"What has been happening more lately - of course, I also put in my bio, I say I do the voice of Goliath, but some people go - you know, I say something, and it's a funny thing when you work in this business, people will talk out loud in front of you like you're not there"
About this Quote
Celebrity is supposed to make you hyper-visible; Keith David points out the meaner trick, where it makes you invisible in plain sight. He’s describing a very particular modern indignity: being famous enough to be recognized, but not famous enough to be treated like a person. The detail about his bio - “I do the voice of Goliath” - lands like a quiet punchline. Voice actors live in the strange economy of familiarity without face, a career built on intimacy (your voice in someone’s childhood, their headphones, their living room) paired with social erasure when the body shows up.
The line “people will talk out loud in front of you like you’re not there” isn’t just complaint; it’s a diagnosis of how the entertainment industry trains audiences to consume humans as products. You can hear the accumulated experience in “of course” and “it’s a funny thing,” the actor’s protective rhythm: soften the blow, keep it anecdotal, don’t sound wounded. That’s the subtext - professionalism as armor. He’s letting you glimpse the petty cruelty that hides inside casual fandom and casual industry talk: the assumption that the performer is an object you can appraise in real time.
Context matters here, too. David’s voice is iconic across animation, games, and film, but his fame is often attached to characters, not his name. Recognition becomes a kind of misrecognition: people feel entitled to narrate him while he’s standing there, because they think they already “know” him. The quote works because it exposes that entitlement without begging for sympathy; it just names the absurdity and lets the discomfort do the work.
The line “people will talk out loud in front of you like you’re not there” isn’t just complaint; it’s a diagnosis of how the entertainment industry trains audiences to consume humans as products. You can hear the accumulated experience in “of course” and “it’s a funny thing,” the actor’s protective rhythm: soften the blow, keep it anecdotal, don’t sound wounded. That’s the subtext - professionalism as armor. He’s letting you glimpse the petty cruelty that hides inside casual fandom and casual industry talk: the assumption that the performer is an object you can appraise in real time.
Context matters here, too. David’s voice is iconic across animation, games, and film, but his fame is often attached to characters, not his name. Recognition becomes a kind of misrecognition: people feel entitled to narrate him while he’s standing there, because they think they already “know” him. The quote works because it exposes that entitlement without begging for sympathy; it just names the absurdity and lets the discomfort do the work.
Quote Details
| Topic | Work |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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