The salary of a voice actor

How much does a voice actor earn?

Lately we have been asked again and again how high the salaries and fees of voice actors are. We did some research and found unbelievable things. It should be said that much in advance, the dubbing voices play an important role as soon as the dubbed actor is famous. The famous the person being dubbed, the higher the voice actor’s fee. But the way to get there is not easy and it is also very long. But for those who have made it all the way to the top, every word they say is gold. Some Voice actors collect fees of up to 320,000 euros per spoken series episode!

The career ladder of voice actors

Synchronous business is booming, especially in Germany and Austria. We want to hear the American productions in German – so the need for voice actors is high. If you consider how many American films and series are shown on the television in German-speaking countries. Especially through Netflix and other consorts, there is a lot of series material that is dubbed in German. But American films also have to be dubbed so that we can watch them in our mother tongue. Mark Wahlberg got a dubbing voice from someone else, but Leonardo DiCaprio also has one unmistakable German voice.

The job of voice acting is challenging. A lot has to be conveyed with what is said, the sound of the voice is just as crucial. Facial expressions, gestures and feelings must be put into words. Lots of voice actors are full-time actor. In the job you learned, you learned how to express yourself, how to play something and how important the voice is. But you don’t have to be an actor to be a voice actor. You can also be trained to be a speaker.

The salary of voice actors

Voice actors mostly work on a contract and freelance basis. As a result, the income fluctuates, depending on the order situation. Basically, they are paid per take, which is a unit of a maximum of 10 seconds. A take can contain one or more sentences, sounds or breath sounds. The takes are paid differently, for a movie you get between 3.50 and 8 euros per take. In addition, you also receive a basic fee, which can range from 60 to 150 euros per day. A leading role in a movie contains 150 to 600 takes. A voice actor speaks around 100 to 150 takes per day. If you now assume average values, for a film with 5 euros per take, 100 euros basic fee and 300 takes, which are recorded over three days, you get one Fee of 1800 euros gross for the job as a voice actor for a movie.

High salaries for synchronized roles

There are no upper limits. The Simspons voice actors (by Matt Groening) get $ 400,000 per episode – that’s the equivalent around 320,000 euros per episode. The German dubbing voice of Homer Simpsons, on the other hand, only gets 10,000 euros per season. Incidentally, the voice actor had to be re-cast in 2016 because the previous German Homer speaker Norbert Gastell passed away. The dubbing voice of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) in The Pirates of the Caribbean was performed by Marcus Off. His fee was a good 18,000 euros per film. The more famous the person whose voice is to be dubbed, the more you can earn!

_{Image sources:
Cover picture: Dean Drobot + urfingus / Bigstock.com}