Why is a girl (Jacqueline Pillon) playing the boy in Cyberchase(Matt)??? I can't believe that! Why would the directors ask a girl to play a boy? And why would Jacqueline want to? Anyway that girl has some talent to sound like a boy. I didn't know Matt was played by a girl until now. He sounds so much like a normal guy!
shareA girl plays the voices of Timmy Turner of the Fairly Oddparents and Tommy Pickles of the Rugrats. Most of the time a girl ends up playing the voice of a boy.
shareAnimators often use women to play boy voices. Boy's voices tend to be higher than men's voices, so if you hire a boy to play a boy on a long-running series, sooner or later their voice changes. Unless your show takes place in real time, you want your voice to remain consistant. And why would a professional voice actor play the opposite sex -- because it's a gig. Why wouldn't she?
shareThey always wind up changing the voices for some male characters on "Hey Arnold," "Arthur" and "Charlie Brown" cause they actually have young children, including boys, do the characters!
shareYeah, and the problem with that is sometimes the new voice sounds nothing like the original which kinda irks viewers a little.
As for a reason that a girl would do the voice of a male character. As an actor it's really rewarding to be able to play a character nothing like yourself. It's a big deal for a voice actor to be able to play someone of another gender. it means they're usually really good. I've been working on male voices, myself over the years. i think I've gotten better.
Most young boys are played by women, one of the examples is Nancy Cartwright who's played Bart Simpson for 22 years(including the Tracy Ullman shorts). If they had a boy play the voices of boys then after a few years they had to change actors, which may confuse younger viewers. That's what happened in Arthur they had like what 3 people play him, first it was a boy, then another boy, now a girl. The reason they use women to be the voice of boys is to keep their voices constant and more recognizable.
Smithers, there's a rocket in my pocket.
Hi guys! Thanks for your interest in the show (keep it up!). I thought that this one time I would respond directly.
First, I want to thank you for your compliment. I have voiced many characters over the years (most are listed on my page) but I am most proud of Matt. He seems to sound the most natural. The answer you seek is indeed that women's voices do not change. Cyberchase has been running for quite a few years now (again THANK YOU). It would be difficult for a young person to fight their changing bodies.
You might find it interesting to know that although I have a decidedly feminine voice for advertising, most of my animation work is playing boys. I hope that I am doing a good job. I trust that since you didn't know my gender until now that I am convincing.
Thanks again for watching!