The actor comes to present the film Les Apprentis in which he played in 1995, Thursday at the Grand Palais. The opportunity to meet this voice dubbing specialist.
You have acted in cinema, theater and TV movies but since 2011 you are a dubbing specialist, tell us?
I did some dubbing late in the day when I had decided to stop filming because I was always being offered the same roles and I felt like I was going in circles. A financial choice at first but I quickly fell in love with it. When you’re a voice dubber, it’s like a top athlete, you always have to be ready to play any second. You have to work on diction, rhythm, it requires exceptional performance, visual, auditory and spatial concentration.
I can do the voice of a big black man, then a little skinny, a young, an old, a Russian or an Indian, different accents. You have to go from one character to another, I change skin and game style regularly, it’s great you never get bored! I’ve done series, teen sitcoms, TV movies, movies.
A voice that marked you in particular?
They are all outstanding. But lately I had to play the voice of Gianmarco, the son of Ugo Tognazzi, a great Italian director, it was absolute happiness, he’s one of the best actors I’ve dubbed. Especially a scene where he is drunk, it was very hard to dub in just 1h30. Whatever happens the original version is always better!
Has the image of the voice actor changed?
When I started my career 30 years ago, actors who did dubbing were considered plague victims. Today, that has completely changed, young actors want to start there or specialize. There is also a certain fascination of the public for this shadow profession.
You come to Cahors to present the film Les Apprentis by Pierre Salvadori with Guillaume Depardieu and François Cluzet, it was your first film at the cinema, what memories do you keep of the shooting?
I really had a very small role, but they are the hardest to play. We are the pegs that allow the story to move forward. When I read the exceptional screenplay, I immediately knew that this film would work! And besides, he hasn’t aged telling the story of these magnificent losers. I had 2-3 days of shooting but the director and the actors had this ability to incorporate the whole team, as if we all had an important role to play. It was a nice experience.
