am not one of those people that talks just to talk, to hear myself talk. I'm more of, I'm sitting in the back of the classroom. I observe everything, take it all in. Just watch, watch and listen. And I was in this situation where I was in this group of people and everybody's talking and people will be talking over people. People would say the same thing, something that someone else said just because they wanted to.

53:07
their voice heard, which I understand that's a thing. But I, and people would look at me, it's like, are you gonna say anything? Do you have anything to say to someone? I might say one thing or just drop a bomb, and it was just like, it literally would shut the room up. Because it's just short, sweet to the point. So I thought, that's a really, really cool compliment, and I love that, that I'm able to do that, that I can just sit, and I think part of that is, just because,

53:35
I am willing to sit back, shut up and watch and listen and learn and not have to be the one talking ahead all the time. Yeah. I love that. I love that because you're observing, you're taking it all in, you're processing and then you put in something new out there instead of just up there flapping the gums. And also people say I'm a really good listener too. So I get people all the time. I'll be sitting in a bar.

54:03
I'll be by myself going up eating or whatever. And some, some person will be sitting next to me. And all of a sudden they just start opening up and telling me their life story. Just like, do I have a therapist sticker on my head or something where everybody's just going to pour their guts out? Lucy van Pelt, you got the five cents. I don't know what is going on, but I there's just something about my energy or aura that people just feel that

54:29
That actually happened in Rio, Atlanta. I was sitting at the bar and some dude comes up, sits next to me, he starts telling me how he's a pilot and I learned all about pilot training and everything because he's just like, ugh. Right. Okay, it's a feature but you know what? I'm a good listener, I listen and it's fascinating too. I like learning about people and their stories and hearing what makes them tick and how they got to be where they're at and all that good stuff so it's fun. I love that, I love that.

54:58
Well Jessica, that was question number five and that is the show. Thank you so much for being here. Oh my gosh. Thank you for having me. This is a lot of fun. This was so much fun. If folks want to keep up with you, what's the best way that they can do that? Um, they can go to my website, JessicaBlue.com. Um, I'm on Instagram @BlueHairJess.

55:20
I'm on LinkedIn, which I think is just Jessica Blue Vio. Maybe I don't remember, but just plug it in and you'll find me. Um, but yeah, JessicaBlue.com is our website. Awesome. I'll, I'll make sure that we put those links in the show notes. And of course you can find out more about Jessica in the guest section of the website at ChewingtheFatBR.com along with all of the links.

55:42
for the previous guests. But Jessica really is this has been a pleasure getting to know you, getting to just have conversation with you. You're such a bright light in this community. And you've got such a great spirit. And hopefully this will be a friendship that continues forward, if not a working friendship, just a friendship friendship. And I really do appreciate you being here. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And if you would like to support this podcast, I'd appreciate it if you bought me a coffee

56:12
at ChewingTheFatBR.com, but until next time, I look forward to the chance we have to sit a spell and chew the fat.