Security Confidential S12 E7 Susan Bennett

Manoj (00:01.42)
Hello, everyone. This is your host, Manoj Tandon. Welcome to another episode of Dark Rhino Security, Security Confidential. Today we are honored to have Susan Bennett on the show. Susan is a very talented artist. She has done hundreds of commercial jingles, and she has been backup to Roy Orbison on stage. But a lot of you might know her as the voice of Siri, and we are delighted to have her here.

Susan, thank you for being on the show.

Susan Bennett (00:32.522)
You’re most welcome. Thanks for having me.

Manoj (00:35.236)
It’s kind of strange because I can hear the voice, and normally it’s like, “Hey, Siri, where’s the latest pizza place?” or “What’s the best…” And now we’re talking to a real person.

Susan Bennett (00:48.314)
Yes, yeah, Siri actually has a face.

Manoj (00:52.992)
Actually, it picked it up. Would you believe that? When you started speaking, it activated. That’s incredible. So Susan, you’re so much more than Siri. Tell us about Susan. Give us a little bit about your background as an artist and how you became a voiceover artist.

Susan Bennett (01:17.686)
Well, I became a voice actor by accident, really. My so-called career started as a musician, a singer, and I played the piano by ear at age three or four. And I’ve been doing that ever since. I took many piano lessons. And I finally got into doing vocals, singing in high school, and participated in high school musicals and that sort of thing. I did the same thing in college.

And then when I graduated, I was doing music. I was playing live music when my husband at the time and I moved to Atlanta, Georgia. And things just kind of happened to me. I’ve been very fortunate throughout my life. Things have sort of just presented themselves in my life, and I’ve been very, very lucky. So one day, when I was at a very popular studio in Atlanta at the time, Doppler Studios, they were around for close to 50 years, and I was there to sing a jingle, which I did with several other people in a group of vocalists.

The voice actor didn’t show up to read the copy of the spot. So the owner of the studio said, “Susan, you don’t have an accent. Come over here and read this copy.” And so I did. And I went, “Ding, ding. I think we’ve got something here.” So I got some voice coaching, took some classes, and started to do the work. This has been many, many years ago. So I’ve been very fortunate.

Manoj (02:51.868)
What was the audition for Apple like?

Susan Bennett (02:56.35)
I did not audition for Apple. No, they kind of snuck around and took my voice. They paid someone, but it wasn’t me. Yeah, this is what’s happening now with AI and all this business. There’s a lot of stuff going on.

I had done some recordings that began in 2005 for a company called ScanSoft, which became Nuance, which I do believe Apple ended up buying because they got all of their Siri voices from this company. And somehow, I guess I was auditioning without knowing it, because I had done these recordings, and they chose my voice to be Siri.

When it first happened, I was just totally freaked out because I thought, “Oh man, my voice is going to be everywhere. I’ll never get another voice acting job in my life.” And that sort of happened, but in the process, I got a whole brand-new career from it, which was to become a serious speaker. So I started to do speaker events all over the country and even the world. I’ve been in other countries talking about Siri. So it opened up a whole new career for me. But yes, it was a very strange thing. It was something that I hadn’t anticipated. I didn’t knowingly audition for it. It’s just something that happened.

Manoj (04:21.804)
So you were doing voiceover work for Nuance, and Nuance got bought, and they just happened to take your voice. You’ve had a lot of luck on your side. Serendipity, maybe. Can you throw some of it our way?

Susan Bennett (04:37.934)
I have, I have. And I think one of the reasons that I’ve had good luck is I’ve always tried to do the right thing and try to be good to other people. All that stuff does come around.

Manoj (04:53.18)
It does. Those are the basic things that I think make a big difference in one’s life, actually, if you think about it.

Susan Bennett (05:02.026)
Yes, and everyone else around you’s life.

Manoj (05:06.336)
So how was it working with Roy Orbison?

Susan Bennett (05:10.29)
Oh, it was fantastic. He was a very nice person. We didn’t really get to see much of him. He was kind of a recluse. We mainly just saw him on stage. There were only two females in the band, another woman, Barbara South, and me. We were the only female vocalists, and the whole rest of the group were males. I think there were a couple of males that hung around with Roy, but he did not hang around with the women, which is, I’m sure, a good thing for all concerned.

But he was always very, very nice. As I said, we didn’t really see much of him, but it was really exciting because I got to go to Australia with Roy and all over the British Isles. People all over the world just absolutely loved Roy. I was singing with him in the early eighties, and of course his big time was in the sixties. A lot of people don’t know this, but the Beatles used to open for Roy.

Manoj (06:12.956)
Wow, I did not know that. I thought I saw this in a picture. I thought Bruce Springsteen played a little bit of guitar for Roy.

Susan Bennett (06:22.798)
Oh, well, possibly. He was in a band called the Traveling Wilburys in the late eighties, and that was Tom Petty, George Harrison, and a couple other people in that band. Roy was a hero to a lot of big rock and roll stars.

Manoj (06:44.472)
So I’m curious now. I’m a closet musician, so I have to ask this question. Do you still have perfect pitch?

Susan Bennett (06:54.662)
I have relative perfect pitch. If I’ve heard a middle C sometime during the day, I can get pretty close to it the rest of the day. And I can get pretty close to it most times, but I do not have perfect pitch. I think perfect pitch is kind of a curse because almost nothing is totally in tune. So if you have perfect pitch, you’re just frustrated all the time, I think.

Manoj (07:23.484)
Well, yeah, standard tuning, you are making certain compromises. So you’re going to see that. But when you mentioned that you started playing piano at the age of eight and could do it by ear—

Susan Bennett (07:37.29)
No, four. Yep. My parents were not musical people at all. But my next-door neighbor heard me playing a little toy piano out on the porch one day, and he called my parents and said, “I think that you have a musical child, and I’m getting ready to move. I would like to give her my upright piano.” So this wonderful gentleman, Mr. Chagner, gave me his upright piano, and I started taking piano lessons right away. I took 12 years of them. Thank you, Mr. Chagner, wherever you are.

Manoj (08:19.365)
Serendipity comes by again. That’s incredible. Maybe there are no coincidences in life and it really needed to happen. That’s fantastic.

In your work, you’ve briefly mentioned that you were afraid that being Siri would pigeonhole you into a niche as an artist. And to a degree it has, I think you said. Has that been a good thing or a bad thing for you?

Susan Bennett (08:54.946)
Well, I don’t really look at it that way. It’s just a thing, something that happened. I wasn’t anticipating it. I think I’ve dealt with it as best I can, given my own personality. I’m kind of an introvert. I probably could have made a lot bigger deal of it than I have. But it’s actually been a really cool thing. It enabled me to have a whole new career in my sixties, so that’s pretty amazing.

Manoj (09:27.568)
So who have you been the voice of since then?

Susan Bennett (09:33.834)
I can’t think of anyone in particular. I will say that most of the auditions that I win and most of the work that I have done has been a Siri-related thing. I always get the auditions where they say, “We need a Siri-like voice.” And I say, “Why don’t you just hire Siri? I’m here. Why put me through the audition process?”

Manoj (09:59.156)
Where would you like future acting opportunities to come from? If you could wave your magic wand.

Susan Bennett (10:12.862)
I really love to do dialogue spots. They don’t do it the same way that we used to do it. We all used to gather in a studio together and bounce off each other, which was very fun. Now everyone has his or her own studio. So we’re all kind of working from home alone, dialoguing in cyberspace. I love to do dialogue. I love to do characters. I really like to work, period.

So I’m happy to do just about anything. My agent is Wes Stevens and also Tom Lawless at Vox in Los Angeles. So if you want to talk to Siri or hire Siri, call them.

Manoj (10:54.752)
Have you ever thought of being a podcast host? If you want to get into dialogue, that’s—

Susan Bennett (11:02.798)
No. It’s the funniest thing. I don’t really listen to podcasts. I don’t listen to people talking. Isn’t that funny? It’s been my livelihood, but I don’t like listening to people just talking.

Manoj (11:24.204)
That is funny. I get accused of talking too much, and I’m like, “Well, I am a podcast host.”

Susan Cameron Bennett (11:29.106)
Yeah, well, you found your right place then. You should be very comfortable. You talk as much as you want.

Manoj (11:39.366)
Are you big into the world of technology, Susan?

Susan Bennett (11:43.854)
Oh no. This is one of life’s great ironies, that the voice of Siri is a complete and utter non-techie. If there’s a wrong button to push, I will find it. Fortunately, my husband is much better at that than I am, so I’ll go, “Rick.”

Manoj (12:07.644)
Technology is not your thing, and yet you are the voice of one of the giants in tech. That’s incredible. It’s incredible, but it’s also very hopeful in that it goes to show that anything is really possible.

For all our audience, you’ve got to understand in the world of cybersecurity, there’s a lot of heartache. I’m sure you’ve read the papers or read online the number of bad things that happen to companies all the time. Any message of hope is a good message. I think having that positive outlook has a huge impact.

Susan Bennett (12:50.858)
Yeah. I think you just have to look. Positive outlook is really, really important. Even if you’re just in the depths, make yourself think of something good and be grateful for whatever you have. All of that stuff is easy to say when you’re having a really tough time. But the good thing is that everything is temporary. If you’re going through a bad spot, that will change.

I think it is very important to have a positive outlook. Given your circumstances, there are some people that are really, really in a terrible place and need help. I think that part of what we can do to keep positive and to do the right thing is try to help other people in some way.

Manoj (13:41.908)
And Susan, this approach you have of being so positive and trying to do the right thing, is this something that you incubated over a period of time, or has this always been the way you’ve been?

Susan Bennett (13:55.178)
I think it’s something that I’ve given a lot of thought to because I basically have a very acerbic sense of humor, a very sarcastic sense of humor. I appreciate that, but I do understand. And you know what, I’ve done a lot of reading about it too, because I do have a tendency to get down on myself or depressed. I think a lot of people who are artistic go through that.

So it really is important. You can’t give up on yourself because there’s no one else to take over for you. You’ve got to do it yourself.

Manoj (14:36.696)
So then I have to ask you, what happens when yourself becomes virtual? We’ve seen this controversy out there now with generative AI being able to create likenesses of people and creating their voices. In fact, I think in Top Gun, Val Kilmer’s voice was actually computer generated.

Susan Bennett (14:59.274)
Yeah. For me, it’s frightening. It’s absolutely frightening because the problem is that if you had people whose whole goal in life was to do well, but do the right thing at the same time, then there wouldn’t be a problem. I know that’s one of the reasons that SAG-AFTRA went on strike, trying to deal with this AI thing.

The trouble with AI is it can completely and utterly replicate someone’s voice. That’s frightening. It’ll only be a matter of time until they can make a visual perfection as well. So we’ve just got to really keep a handle on it because there are always going to be bad people. I’m sorry. There are always going to be people that don’t do the right thing. And as long as the technology is there, you know that that’s always going to be a threat.

So I’m not really sure how we handle it. I don’t know how that’s going to be handled.

Manoj (15:56.712)
Yeah, I don’t think in our industry anybody really knows because it has huge implications in cybersecurity. Because now if we can replicate somebody’s voice, we can convince people that I am you and now you can do nefarious things with that. That’s a bad thing. But detecting that, I don’t know. Right now I don’t have an answer for this, but we certainly know that it’s a huge topic of discussion.

I think we can, at least in the United States, contractually put safeguards in, and I’m sure the courts are going to uphold much of this.

Are you working on any appearances or books or things of that nature? Are you doing any TED Talks? Where can people find you?

Susan Bennett (17:33.078)
You can always find me through the Vox agency, and you can find me on my website, susancbennett.com. Or just look up the voice of Siri and it’ll pop up. I’ve got a couple of things that are kind of bubbling at the moment, some things coming up for the fall. The summer has been very slow.

Manoj (17:58.29)
Wow, hold on.

Susan Bennett (18:00.667)
Maybe unplug it.

Manoj (18:09.94)
That’s exactly what I did. Rejected this thing. Wow, that thing’s vicious. Someone’s really trying. I’m sorry, please repeat that. I so apologize.

Susan Bennett (18:29.102)
As far as speaker events and things like that, I’ve got a couple of things in the works for October, November. I don’t have anything specifically to tell you right at the moment, but Siri is always for hire. Just contact the Vox agency or reach me through my website, which is susancbennett.com, or you can just Google voice of Siri and it’ll pop up.

Manoj (19:02.237)
I have to ask this question. Have you ever not been selected as the voice of Siri in an audition? I’m just curious.

Susan Bennett (19:14.102)
Many times. Yes. They say, “We want a Siri-like voice or a Siri-esque voice.” Oh yeah, I got one recently, and it’s the first one that I’ve ever gotten.

Manoj (19:27.988)
Wow. I would have thought that that’s a slam dunk. Since you’re talking to a bunch of techies out here, who knows? Maybe there’s somebody working on a project that needs a voice.

Susan Bennett (19:44.458)
Well, now you have to keep in mind that I’m the original voice of Siri. They’ve changed the voice a couple of times, two or three times, I think. Siri sounds like a millennial now to me. So I think they’re trying to get that 18 to 34 group represented.

Manoj (20:04.256)
Well, you have choices. You can set Siri now to be the original voice, to have a British accent. There are all kinds of things that are possible. But you’re still the first, and the first is the original. And the original always remains.

Susan Bennett (20:25.036)
That’s right. Can’t take that away.

Manoj (20:27.472)
They cannot take that away from you, Susan. In terms of parting words to our audience, is there anything at all that you would like them to know or anything you’d like to say?

Susan Bennett (20:44.17)
Regarding cybersecurity, you mean?

Manoj (20:46.492)
Or anything that your heart desires. The floor is yours. What would you tell a bunch of tech professionals who are aspiring to a dream?

Susan Bennett (21:01.762)
I would say congratulations on your techie brain. I do not have one. And good luck with keeping us safe and keeping us knowledgeable and informed.

Manoj (21:18.872)
There you go. You have it from Siri herself, Susan Bennett. Susan, thank you so much for being a breath of fresh air and taking a little bit of seriousness out of our world and bringing some positive light.

Susan Bennett (21:40.862)
Well, you’re most welcome. Thanks so much.

Manoj (21:43.412)
We really appreciate it. If you ever want to chat to a bunch of cybersecurity people, you’re always welcome back. Let us know. Take care, Susan. Bye-bye.

Susan Bennett (21:51.034)
Oh great, that’s good to know. Thank you. Okay, bye-bye.