A God Turn-Around for Voice Actor

For over two decades James Arnold Taylor has been the voice of many beloved characters including one of his favorites, Obi Wan Kenobi in the animated Star Wars series. “I knew ever since I was a little kid I wanted to do voices in cartoons. I was very much pursuing that. And I had some opportunities to match celebrities,” says James. “And so some of my first work was doing voice doubling for people like Michael J. Fox and, 'Whoa, wait a second, Doc. Whoa, this is heavy.' And, 'And Christopher Lloyd, great Scott Marty.' And so, I started doubling people and then got the attention of agents and stuff and was able to get into a full-time career as a voice actor.”

James' career soon took off and he achieved his dream of voicing cartoons. “I was the voice of, you know, everything from Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, Fred Flintstone at the time, Leonardo the Ninja Turtle, this video game series Ratchet & Clank,” says James. “I was in full bore in those productions being done right then. And I woke up one day and I had no voice.”

The Taylor’s discovered black mold in their new home. “Went to the doctor, got some blood tests and realized there were six different types of mold in my bloodstream and one of them being black mold, Stachybotrys, which is the very dangerous one. And I had been, you know, having everything from brain fog, memory loss, all these things, but particularly that my voice was going,” he recalls. “So, I remember very vividly on that day, it was February 13th, 2005, and I went and just got back from the doctor and he says, 'You got to stop speaking.' And I said, 'God, God, please don't let this be the worst day of my life.'"

James and his wife felt overwhelmed and relied on their faith to carry them through.

“We were in the process of adopting our daughter at the time. So we've got this house with this black mold. We're in a lawsuit with people with the house. We're adopting a child from China and I can't speak and I'm a successful voice actor. So those couple months in we were like going, 'Wow, this is... I don't know if it can get much worse than that.' And so we were really just on our knees every day,” says James.

The Taylors trusted God as James began extensive therapy to regain his voice. He remembers, “I was going to doctors and they all wanted to put me on various medications, some indefinitely. And they said that my voice would probably not be the same. It would be less than. So, I took a very proactive approach and a holistic approach, changed everything about my diet, my exercise, the way I lived. Went on a whole foods diet and just really did the best I could to cleanse my system of the mold. I had this wonderful gift that God gave me since I was a child to do these voices and to mimic them, but I wasn't doing it right. And He needed to correct that. And He needed to correct it through something that was shocking to my system in every possible way. And so, I learned and retrained my voice to be even stronger than it was before.”

The Taylors eventually moved out of their house. As they completed the adoption for their new daughter, James was going through the paperwork when something caught his eye.

“I see her birthday is February 13th 2005, so the day that I thought was the worst day in my life, God made the best day in my life. He turned it around and what He showed me is that He's always listening and the...the things that we think are our hardest journeys are there to build us up for the next journey and to make us stronger for the next...the next hurdle that's going to come up in life.”

James states, “I've worked in Star Wars. I've worked in some of the biggest movie franchises. I've worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, and yet I'm so grateful that I get to wake up in a normal home with a wife and a daughter that love me and a peace that cannot come from any of the stuff I get from my work, but can only come from the love of Christ, and family, and just true love.”

Fully relying on God has inspired James to make a film. “I've had a passion for storytelling and I love the parable of the prodigal son,” says James. “So, I recently wrote a movie called Hidden Blessings about a painter that's kind of a reclusive painter and a documentary film crew comes in to document his life and they stumble across the story of the prodigal son in the process of it. And so we have been very blessed to get that movie out there and it's getting a lot of good attention at film festivals and we're hoping to get it out to the world for everybody to see it and kind of help share my story as well.”

James is thankful God restored his voice and enjoys using it to share the love of Jesus. “I'm a high school dropout. I came from a very broken home and I've been blessed with this amazing career. And then He gave me the gifts to be able to share that with people. He gave me a voice. And so, I've always been very open about my faith in my career,” says James.

“I've tried to be a light in a dark place in Hollywood and such, as well and just be open. I love Jesus. Jesus saved my life. So, I'm gonna say it. I'll say it in whatever voice you want me to say it in.”