TIL voice actors record grunts separately and it blew my mind

I was watching a behind the scenes for My Hero Academia on youtube last weekend and saw the voice actor for All Might doing just heavy breathing and grunts for like 10 minutes straight. Turns out they record all the fight sounds apart from the actual lines. Has anyone else had a moment where learning about the production process ruined or improved a scene for you?

2 comments

2 Comments

jana_davis901mo ago

Three whole studios worth of actors just grunting into a microphone for an hour must be the most awkward recording session in history. I can just imagine the engineer getting paid overtime to sit there and say "okay, now do that again but sound like you're falling down stairs.

parker_bailey1mo ago

Guess I'm in the minority here but it doesn't really bother me. Voice acting is already super manufactured with multiple takes and editing, so separating grunts from dialogue is just another layer of that. Like watching the outtakes for Spirited Away where they had the actress actually run on a treadmill to get the breathing right for Chihiro's big scene, that was kind of interesting but didn't change how I felt about the movie. Honestly, if the final product sounds good I don't care if they recorded the breathing in a different state on a Tuesday.