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Voice Acting: How to Act Like a Psychopath?

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If you’re a dedicated actor who wants to portray a psychopath in a believable, authentic manner, these strategies may be able to help you considerably.

Use an Abundance of Vocalized Pauses

Psychopaths tend to be keen on the use of frequent vocalized pauses. Examples are “um” and “uh.” If you want to sound and act like a bona fide psychopath, you should aim to pepper your sentences with as many of these pauses as you can. Vocalized pauses can point to feelings of unease that relate to things that took place in the past. They can point to individuals who feel uneasy about talking in general as well.

Mask Your Emotions Most of the Time

It isn’t common at all for psychopaths to reveal their emotions for others to see. If a psychopath does seem to express emotion, it most likely won’t be authentic. Research indicates that psychopaths talk in ways that are measured and rather restrained. If you want to act and sound like a psychopath, you should steer clear of stressing any and all words that may tie in with feelings. You should maintain a timbre that’s on the neutral side any time you say anything.

Note, however, that it isn’t atypical for psychopaths to change pitch in order to get others to think that they’re acting in an honest and candid fashion. The reality is that psychopaths generally act aloofly and distantly, but they’re not afraid to occasionally lay it on thick as a means of getting others to believe them.

Use the Past Tense a Lot

Psychopaths are interesting due to the fact that they tend to be especially fond of past-tense speech. If you want others to believe that you’re a psychopath when you act, you should acknowledge that past-tense verbs are your best friend. Why are psychopaths so keen on bringing up how they felt in the past? People speculate that psychopaths just do not feel connected to their settings and their actions. This disconnect may make them rely heavily on past-tense speech.

Take Advantage of Body Language

A big part of sounding like a psychopath is also looking like one. Psychopaths like to lie. They lie out of the desire to portray themselves in more flattering lights. How exactly do so many psychopaths get away with lying all of the time? They get away with lying with the assistance of believable nonverbal actions. You should go above and beyond to utilize strong and memorable hand gestures any time you make statements as a psychopath. These gestures can divert others as you consistently lie and evade the truth.

Make Sure Your Face Doesn’t Line Up With the Words That Come Out of Your Mouth

As indicated previously, psychopaths just aren’t the most emotional human beings out there. If a psychopath tells another person that he cares about her, then it most likely won’t make him feel anything. The sentence may feel as neutral and faraway as a basic request for the morning newspaper.

Although psychopaths have the talent to mimic the emotional things that other kinds of human beings say, the looks on their faces just don’t line up. If you want to truly sound like a psychopath, you should put a lot of effort into maintaining an expression that’s the opposite of emotional and expressive.

Talk in a Quiet, Slow and Calculated Way

If you want the people around you to buy that you’re a psychopath, you should speak in a comparatively quiet fashion. You should speak in a relatively measured one as well. Psychopaths aren’t like “normal” humans. They don’t get caught up in real excitement that makes them speak rapidly and without self-consciousness.

Psychopaths strive to come across as being composed on purpose. The aim behind this is to boost control in relationships with others. It’s no big surprise that psychopaths aren’t exactly fans of feeling vulnerable.

Say “Because” and “So” a Lot

Psychopaths tend to utilize a plenitude of words that are part of the “cause-and-effect” group. “Because” and “so” are two examples of words that fall under this umbrella. Go the extra mile to use these words with great frequency.

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How to Speak From the Diaphragm?

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The diaphragm is a respiratory muscle that contracts on inhalation. We can’t directly control how it behaves, but we can learn how it feels when activated. When you breathe in and out, your diaphragm, which is an involuntary muscle, will contract and expand.

What does it mean to speak from your diaphragm?

Speaking from the diaphragm is a concept that is used primarily in the practice of voice acting and public speaking. It requires you to activate your diaphragm while breathing and speaking. The objective is to train the individual to become mindful of their diaphragm and use it on purpose.

Training and utilizing your diaphragm improves the vocal capabilities of an actor performing but it’s very useful for public speakers and singers as well.

Inhale from the belly instead of the chest area

You’d think everyone would be familiar with how to breathe right properly? Or, at the very least, everybody believes that they do. But the truth is that the vast majority of people only use their upper chest and upper belly when they breathe.

The ability to focus, relax, and strengthen oneself by using diaphragmatic breathing is an asset for voice actors. When performing you should take a deep breath. By doing that you’ll slow down your pulse rate, remain in the present and create a more intimate and natural-sounding voice for the listener. Because of its incredible efficacy, it serves as the essential component of a successful performance.

How can I tell if I’m using the diaphragm properly?

When you’re breathing through the diaphragm, your tummy should move in and out, that way you’ll know that you’re activating your diaphragm. You may begin to use your upper chest muscles or your belly to get additional inhalation as you strive to take very deep breaths and fill your lungs more. But this is unnecessary, and if you raise your shoulders, you could be overdoing it and tensing yourself. Slower diaphragmatic breathing should be quite calming as your respiration becomes more effective.

Standing up makes it the most simple to breathe through your diaphragm. Straighten your spine, inhale through your nose, and inflate below your breast bone. Your stomach should appear to be inflating, but in reality, it’s just your diaphragm pushing lower. Only lift your stomach, not your chest. Pretty quickly, this becomes natural, comfortable and subconscious.

How to train oneself to Speak from the Diaphragm

You can practice speaking from the diaphragm with one of these methods:

  • Talk in front of the mirror making sure your belly fills in when breathing in and your shoulders stay quite level
  • Try tongue twisters to practice breathing while speaking fast. It’ll help you to learn to take effective breaths in difficult conditions.
  • Practice belly breathing while reading aloud. Focus on the breathing part while reading, later it should become an involuntary habit.

How can I breathe and talk from the diaphragm simultaneously?

Speaking from the diaphragm is a bit of a misnomer. The diaphragm is the primary inhalation muscle, which is engaged during inhaling and resting during exhaling. As a result, you cannot directly speak from your diaphragm but you can utilize the extra air and resonance diaphragmatic breathing gives you to enhance your vocal capabilities. Therefore, speaking from the diaphragm means employing the diaphragm to maximize your performance.

Speaking from the diaphragm involves using a deeper breath. Some people breathe shallowly, which leaves them with insufficient air to talk loudly, pronounce a phrase, or speak appropriately for a voiceover. As a consequence, they strain the throat rather than engage their entire body to send air through vocal folds.

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