Say your character is an authority figure. Maybe they are a president of a country or the CEO of a company, maybe they are the leader of an entire nation, or simply the leader of a large military group. Regardless of who they are, they have a lot of power and authority, and a frequent way for writers to emphasize that is by giving a deep voice.
There are a variety of reasons for this. The person in question might be a veteran and so their voice deepened with age and in turn, this shows them having a lot of experience in their field. They might even make their voice deeper intentionally to sound more intimidating and boss-like. Whatever the reason, when you hear them, you know that they mean business.
See also Power Makes Your Voice Deep for when it's superpowers that make their voice deep. See also Evil Sounds Deep for evil authority figures. If they happen to be strong along with being in authority, see Baritone of Strength.
Examples:
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Advertising
- Jack in the Box: Jack Box, the company mascot, is often depicted as the company's CEO in commercials, especially those from the '90s and early 2000s. Jack has a calm, deep voice provided by Rick Sittig. Jack is sometimes a bit hard on his employees, but only because he wants the best for the company and its customers.
Anime & Manga
- Cells at Work!: Killer T Cell is a Frontline General who fights off invading germs. His voice is so deep that he borders on being a raspy one.
- Digimon Data Squad: The English dub gives Yggdrasil/King Drasil an incredibly deep voice befitting the god-king of the Digital World.
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- As befitting his rank of Colonel, Roy Mustang has an impressively deep voice.
- Führer King Bradley holds the rank of Commander-in-Chef in the Amestris State Military and has a rich, raspy voice. It goes down a few octaves when he's ready for battle as Wrath.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind:
- The Boss of Passione, Diavolo, has an incredibly deep and foreboding voice courtesy of Katsuyuki Konishi and Kellen Goff to match the iron grip he has over Italy's mafia.
- Risotto Nero, the leader of La Squadra di Esecuzioni, has a distinguished Baritone of Strength provided by Shinshu Fuji and Armen Taylor to denote the commanding power he has over his crew.
- Kill la Kill: Ragyo Kiryuin is the CEO of Kiryuin Conglomerate who also has the deepest voice of all the female characters.
- The Misfit of Demon King Academy: Emilia originally spoke with a lower voice than other female characters when she had been a teacher in a school aimed for pure-blooded demons, specifically a deep, sophisticated tone that showcases her prideful and snobbish nature, and turns especially unhinged when she attacks Izabella and Anos's fanclub.. However, she gets changed from a pure demon into a half-demon against her will and she now had a higher pitched voice thanks to her age being reduced in the transformation. Said transformation also leads to the termination of her employment as a teacher.
- Moriarty the Patriot: Mycroft Holmes, the director of the War Department's Intelligence agent and the boss of all the Moriartys, has not only one of the deepest voices in the Japanese cast, but one of the deepest voices in Japanese voice acting.
Film — Animated
- Hercules: Zeus speaks with a deep, mature voice, whether he's voiced by Rip Torn (in the film) or Corey Burton (in the series), which solidly establishes him as the powerful and respected ruler of the Olympians (especially seeing as he's a much friendlier and more benevolent version of his mythological self). His evil brother Hades has a much higher-pitched voice, showing that Hades would be a less competent, mature, or popular leader than he thinks he would.
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie: Most of the Toads have high-pitched voices befitting their small stature. But Peach's top advisor speaks with a surprisingly deep voice which makes his statements come across as far more serious.
- The Lion King: Mufasa, ruler of the Pride Lands and the largest lion in his pride, is voiced by James Earl Jones, making this trope a given.
- Up: Played with. The film's Big Bad is served by a group of dogs who communicate through highly advanced collars that translate thought patterns into human speech. The pack's leader, Alpha, wears a damaged collar that gives him a squeaky voice not even his followers can take seriously. However, once the device is repaired, the voice becomes ridiculously deep and greatly contributes to making him look intimidating.
Film — Live-Action
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Aslan, the Great Lion and the Big Good of the whole story, is played by Liam Neeson, an actor who is known for his deep, commanding voice.
- Captain Spratt from Doctor in Trouble has a deep, booming voice which helps ensure he gets respect from all of his crew.
- Star Wars: Enforced throughout the franchise with Darth Vader, whose bass voice as the Emperor's personal enforcer is iconic. In the original trilogy, David Prowse did the physical acting and spoke the lines so other actors could react, but was then overdubbed by James Earl Jones because Prowse's higher-pitched voice and thick Bristol accent weren't deemed authoritative enough for the role.
Literature
- According to Jerry Pournelle even Helium Speech doesn't affect this trope. In High Justice the protagonist is on a Space Station which has an oxygen-helium atmosphere to prevent fire.
"Wait," Aeneas commanded. The helium in the atmosphere in the station made his voice shrill, but the timbre of command remained.
- The Hobbit: Thorin II Oakenshield, the leader of the Company of Dwarves, speaks in an intimidating low baritone.
Live-Action TV
- Played with in Doctor Who, "The Pirate Planet": The Captain of the planet Zanak is, surprisingly, played not by BRIAN BLESSED. However, he still has a deep voice he uses to push his underlings around. Even more so, he's not the authority. One of his seeming underlings is, and she's the only female on the bridge; the long-thought-dead Queen Xanxia, who hollowed out her own planet, to teleport around other planets, crush them, and mine their resources, which she uses to power a time-slowing machine to keep her real body alive.
- A Prince Among Men: This is referenced In-Universe in "All in the Game" when Gary is forced to makeover his image so that he can get a job as a football commentator and is told that if he lowered his voice, then he would have a better chance of having people respect him.
Kirsty: Now let's talk about your voice.
Gary Prince: I'm going off you, you know Kirst.
Kirsty: When you get excited, you squeak.
Gary Prince: (squeaky voice) I don't squeak!
Kirsty: Our company work with Mrs. Thatcher, we lowered her voice by a full octave. A deeper voice says authority. - Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Salem Saberhagen, who has the deep, smooth voice of Nick Bakay, plays with this trope. He used to be a powerful warlock leading a team of other warlocks and witches in a plan to take over the world. But his plan was foiled, and he was turned into a cat as punishment. In the present day, Salem is the Spellmans' family pet, and he has no power over anyone. However, he's still an arrogant and Trollish individual who causes petty problems for the Spellmans and always insists on getting his way. He still dreams of taking over the world, although he never gets the chance.
Theatre
- In Wagner's Parsifal, Amfortas, the ruler of the Grail kingdom, is sung by a baritone. His father, the retired king Titurel, is sung by a bass.
- In Handel's Ariodante, the King of Scotland is sung by a bass.
- Boris Godunov: the title character, a Russian czar, is sung by a bass-baritone.
- Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto: Giuliano Della Rovere, a cardinal and rival of the main character's father to become the next pope, is a deep-voiced baritone, and the actor in the original cast is famous for playing Javert in Les Miserables. At this point in time, Della Rovere doesn't exactly have authority over Rodrigo (who is played by a famous former Valjean in the original cast), and it is Rodrigo who wins the next election. But here, he is portrayed as more serious and focused on the negative sides of life, while Rodrigo is out for a good time, and comes off as less authoritative. (Historically, both were remarkably sinful popes, and both of them had both sex and violence in their bags of sin, but Borgia leaned more on the sexual side, Rovere more on the violent, which is why history has forgiven Rovere — that, and his propaganda, and the fact that Borgia was a foreigner.)
- Don Carlo: King Philip II is sung by a bass, as is his father Charles V and the Grand Inquisitor.
- The Golden Cockerel by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov parodies this trope by depicting Tsar Dodon and army leader Polkan as basses.
- The Gondoliers: The Grand Inquisitor Don Alhambra de Bolero is played by a bass-baritone.
- In Mozart's Idomeneo, King of Crete, the highest authority that appears, oven the titular king, even, is the god Neptune, and he's a bass.
- Ivan IV was cast as a bass by both Georges Bizet in Ivan IV and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in The Maid of Pskov.
- In Donizetti's La Favorite, Baldassare, the superior of the convent of Saint James of Compostela, is sung by a bass.
- Les Misérables: In a cast of baritones/tenors, Inspector Javert is written for a baritone with a lower range. As a policeman trying to bring Valjean to justice, this deep and intimidating voice speaks with all the authority and determination of the law.
- Mehmet II is cast as a bass in both Maometto II and its revision, Le siège de Corinthe.
- Mosè in Egitto casts both Israelite leader Mosè (Moses) and Egyptian ruler Faraone (Pharaoh) as basses. Gioachino Rossini toned the latter up a little bit for Moïse et Pharaon, albeit to a baritone.
- Lohengrin: King Henry the Fowler is sung by a bass.
- The Magic Flute: high priest Sarastro is sung by a bass.
- The Mikado: The Mikado (emperor) of Japan is sung by a bass or bass-baritone.
- Nabucco: Zaccaria, the Jewish high priest, is sung by a bass.
- Norma: Oroveso, a druid chief, is sung by a bass.
- Prince Igor: The titular prince and military commander Igor is sung by a baritone, while his nemesis Konchak, a Polovtsian khan, is sung by a bass. Prince Galitsky is sung by a "high bass".
- Top God Wotan in The Ring of the Nibelung is sung by a bass-baritone.
- Tristan und Isolde: Marke, the king of Cornwall, is sung by a bass.
Toys
- Transformers: Optimus Prime almost always has a deep, booming voice. This is fitting for the Big Good leader of the Autobots.
Video Games
- Destroy All Humans!: Silhouette, the leader of Majestic, speaks in an unnerving deep voice muffled by their gas mask. Its part of the disguise she wears to hide her gender.
- Far Cry 6: Anton Castillo is the tyrannical military president of Yara, and speaks in the deep, confident, powerful-sounding voice of Giancarlo Esposito. Such a voice perfectly fits Anton's view of himself as a "lion" who must rule over the "lambs" of Yara with an iron fist, in order to defend them from The Evils of Free Will. Anton, indeed, speaks so confidently, because of how sure he is that he's in control of the situation anywhere he happens to be. Even when he's chewing out his incompetent Dragon and nephew, General Jose Castillo, for murdering popular farmer and rebel leader Carlos Montero, he doesn't so much as raise his voice:
Anton: Your cousin seeks praise, Diego... How many of your uncle's soldiers come from the farmlands?
Diego: Eighty percent, Papa.
Anton: (loading Diego's hunting rifle) Correct. And now, he [Jose] has made a martyr of the most famous Montero. Let's see how many of his soldiers want to rebuild paradise now.
Jose: Por favor, Anton-!
Anton: (after giving Diego his rifle; to Jose) You killed my son's last bird. (Mirthless Laughter) Run.
Jose: What?
Anton: (giving him a Death Glare) Run.
(Jose does run, only for Diego to shoot him In the Back from a long way off) - Ryse: Son of Rome: Player Character Marius Titus is an already-experienced Roman soldier who gradually rises up the ranks of the army by killing entire hordes of barbarians on his own, until, by the climax of the game, he's simultaneously holding off a barbarian invasion and trying to overthrow the despotic Nero, and he speaks with the serious, intense baritone voice of John Hopkins. Nowhere does it show better than when he immediately assumes command over the resistance following the death of Commander Vitallion, when one of the Centurions starts showing signs of wanting to run for his life:
Centurion: (after seeing a violent gust of wind blow through the courtyard he and Marius are standing in and crack the statue of Augustus) The Gods do not favour us! We should-
Marius: "Fall back"? "Flee"? Is that what you left your post to tell me? Is that why you left your men? We have been summoned by the Gods, and you want to flee? I should kill you myself. You bring dishonour to your men. You bring dishonour to me. You bring dishonour TO ROME! (Centurion bows, suitably intimidated, whereupon Marius softens his tone) I swear to you, Centurion, Rome will not fall. Not today! Today! We! Fight! - The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel has Gilianth Osborne, nicknamed "The Blood and Iron Chancellor" who is a ruthless politician who slams down those who oppose him with an iron fist. Befitting his character, he has a low, booming voice.
- In Undertale, Asgore, the king of the monsters, has the deepest Voice Grunting of any character.
Web Original
- The Entity/John Doe from Malevolent has a deep voice that often shifts into a low growl, and he's revealed to be a piece of The King in Yellow, who shares a similar deep voice.
Web Video
- Lily Orchard revealed in a Q&A that she deliberately uses a deep and loud voice to sound more assertive.
Western Animation
- The Dragon Prince: Each of the Archdragons of Xadia, but especially the former Dragon Kings, Avizandum and Sol Regem, speak with deep commanding voices.
- The Octonauts: Barnacles has the deepest voice of the Octonauts, and he is their captain who leads them on missions.
- The Simpsons: Principal Skinner’s voice is a deep bass, and he's the principal of Springfield Elementary.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM): Dr. Robotnik, the Evil Overlord of most of Mobius, has a deep and gravelly voice.
- Nearly every Transformers show (with some notable exceptions) has Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime. Cullen based Prime's voice off of that of his brother, who was a Vietnam veteran. Prime has a deep voice that also carries a lot of emotion and warmth, which is possibly the best way to describe his character.
