Mia Goth is proof that we need more actors with crazy voices

There’s a clip of actress Mia Goth speaking a few words of Portuguese at the premiere of her latest collaboration with Ti West. MaXXXine, that has been making the rounds for the past week, not because anything remarkable was said or done in the video, but because it is yet another reminder that she really does have a crazy voice. This happens with every new gothic film release (pearl, Infinity pooleverything): Collective society remembers that when it speaks, it sounds like the portrait of a child cursed to come to life.

It is not so important whether Goth sounds like that in the project she is promoting (which is often not the case) or whether her vocal tenor is real or not, but that she really sounds like no one else in the industry. In an interview with BGoth claims that her voice sounds like that because she is afraid; that is fine, although I know many anxious people who do not sound like the little creatures on the Fantasies. We cannot pin all our hopes for vocal accomplishments on Goth, especially given the details of her alleged abusive behavior on the set of MaXXXineThat’s why we have to say: we need more actors who have crazy and distinctive voices.

This goes beyond an actor’s ability to imitate accents (sorry, Jodie Comer) or have an easily recognizable voice (sorry, Awkwafina). It’s about the naturally or as a near-natural speaking voice that becomes a signature sound or tenor that, when you hear it, you have to remember that it is something real and not a sound manipulation, as is sometimes the case with pop stars who use a baby-talking version of themselves for a song.

Of course, Goth is not alone in the current landscape of crazy voices: We have one of this summer’s other stars, Austin Butler, still walking around with the spirit of Elvis inside him, using it like a ventriloquist’s dummy. A press event for Butler is fun not only because of the actor’s flirtatious intensity, but also for the sheer joy of remembering that he sounds like like thatLikewise, Adam Driver’s deep, strange voice tremor never ceases to amaze, whether he filters it through an Italian accent or not. And amidst the vocal noise machine that Madame Webyou will always know it when you hear the nervous plucking of Zosia Mamet’s voice.

Modern movie stars have lost those vocal eccentricities that were once more common on the big screen and are instead as ubiquitous as the newscasts. Though they may have a regional accent as a sign of their homeland, these performers largely have flat, mid-range voices that reflect an upper-middle-class suburban quality. Sometimes that’s coincidence, sometimes it’s simply because everyone is from central California. When you listen to movies from 20, 40 or 60 years ago, you hear a whole symphony of voices, as was best seen yesterday as people celebrated the fairytale revival of the recently deceased Shelley Duvall. In reality, any gathering of actors on a red carpet should sound like an episode of The Muppet Showrich and textured with accents and rustles and verve and pitch, reminding us that what we see on the screen is a performance. No actor is really normal (if they were, they probably wouldn’t be actors), and their voices should reflect that eccentricity. Experiencing a woman who sounds like a haunted doll is one benefit of going to the movies, but imagine there being a whole shelf full of them – seated, composed, ready to speak.