We had the good fortune of connecting with Jessica Blue and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessica, what role has risk played in your life or career?

When I do something that scares me, I know I made the right choice. I believe taking risks helps me to grow and evolve. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but I’d rather have tried and failed, which offers its own lessons and learning, vs. never having tried and staying stagnant in the same place.

In 2013 I chose to leave the corporate world and a financially stable job of 13 years, and move my whole life to Los Angeles to pursue my dream of voice acting. Armed with only a great support system, I had no job prospects and no local agent. I can’t imagine what my life would be like now had I not made that move. There’s been plenty of ups and downs, challenges and opportunities, and everything has led me to where I am now, for which I’m extremely grateful. I never thought I’d end up directing voice over in addition to acting, let alone producing independent films and becoming an author.

I have been asked on more than one occasion by friends if I coach/teach voice acting, but I never went that route because I didn’t think that anyone would want to learn from me. That is, until an opportunity to teach dubbing came up. I took on the challenge which led to me teaching more classes and an opportunity to speak and teach at the largest VO conference this year in Atlanta.

Most of the risks I take work in my favor or lead me on a new path that I hadn’t seen before. I always try to view risk-taking as a win-win, there’s always a positive to take away from the end result.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

I always wanted to be a cartoon. I grew up watching Bugs Bunny and all the Warner Bros. characters. I thought it was the neatest thing to be able to fly, breathe under water, die and come back to life, and do anything and everything that might not be possible in the real world. I’ve also always loved acting in TV and movies. I thought it would be super cool to be someone else for awhile and live in another world. I’ve always been somewhat of a daydreamer. So years later as an adult when I learned I could become a cartoon through voice acting, I was hooked. I immediately took as many acting classes as I could afford and jumped in the deep end to soak up as much as I could learn about acting, and acting for cartoons. It wasn’t long after that I discovered how difficult it was to break into animation (this was early 2000s), and that most of that work was based in Los Angeles, and at that time I had no desire to move there. So I switched gears and focused more on narration and commercial voice over, got an agent and started booking jobs here and there while still holding down a corporate 9-5 job as a paralegal manager.

Voice acting was my creative outlet to keep my sanity throughout my day job. I was dying a slow death there, and after 13 years I had had enough and couldn’t bring myself to do yet another round of performance reviews of my staff and deliver the news of a meager 2% raise. So I decided it was time to make the move to Los Angeles and pursue voice acting full time. Several of my friends whom I’d studied with had already made the move there so I had a built in support system, not to mention the backing of my family, which was huge. Four days after the official move, my father died. He’d had a severe stroke 8 years prior and I became his primary caregiver handling all the household chores and finances for him. He was the one who encouraged me to make the move and gave me his blessing to go. Best gift ever.

After his death, voice over (VO) took a back seat, as there were a lot of trips back and forth to clean out the family home of 40+ years, grieving his loss and figuring out my next steps. I lost my passion for VO and all my auditions sucked. I lost my mojo so to speak. After taking some time to reflect, and trying to figure out what I was going to do, I found my mojo again after taking an emotional intelligence leadership course and got back in the saddle. I started booking some things here and there, got an agent and was in a much better headspace.

I continued to expand my creative endeavors and learned about writing and producing and what that involves. I’d help friends who were making films by doing VO for them, or being a background actor, to get on-set experience. I was introduced to Alan Maxson by my friend and mentor Jeff Howell. Alan is a creature actor and also writes and directs. I ended up working with him on a few on-camera projects (as zombies) and ultimately became an executive producer for his feature film Alien Planet. That was incredible learning experience and I wore all the hats, from craft services, keeping things on schedule, managing the PAs on-set, assistant directing, fixing costumes, setting up blood cannons, set dressing, to so many other roles I can’t remember. It was such a fun set and it was great being Alan’s right hand during the production.

I was also Jeff Howell’s right hand when he asked me to assist him on an English dubbing project, and keep things organized, which I’m really good at. Neither of us had much experiencein live action dubbing before and we basically taught ourselves how it all worked. That first project turned into another one, then another, and it helped develop my directing skills as I was watching Jeff work and learned whatever I could. He ended up needing me to cover for him on one project, and he trusted me to do most of the directing. It was both a terrifying and wonderful experience. I remember being so nervous that I’d screw it up, or get a so-so performance, but we ended up with a great result. That work led him to referring me to another studio where I got to do my first solo directing job. That was even more terrifying since I didn’t have Jeff there to rely on, but it was time for the baby bird to fly on it’s own. And fly I did. In addition to directing dubs, I also learned the art and skill of adapting the English scripts for dubs and ended up doing a lot of that work, in addition to directing more series and films for other studios.

I prefer directing, even though I still do some voice acting. I’m much more picky with what I audition for as I enjoy directing and casting so much more. One of the more recent shows I directed and am really proud of was a Korean drama called Moving. It was released on Hulu before the English dub was finished and turned out to be their highest rated K-drama in the first seven days of its release. I was so happy we got to finish directing the English dub. We used 75 voice actors which was an enormous cast, had a crazy timeline to deliver, with specific client requirements and oversight, and it turned out to be such a great show. If you haven’t seen it, go watch it. It’s a really great story with fun characters. That was my biggest directing challenge to date, and I learned so much on that project. It also helped to have an insanely awesome and supportive production team at Roundabout Entertainment.

While I started out wanting to be a cartoon, now I want to direct a cartoon. Cartoons and video games are definitely something I’d like to tackle in the future. And while I’m sure it will have it’s challenges, as all these projects do, I’m willing to take the risk and do something new!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
When my BFF Jen comes to visit me, we do a mix of L.A. touristy things, things she’s interested in, and also some of my favorite places. I like to hike at Fryman Canyon or take a walk around the Hollywood Reservoir which is always fun and scenic. Besides a killer view of L.A., there’s a great shot of the Hollywood sign from the reservoir. Gotta make a trip out to the Santa Monica Pier both for the people watching and epic beach vibes. Although I often go to a smaller, quieter beach north of Malibu to take in the ocean and get away from all the tourists and crowds. Manhattan Beach is also a favorite.

If it’s a special occasion, I’ll get an invite for us to go the Magic Castle. Always a fun time and great magic shows! Another fun thing we’ve done is to drive down both Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards to see all the historic rock clubs, Capitol Records building, iconic theaters and the crazy cast of characters on the sidewalk, ready for a photo-op. Jen is a big Lisa Vanderpump fan, so we have to get a drink at Sur, and dine at Pump (alas it’s closed now), or Tom Tom. One of our favorite places for brunch is the Six, gotta get the waffle sliders and bottomless mimosas. Jen now eats more plant based meals so I took her to H.O.P.E. and Suncafe for lunch/dinner. Oste is a wonderfully delicious Italian restaurant that I can’t wait to take her to next. We’re both into houses so sometimes we’ll drive around Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Brentwood to look at all the beautiful mansions and properties. When we’re not out on the town, we usually stay in, watch movies and order take-out!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Jeff Howell is a dear friend and mentor who got me started in my voice directing career. We’ve known each other for over 20 years and he is a highly sought after voice director and coach. We jumped in the dubbing world together and taught ourselves that side of the business. He gave me an opportunity to co-direct a dubbing project with him, and has since referred me multiple times to other clients. He has always been incredibly supportive and encouraging. He’s my cheerleader and the kind of person you want talking about you in a roomful of decision makers, as he’s always praising my abilities and talent. He has a giant heart, is super supportive, a great travel companion (we’ve vacationed together several times), a fantastic baker, and a fellow lover of horror and Halloween. He’s the best human being!

Alan Maxson is a fellow actor, a creature actor, as well as a writer and director of independent films. Jeff Howell introduced us while we were all at a Halloween convention in Pasadena several years ago. Jeff and I both accepted his invitation to be zombies if he ever needed extras – which we got to do for a spec commercial shoot. Such a blast! That led to more referrals for on-camera work, as well as us hiring him on English dub VO projects. He recently wrote and directed his first feature length film, Alien Planet, which I was an executive producer on, as well as a very small acting part, and wore all the hats on that production. I’ve learned so much from Alan, who is a wealth of information, very giving and supportive and all around great guy!

Website: https://www.jessicablue.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bluehairjess/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-blue-45b8921b/

Twitter: @JessicaBlueVO

Facebook: Jessica Blue Voiceover

Image Credits
Josh Marble Kailey Portsmouth

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