Film Gives Voice to the Lives, Toils of Latina Dub Actresses

*This is interesting. File under “who knew?” VL

By Kell Carrion, NBC News

When Gabrielle Solis speaks on the Spanish language version of “Desperate Housewives”, it’s the voice of Ivette Gonzalez, not Eva Longoria, that U.S. Spanish-speaking TV audiences hear. When the show’s famous narration of Mary Alice Young is heard in Spanish, it is the voice of Emmy Award winning actress Marabina Jaimes.

These women are dub actresses, a side of Hollywood that is rarely seen. Independent documentary filmmaker, Andrea Meller, discovered the world of dubbing after reading an article on Latina dub actresses in the New York Times in 2005. She said what struck her the most from the article was the hardships these actresses had to go through as Latinas.

“They were either too dark or too light for a role. They either had too much of an accent or not enough of an accent,” said Meller, who is of Chilean decent. “These women were having Latina defined for them by the entertainment industry.”

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[Photo courtesy of NBC News]