The voice of Jim Dale brings Harry Potter to life

If you are one of the millions of adults and children who have fallen under the spell of J.K. Rowling`s novel creation, Harry Potter, but you have only read the books, then you`re missing half the experience.

That`s because no matter how imaginative a reader you may be, the voice inside your head (which most likely speaks in an American accent) cannot compete with the impressionistic magic that British actor Jim Dale brings to his audio-book renditions of the popular stories.

A master of impressions worthy of wizard status, Dale created an amazing 127 voices for his latest recording of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," each with its own distinctive character and accent, from fearless Harry to He Who Must Not Be Named.

A child of the radio generation, who grew up in the English county of North Hamptonshire, Dale remembers well the power that a disembodied voice can have, and he`s not talking about Nearly Headless Nick.

"If you leave it up to the person at home to create the image, while I create the sound and the voice," says Dale, speaking by phone from his apartment in New York City, "it helps tremendously for anybody listening to form the character in their mind`s eye. What`s unfortunate with film and television is you`re told that this is the way the character looks and you`re forced to see it that way. It doesn`t give much room for the imagination to play, which is the joy of the `Harry Potter` audio books."

So far, Dale has recorded the first four of Rowling`s proposed seven-novel series for the Listening Library division of Random House Audio Publishing. He got the job, he says, because one of the company`s editors happened to see him in an off-Broadway production of "Travels With My Aunt," in which Dale played the dual roles of the nephew who narrates the story and his eccentric aunt.

The choice of Dale to record the first book, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer`s Stone" met with the approval of Rowling, who had long maintained that the reader should not be American, but British. For Dale, the experience proved to be something of a trial by fire.

"This was my first experience doing a book on tape," Dale says, "and I really didn`t know how to go about it. I had to make up my own rules as I went along. I knew instinctively that I had to perform, not just read. I`m a storyteller, and I needed to tell the story in my own way."

Many a reader might have been content with a simple indication of the numerous fantastical characters that inhabit Rowling`s books, but Dale was determined to provide each with its own distinctive voice. It`s a skill, he says, that he`s been developing ever since the day he went to his first on-stage tryout.

"When I was 17," he recalls, "I went along to do an audition as an impressionist. Unfortunately, the first thing I did as I went on stage was trip over the curtain, and all the people in the audience, who were also waiting to audition, laughed out loud.

"I did my act, and afterward, the director said, `Those were the worst impressions I`ve ever heard.`

"And I said, `They were very good!`

"And he said, `But none of us know who your mother`s butcher was, or the rent man. We have no idea who these people are.`

"And I said, `To me that`s funny - an impressionist who does impressions of people you`ve never heard of.`

"He said, `Well, it too surrealistic for us, but the fall you took when you came on was very good. Get yourself an act where you fall down.` And I did."

In fact, Dale became a very skilled on-stage acrobat, and in his Tony Award-winning performance in the musical "Barnum," in which he played the great American showman, there was a number in which he crossed the entire width of the stage on a 38-foot tightwire.

Long before Dale made his way to Broadway, he made a reputation for himself on the London stage, first with the National Theatre and then as a founding member of the upstart Young Vic company, in the early 1970s.

In addition to his stage roles, Dale has appeared in numerous television programs and films, including roles in the popular British "Carry On" films, which, he says, remain a constant feature on late-night British Broadcasting Corp. viewing. In fact, he says it was the revival of the films that convinced Rowling he was the right man and voice for Harry Potter.

In creating the numerous voices for Rowling`s characters, Dale not only sought out specific English regional accents, but also delved into his own personal history.

For Hagrid, the friendly giant with a soft spot in his heart for horrendous creatures, Dale says, he borrowed the voice of "an old giant of an uncle of mine, who used to call me `Jim lad,` like Long John Silver." An elderly aunt in Edinburgh provided the proper Scottish tone for Professor McGonagall, the strict prefect of Griffinder House.

Hermoine, Dale says, was inspired by his first girlfriend, "who spoke very, very quickly." In contrast, the slow, deliberate voice of Professor Albus Dumbledore, the wizard/director of Hogwarts School of Magic, he says, is "the voice I shall be using when I become a 100-year-old young man. (He`s now a spry 64 and a grandfather five times over).

Many who have heard the tapes are amazed at the way Dale is able to keep this veritable flood of accents separate in his mind, especially when, in the course of a page, he may have to bounce between six or seven characters, in addition to his own voice as narrator.

"I mark the dialogue in the book with colored pencils," he explains. "Then I use the same colors against a list of characters` names on a sheet of paper alongside me. When I create the voice, I file it on a tape recorder with the name of the character and the page they are on. I can check the tape if I am at all unsure."

Rowling`s latest effort, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," posed, by far, the greatest challenge for Dale. By his latest count the reading required him to create 127 voices (compared with 36 in book No. 1 and 55 in books Nos. 2 and 3). In addition, the production was hampered by an exceedingly tight schedule that required Dale to record the 735-page novel in 10 days.

"Instead of being able to read it two or three times, I was given it on a Saturday and had to be in the studio on Monday," he says. "I said I can`t possibly do it. So we agreed that I would read 100 pages a night and create the character`s voices as I read it and record them the next day. We recorded 20 pages an hour."

The success of the book has amazed even Dale. The average children`s audio book, he says, sells between 5,000 and 7,000 copies. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" has sold more than 1 million copies. Despite this success, due to union fee restrictions, Dale is paid a straight fee (with no royalties) based on the number of listening hours of the final tapes, in this case 20.

Even more painful is that Warner Bros. Studios, which holds the rights to the Harry Potter books and is in the midst of producing a multimillion-dollar film version of the first book, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer`s Stone," did not chose to include Dale in the cast, even in a minor role.

"It is disappointing not to be involved," Dale says, in a mournful tone worthy of Nearly Headless Nick, "but its a big-budget film and they`re trying to get big stars to do every role. Sure I`d love to play Dumbledore, but Richard Harris is going to play him, and he`ll be marvelous.

Dale may find a certain satisfaction in the knowledge that there are certain to be millions of people who see the film but, because of their affection and familiarity with the audio books, will leave saying that Harris and actors such as Maggie Smith (who is playing Professor McGonagall), can`t hold a candle to the wonderful voices created by the man on the tapes.

(C)Copley News Service

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Author: Jim Farber