I'm a writer/producer. Casting is a business of categorization (by gender, age, race, culture, and character type). For better or worse, when your audience can't see the actor, they have to rely on stereotypes that they can easily categorize. James Earl Jones has a classically trained accent, but just because he's black doesn't mean I'd hire him to do an urban street rap. I'd hire Eminem, who is white. So it's not about skin color, but by people's notions of what certain types of people sound like.

The euphemism for AA and Latino voices nowadays is "urban." You can ask an African American talent to do a "non-urban" read--where he sounds white. Is that racist? Maybe. But it's a reality of casting. And 9 times out of ten, I can tell the difference between an AA voice and a white one, NOT because of accent or because they are being stereotypically "black" but because there is a difference in timbre, cadence, and intonation.

James Earl Jones is a perfect example--I can tell he's not white, just by listening to him, even though he doesn't have a "black" accent. And just because you can do a Costa Rican accent doesn't make you sound authentically Costa Rican.

Right now, I'm looking for a talent who do an urban street voiceover. They have to sound authentic, so I'm not looking for a midwestern white males, or a supermarket mom. It may stereotyping, but I think it's going a bit far to call it racism. It's the reality of casting.

When I worked in radio, I was told often by listeners that they expected a "tall, older blonde" when they actually met me. I'm maybe 5 feet at the most, turning 33 this month, with short espresso hair-- and I'm plus size. I sing tenor when they need one for the synagogue chorale (my husband is Jewish and I converted.) This is just to give you an idea of how far stereotyping can go. I speak "properly," so I must be a blonde White woman, right? Anyone can learn General American speech. People can be silly with their assumptions and expectations. As Al said in the post below, an "ambiguously ethnic" voice is one where the ethnicity of the VO is undetectable.

In a recent article in Stormfront.org... A trend in the entertainment & fashion industries is a preference for ethnically ambiguous celebrities, whose ethnic or racial heritage is difficult to determine based on their looks alone...Now, people of diverse heritage are considered chic, mysterious, and beautiful. This trend is directed at young people, and is being hailed as "Ethnically Ambiguous.” The following famous individuals head up this movement: Halle Berry, Jessica Alba, Benjamin Bratt, Mariah Carey, Dean Cain, Christina Aguilera, Derek Jeter, Vin Diesel and Victoria Beckham... I would think an ambiguously ethnic voice is one where voice actors ethnicity is undetectable.

I don't answer these auditions. The code word "Urban" has grown tiresome, also.

Most of the folks I know in the business, whether black or white, lost their localized accents and cultural colloquialisms in order to get into the VO business in the first place. If they want to put it back to take on these roles, more power to them. I wouldn't embarrass myself by trying.

Yep John, just got what I guess was the same one you did - and since I was trained to have a neutral US accent, I believe that does make me ambiguously ethnic. Or, as once pointing out the last time, do you think I should do a different accent/dialect with each word just to keep them guessing?

My two cents on this are from also seeing a lot of on-camera stuff where the new buzzword is 'multiethnic' - they want to kill as many birds as possible with one stone - one black, hispanic, asiatic native American mix can fill up an entire diversity portfolio.

I think that's what VO people are looking for - no idea how there are going to find it - most multiethnic people I know talk like me.

He's spot on about the term being a form of very thinly veiled racism and/or stereotyping. I've dealt with a similar incident, although not the "ambiguously ethnic" issue here. I'm half Eastern Band Cherokee and an enrolled citizen of the tribe, and I've been asked to "do a Native American accent" before, despite the fact I speak mostly in a General American accent and lost my original accent 15 years ago. Most Eastern Cherokee who are not in broadcasting or VO have Southern Appalachian accents just like their white neighbors, and there isn't one kind of "Native American" language or accent. The assumptions and insinuations of terminology such as "ethnic" or "African-American voice" can be pretty dicey and even outright offensive---not to mention hard as hell to figure out, as Dave stated in the article. Also, remember that many groups of White Americans can easily fall under the "ethnic" category and stereotyped in much the same way.

Hi Dave!
"Ambiguous" is EXACTLY how I would describe this "direction" request!It Sounds like one of those, "I don't really know what I want, but I'll know it when I hear it" calls. Sometimes the product can clue you in, other times you're just flyin' on instruments (if you're lucky - flyin' blind if you aren't). Speaking of African-American voices, I recall an interview with Dave Fennoy, where he averred that he can spot an African-American voice every time, regardless of regional accent or level of elocution.