Award-winning audiobok narrator Ray Porter on Delivering the Mail, Being Your Advocate, and Good-Natured Arrogance
The biggest downfall of actors is when they start to get very pleased with themselves because they’re actors; having something else that will keep you a bit humble is a good thing. — Ray Porter
On the show today is Ray Porter, an actor who spent 18 seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival playing all sorts of roles, including many leads, and has since narrated more than 300 audiobooks, while still appearing on film, tv, and onstage.
Ray chats about:
- why you don’t want to be a tribute band
- making audiobooks that SUCK (and how to get better)
- an acting approach that gives you freedom
- not believing your own PR
- technique only up to a point
- the most important thing to do, especially as an actor
- and lots more!
We even work on a piece of text from The White Devil by John Webster! Post-Shakespeare themes and ideas — very cool stuff, and I’m sure most people are not using this for their classical monologue!
Click here for the full show notes and links to everything mentioned.
A brief bio:
Ray Porter grew up in Indiana and studied at the California Institute of the Arts. Shortly after college, he auditioned for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and stayed with them for 18 years. Outside of OSF, he has appeared at ACT in San Francisco, the Mark Taper Forum, and Berkeley Rep! Ray has 40+ film and tv credits and includes roles in Modern Family, Shameless, Sons of Anarchy, Monk, Justified, Argo, and Almost Famous. He has narrated multiple best-selling books, covering all types of genres, including the Joe Ledger series by Jonathan Maberry, The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, Silver Linings Playbook, and The Idiot’s Guide to String Theory. He has multiple Earphones Awards and has been nominated for Audie awards for his narration.
Excerpts from the podcast:
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