Voices for Voices®

Talent Into Skill: Jason Simpson's Path to Voice Acting Success | Episode 242

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 242

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Talent Into Skill: Jason Simpson's Path to Voice Acting Success | Episode 242

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Voice actor Jason Simpson shares his journey from a small prairie town to a 25-year career in the industry, revealing how watching Optimus Prime at age 10 sparked his lifelong passion for acting.

• Moving to Vancouver rather than Hollywood proved key to launching his career
• Teaching became a parallel passion after film school graduation
• Learning by watching other professionals succeed and handle mistakes
• Turning talent into skill requires persistence, creativity, and openness to learning
• Family support crucial throughout his journey - parents never suggested a backup plan
• Humility and continuous learning essential in creative fields
• Currently active primarily on Instagram @Simstagrams where he shares updates on projects

Follow Jason Simpson on Instagram @Simstagrams to learn more about his work in Dragon Prince, My Little Pony, and more.

#voiceactojourney #jasonsimpsonvoice-over #actingcareertips #optimusprimeinspiration #vancouveractingscene #creativepersistence #learningfrommistakes #familysupportinacting #teachingvoiceacting #voice-overskillsdevelopment #dragonprinceactor #mylittleponyvoiceactor #instagramvoiceactors #charactervoicedemos #voiceactingindustryinsights #humilityincreativity #voice-overwarm-ups #filmschoolexperience #successinvoiceacting #passionforacting #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion

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Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I am your host, Founder and Executive Director, Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes. Thank you for joining us, whether this is your first episode or you've been with us, for our now counting on 240 plus episodes, on our way to at least 300 by the end of calendar year 2025. On our way to at least 300 by the end of calendar year 2025. And so we're grateful to have you here, both here in the United States and among the other 50-plus countries and 600 cities across the world. So we're really grateful and blessed to be able to have this opportunity to come into your living rooms or your subway headphones or airport headphones or what have you. It's just a great opportunity. We obviously had this in mind when we started the show, but we didn't know that it would actually get there. So that's the importance you've heard me talk about with dreaming and having goals and just going towards them, as well as my huge goal of wanting to help 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond, and we're doing a great job, reaching people all over the world, inspiring people, individuals who may feel down and out that may have been through a rough patch, maybe are going through a rough patch, and so we thank all of our guests that have been with us, especially the guest that's joining us today, and I am very excited to be able to have this guest with us to take time out of his super busy life, super busy day, and so we'll jump right into it.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

I'm going to just read his little brief bio on his Instagram, which, the way his name is. His last name is Simpson. You can find him on Instagram, at Simstagrams, so S-I-M-P-S-T-A-G-R-A-M-S. And so who am I talking about? I'm talking about Jason Simpson, and he plays people and animals and people that look like animals and animals that sound like people. So he is an actor. He is well-known in the industry. Some of you may, or maybe a lot of you may, know his work from Dragon Prince, my Little Pony, sausage Party, and the list goes on. We would read through the credits that he has and we would be here for the full 30 minutes talking about that. So, joining us today via Zoom from the West Coast I'm guessing, around the LA Hollywood area. That part doesn't matter. What matters is that Jason Simpson is with us today to talk about his story to inspire and to lift people up. So, jason, thank you so much for joining us today.

Actor Jason Simpson:

It's my pleasure to be here. Thank you very much for having me.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

You're welcome. Yeah, we've had many guests and one that is recent for us. Within the last probably six months or so, david Solomon's been through a lot and the way that he is Coming out and sharing his story and being an inspiration For so many, so many people, that really Kind of dovetails really good Into you and the work that you do, because not only do you have that work, but you are an inspiration and you are a person that people come to, probably for advice, asking or how do you get started, how do you find what projects are available? And all those types of things that the average person might not know. So how did you get interested in the work that you do?

Actor Jason Simpson:

Well, first off, I'm in Vancouver, british Columbia. Okay, and that doesn't, like you said, it doesn't really matter, but it sort of does, because I grew up in a little prairie town, one province, over the small little farming community, and as I was growing up, I was about 10 years old and I had watched Transformers and I heard the voice of Optimus Prime and I realized that was the coolest thing I'd ever heard and I wanted to do that. So from that point on I knew I wanted to be an actor, whatever that meant. I didn't know how to do that and growing up in southern Alberta, there are no opportunities there. And as I got older I realized I had to go somewhere else and I thought you know else.

Actor Jason Simpson:

And I thought, you know, growing up you kind of think, as an actor, you need to move to Hollywood. Yeah, uh, to become an actor. And of course I. I learned quickly that that's just not the case. I moved to Vancouver, went to film school and, uh, I instantly found my career here. Anything I wanted to do I could be doing here. So I've been doing that for the last 25 years. That's the condensed version, but Canadian, born and raised, and I work on a lot of American projects, of course, but I've done all my work mostly all my work here in Vancouver, and it all came from just watching one cartoon and being absolutely inspired and overwhelmed by how cool this character was and how amazing his voice sounded and just wanted to be that when I grew up.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, that's incredible. You talk about dreaming, seeing things at an early age with our interests. I know my early interest. I wanted to be an astronaut and that didn't materialize. So to have something that you saw at a relatively early age and to have that kind of stick, I think that's, that's big. It kind of shows that you can either go that route where it's more like a straight line I like I know what I'm interested in and so how do I find these steps, and then others they may back into it from maybe a different career and and in that. So there's, I think for those out there they don't have to think, oh well, when I was 10 years old, like that's not what I was thinking about, so I can't do this.

Actor Jason Simpson:

I've talked to a lot of people who want to do this job and they've had that very similar story of I had no idea what I wanted to do until I was an adult. I just happen to be very as an unfocused person who does not excel in. You know, I did not excel in school. That was the one thing in my life I knew I always wanted to be. I always focused on that one thing. I knew I would get there at some point. Didn't know how, but that was always the thing and everyone around me knew it. My parents knew I was terrible in math and biology and the sciences. So they said, yeah, we're going to support you in this because obviously this is that one thing you want to do. And it's funny because the rest of my life I'm just so scattered and I just don't focus very well, I'm not organized. But this is the thing that I knew I wanted to do and I was always ready to follow that.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, you mentioned film school and what's going to be at the high level of what you learn, and I'm just assuming it's more of the creative side versus, like you said, the math and the science. It's more of that creating. Is that really where you started to hone your craft of where you went to next?

Actor Jason Simpson:

Yes, I spent a couple of years at the University of Lethbridge taking theater arts. I spent a couple of years at the University of Lethbridge taking theater arts and that really got me excited about acting and directing and stagecraft. I love the visceral, hands-on approach to stagecraft creating things. I'm an artist and I sculpt and I draw, so I love that. But I realized that theater wasn't for me. I needed to hang out with actors who were doing film and television.

Actor Jason Simpson:

So then I went to Vancouver Film School and that's where I really got into learning about the craft of acting and you know it took place in front of a camera. It was for film and television, but I always knew I still wanted to do voiceover and that gave me the doorway simply by meeting people who were in this business who became my mentors and, you know, for the last couple of decades now have been my friends and peers. But film school got me through that door into the world, the industry of voiceover. So I probably wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now if I had not, you know, gone to Vancouver Film School for a year, gain that knowledge, turn my talents into skills and then sort of diverge that pathway into voiceover.

Actor Jason Simpson:

So acting is, acting is acting. All my students hear that from me plenty of times. Acting is the same thing, it's, it's. You know, are you doing it on a stage, are you doing it in front of a camera? Are you doing it in front of a microphone? Those are techniques you learn, but acting itself is still the same thing.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

And so you mentioned your students. I understand that you're a teacher as well. Yes, how did you get interested in that? Was that just a natural progression in that parallel where you wanted to share and give back in that type of way too?

Actor Jason Simpson:

I think you're right on the money there Again. Vancouver Film School I graduated and I realized I loved again that idea of hands-on. I realized that I loved being behind the camera filming, directing, writing, editing and they hired me to be a TA as soon as I graduated and then I spent six and a half years teaching people how to act. You know, I was just a beginner myself, but I think I was pretty good at it and I had a knack for that and the people I was working with a couple of my fellow graduates we started working there and we developed some courses and did a lot of filming, writing films and editing and directing and that certainly got me my start in just teaching and I realized I quite enjoy working on the craft that way as well. Nothing beats actually doing the job going into a studio and doing the work, but it's a lot of fun teaching folks. So that started 25 years ago. So I've been teaching and coaching ever since.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, how does that make you feel just like knowing that you're having that impact on people, knowing that you're not just doing I don't like a transactional job in a way. I mean, I know projects probably are a little bit transactional, but just as far as your mentoring, knowing that that's going to have a lasting impact you know many years down the road that we might not know about now and we may be in heaven at the time when you know people are coming into their own and so just knowing that legacy that you're really helping build and create for others, Wow, it's really interesting when you put it that way, when you use the word legacy, it's that's a really big word and it's quite humbling to look at it that way.

Actor Jason Simpson:

But I think you're correct in the broad sense. I've had quite a few students over the last 25 years who you know, have trusted me to train them and help them on their path the same path that I took and I didn't have that particular help. So, yeah, I'm very honored to say that I have some students who have gone on to be quite successful. Not that success is not the goal, it's to do the work the best you can. I think, overall, when I'm teaching, there's nothing quite like seeing a student get it.

Actor Jason Simpson:

Get it when you give them an idea that they're inside you know, to use this overused term but thinking outside the box. When a light goes on and they go, oh, and you see them sort of flourish and bloom and they're doing something they didn't know they could, that is probably the most rewarding thing out of all of it, because then that just pushes them even further towards their goal of just being a better actor and opportunities come with that and it gets their foot in the door and that's very, very exciting. So it's a good way to think about that, the legacy of it and so you mentioned a little bit about writing as well, were you?

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

uh, so I'm not a good writer and I were was writing growing up, was it? Did it just come naturally with you as you were going through up? Did it just come naturally with you as you were going through education, or was it the type of writing that you were excelling at? I'm just imagining viewers or listeners might be thinking, well, I'd like to write, that'd be something that I would like to do, but I'm not a good writer. Or I turned this project in and I got a C on it, so that might not be something for me, but it may very well be something for them.

Actor Jason Simpson:

Yeah, the instructors at Vancouver Film School when I was very young, 25 years ago, they were very encouraging in all the aspects Get behind the camera, figure out how a camera works, figure out how the lighting works, figure out how to write a script. Read lots of I've already watched. At that point I'd already watched a ton of movies. I'm a big movie fan. So they've encouraged us always to write. And writing is daunting because there's a format to follow and there's creative blocks there's.

Actor Jason Simpson:

I live in. I live in a sort of a in that. In that field I live in quite a bit of fear that what I write won't be good and that people will dislike it and that stops me from writing, and I've had that sort of block for decades. But every once in a while I get this burst where I go you know what, forget it, I'm going to write. But back then I wrote three dozen short films that I directed and I shot and I produced them and I edited them, and I produced them and I edited them. So that was very what's the word? Not inspiring, but that really gave me the courage to just keep doing. That. Didn't know I wanted to be a writer until I started doing it.

Actor Jason Simpson:

And to anyone who does write and says I'm not very good at it so I'm not going to do it, the whole point is to fail and learn from what doesn't work and then move forward. It's like anything really Take your failures, turn those into stepping stones. I learned from this. I will step over this towards my goal. And scripts are no different. You have to write a script from page, from A to Z, and then you go back and you edit and you just fine-tune, and that can take a long time, but the whole goal is to not give up on it just because you think you're bad at it. No one gets anywhere in life being bad at something. We get somewhere by working and working and pushing through adversity and our failures and getting better. That's why we start with a talent and we turn that into a skill, but that takes a lot of time and hard work.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, that reminds me my daughter. She's six and she's done kind of the gymnastics and ballet and all these creative movement type of classes and so now she's looking at cheerleading and so she's utilizing the skills that she learned to learn routines for ballet and gymnastics for cheerleading. So just to see that, and just a day ago she's saying I'm not that good and it has to melt down and all that, and then a day later she feels better because it does, it takes practice. So if you do something one time and you don't do good, that means that you'll learn from that and make it.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

I'm not a term muscle memory, but it just becomes a habit and something that, okay, I remember that cheer, I remember that, that, uh, that series of lines that I'm I'm saying and in a certain certain uh, you know, being happy or sad or disheveled, and I'm sure that's probably something that you were at the Vancouver school. You started to learn those types of things, not just the actual reading of the scripts but the variations you know, especially since you're using your voice so much with the work that you do, since you're using your voice so much with the work that you do, that if it's just monotone the whole time through through a movie or a show or a video game. It's, it won't capture the the audience. But uh, can you talk a little bit about just learning just those variations and like, was it easy, was it hard?

Actor Jason Simpson:

Are we talking in voiceover and just acting?

Actor Jason Simpson:

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. I learned core lessons, core techniques and tools in film school. But really the majority of the training I've had over the years because it doesn't stop, we keep learning has been in the studio, watching other actors succeed and make mistakes. So when I first started voice acting, I kind of got thrown into these not thrown in, I got into these opportunities very quickly, early on in my career. I'd auditioned and I booked them. So I got into the studio quickly. I had no clue what I was doing. I knew I wanted to do it. But you walk in with a bit of a swagger going oh yeah, they hired me. I'm amazing. But inside you're peeing yourself and thinking I am terrified because I have no clue what I'm doing. But to have someone in the booth with you who's a professional and watching them do their thing, you start to take notes and go I'm going to steal that, I'm going to take that thing they're doing. And then you see them make a mistake and you see how they handle that. When a professional makes a mistake, it's just a lot different than someone who lacks confidence. A professional deals with it, moves through it and moves on. So I was able to take those notes very quickly on in my career and apply those to my work as I moved along. So it wasn't.

Actor Jason Simpson:

I've always been a very creative person. I've always been a very creative person and I understood one of the key things to sort of succeed in a session is to have a lot of creativity, to come in strong with your choices and listen to your director. When they like what you're doing, you move on. If they give you a note, you take that note, you apply it and then you go from there. So it wasn't difficult, but it took time and it took a lot of observation and application and those are just really big, boring words, the technical side of it. Really. You're going in and you're reading the script and you're pretending to be someone else and you're making funny voices and people go, wow, you're a great actor. But there's some serious work under the surface, so it just takes time. I just happen to get it fairly quickly, so I'm very fortunate that way. I'm a quick learner when it comes to that stuff.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

And so there's been things over the years you make a mistake or you watch somebody else make a mistake, how they learn from that and how that helps you to shadow them, so you can take those mental notes, even though you may not have made that mistake at that particular time, you're able to take those mental notes of what you're, what you're seeing and other actors, and and so it. It's almost like you're getting double the experience in a way.

Actor Jason Simpson:

yeah, yeah, even now, 25 years in, I can be in the studio with someone who I've known for those 25 years and we're friends and I can watch them or listen to them work and I'm just I just sort of sit back and go, wow, look at this, look at this guy. Go, I mean, that choice he made was I would never have thought of that and it's, it's amazing. There's no jealousy, it's not. Why didn't I think of that?

Actor Jason Simpson:

It's you have to keep yourself open to that idea of I can always learn something new and when you're ready to just watch someone work, those things will pop up, you'll. You don't have to look for them, you just observe and go. Oh yeah, that's why she is incredible, because she makes choices like that and she has the confidence. I'm going to take that and use it in my work. So you are constantly learning. If you let yourself, arrogance and ego have no place in this profession Really they have no place in most professions, but it is really about humility and, as a guy who talks for a living, it's really important to just shut up and listen. Then, when you do talk, you know the wisdom can be found somewhere in there and it informs your work.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Okay, just from the little bit. I did, you know, researching our discussion. You're a family man and how important is that? Just from like a support level. Like you know you're doing good, or coming with you to a premiere or different things, different ways that can be supportive without them saying, oh, jason or dad, I support you. How are ways over the, maybe the, the years because I'm I'm going through that a little bit myself we have I was the mutual mutual friend and in connection and and, and so there's things that we're talking about, things that we're not, because of publicity and wanting to wait till the perfect time, and so some people understand and some people don't. And so just to get that, that support of like, ok, like I believe in you, I believe in the work that you do, was it that first, that first work that you got, that the family started to believe in you, or somebody that's gone through like I don't have support, or what does that look like?

Actor Jason Simpson:

Yeah, that's a really good question. I have had support for what I do from day one. Like I said, my parents knew I was terrible at everything else in school, so they always supported me. I said I want to go to university for this. They're like yep, go do it, you'll be great. I'm going to go to film school. Oh, that's so exciting. We know you're going to be excellent at that. My parents never, ever, told me once have a backup plan, because they knew I wasn't good at anything else. I couldn't have a backup plan because they knew they knew I wasn't good at anything else. I couldn't have a backup plan. So it's like, let's put all of our chips into this, um, but they truthfully supported me.

Actor Jason Simpson:

Uh, my wife, who I you know, she's been my best friend for 30 plus years, um, has supported me fully and there could be no more support. She supports me 100%, fully and completely, and she's my voice of reason. I bounce ideas off of her. If I've got to make important decisions, she's there for all of those. I don't always appreciate her opinion when it goes against what I want to do, but hers always comes from common sense and mine comes from desire to do something because it's cool. So I have to sort of give way to her common sense side of it, which of course makes sense. Um, so she's always been very, very supportive of of my career, because my career is hers as well. I mean, she has her own career, which is much different than mine, but it affects both of us, our daily lives.

Actor Jason Simpson:

Uh, as for my kids, you know kids are kids love the idea of dad being fun, cartoons and stuff, but they were never, you know, starstruck by it. It's like, well, it's just dad's job. Dad's a loud mouth at home doing funny voices all the time, and now he's doing it in a studio. And they were always in. They came to the studio with me all the time as little kids and getting into teenagers, so that's nothing fantastical for them. They've both been in the studio working through the years. My son does a bunch of voiceover work, so it's just a thing to them.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

They understand if I say hey, I met this very cool, important director.

Actor Jason Simpson:

It's like, oh okay, great, yeah, I know. If they said to me, dad, I met this cool director, it's like, oh okay, great. If they said to me, dad, I met this cool director, I'm like, tell me all about it. I am starstruck. I want to hear all that. So we do differ. That way. They're just a little more level-headed about that stuff, but they are. My family is super supportive of what I do.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

I'm very grateful for that, because I need that we're getting to the end of this first episode, so can you just share how people can learn more about you, follow what you do on social, and then we'll come back and do episode two.

Actor Jason Simpson:

Yeah, well, I'm followable on Instagram and you did a lovely job. I love hearing my Instagram bio read by somebody else. It sounds so silly, but, yeah, that's where people can follow me. I'm not terribly interesting. I don't post a lot anymore, but I post updates for projects. I'm in some personal stuff as well, but I'm always happy to chat with people if they want to message me. I don't always get around to that, but I'm certainly open to that. But Instagram is really the only place I'm on nowadays. I don't do Facebook, I don't do Twitter X. I don't do any of the other stuff. I should, I suppose, but I don't.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

I'm old and boring stuff. Really I should, but I suppose, but I don't, I'm old and boring. Jason, thank you so much for joining us on on this episode. Uh, we really appreciate your, uh, your, your experience, your inspiration, the dreaming from an early age, and and uh, giving giving back, uh, so my pleasure thank you and we want to thank you our viewers, viewers, our listeners, wherever you're at, whether you're in the United States or anywhere across the world.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

If you can like, share, subscribe, we would really appreciate it. All free things to do, and thank you for making our show successful and like we're making a difference in the world. So thanks to our guest, mr Jason Simpson, for joining us. Come in and check out. Next week We'll have part two of the conversation, so until next time, be a voice for you or somebody in need.

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