FEATURING ELIAH
PLEASE KINDLY INTRODUCE YOURSELF.
Kia ora Fusion readers!!! It's tubularly rad to get to chat with you in this interview! Thank you so much Fusion team for inviting me to chat with you! My name is Chloë Elmore (the umlaut is just a bit of spicy pizzazz) and I am a New Zealand voice actor, working full-time from my beautiful custom-made recording studio here in the lush countryside of Middle Earth! To get the numbers out of the way, I'm 32 years old and I've been pursuing VO part-time for 11 years, but I've been doing it full- time as my only source of income for 3 years.
TALK ABOUT HOW YOU GOT STARTED?
Let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start... I'm so glad print media doesn't let you hear me sing that, hah! Although... I'd voice it in my best sultry, seductive femme fatale voice and you would re- ally dig that! Anyway, I digress. So, I mentioned that I've been pursuing VO for 11 years, but it really started in my teens. As a homeschooler, I didn't have the opportu- nities that other kids have - like drama classes or singing lessons at school, etc. so I was a late bloomer. But I was going through a huge amount of trauma through my young years and was severely suicidal, having at- tempted it as an 11 year old. I was painfully shy - a vessel empty of confidence and stuffed full of self-hate.
I just wasn't at the same life stage of a lot of kids my age. I was both more mature and more stunted. I know that my trauma aged me in many ways, ulti- mately shaping me for incredible good - both per- sonally and for my craft. My pain and subsequent healing journey have been my most potent form of Actor Training. Through greater self-awareness in recovery, I got to the heart of why I wanted to act and perform. Yes, partly to escape the unbearable pain of my personal life and to wear the skin of a fictional character (even with their own pain) be- cause my own struggles were too much. But also, because I wanted to live life to the full. To live on the frontlines of life. In the trenches, with my fel- low humans. To stop numbing myself and checking out of life, but to really become more fully human -spirit, soul, relationships and all. Acting is my avenue to feeling most truly human.
SHARE A MOMENT WHERE YOU FELT YOU WANTED TO BE INSPIRED TO BE A PART OF THE VOICE OVER INDUSTRY.
There were a few moments that were very decisive in my choice to pursue the VoiceOver industry. One negative, one positive. Firstly, the negative factor was during drama school (before the Me Too Movement, it's important to note) where the "con- nection exercises" left a prudish Christian home- schooling virgin feeling sullied and compromised beyond all recognition. I saw that if I continued in an industry that demanded profanity and nudity for 99 out of 100 jobs - "OR ELSE" - then I was going to become a person that I never recognised. Keep in mind, I had just started to discover the true Chloë. And I could not risk losing her, having just found her. I needed to be truly faithful to my inner compass, and screen & stage acting were un-mak- ing me and reshaping me into someone I did not like. But voice acting opened up such a liberating horizon to explore deep vulnerability and raw emo- tions while avoiding nudity and not exposing my body (with which I still had a very hate-filled relationship at the time). Voice acting allowed me to perform with full freedom, unshackled by fear of judgements about my body.
Secondly, there was a positive determinant: one of many must say. We did some deep breathing exer- cises at drama school. Gosh, I'm glad they warned us that when you "breathe into your groin," some deep memories and traumas can resurface, since they are stored in the lower abdomen and can be unlocked by breathing. The more breath work we practiced, the more I found my authentic voice and the more my bizarre vocal affectations fell away. As well as my timid, aspirate vocal quality, and the more I realised that the area of the Voice was my heart's desire. I read a book by Patsy Roden- burg, the Head of Voice at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, called "The Second Circle," which unpacks the key to unlocking your power and the inspired life that comes with it. Patsy Rodenburg dissects three basic ways human energy moves between people. In the second of these 'circles', you are focused, you give out energy and you receive it. And by working on your breath, posture, voice, language, listening skills, focus, courage and trust you can access the second circle on a daily basis.
After reading that book, I was never the same again. And while I didn't realise at the time, but I had found my life calling.
IS THERE ANY PROJECT OR PEOPLE THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO WORK WITH OR COLLABORATE WITH?
Heck yes!! A total dream would be to work with Ben Starr in a AAA video game. I have voiced for Warframe, but it was 'Koumei and the Five Fates', not '1999' in which he played Arthur.