You Need to Hear This Actor’s Incredible Journey to Finding His Voice

Published: August 21, 2024

You Need to Hear This Actor’s Incredible Journey to Finding His Voice

By Movieguide® Contributor

James Arnold Taylor is known for his many legendary voices, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS series, JOHNNY TEST and more.

When his voice — his “gift” — got taken away from him, he learned to rely on and trust God.

“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 and Clank, and I was in full bore in those productions being done right then, and I woke up one day, and I had no voice,” he recalled on THE 700 CLUB.

Mold had permeated his new home and damaged his health without his knowledge.

“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 said. “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 please don’t let this be the worst day of my life.’”

“We were in the process of adopting our daughter at the time,” he said. “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.”

Everything seemed to pile on top of him and his wife at once. But they still trusted in God.

“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.”

“[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, you know,” Taylor said. “It’d be less than. So I took a very proactive approach and a holistic approach. Changed everything about my diet, my exercise, the way I live lived, went on a whole foods diet and just really did the best I could to cleanse my system of the mold.”

Taylor knew that God gave him a gift and was using this experience to set him on the right path.

“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,” he explained. “But I learned and retrained my voice to be even stronger than it was before.”

The actor noticed something incredible about his soon-to-be daughter after the Taylors moved out of their home and completed the adoption paperwork.

“I see her birthday is February 13th, 2005,” he said. “So the day that I thought was the worst day of my life God made the best day of my life. He turned it around and what he showed me is that he’s always listening and 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 hurdle that’s going to come up in life.”

“I worked in STAR WARS. I’ve worked in some of the biggest movie franchises,” Taylor said. “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.”

Taylor’s experience motivated him to make a movie.

“I’ve had a passion for storytelling and I love the parable of the prodigal son 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.”

The movie recently earned the Nieves International Christian Film Festival Award for Best Inspirational Feature.

“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, and so I’ve always been very open about my faith in my career,” Taylor said. “I’ve tried to be a light in a dark place in Hollywood and such as well as just be open.”

Taylor has a heart for Jesus and knows that he will walk where God leads him.

“I love Jesus. Jesus saved my life. So I’m going to say it I’ll say it in whatever voice you want me to say it in.”

Movieguide® previously reported on Taylor:

Taylor recently teamed up with Angel Studios for a new anime series, GABRIEL AND THE GUARDIANS.

A press release from the studio says the series is “set in the enchanting world of Ara, where Celestial beings, mortals, and dark giants collide in a battle for destiny and light.”

Taylor also has his own one-man stage show called, “Talking to Myself.” In it, Taylor speaks in over 200 voices “all by one man, one throat.” He’s taken the show all over the world, including Ireland and Japan.

The show description reads, “James not only entertains the audience with his re-creations of scenes from some of Hollywood’s biggest films as well as many of the characters from his work in animation; he also educates them on what a Voice-Actor does in their little padded room talking to themselves, all with creative imagery and his voice.”

Currently, the actor has been busy delighting fans with his appearance at conventions like Galaxycon and Retro Expo.

He posted photos of fans on Aug. 19 and said, “Had a great time at @galaxyconsanjose and met so many wonderful people that have beautiful stories and I am blessed to have heard and seen many this weekend. Thanks so much to GalaxyCon and all those that came out to see us!”