MovieChat Forums > Shiri Appleby Discussion > Surprised by her speaking voice

Surprised by her speaking voice

posted 8 years ago by number9-4
3 replies | jump to latest

This is a weird thing to notice, but I feel like Shiri is one of those people whose voices don't seem like they would be coming out of them.

In most pictures, she looks very innocent and wide-eyed, yet she has this somewhat masculine, sort of world-weary voice. It's interesting.

Not that your voice *should* match your face; I sometimes wonder whether people feel the same way about me (I'm petite and kind of shy in my demeanor, but I have a throaty, low voice for a woman). Hers is just a case where, the first time I heard her speak after having seen many photos of her before, I was totally caught off-guard.

Anyone else agree?

[–] jrnsanders18 8 years ago

I totally agree with you. She looks like a person who would be kind of shy, but then you hear her voice and you'd be like "wow, didn't expect that". She's definitely one of those people who'd you expect to have a high pitch, innocent voice.

[–] number9-4 8 years ago

She's definitely one of those people who'd you expect to have a high pitch, innocent voice.

Exactly! I though she'd have a little baby voice.

I should know better, since low voices run in my family for both men and women, but it's interesting how people still tend to think your face and voice will automatically correlate.

[–] mikeflw1 7 years ago

Exactly! I thought she'd have a little baby voice.
If things like smoking, drinking, and screaming do not contribute to people's voice going lower. it can also be learned/taught.

It is a fact that those first three "activities" cause people's voice to change to lower tones. The vocal chords develop scar tissue, and that lowers the voice.

As far as learning to speak that way goes, I give two examples, singer Cyndi Lauper and model/actor/humanitarian Kathy Ireland.

Lauper was on one of the music award shows, and got so excited by her award, she used her natural voice for a second or two, instead of her "stage voice".
Kathy Ireland was originally known for being a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model, and tried acting. Her performance in ALIEN FROM LA was laughable for her voice alone. Magazine articles talked about how she hired a voice coach after the movie reviews started to come out... (roundly and savagely trashing her performance, and more specifically, her voice - high and mousy). Once she worked through that, she got more movie and TV work, and speaking work. I actually heard her talking in an airplane when she was seated one row behind, and on the other side of the aisle from me. (And yes, she is as beautiful in person as her photos, etc.)

Oh, and since there was a TV revival of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW recently, Tim Curry (Dr. Frankenurter) comes to mind. I saw him in a live performance, not too long after RHPS (the movie) had gotten so "cult popular". He was trying to start a solo singing career, and break from the RHPS, somewhat unsuccessfully at both. (The performance was promoting his first album.)
He is not tall, any more than Tom Cruise, but he has a booming deep voice!
Yes, I do know that for a fact, since I was less than ten feet from him at that particular performance, and the voice followed him (i.e. NOT from any loudspeakers.) I was impressed!

Deeper voices are sometimes natural, and sometimes 'helped along'.