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Original poster

People whose appearance doesn't match their voice

75 replies

Undineimmor · 22/12/2023 12:39

I've been speaking to a client for a few months with a deep booming voice. He visited this week and I was expecting Brian Blessed but he's small, slim and cleanshaven. Has anyone's appearance ever surprised you?

OP posts:
AhBiscuits · 30/12/2023 12:18

I work in an open plan office. I'd been listening to someone chatting on the phone for a few months, they have a voice that seems to carry more than others or my brain tunes into it for some reason. I pictured a fairly mumsy woman in her early 50s. One day a man of about 30 came over to talk to someone near me and it was the owner of the voice.

SeattleSpacePlane · 30/12/2023 12:32

George Ezra and Hozier (the guy who sings Take Me To Church).

They both sound like big muscly black guys and I'm still surprised every time I see one of them.

Bonbon249 · 30/12/2023 12:33

My ex used to say I should do 'adult' chat lines for extra cash!
The reality does NOT match, let me assure you!!

Lastexmouse · 30/12/2023 12:35

Yes I often speak to ppl on the phone before meeting them and frequently decide in my head that they look a certain way - eg down at heel and they'll be very well dressed or vice versa.

I remember friends back in the 80s fancying Steve Wright based on his voice. And when I first listened to Jo Whiley and Steve Lamacq I decided that Jo was had dark messy hair and was a bit tubby and Steve was tall dark and very handsome.

SinnerBoy · 30/12/2023 12:40

Chris Eubank and Mike Tyson both have high pitched voices.

The singer Shaggy is like a string bean and he makes Barry White sound like Jimmy Somerville.

I once had several phone calls with an agent, for work. I thought he was a young bloke and pictured him as being slim and sporty. He came into our office and turned out to be over 60 and looked like Miriam Margoyles with a particularly bad hangover.

DeeCeeCherry · 30/12/2023 12:40

ActuallyChristmas
A seasonal one - look up Gesualdo Six Gaudete on YouTube. The second soloist does not look like he will have such a deep voice

Beautiful rendition. Agreed, I didn't expect that voice at all. Just goes to show looks truly can be deceiving.

Dontcallmescarface · 30/12/2023 12:40

I had spoken to DD's DP before I ever met him (he rang to tell me DD had been in an accident). He was very softly spoken with a posh Surrey accent. I imagined him to be clean-cut, smartly dressed etc. What I never expected was a long haired bearded 6ft 4, man dressed in ripped jeans, check shirt and cons to turn up at my door.

DeeCeeCherry · 30/12/2023 12:47

MonsteraMama
Henning May. Scrawny little German boy possessed by the spirit of a 60 year old chain smoking blues singer
😮 . How....?? If I'd heard his voice before seeing clip you couldn't convince me he wasn't an American Blues singer. He eclipses the 1st guy - who is very brave to sing next to him!

Fozzleyplum · 30/12/2023 12:48

My enormous, muscular, extremely handsome stripey cat. His nickname is "Beckham", on account of his pathetic squeaky miaow.

MrsTwatInAHat · 30/12/2023 12:50

Came on to say David Beckham! Also Julie Burchill.

I’m a bit like this too. Tall, short hair and a bit of a bitchy resting face. I’ve been called intimidating (though I’m actually a reasonably nice person IMO and not aggressive or anything!)

But my voice sounds much younger and squeakier than you’d expect. On the phone I regularly get asked if my mum or dad is in! And I’m in my 50s. I don’t like it - and I HATE hearing my voice recorded. Ugh.

MrsTwatInAHat · 30/12/2023 12:55

I remember first hearing Paolo Nutini in a shop, and liking the song so googled the lyrics when I got home. Was shocked to discover a 20-something white Glaswegian! I’d imagined a gnarled old black blues legend from the Deep South.

NameChangerGameChanger2 · 30/12/2023 12:57

Many years ago we got a new teacher at school - he was very good looking, the double of a famous footballer at the time and we were all incredibly awed.

then he opened his mouth and had a squeaky, high voice that just didn’t much.

Howbizarre22 · 30/12/2023 13:46

Tallisker · 22/12/2023 13:45

When I first heard Budapest, I thought it was sung by an old black guy from Alabama, not a teenage white boy from Bristol 🤣

Show quote history

🤣😂😂🤣🤣 yes 🙌🏼

Simonjt · 30/12/2023 13:56

I’m a six foot one bearded South Asian man, I sound like an eleven year old boy. I once had to phone an ambulance for my mum and the call handler asked if there was an adult with me, I had to point out that I was in my 30’s.

cheapskatemum · 30/12/2023 14:13

Kyle Walker who plays for Manchester City FC. He is tall & ripped, plus fast & physical on the pitch. If he's interviewed after a match, I always find his high pitched voice at odds with his appearance.

penjil · 30/12/2023 17:34

Elon Musk. He looks like he'd have a weedy little toddler's pipsqueak voice, but he actually has a deep masculine, almost British-sounding velvety voice.

I'd only heard him speak for the first time ever on a TV news clip a few weeks ago.
It changed my mind of him and I now think he's quite sexy! 😁

Concannon88 · 30/12/2023 17:42

Undineimmor · 22/12/2023 12:39

I've been speaking to a client for a few months with a deep booming voice. He visited this week and I was expecting Brian Blessed but he's small, slim and cleanshaven. Has anyone's appearance ever surprised you?

I'm meeting my therapist next week, who I've been speaking to for months. In my head she looks like dawn French. We will see.

littlepeas · 30/12/2023 18:12

My bil is a huge biker who sounds like his voice has never broken! My dc find it hilarious now they are old enough to realise (teen ds's voice is much deeper).

dressedforcomfort · 30/12/2023 18:42

I remember watching an interview with Michael Stipe of REM and being really gobsmacked that his speaking voice was so deep for a skinny little bald guy who sings quite high.

Gliblet · 30/12/2023 18:51

readymealeater · 22/12/2023 12:41

Decades ago, when I was a young secretary (as they were called then) I often had to put calls through to another manager at a different site. What a gorgeous warm, sexy voice he had. The other staff thought so too.

One day, he turned up for a meeting. He was a perfectly lovely man, but let's just say his appearance was a bit of a disappointment after that big build up!

Edited

Similarly, as a young admin I had months of phone conversations with one man leading up to an annual event - he had the most gorgeous deep, smooth, sexy voice. When I finally met him it was such a disappointment to be shaking hands with a sort of elongated, hairless weasel 😆

Mind you, I've been told in the past that my voice is very sexy so I'm sure I've given someone else the same kind of disappointment before!

thenightsky · 30/12/2023 18:58

Back in the 90s when I was working as a medical secretary, one of the GPs in our area used to ring me with new referrals. He was a shocking flirt and oozed down the phone line, sounding like Alan Rickman. I finally met him in a meeting. He was very short, very fat, wore thick glasses and had knock out BO. Had a cracking line in filthy talk on the phone though. The sort that doesn't come over as sleazy.

NashvilleQueen · 30/12/2023 18:59

I always think of Andrea Leadsom. She has a really nice bright and friendly voice but has some absolutely horrible views in reality.

Nobadvibes · 30/12/2023 19:18

I constantly get told I don’t look like my voice.

Moved jobs during covid and only did meetings over Skype, waited 12 months to add a picture up. Once I put a picture up everyone wanted to speak to me 🙃

BrokenWing · 30/12/2023 19:25

We had a receptionist at our manufacturing site that was also the headquarters of the company. This was back in the days before direct dial, mobile phones so every call went through reception. It was before regular travel too, so you could be speaking to someone for years and feel like you really knew them before meeting them face to face. It was also the early 90s when inappropriate behaviour and suggestive comments in the workplace were still rife.

So everyone knew the receptionist Elizabeth to chat to on the phone, and boy did the men enjoy talking to her and her friendly sultry voice from afar. I was in my early 20s and spent a lot of time with Elizabeth, I was in IT and responsible for the modernisation of the switchboard and training her (and just enjoyed hanging out with her!) and overheard a lot of the conversations, she knew she was imagined by many as a Miss Money Penny type, she had a wicked sense of humour and loved playing up to the image.

When they came to visit they would tell her they were coming, suggest going out for a meal, couldn't wait to meet her - and the looks on their faces every time they met a grey haired, quite frail looking lady, well into her 60s and realised how they had been talking to her was hilarious. We were in tears many times after they had left the reception area.

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