Altrincham voiceover artist to star in Hollywood blockbuster

Altrincham voiceover artist Emma Clarke is to star alongside Hollywood A-listers Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt in upcoming $120million science fiction thriller, Passengers.

Clarke is the voice of the film’s spaceship, The Starship Avalon, a damaged vessel that is floundering through space and venturing into uncertain territory.

It is her biggest voicing role to date, one that hears her share the big screen with a stellar cast that also includes Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne and Andy Garcia.

Listen to Emma in new movie Passengers:

Clarke said: “Sony Pictures filled in the contact form on my website and asked me to try out for the role. When I saw it, I could hardly believe my eyes! The director was familiar with my voice and said he was keen for me to try out. I was over the moon! Once I sent in my audition there was an agonising wait while the decision was made. And when I was eventually told I’d got the part – well, I was overjoyed.”

Emma is also well-known as one of the iconic ‘Mind the Gap’ voices on London Underground.

She added: “My family and friends are chuffed to bits about my news, and they are particularly interested to know what my A-list co-stars were like to work with; but as a voiceover, I only saw the inside of a recording booth and didn’t get to meet them!” she continued.

“The recording took about four hours altogether – there was a lot to record as my voice appears throughout the movie. The director Morten Tyldum chatted with me first about my ideas for the voice of the Starship Avalon then he said ‘Great, we’ll leave you to it!’ I was gobsmacked! So I recorded the audio myself at my own studio, then sent the session files over to the guys at Sony. It was so simple and totally unpretentious!”

In the film, Pratt’s character Jim and Lawrence’s Aurora find themselves alone on the passenger ship, after waking up from cryostasis 90 years earlier than intended and being ejected from their sleeping pods. As the mystery of why they woke up early unfolds, the pair face a lifetime aboard the ship together.

Passengers is released into UK cinemas on December 21.

Hear Emma in action again: