At GDC 2026, Room 2018, West Hall. Talk starts at 13:50.
Stop, Collaborate, and Listen: How to be an Actor's Favorite Director
Presented by Philipe Bosher, Yuri Lowenthal, Cissy Jones, Elias Toufexis, Courtnay Taylor

As graphical and audio fidelity in games increases, players demand ever greater performances from their video game actors. In this panel chaired by Phillipe Bosher (Baldur's Gate 3), actors Yuri Lowenthal (Marvel's Spider-Man), Cissy Jones (Starfield), Elias Toufexis (Deus Ex: Mankind Divided), and Courtenay Taylor (Resident Evil) use their experience across stage, screen, audio, and video game to share how they achieve their best work, and how you can ensure your game utilizes its actors to their fullest potential. With a combined total of over 1,000 projects between them, the panel will discuss tips and techniques they've learned across their careers, covering topics like ensemble recording, actionable direction, the pitfalls of splitting voice and body performance, and trust and collaboration. They will also share concrete tools for how to save a session that is not going how you intended, before opening the floor to questions.

Notes:

• Clear wires and trip hazards
• Introduce the room, acting is vulnerable. maintain trust and familiarity
• Double check script before session
• Have audio files of unusual pronunciations ready
• No surprise accents
• Rests are good, but a voice actor needs to warm back up
• When they are stuck, distract them.
• Flatter your actor's ego, but do not patronize them.
• How does a director get the most out of an actor?
  • Everyone has something different.
  • Give as much information as possible before the session. Let the VA think of questions and offer input before the day.
  • Indulging an actor on set too much can slow things down
  • Talk about the game before the recording day so recording day doesnt get slowed down
  • I dont mind line reads as long as they have a few attempts to do it first. Not every actor is okay with that.
  • If an actor is not hitting a beat, actor is probably missing big picture context that you need to explain
• Ensemble Recording
  • An actor's favorite
  • When actors get to act a scene out together.
  • Gives believable dialog, natural dialog timing
  • Could do it over skype/zoom/etc if people have a home recording studio
  • Good for emotional beats, we all want to make people cry
  • Actors are often silo'd. It's nice to meet the devs and other actors.
  • "acting is reacting" having a scene partner will give you a better result
  • It's also fun!
  • Scheduling is really difficult and can drag out schedules, because some actors may be busier than others
• One actor, one performance
  • An actor shouldn't have their performance constrained.
  • For example, one actor disliked having to match their voice acting to the character body capture motions that were already done.
  • Don't have two different people directing the actor
  • If you can afford it, always do full performance capture.
  • If separately, at least do the voice first. The voice is the emotional core of the character. matching a body to a voice is easier.
  • Try as much as you can to avoid splitting the performance
  • Let the actor lead the way
  • AI can never replace actors because the audience wants to connect to the character.
  • Separate performances can be a cadence problem too, the motion capture performer might speak faster for example
• Take the Ws
  • Developers dont take acting classes so they dont know what actors respond to
  • Who is the character talking to?
  • Who is talking to the character?
  • What does this person mean to this character?
  • What would the win mean for this character?
  • Where is the character physically and in the story arc?
  • When is this happening? What just happened?
  • Why are the characters here? Are they just color, in the background, a shopkeeper?
  • Whimsy, make things funny, find the humor in things that are not necessarily very funny. Give actors some runway to experiment.
  • Word-perfect, is there a specific timing ad-libs/pre-life/post-life
  • Please introduce everyone on the line
  • If there will be vocal stress, let actors know so they can plan for it.
  • Vocal warmups are very important, so breaks can take more effort. You may want to have breaks at the end.

Question I wanted to ask:
As an indie, I often work with voice actors in an asychronous way. How do I make sure that what I send is as useful as possible to reduce the need for retakes?

Questions:

• Do actors do want to be read in, so they have something to react to? What are your preferences?
  • Short lines dont usually need readins, but dialog usually needs it. It is fine if the reading partner is not a great actor. A good actor will know how to deal with it.
  • Third take is usually the best one
  • ABC takes?
• As an actor, how do you make sure you can get comfortable with the character without asking too many questions?
  • Learn more about yourself as an actor, learn what speaks to you.
  • It's okay if you dont have questions to start with
  • For example: What kind of shoes are they wearing? What was their childhood like? Where are they right now?
  • It is different for all actors.
• Are table reads before recording good?
  • Yes. (Everyone seems so relieved and happy)
  • Table reads are a really good idea.
  • Keep it casual and let people get to know each other.
  • Table reads are like a luxury
  • Most budgets dont support group recordings.
  • You get a different energy with individual recordings
• In live service, how early do you know about needing to do recordings?
  • Usually little to no notice
  • A call a week before, usually. sometimes "later today"
  • Developers also have their own timelines to meet, turnarounds are usually quick.
• What can a director do to shut a recording down and how to recover?
  • Director falling asleep, throwing things.
  • When directors want to get in the booth with the actor, it never ends well.
  • When directors leave too much dead time. Let actors know what is happening.
  • Directors being rude, unkind, impatient.
  • Director line reading every line before every take or pushing the actor too hard
• What percent is in-person ensemble recordings after covid?
  • Close to zero, except on the indie side because cast is smaller and there are some important scenes.
  • It doesnt seem like it will become more common again
• How to be an ally for an actor to get the best performance?
  • Would like to give input on script, and be a part of the scriptwriting process.
  • They want to know the character beats and story arcs.
  • Let actors talk about your game after the recording is done everywhere.
  • Make clearer/more specific NDAs