Interview with Bridget Bordeaux

Cassie Hall: This is Obsessions After Dark, the Dark Romance podcast where we read the dark one red flag at a time. I'm your host, Cassie. And I'm John, Cassie's husband, co-host, and fellow dark romance reader. I'm here for the morally gray, the completely unhinged, and every red flag along the way. Around here, we're obsessed with the books that make you question your morals, fall for the villain, and completely ignore every red flag waving right in front of your face. We're talking morally gray characters. Questionable decisions, twisted relationships, and all the chaos that keeps you turning pages after Doug. From deep dives and honest reviews to conversations with authors and narrators who bring us our favorite obsessions. Nothing's off the table once the lights go down. So grab your headphones. And welcome to Obsessions After Dark. Welcome back to Obsessions After Dark. Today we have the voice of some of our absolute favorite characters, over 500 actually. So we are excited to welcome Bridget Bordeaux today. And Bridget, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. First, let's get to know you. So who is Bridget outside of the recording booth? What a great question. I spent a lot of time in this little box. I I am a professionally trained actor, so when I get to go on stage, that's always a happy little bonus for me. I get to do that maybe once or twice a year. I am an avid reader, so when I get the chance to read for fun, I love that. My TBR is scarily long. I love trying new foods, new restaurants. I love playing video games. That's kind of Kind of a homebody. Yep, that was gonna be my next question. I know you have a bachelor's in fine arts and performance. So what made you decide to do narrating and producing? Yeah, I got a degree in theater and was a professional actor, did a lot of theater teaching for the first few years after graduation. And then Jake was in grad school, ⁓ my husband and slash mostly narration partner, and he had always wanted to do audiobooks. And we met another actor on a show that we were both doing together who did audiobooks on the side. And we took her out to coffee and said, Can you tell us kind of the basics of everything? Jake had done some like sports podcasting in college. ⁓ so we had a technical editing friend that he hooked up with and kind of said, Can you teach me the technical ropes of things? And when he graduated from grad school, he happened to win a very, very nice mic on a Twitter contest. And so he started narrating for two years and then finally convinced me to give it a go. And here we are, seven years later. Do you remember what the first book that you narrated was? I think it was called Heart of the Veil. I put up my samples on ACX, which is the audiobook creation exchange with Audible, where a lot of new narrators start. And the next day I had a book offer, like no audition. They just sent me a direct offer. And it was forty minutes long. And I think it took me like two weeks to record. And I think I re recorded it about three or four times 'cause I was like, I gotta get this perfect and then of course it's not great. And but I love your bloopers. I I watch you on TikTok all the time and I I love your bloopers. They're they're hilarious. Yeah. So much of what I love about acting in theater and behind the mic is the process of it and the discovery and the rehearsal. ⁓ you don't really get that for audiobooks, but in process of recording, and if I'm usually my only coworker in person. So I feel like I have to have a little bit of fun with myself. There's also there's just so many mistakes to make. And so being able to enjoy that part of the process and go, ⁓ well. Here's another belt. I said this word wrong. Just more enjoyable for me. So can you walk us through like what happens when you first get a new manuscript and what your process is to begin recording? Yeah, if I'm working directly with an author as a producer and A narrator, share with them, I have a character information sheet that's has a it's ⁓ basically a Microsoft Excel document of what's the character's name, how old are they, where are they from, are like are there any specific accents required for this role? ⁓ what are three adjectives that you would use to describe them? Are there any particular asks with their voice? ⁓ and then for me it's always very important because I'm often not able to read an entire series before starting a book, whether that's a time constraint or it just hasn't been written yet. if the author has an idea of what this character's role in the series is, so that I don't pick a certain voice for a character that ends up being like a love interest later on or the bad guy. And then I will read the manuscript depending on the style of narration. I prep it in different ways. ⁓ and then with the author I will coordinate character voices. That's kind of the ⁓ most important thing for me is that I take my interpretation of what I read in the story versus what they have put on the sheet and then try and meld that into one. Real fast, we have to jump to what I'm gonna call the Twisted Sisters part of the interview because we are huge fans of Caroline Beckham and Suzanne Valentin. Same. So what did you think when Zodiac Academy first came across your desk? Actually our first project with the Twisted Sisters was Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep, So King's a Quarantine. And so we did that series for them and we I think we were almost done with that series. They like turned out those books really quickly, like within a year. And they said, Hey, how do you feel about doing this new book series called Zodiac Academy for us? And I Sure, I love your writing. Let's do it. ⁓ I had no idea what it was or what it would become, but I remember reading it and Going like this is the kind of book that I like to read as a reader. And I'm so excited to be here doing these voices and creating these characters. And as the series progressed, just really fell in love with the story and the drama and the uniqueness of it and the weirdness of the sisters. And really reveled in these characters that I spent thousands a thousand hours with that I have really not ever I have not met their equal. In all of the five hundred plus books that I've done, they're just so unique and special and whether that's because I spent so much time with them or if there's just like that extra little special sauce that the sisters have. Yeah, there's nothing that compares to them. I I sorry, but they they're just amazing and they're so funny. Even when something terrible's happening, they just throw something hilarious in there and it's it's amazing. Okay, but I've gotta ask, how did you come up with the iconic voice of Geraldine? she's my favorite. I love her. She was a character when I again when I'm like establishing the character voices with the authors, they a lot of authors don't need to hear every single character that's in the book. They're like, Can I hear the main characters and maybe a few side characters and then I trust you with like tertiary characters and the like And they were one that they said, Hey, she's kind of like not a huge character, but she's really important and we think she'll be a fan favorite. So can you give us a couple of options about what she should be? ⁓ and after reading her, and I know the sisters are British, I was like, okay, she feels very like foppish posh RP British. So I'm gonna do a take on that. And then I did kind of a standard American take. And then I was like, Well, let's do a wild card and have her be with a southern accent, but in kind of like that posh idea of a southern accent. So that like southern bell rather than like a Texas drawl or anything. So I did that and they said that one and I was like, ⁓ okay. And as she evolved as a character and became so much more a part of the series, I think her accent and my ability to play with her ⁓ became so much more. So instead of like a few lines in book one, she ha now has full chapters and so exploring to me, she is so deadly serious. So when I I am Geraldine, I'm like, No, I am Geraldine and everything I say, I know exactly what I'm saying, and it's so serious and she's not trying to be funny. And so it's just so much like passion is what is behind Geraldine is love and passion and hope. And so just being able to play with that again, an one of those characters that I have just never just so unique. ⁓ and I don't know if I'll ever have another Geraldine come across my booth ever again. And I'm so grateful that I got to have her. Yeah, I did see where you and Jake dressed up as Geraldine and Washer for an event. That was iconic. That was that was amazing. That's my favorite character is Geraldine and his favorite character is Washer. So like I said, I watch your TikToks all the time. So when you were actually finishing up Zodiac Academy Nine, I I think I'm gonna know the answer to this, but what was it like having this series come to an end after all that time? It was so satisfying because I wanted those characters to be okay. I needed them to be okay after all of everything they went through, and it was really heartbreaking to go This is something special. And as an artist, I know that things like this don't come across don't come along very often, whether that's a theater show where you just have a great show, a great cast, a great energy, like those are like kind of lightning in a bottle moments. And this also felt similar to that, where I'm like, I don't know the next time that I'm going to be able to have this sort of experience. And truly Zodiac Academy did change our lives. So many authors come to us saying, Hey, I listened to you on Zodiac Academy, can you do my books? Or hey, I I've heard of you because of Zodiac Academy, can you do art books? And that really kind of launched our career. And I'm I'm just internally grateful for the sisters trusting us and continuing to trust us and learning and growing with them. And the last Geraldine chapter I narrated, I still had like an probably another hour of narration I need to finish and I I could not because I was so emotionally distressed and I was like, I have to say goodbye to her and I have to say goodbye to them. And it was really hard and I know Jake especially had some really deep connections emotionally with some of the characters that felt so much like him. And so having them grow and learn and find their happily ever after was a very emotional journey for him as well. So both of us I think we both went to like Sonic and got giant Dr. Peppers and we're just sobbing in the car. But the good thing is you recently got back into the world, right? With Sins of the Zodiac and their new Christmas clip. Were you excited to get back into Slurya? I I was so stoked about the curse day of Christmas. It's so weird. It's so sisters. It's so wild. What a fun journey in a romp and being able to go back and do some of the characters was just such it was just like a nice little gift and it was ⁓ it was a fairly short book ⁓ comparatively to the sisters standard. So that it was it was like coming home. And a lot of the time when I'm doing a series there and then there's time between the books, I'll have to go back and be like, okay, let me reacquaint myself with the characters and the character voices and where we are. And I was like, I I think these characters might be ingrained in my soul for the rest of my life. Like they're they just live in me. Again, I spent so much time with them, but I had to do very little like, ⁓ what was this character's voice? ⁓ right. Okay, let's do that. And then with Sins of the Zodiac, to me it was so fun because it felt like ⁓ a new side of the sisters that I hadn't seen, where it was a lot darker and more of that ⁓ emotional turmoil that they are famously known for, or infamously known for, I suppose. and so I loved that new take of exploring kind of that darker side. And then as the books evolve and progress as readers will and listeners will find, there are their hints of their very quirky humor that start showing up throughout the rest of the series. Yeah. And I promise we're not gonna make the whole interview about them. No, you're good. ⁓ Talk about chemistry because chemistry is such a huge part of romance. So, how do you create chemistry between two characters only using your voice? One of the main tenets of my acting training is the idea of ⁓ Sanford Miser is a f a famous ⁓ practitioner of theater, ⁓ and a teacher of theater, and he classifies acting as living truthfully in imaginary circumstances. So I take Who I am is Bridget, and I apply the circumstances of the characters and be like, okay, I am a disgraced princess battling for my kingdom, or I'm a single mom trying to survive through this, and there's a hot doctor. and go, how would I react to these situations and put myself into the character's shoes and then respond as truthfully as I can as a human? ⁓ And a lot of that is using the idea of substitution. So that while I may not experience the exact situation that these characters are going through, I can find substitutions in my life to be like, ⁓ I've experienced emotions similar to this. How did I feel in that situation? And apply that truthful emotion to these imaginary crazy circumstances. ⁓ and a lot of that within romance is we've all had crushes. We've all well, not all of us. I know that that some people don't experience that. But I've had crushes. I've developed relationships. I've gone through like the Twitter pated s stages. I've also gone through actually building a relationship and going through the difficult times and that and what that means and true, long, deep, extended love. So I try to take my own experiences and apply it to the characters so that I feel as if I'm exhibiting true human emotion about what's happening in the situation as opposed to I'm just pretending or trying to manifest this kind of ideal. So it's me using my experiences as what does it feel like for Bridget to experience chemistry? And I'm going to apply that to my characters. Do you ⁓ do you think it's easier to create good chemistry when you're working with Jake or by yourself? Well, I think I'm pretty good at flirting with myself. I I think Jake and I work so well because we do both come from the same acting training program. So we speak the same language in terms of that. And we have also spent we've done multiple productions together on stage. So I've had that real life performance energy with Jake. and I've known him for so long that I can also go, ⁓ I can kind of Here's the idea that Jake has presented me about with the character. Here is the character. I can kind of see, I can anticipate what journey he is going to go on. So even though we don't often do synchronous recording in terms of like we're going back and forth, I have a very clear picture in my mind of this is how Jake would approach the character. So I'm going to, in a duet, I'm going to react to that character as if Jake is speaking to me. Or I am going to embody Jake as a performer in this character. when I am the other character. So I think just our shared experience there and how intimately we know each other's performance style and technique ⁓ is really helpful in developing that chemistry. Yeah, I think it's funny when people confuse Jake as your brother because I'm sorry, but I would not be narrating, even if I didn't have to look at him, I would not be narrating spicy scenes with my brother. That's what I say. Like my siblings don't even listen to my books. I can't imagine doing it with them. I don't know. I don't know what it is, but it happens at least at least once a month, someone asks. Or if I'm a TikTok live is is Jake your brother? No. I know. I see it too and I'm like, ⁓ that's weird. No. I think the number one question, like, if you type in d or Google, like, is like Bridget Bordeaux, are they married? And then under that's always like brother and sister, and I'm like, No. We're not. I don't know what the vi I don't know what vibe we give off, but You're right. Right. That's no. How do you create a chemistry with another narrator when you aren't necessarily recording the scene together? The best thing I can do in that situation is be true to the character and their circumstances. So a lot of that relies on doing good prep work and then also relying on the work that the author has done with the characters to build that chemistry. And if I am being true to the characters and thinking about the character's intentions, and how they would say this and why they are saying this and in the pursuit of love, staying true to that ideal and trusting that my other co-narrator is doing the same. That's like the the best thing you can do ⁓ in terms of building that chemistry, even if you're not recording is Trying to really speak to the characters as if they are people or real living beings, ⁓ which is really tricky. You I the part about narration is like talk like a human, and that's like, what? So difficult to teach and be and do. especially in the style of like narrative. dialogue is a little bit easier. That feels more like I'm actually speaking. But telling a story and keeping rhetorical structure through narrative, I think, is a little bit trickier with that. So it's definitely a skill to practice. ⁓ and I think even if you don't know your co narrator, you don't have a lot of interaction with them, both knowing that I mean, I always assume that they've done the work and that they're gonna put as much love and attention and time into the book and characters as I am. And that's like what What I can do as a narrator is my job and then hope that the other narrator is also doing the same. Okay. So let's switch and talk about spice. So how do you make that sound natural? Because there's a huge difference between performing intimacy and sounding just like you're reading it off of a page. I try to build spicy scenes from a structural standpoint, similarly to How an orgasm builds, right? So there is kind of like that foreplay. There is a build, there is an explosion, and then there's like a come down from it. So in reading the scene, the beginning we start off as foreplay, it gets bigger, maybe there's like a little peak here, and then we go back down, and then we start building to the final climax, the final end, big explosion. ⁓ and then we have the come down. So energetically, that's what I'm trying to bring to the scene. I also my goal if especially if I'm doing a dual narration, I always try to find a spot to make the boys whimper. That's what I want to hear in audiobooks. So when I get to voice men, I wanna hear them just as affected by what's happening. I feel like a lot of the time, even if they are the ones in control of what's happening, I still want to hear it in their voice that they are enjoying this as much as the Femme character. ⁓ so I I always that's why I love dual narration. I know people have opinion about it, but I love making the boys whimper and gasp and moan. and yeah, I tr I try I try to bring the idea of like pleasure and liberation and joy and love into it. ⁓ And I'm not afraid to moan and whimper with the language and the words that come across. So yeah, I just try to make it a again, it's so much to me about the characters. What are they experiencing? How would I sound if I was narrating this happening to me? Like how would that affect my voice? so yeah. To me, it's very scientific at this point because I've done thousands of spicy scenes. So I'm like, okay, let's see. What's the structure of this? And how can we how can we make this what does this mean to the characters? Is it like again, there's different types of types of spice? Are they like finally coming together? ⁓ is it a a a frenzy? Is it like a a hate fuck? Is it like there's just different styles of it? And so it's like, what is the purpose of this spicy scene in this character's journey? And that will it also ⁓ impart To me, like, okay, what's the flavor? What's the energy that I need to bring to this scene? Does there eventually come a point where you've narrated enough spice that you can read something completely wild and you're just like, Yep, that's just another Tuesday afternoon. Every day. Again, I've done thousands. And so it's when something is like I always get excited when there's something a little bit different or there's something I haven't exp like experienced before, like a kink or a different position or a different configuration that I'm like, ⁓ I haven't done this before. This is interesting. ⁓ so that to me at this point is more rare. ⁓ so that's always like a fun little, ooh, how exciting, a little treat for me. But yeah, again, it's so to me at this point, it is so scientific. ⁓ because I am trying to look at the structure of the scene and what it means. so I when I get to be Twitter pated by a scene, I'm very excited, but that's pretty rare at this point. So a lot of the books that you do have a lot of like heavy themes or topics. Books with dark themes, that's you know, it's not just spice. Some of these books deal with incredibly heavy material. What happens when you get a scene that's genuinely emotionally brutal? ⁓ To me again, I I go back to the science of it. ⁓ why is this important? Why is this ⁓ I know people have a lot of issues with dark romance some of the time, but to me it's such a vital tool of healing and expression and liberation. So even if it's something that I'm like, I don't really understand this, I can look and go, okay, but who would? And why is this important? And why is this healing? ⁓ how would I feel if I was suffering this trauma? a lot of the time I get to process the big, heavy, deep things when I'm doing my prep. So when I'm reading it beforehand, I can kind of go like let's let's deal with that emotion. ⁓ and then every once in a while I'll come up with a scene that when I am in it and performing it, ⁓ my own emotions start to bleed through into the character. And while I think that is like it can be helpful again, I'm doing those substitutions and using that own emotion. It's always filtered through the character and the character's feelings and emotions. ⁓ so when my emotions start bubbling up and pushing through, I have to sometimes go, okay, stop. That's when I can become like unintelligible. And when you can like hear the snot and I go, okay, like there's a balance here, right? ⁓ and sometimes I make a judgment call of, okay, is this my emotion equivalent to what the character is feeling? And so the level of messiness here is justifiable, or do I need to take a step back and go, hey, you need to process your own feelings around this and not let so much of yourself bleed into it? ⁓ mostly in the idea that your own heightened emotions can amplify something beyond what it needs to be for the character. And then we're not serving the character anymore, you're serving your own emotions. My acting teacher would always be like, Crying is not acting, right? He would have students be like, ⁓ I finally am crying and feeling the emotions. And like, that's yes, but you have to be able to channel that in the correct vein. Yeah, that was gonna be my question is if you ever had to like stop because a scene was too much for you. So what do think is harder to perform? Do you think it's crying, screaming, panicking, ⁓ or intimate scenes? Any what do you think's the hardest part? ⁓ I think comedy is always the hardest. Again, I know I keep saying it's so scientific, but comedy is there's such a specific structure you have to follow. it's really hard not to play the joke. You can't play for a laugh. You have to play it so seriously again. Tapping back into Geraldine, I was never trying to be funny with Geraldine. It was she is so serious. She's not trying to be funny. ⁓ and that's when comedy actually comes through is through truth and honesty. and so that's always a little bit trickier because again, you can look at a scene and go, I know this is a joke. How do I structure the joke? What is the joke's structure? Okay, and now I have to play it so seriously and as if it's as if it is not a joke. ⁓ So that's always tricky. I think technically screaming is always the hardest because to get like the correct sound quality with your mic and not peeking is always difficult. ⁓ I think for me the emotional, dark, gritty bits are always easiest for me. ⁓ I'm kind of a s I'm a little sad boy. So being able to drop into those emotions that I just kind of feel naturally is a little bit easier for me. ⁓ but yeah, I would say like comedy is the trickiest. Okay. So let's talk about like I know you already touched a little bit on duet and dual narration, but from a performance standpoint, how is that different to record each one of those? Do dual ⁓ the tricky part with dual is that I have ⁓ I have to use a greater range of my vocal capabilities and then I kind of have to segment my vocal capabilities. And so then I lose range for characters. ⁓ to say in the most basic way, I have to have like my lower range for the boys and my higher range for the girls, just to create that separation. ⁓ and so when I have fifty male characters v in a or 50 characters in a dual narration, my range and choice and option for characters is more limited. And I have to kind of sometimes push my vocal limits in order to accommodate those characters. Versus if I have to do like 50 female characters in a duet narration, that gives me more variety to choose from because I can use my lower range and my more masculine, I suppose, sounding voices for female characters because next to a male narrator, they're not gonna go, wait, is that a guy? ⁓ so I think that's the tricky part with dual narration. With duet narration, depending on how you read it and perform it, ⁓ and you prep it, it can be hard to respond truthfully to the character if you're just responding to like a dog click. And so when I'm doing duel, I feel like I'm actually having a conversation with the characters. And when I'm doing duet, I'm trying really hard to pretend to have a conversation and be the other while also either doing room tone or a little click. Huh. So what's the weirdest part of recording half of a conversation without the other person actually there? I think because performance can be so nuanced and you can say a sentence, ⁓ an actor can say a sentence in so many different ways. Being like, this is my best guess about how I would respond to the character if they said it in this way. And then hoping that your response matches their ⁓ initiation of the conversation. ⁓ that's why like communicating with your co-narrators is important and prep. That's why it's so helpful to have such a lengthy performative experience with Jake, because I have a pretty good idea of like, I'm pretty sure I know how he's gonna say this, as opposed to working with a different narrator, go like, well, I hope they're picking up on the same vibe that I'm throwing down with these characters. ⁓ so that's probably the trickiest part is really hoping that your response matches their delivery. Well, I will say we were just talking last night, ⁓ because we were we were actually doing a re-listen of Zodiac and Darkmore Penitentiary. And I was telling John that actually when you or or even Jake, when you guys do different characters, I absolutely can tell the difference between them. Like if you play a certain part, even like not just guessing who it was, I can tell the difference between. So you guys do a really good job of differentiating when you do have multiple characters. Thank you. That's ⁓ It's a style of narration that not everyone does. It's called full voiced narration. ⁓ and that's kind of again the style of audiobook that we want to listen to. And so we try to emulate that same kind of thing. And we also think that we have we both have pretty wide vocal ranges. ⁓ and then we have the benefit of being able to be really communicative about the different characters we're doing, especially in a duel, so that I can try and match his vibe for a character as closely as possible so that it is kind of a more cohesive experience. And I do have one more thing that I want to ask. So like when you did the Dead Men Walking Duet and the first one was actually done by a different narrator, what was that like coming in in a second book? I always try to avoid it. and when aut I've had I've been approached by a couple of authors through the years of saying, hey The first few books of the series have already been done, can you take over? And I always say, regardless of who the narrator is, who you're switching, people are going to have issue with it, right? And just the idea of that I've ⁓ esta the I have an established idea of what this character sounds like. ⁓ so I always try to avoid it, but I for the sisters, I was like, I'll do anything for you, I'll do this favor for you. ⁓ it was kind of an unavoidable situation. And I listened to the first book to try and get kind of the vibe of the character. I didn't want to do an impersonation. ⁓ I didn't think that that would be truthful and and honest in my best performance. And so I try to take the same flavors and vibe as the original narrator and apply it to my own kind of skill set. ⁓ so yeah, that it's always a nerve wracking thing 'cause I know people are gonna be an instantly know people are gonna be upset about it. And so all I can do is go, I'm gonna try my best again, always going back to the character. ⁓ because at the end of the day, the characters and the author are my client. ⁓ I try to make the listeners happy, of course, because that's the author's client, but my goal number one always is to be tr be truthful and honest and put all my love into the characters and try to do service to the author. So I'm very much like as long as the author is happy, then I'm happy. I love Stella Hunter. And I would love to work with Stella Hunter. I think she is a phenomenal performer and a phenomenal human being. ⁓ So when you get a new manuscript, so the authors are very involved when you get started. ⁓ it depends on the author. Some authors hand me the manuscript and say, I trust you, do whatever you want. I don't really care. And I go, Okay, I'll do my best. ⁓ and then some authors are pretty like they they want to be very hands-on. and so there's conversations about character voices and pronunciations and world building and that kind of thing. So it really depends on the author. And then when I'm working with a publisher or production company, I often don't have any access to the author. So sometimes the production company will provide me information from the author in terms of like here's a character sheet, here are some pronunciations. ⁓ and then other times they say, Good luck. And so that's always a little nerve wracking when, again, I want to pay I want to do right by the author. So when I don't have any sort of author guidance, it's just always me going, I'm I'm pretty good at my job. I'm gonna do my best, I'm gonna do my due diligence and really hope that I'm able to embody the character. ⁓ an art is so subjective, right? So even if I do prep the book, I could be c I could get a completely different vibe as a consumer. than what the author is intending. So that's why it's so important to me when I am working directly with an author to get their perspective of the characters and their intentions and marry it with what I'm receiving as a consumer and try and meld them together. So if you had to pick one, what would you say your worst recording habit is? ⁓ honestly I just I don't give myself enough ⁓ break and space and time. I'm not very good at taking days off. And then when I'm in actual recording, ⁓ I don't often take breaks in recording session. So sometimes I'll find myself going, I've gone four hours of talking, which is just not super sustainable. But I will get in the ⁓ zone. And then I can feel, and I have to be honest with myself of going, Mm, your mouth is tired. You're not doing as good of a performance as you were at the beginning because you haven't given yourself enough. Rest and break. So that's probably my worst habit. Is there a certain word that you could never pronounce when the microphone's on? there's there's many. sheepish smile, any sort of shh into an S sound is always sheepish smile. I have a really hard time with the word nuclear. particularly can be a little bit tricky sometimes. Double Ns, so like in another, in another, in another, ⁓ embedded in that kind of thing. Just my my brain goes faster than my mouth. and I'm pretty most narrators have like a lot of us will say like clasp or grasped or grasped, clasped. That one feels really I think I've ⁓ practiced it enough that it feels very natural to me right now. ⁓ texts are always hard. There's a lot. So just from talking to other narrators, I've kind of gathered that like when you're recording and you have like a producer and there's a scene that is wrong, so they send it back to you. Have you ever had that happen in a part that you just thought w was great and then they send it back to you like here, redo it? I've never had that experience. I'm very lucky with that. That I feel bad for narrators who do that. I I can totally see that that is like a confidence. ⁓ Blow. I I guess, well, that's not a lie. I think I had one where I was working with a big five publisher and I sent in my first like chapter, and they were like, I don't think you got the character right. Try it this way. And I was like, I hear what you're saying, but I think you're wrong about the characterings. Like, I just read the book, and I'm pretty sure that what you're asking me to do, it was like kind of like She was a warrior, she was kind of gruff and done with the world and was tired and was hiding away. And the producer's like, Can you make her happier? And I'm like, but she's not happy. So that was kind of a difficult thing of going, okay, how do I stay true to what I feel the character is while also making my client happy? But I've never had a redo this before. Okay. ⁓ So what's what's the weirdest thing that's ever ruined like a perfect take for you? Shake probably He has an uncanny ability. It truly is. He has like a this inherent knack that when I have so you finish a chapter, you do the last sentence. And then I will like have three to four seconds of silence afterward to have clean room tone at the end of the chapter. And he is really great at knocking on my door at like 2.5 seconds. I go shake. ⁓ the other night on live, I had to say I was trying to be sneaky about it. I just had one wild line where I had to say pegging. and he as soon as I said pegging, he knocked on the door and I was like I try to get away with saying it once on TikTok live. And then I was like, I'm almost done, just let me finish this chapter. I like have three wild lines I have to do. And so he shut the door. And then apparently to try and be funny, he was just in that window, like making faces and like tapping on the window as I was recording. And so when I finished the chapter, I looked up, he's like, You good? And then I could see on my daw that there was a bunch of noise behind all of the audio. So I had to say pegging a third time. And then the stupid AI was like, a narrator says pegging in fun voices. What one comes next? I was like, Jake, I was trying to be subtle about this and then you ruined it. ⁓ I've had bugs. That's always scary when there's like something crawling on you. ⁓ Or a fly. ⁓ I'm I'm notorious for doing a really great juicy spicy line and then a really big nasty belch comes right through. So that's always really, you know, sets the scene, brings the mood in. Okay, we're gonna ask you some rapid fire questions. So try to answer as quickly as you can. So just the first thing that comes to your mind. Morally gray or morally black? ⁓ morally gray. Toucher and die or enemies to lovers. Enemies to lovers. Stalker or mafia? Stalker. Masked man or man in a suit. Man is suit. Slow burn or immediate obsession? Slow burn. Praise or Degradation. Degradation. Possessive or protective? Possessive. Arranged marriage or forced proximity. Forced proximity. A villain gets the girl or villain burns the world down for her. Villain burns the world down for her. Whispered threat or a screen threat? Whispered. Sweet nickname or dirty nickname? Sweet. Happily ever after, immediately or emotionally destroy us first? Emotionally destroy us. Okay. One more question. What fictional red flag are you defending until you die? Angst. The the tension, the yearning, the butting heads, I l angst angst that's my favorite. It's my favorite number one. Yes. So before we let you escape, there's one question that we always ask anybody that comes on here, and that is your after dark confession. It can be something bookish, about narration, unpopular opinion, anything like that. So what is your after dark confession? I think some female narrators are better at voicing men than men. Yes. Yep. Samantha Brentmore is freaking amazing. I will die on that hill. She her male voice is amazing. Just like the intention, and like it's written by a woman, it's performed by a woman, and we know what we want from those characters, and so we imbue that in it, and I'm like, yes. And sometimes the boys are like, let me just growl, and I'm like, blah, boring. Yep. Yes, I absolutely agree. Okay. So before we wrap it up, is there anything you're working on right now that you're allowed to tell us about? What I'm really excited about is that every year we do a royalty share scholarship for an author. So we typically work per finished hour, but every year we do kind of an application process where we do ⁓ royalty share. And then ⁓ sometimes I've had authors donate to the royalty share so that we can provide the production completely free for the author. ⁓ and then the goal is toward where we're going to be able to offer a free production to an indie author who is new to audio. so I'm currently recording the book that was selected for 2026 and it's a beautiful, ⁓ language-rich romantic that I love the world and the world building and I'm just so excited that I that I have enough authors in the community who have been able to trust me through the years that I'm able to give back in this small way. Yeah, that's really amazing. ⁓ real fast, what what made you guys decide to do that? Where did that idea come from? Just we got our start with indie authors and again and continue to have so much of our ⁓ work and support come from the indie author community. And As our prices and our experience have increased, ⁓ I didn't want to leave behind the people who believed in us and got helped us at our start, which are a lot of debut indie authors who were just starting out as we were just starting out. ⁓ and so and I also know that like navigating the industry and the audiobook world as a new indie author is so confusing and can be a l very overwhelming outside of just the idea of write your own and publish a book and market your own book. And here's a whole other like industry that you have to be aware of. And I I was seeing so many people get burned ⁓ by experiences with newer narrators and the like ⁓ on both sides. And so I said, I want to give back to the people who helped us get our start here. And so let me provide an opportunity for them to have their book produced in a cheaper way with established professional narrators. Well, I think that's amazing of you guys. So where can everybody find you? Your audiobooks, I I mean you're on all social media platforms. Yeah, ⁓ spend more time probably on if you want more release posts, that's more ⁓ on Instagram. And if you want to find a lot of I do a lot of live work, ⁓ And a lot of my me being awkward in society as a romance narrator and a lot of belching on TikTok, I suppose. All right. Well, Bridget, thank you so much for coming on. We appreciate it so much. You know, you taking your time out to let us interview. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Everybody go show Bridget some love, check out her work, and as always, support your authors and narrators. You can find us on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, and all social media platforms. If you're an author or a narrator that would like to be on the show, Please reach out via email, which you can find on all of our social media platforms. Until next time. Stay dark and stay obsessed.