From Timothée Chalamet’s portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown to Angelina Jolie’s role as a famed opera singer in Maria, it seems like many actors can shapeshift into musicians for their ever-popular musical biopics. Yet, their secret is simple: vocal coaching.
But what does that process actually look like? Us Weekly reader Dorothy from Philadelphia had the same query, asking Us: “I always hear about stars working with vocal coaches. Just how intense is that?”
Well, Dorothy, it depends on how you define intense. Us took to the foremost expert in the field, Eric Vetro — whose A-list roster of clients includes Chalamet, Jolie, Ariana Grande, Jeremy Allen White, Austin Butler and Sabrina Carpenter — to investigate.
“Quite often we are asked to accomplish a great deal in a very short amount of time,” Vetro, whose BBC Maestro course went live in October, reveals exclusively in the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now. “I always try to keep our sessions relaxed and light with a calm attitude because you can never do your best work if you are feeling tense!”
Vetro adds: “I try to diffuse the intensity of the situation or the time restrictions with humor while still working diligently to get it all done.”
Depending on the role and the actor’s singing experience, vocal coaching sessions can range greatly. For Grande’s role in Wicked, for example, Vetro worked with her almost every weekday for several months, but he says Grande’s already “spectacular” voice aided in curating a more operatic sound for her character, Glinda.
For Jolie, on the other hand, while she brought immense talent as an actress, she had virtually no singing experience going into her role as Maria Callas, one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of all time.
“[She] even avoided singing ‘Happy Birthday’ in a group initially, [which] made it feel like a daunting task,” Vetro says of Jolie’s journey, adding that they worked together for over two hours at a time, several times a week for seven months. “She is a force of nature in the very best way and throws herself fully into whatever it is she is wanting to achieve, so I had no doubt at all that she would be able to pull it off. She also had developed a great love of opera and a deep respect for Maria Callas, and so I think that helped drive her dedication to getting it right.
Another actor who came in with minimal singing experience was White, who is currently filming Deliver Me From Nowhere, a biopic focused on Bruce Springsteen. Vetro says the process begins with vocal lessons to teach proper technique before moving on to capturing the essence of the singer the actor is portraying.
“That includes finding out what singers influenced them when they were starting out, what part of the world they are from (which affects not only their pronunciation, but their vocal tone as well), how young they were when they started to sing, what instruments they play, etc.,” Vetro shares. “All of those experiences in their background are the elements that make an artist unique.”
While some of the exercises included in vocal lessons may feel “silly” or “childlike,” that’s par for the course for actors.
“Most actors have performed acting exercises that feel equally as foolish or embarrassing so they understand the value of letting go of their inhibitions to achieve a desired result,” Vetro tells Us. “Remember, actors and musical artists are all extremely creative people, and so they are quite open to trying things that may at the outset feel awkward or absurd!”
Like any class, Vetro’s vocal lessons include homework, of course, which consists of a schedule of which songs to practice when, recordings of vocal exercises and even writing assignments “to help them connect with the lyrics and the emotion of the songs on a deep level.”
So, Dorothy, to answer your question, vocal coaching is definitely intense, but according to Vetro, it’s all worth it in the end.
“It’s a very exciting process to hear the improvement and see their confidence grow each week as they get closer to achieving their objective,” he tells Us.
