> But it still seems that if there were infinitely many high quality actors available, we wouldn't do this. What does "high quality actor" even mean? In a sim

> But it still seems that if there were infinitely many high quality actors available, we wouldn't do this. What does "high quality actor" even mean? In a similar way as with artists, I think this misses that "quality" here is not a one-dimensional scale. There are lots of individual tastes and preferences about the styles of different actors - some people like certain actors, others strongly dislike them. So the closest you could get would be replicating certainly "styles", in the same way as imagine generators attempt to. But I think this underestimates how strong people can become attached to the actual person behind an actor. Casting a certain actors doesn't just influence the style of the work, it can also influence context, political perception, etc. (It is however, dependant on what people know - or perceive - about an actor, something that ironically creates an advantage for voice actors: E.g., in Germany, the vast majority of Hollywood movies are dubbed. Famous actors have their own dedicated german voice actors, so the german audience associates a certain "voice" with, say, Patrick Stewart. If you play a sample of that voice actor to any german adult who has not been living under a rock, they will instantly say "oh yeah, that's Picard/Magneto/etc". Except, the voice doesn't have to do anything with mr. Steward's real voice - it's a separate voice actors who can and does enter into different contracts. However because the public associates him with Patrick Stewart, the public impression sort of transfers onto him.) > And #2) With voice acting I mostly find it a distraction and not valuable to recognize the voice actor from another character. I would disagree here, some voice actors do become famous, and if only inside their community. Tara Strong comes to mind, back when "Bronies" were a thing.