In theatre school, Julian Doucet was known as a bit of vocal gymnast. He was good at disguising his voice and taking on all kinds of accents.
There is some irony, then, that it is his normal speaking voice that passengers on OC Transpo buses will hear calling out stops.
The 36-year-old Ottawa-raised actor – who splits his time between Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal – is Capital Ward Coun. Clive Doucet’s son. However, he didn’t say a word about it to his parents until he actually got the job.
“I guess I have a voice that it not too irritating. It’s not too high. It’s not too low,” he said. “It’s processed and they do all sorts of things to it, like take your breath out, so that it’s a cleaner sound. It’s the equivalent of vocal airbrushing, but it’s just my voice.”
With around 100 million passenger trips each year, becoming the voice of Ottawa transit will undoubtedly be one of his highest profile gigs, he said.
The system goes online on most city buses on Sept. 27
