Claire Skinner interview
You can hear Claire Skinner as the voice of Luella, Mrs Watson and Mrs Crudley in Scream Street...
Can you introduce us to your characters?
Mrs Watson is Luke's mum. I think she's very down to Earth and quite a straightforward character. She's a pretty nice lady and doesn't have any spooky attributes; she's just a nice, normal mum. She was relocated to Scream Street for her son, Luke, who has werewolf tendencies, and they relocated there so he could have a better life.
Luella is a teenage witch in training and she's always trying new spells. She's very much secretly in love with Resus and this brings her a lot of heartbreak and angst.
Can you relate to either of the characters?
I relate to Mrs Watson because basically her voice is a heightened version of my own, and I relate to her because she is a mum. I relate to Luella too; I remember when I was deeply in love with a boy called Seamus and he was mortified every time I would be near him, so I identify with her as well!
What is your favourite moment of the series so far?
There was a great zombie derby where all of Scream Street build go-carts with zombie legs instead of wheels. Mrs Watson builds an amazing go-cart with Resus - I enjoyed that very much. For Luella my favourite bits are when she's just pining after Resus.
What is the main difference between voicing to acting in vision?
The biggest difference is because you're not in vision everything needs to be slightly heightened. Any vocal twitches you have or you do are then animated, so I think the main difference is that it's a more heightened technique.
How long do you spend in the recording booth?
Generally we do a 10am-6pm day and we just go through it quite quickly. Often, you are in the booth with one other actor and you're not acting with the people you're really acting with on screen. It's a very fast-moving day. I think that's quite hard sometimes - to try and catch up with what's actually going on and making sure you've taken everything into account, including what's going on in the animated process.
Do you have advice for anyone that wants to be a voice actor?
When I was younger I used to listen to lots and lots of radio. I listen to the radio all the time still.
Listen out for people on the bus, listen out for people on the tube and the train, and just listen to the strange ways people speak and the interesting accents people have got. Keep your ears open and practise.
Do you believe in ghouls, ghosts and monsters?
No I don't believe in monsters or ghouls or spirits, but I do enjoy horror films and I love being scared.
What's going to get everyone excited about Scream Street?
Sometimes animated series can be a bit old fashioned, but this feels very up-to-date and there's a lot of comedy in it; it's properly funny! There's lots in it for adults as well because there are lots of layers of humour - it's not full of innuendo or anything but it does work enough to keep an adult interested. We're often laughing in the booth when we're recording.