Last week, I got a call from a major studio in Barcelona to dub the voice of the main character in a feature film. Apparently, I was the third person they had called. The first two didn’t work out and they had heard of me through others who were working on the project. I came in and gave it my best shot – and the director was over the moon. He thought I was perfect! Not only was my voice what he was looking for, he also said that it was refreshing to work with someone who was obviously a “real actor”.
I had never worked with this director before. He usually works in Catalan and Spanish and only occasionally works on English projects. I told him (half in jest) that I would love to one day work in Catalan as well.
Two days ago, I get a call from the same studio. They’re dubbing a cartoon and want me to come in. When I got there and walked into the studio, I saw absolutely no one I recognized – except for the director. There were four other actors there – all speaking Catalan! The director said with a cheeky smile, “You wanted to work in Catalan, so…”
The film was Doraemon – a Japanese anime. They had me do a lot of ambient scenes where there were four of us speaking at the same time. I also got to do the minor parts where the character had to speak in Japanese! I had a great time, met some cool new people, made some sweet cash, and opened an important door.
That’s pretty cool. I’ve heard that you are quite the dubber. OK. Enough of that. I’m really writing to wish you a day belated Happy Birthday! Hope it was great.
That sounds awesome. Another studio’s interest can never hurt. I wish I was able to watch more of the work you’ve done.
happy birthday! i meant to send an e-card and forgot…. my apologies.
also – what is catalan?
What is Catalan? Very good question, Marcy.
Catalan is a Romance language spoken by some eleven million people, most of them in Catalonia (an autonomous region currently in Spain), but also in Valencia, the Balearic Islands, the country of Andorra–where it is the only official language–the old French province of Roussillon and, curiously, in the town of l’Alguer (Alghero), on the Italian island of Sardinia. Linguistically, it is related to Spanish and French, and the other Romance languages.
Barcelona is the largest city in Catalonia.
I guess the best analogy I can think of (at 5am) is that it’s kinda like English in Canada and French spoken in Quebec. Everyone from Spain speaks Spanish, but Catalans are mostly bilingual and also speak Catalan.
It’s hard for me to believe now, but I didn’t know that it existed either before I moved here. Now I’m living it! The street signs, store windows, and metro stops are all written in Catalan. I concentrated on learning Spanish for the first few years I was here, but then, when I was comfortable with my Spanish, I started concentrating on Catalan. They absolutely love it when a foreigner speaks Catalan here!
So there you go: that’s Catalan.