{"id":53663,"date":"2025-10-01T06:59:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T06:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/53663\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T06:59:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T06:59:17","slug":"why-a-list-celebrities-are-trading-movies-for-narrated-audiobooks-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/53663\/","title":{"rendered":"Why A-List Celebrities Are Trading Movies for Narrated Audiobooks in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hollywood\u2019s box office is experiencing another dismal year. Fewer television shows are receiving greenlights. And productions are fleeing California for Canada. So how can A-listers find reliable paychecks in Tinseltown? By reading books, it turns out.<\/p>\n

Stars like Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Andrew Garfield, Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd, and Elle Fanning have recently traded movies for microphones and narrated audiobooks by other authors, adding glitz to the once-lackluster medium. This fall, stars Sean Penn and Paul Giamatti have audiobook projects set for release. And Fleabag star Andrew Scott and The Hunger Games\u2019s Tom Blyth, and The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Christopher Briney<\/a> have even voiced not-safe-for-work stories for audio erotica app Quinn.<\/p>\n

While working with Hollywood heavyweights is alluring to publishers who covet their built-in platforms and name recognition, it\u2019s a decision often shaped by the author. \u201cWhen we start those conversations, the first thing we ask them is, \u2018What is it that you hear?\u2019\u201d says Dan Zitt, who oversees content production at Penguin Random House Audio. \u201cSometimes it’s a working actor, sometimes it’s \u2018I would like to read this myself,\u2019 and sometimes it’s, \u2018I’d like to have Ian McKellen narrate this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"2025<\/p>\n

Ethan Hawke has narrated an audiobook of The Dharma Bums.<\/p>\n

Vivien Killilea\/\/Getty Images\"76th<\/p>\n

Meryl Streep has narrated books like Tom Lake and Charlotte\u2019s Web.<\/p>\n

Gilbert Flores\/\/Getty Images\"Fantastic<\/p>\n

Pedro Pascal has narrated books including Ghost Radio. <\/p>\n

Toya Sarno Jordan\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Landing bankable stars like McKellen can bring in audiences who don’t typically engage with books via their ears, according to Diana Dapito, who oversees content programming at Audible. Although the 30-year-old platform has long featured celebrity narrators, more stars began expressing interest in working with Audible during the Covid-19 pandemic when film and television projects wound down, she notes. \u201cThey had more time to deliver these captivating performances,\u201d she says. \u201cThey can have that creative fulfillment and that incredible challenge in the most engaging way.\u201d Big name stars can make up to $150,000 for a few days work on an audiobook, according to a source.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t solely a pandemic responsible for introducing celebrities to the medium. This spike in big names jumping from the silver screen to AirPods coincided with Hollywood memoirs becoming more popular. In 2023, there were over 400 memoirs published in English, which was nearly four times the amount published in 2019, according to Goodreads<\/a>. And stars\u2019 agents began taking notice. \u201cI just think celebrity memoirs brought more celebrities into the studio to record their books and that raised the profile of audiobooks for the entire industry,\u201d Zitt says. \u201cTheir clients were writing books, their clients were reading books, and now many of them want to read aloud.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many, voicing books is more appealing (and less risky) than launching yet-another tequila brand or garden-variety podcast, which are years-long slogs and Rolodex drainers. Dapito says audiobook recordings \u201ccan sometimes be accomplished in a few days or a few weeks.\u201d Plus, it follows a familiar pattern for actors. There\u2019s a script, a producer, and a production schedule\u2014also, a guaranteed check. And then, there\u2019s the EGOT possibility\u2014Viola Davis cemented her status by winning a Grammy for her memoir narration in 2023. Other stars like Carol Burnet and Michael J. Fox have also recently taken home Grammys courtesy of their audiobooks. And the billion-dollar industry, whose sales are growing by double digits, is a booming one. One recent 1700-person survey from the Audio Publishers Association found that 51% of Americans eighteen years or older have listened to an audiobook.<\/p>\n

\"65thKevork Djansezian\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Viola Davis won a Grammy Award in 2023 for for best audiobook, narration and storytelling recording for her memoir, Finding Me. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a less complicated work experience than filming a movie. Penguin Random House has 14 studios in Los Angeles and New York. But it\u2019s increasingly common for stars to record from home. \u201cA lot of celebrity authors and celebrities have home setups because they’re doing other voice work,\u201d he says. \u201cSo sometimes we can just work directly into their homes with a director Zooming into the session, which is really helpful.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

For publishers, pairing boldfaced names with material can be a way to breathe new life into classics. Sometimes, that involves casting for characters instead of a single narrator. Pride and Prejudice, the Jane Austen classic, is over two centuries old, and Audible recently released an audiobook featuring Glenn Close, Bill Nighy, and Harris Dickinson of Babygirl fame. \u201cPeople can experience it in a whole new way because of this incredible talent,\u201d says Dapito. \u201cWe do find it as a way to engage new listeners.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing we ask is, \u2018What is it that you hear?\u2019\u2026 sometimes it’s, \u2018I’d like to have Ian McKellen narrate this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most ambitious (if potentially controversial, given JK Rowling’s outspoken views) endeavors in the space has been Audible\u2019s forthcoming Harry Potter: The Full-Cast Audio Editions, which fields nearly a Bryan Lourd dinner party worth of stars (and likely, in part, funds those shindigs, too). With over 2,000 hours of recording and a cast of over 200 actors, it’s practically a movie in one’s ears. Beginning in November, Audible will release the seven Potter novels monthly. Some of the marquee names joining the wizarding world include Keira Knightley, Riz Ahmed, Kit Harington, Hugh Laurie, Ruth Wilson, and James McAvoy.<\/p>\n

\"Play\"Celebrity<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not only staples like Potter and Pride and Prejudice drawing the notables. It\u2019s also audio smut. Grey\u2019s Anatomy’s Jesse Williams and Victoria Pedretti, who starred in Netflix\u2019s You, joined Andrew Scott in voicing projects for Quinn, which has released what it calls \u201caudio erotica\u201d including titles like The Misty Door and Hidden Harbor. “Their involvement draws in fans who might not otherwise have discovered Quinn,” says Caroline Spiegel, the company’s founder.<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t take household names to turn audiobooks into bestsellers. Increasingly, professional audiobook narrators\u2014the Meryl Streeps of audiobooks\u2014are draws for fans. \u201cWe do have a lot of those narrators that people are really fans of, that people want to listen to when they come out, because they know the work of those narrators is really good,\u201d says Suzanne Galvez, the director of editorial at Spotify.<\/p>\n

It also takes undeniably good books to sell audiobooks. And when there\u2019s a mismatch of star power and quality read, just like in the movie industry, celebrities aren\u2019t immune to bombs. \u201cJust because you attach a celebrity voice to it doesn’t mean it’s going to change the trajectory of the sales,\u201d says Zitt. \u201cThat’s why we always start with who is the right voice. And if a celebrity is the right voice for the book, that’s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Andrew Zucker works at a production company in New York City. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Financial Times, and Air Mail, among other publications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hollywood\u2019s box office is experiencing another dismal year. Fewer television shows are receiving greenlights. And productions are fleeing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,2519,45680,2117,156,2462,111,139,69,45679],"class_list":["post-53663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-content-type-feature","tag-contentid-2fb95789-b9a5-41b3-bfda-0ae71d1ae163","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-locale-us","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-shorttitle-why-a-list-stars-are-all-recording-audiobooks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}