This guy needs help. Well, at least he looks like he does. But animator Chris Woodworth needs no help at all. He’s completely sane. From Wigan, England, Chris is an animator - with the goal of becoming the voice actor for animated games and films that he has animated. And he’s got the credibility and talent to achieve it. Educated at Wrexham for three years with an animation degree, Chris went on to get a master’s in 3D animation at Bournemouth University.
But there were telltale signs as a child that Chris would love to be a character in films. “When I was a child, I wanted to play these characters I saw on TV because they were so freakin’ cool.”
“Growing up, we were often told, “calm down,” “settle down,” “pipe down.” So, “The feeling of letting loose every once in a while, and at the same time telling a genuinely compelling story, is a pretty amazing feeling.”
“But from these TV shows, I knew, even though I was Very young, what I wanted to do”
and as Chris adds, “I saw the word animation, and I looked it up and studied it.” www.chriswoodworthvo.com
Immigrating from Africa to England at just two years old, young Christopher was always interested in things that stimulated his theatrical senses.
“And TV influenced me from the very beginning,” he says. But Chris found an interest in all of the arts. He loved music, the art of magic, drawing, and theatrical studies. So, when it came time for Chris to harness those interests, he chose to learn to play the saxophone and the piano. And he took a very big interest in drawing, which foreshadowed his animator career to come. He also studied the art of magicians and how they do it.
But the theatre interested him the most, and so began a string of plays. And these theatre productions became the foundation of Chris’s interest in voice acting. But his animator skills were obvious, as seen here:
“People need a dose of escapism and positivity, as tough as life is.,” says Chris. And to Woodworth, “One of the purposes of actors and voice actors alike is to inspire people and raise spirits.” To Chris, that directed him to go even deeper into animation. “Even though he was silent, Charlie Chaplin has always been a huge influence on me,” and that’s because “his expressiveness and storytelling ability was so profound, it captured my imagination in an incredible way.”
Charlie Chaplin
Chris also points to the uncanny ability to display the truth through characters that Tom Hanks has. “Tom has always been a huge influence on me.”
Chris Woodworth in the voice-over studio.
So, Chris, in professional life, is an animator.
But along the way to his animation credits, Woodworth’s interest in voicework took shape in the form of voicing previously produced shows of which you can see Chris here.
Here’s another example of Chris’s creativity.
Voice acting appeared in Chris’s life because “it was an opportunity for me to explore a plethora of emotions and also learn more about myself and my triggers.” And in animation, “you have a chance to show your truth through fantasy scenarios.” Here’s Chris in a voice study session with another actor reenacting Disney’s Encanto.
And here’s Chris in another voice study with another colleague in the same type of two-voice scene.
My first animation job was as an animator for the video game GTA4. “And along the way I had a quirk where I liked doing voices for my own interests and to make people laugh.”
So, that was the beginning of Chris’s entry into voicing video games. “I wanted to go into video games; it was a journey into self-awareness; I guess acting is like therapy.”
So, here’s therapy at work with Chris and another artist doing “Nadine & The Drakes.”
Therapy for all of us comes in many forms. For Englishman Chris Woodworth, it comes in the form of living theatrically. But no, Chris himself is fine and is not losing his mind. And if there’s one thing Chris doesn’t need in the world of animation, it’s “help.”
