Exploring Voice With Christopher Walken And The Three Little Pigs

I'm sure you've all heard of Samuel L. Jackson being chosen to read the adult kid's book, Go the F*@* to Sleep. He plays the ultimate tough guy in films, so it seems appropriate.

What you may not know is that Christopher Walken did the same thing back in 1993, when he went on a British television show to read "The Three Little Pigs."

GalleyCat (by the way, this is a great publishing industry blog to follow) posted the video yesterday. Walken is often cast as a tough guy, bad guy, loner, etc. and has appeared in films such as The Deer Hunter, Batman Returns, Pulp Fiction, Sleepy Hollow, etc.

He's also hilarious (if you haven't seen "The Continental" skit on Saturday Night Live, you're missing out...if you like that silly kind of stuff).

With "The Three Little Pigs," Walken's deadpan delivery and intonation make for a slightly different version and, to me, it's an example of how voice (literally) can change the feeling of a story. As a verbal storyteller, it's the little pauses, pitch of the voice, eye-contact with the audience, facial expressions, etc. that engage people.

As writers, we can do those exact same things with word choice, sentence length, sentence order, repetition, character details, and building suspense.

Click below to watch Christopher Walken retell "The Three Little Pigs."

Christopher Walken Reads "The Three Little Pigs" (while wearing a fabulous kid-friendly sweater)