What would be a good voice for a pirate character?

Question

I work with the children's program at my church.

We have many different characters to illustrate the pastor's message.

I have a new character, Jewels the pirate, that I am working on.

There is another pirate named Duncan that she interacts with. His voice is rough, british...a lot like Captain Jack Sparrow's.

But I want my character, Jewels, (who is a girl pirate) to have a different voice than Duncan's.

I am not sure what kind of pirate Jewels is yet, because I have to base the character off of the voice.

I can do many different voices, but I just can't pick one.

What kind of voice should I do that would contrast with Duncan's?

Answer 1

i wouldn't base the character off the voice. develop a character...then get the voice. your attributes as a pirate should help you. are you a smart pirate? what was she before she came a pirate or was she always a pirate? is she an aristocratic pirate? is she a spoiled pirate? ask yourself a bunch of questions, they don't have to be detailed, about who this girl is. then get the voice....

if i just had to pick, i would do an irish pirate. not full on irish but enough that the dialect was lilting and rythmatic, which would contrast with duncan. she has a musical voice that she uses not only to charm men, but she loves telling stories; she would entertain her brothers all the time with tales. she would be a nobleborn woman, which would go great with "jewels", that was escaping a pre-arranged marriage from a stink-farting-belching-gross rich old guy. she was the only girl amoungst 8 siblings so she got to learn a lot of things that most girls didn't. namely reading (that might depend on if you're setting the characters in a specific period), sword play, climbing, boating, swearing, card playing. she won't touch the bottle though because her father and brothers always turned into complete idiots when they drank and she is so much better than that. BUT she learned how to act drunk, in order to get her father's permission to do things he would never let her do otherwise. she is very independent and has no love for the traditional caste system she found herself in at home so she escaped to the docks one night, (of course), disguised at a boy and made her way onto a ship. she sailed on this ship for several years, laying low, and learning. but one day the ship was attacked by pirates and they were forced to defend the ship. she ended up being the last man standing, by sheer will and talent with a sword which caught the eye of the captain.....blah blah...you get the idea. for me it's so much easier, and more fun, to come up with the details of the character first. good luck!

Answer 2

Something that offsets the gruff pirate voice for sure.

How about an accented voice? Like Euro or Aussie? That would contrast it nicely.

Answer 3

OK i got a suggestion, have you ever seen the comedy movie "Dodgeball" with Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller??

well in the movie there's a guy named Steve the pirate, and he has a good voice that isn't British, so if you do it with a girl voice it will sound a lot different then Duncan's but still sound good.

PS- even if you don't like the voice i would still recommend the movie, its really funny! (-:

hope i could help and i hope you find what your looking for!!