What do we hear as a sexy voice? A little while ago, I was asked to supply some comments for a Channel Four programme on the 100 sexiest film voices. I was asked to offer some thoughts on a list of some famously ‘sexy’ voices including Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Joanna Lumley, Kim Basinger, Angelina Jolie and the changing voices of James Bond. I’ve been lucky enough to work with Kim Basinger, Angelina Jolie and Daniel Craig and I can confirm, yes, they do have sexy voices!

If I was asked to give a recipe for the archetypal sexy voice for women, it would be: low, resonant, possibly husky or breathy, ‘centred’ and not ‘disconnected’ from the physical person (I’ll try to explain what I mean by that!), engaged and part of the performer’s ‘presence’. The recipe would be very similar for men, except, perhaps, without the breathy quality.

When the voice is being driven by a diaphragmatic-abdominal breath and there is no constriction in the throat, we feel that the speaker is alive to their emotions and feelings. Thus they are more likely to arouse ours. If the voice is powered by this ‘centred’ or ‘grounded’ breath, the speaker will be engaging the whole body and not be merely a ‘talking head’. Without this grounding, the speaker will be more likely to throw the chin forward, collapse at the chest, round the shoulders or to disconnect from their physical self. This disconnection will make the voice sound higher and thinner and make the person look ‘needy’. We are drawn towards people who seem comfortable in their own skins and any tension or neediness that is seen in a speaker is unlikely to come across as appealing.

As a voice coach, I wouldn’t recommend trying to acquire a husky voice. It is often the sound of vocal damage and a breathy voice pushed over a distance can lead to voice problems. And yet we cannot deny the appeal of this husky or breathy quality on film. Marilyn Monroe is the classic example of this kind of voice. She has one of the most imitated of ‘sexy’ voices. Perhaps the breathy or husky voice evokes pleasurable memories of the voice of passion to the listener.

A lower pitch is another voice quality associated with sexuality. When working in film, I am often asked by directors to ‘make the voice lower’ particularly in the case of women. The idea that a woman’s voice should be low has been with us for as long as writers have documented attitudes to voices. Shakespeare famously described Cordelia’s voice as ‘ever soft, gentle and low’. The voice tends to lower in pitch naturally with relaxation. Perhaps this is another reason why it is easier to listen to a lower voice. Hearing a relaxed performer speaker imparts a sensation of ease in the listener. We also seem to associate resonant lower pitched tones with truthfulness and depth of emotion.

We seem to find foreign accents sexy. Perhaps when heard in a new accent, words strike us as newly-minted. We hear language freshly and with a new energy. Some listeners respond to a carefully articulated British accent – for example Angelina Jolie’s accent as Lara Croft or the precise articulation of Alan Rickman.  The highly rated Joanna Lumley uses a warm, rich, slightly breathy voice, which also has extreme clarity of diction. We are drawn to voices that carry the melody and strength of a Celtic accent like Scottish, Irish or Welsh. This has been an undoubted part of the success of, say, Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins or Colin Farrell.

But any voice can be a ‘sexy’ voice.  True vocal attractiveness comes from a well-produced, flexible voice with a natural warmth and richness. In the end, a voice does not have to be husky or deep to be sexy. But is does need to be an easy, comfortable well-produced sound that ‘suits’ the speaker’s physicality. It is unlikely to be tense or constricted to be rated as attractive.

And incidentally, no-one in the TV programme’s chosen list of sexy voices that I was asked to choose from had a nasal, or an abnormally high pitched voice and both of these qualities are rated as the most unattractive in research.

One of my first jobs, newly out of drama school, was in a film called ‘Cromwell’. The star of this, Richard Harris, deliberately made himself hoarse by yelling in an old quarry to give himself a rasping voice.  You need to find your own star quality voice without having going to these damaging lengths!

And voice coaches will give you the best vocal advice possible to bring out the best in your voice – for any occasion!