Soltera Codiciada is Netflix’s answer to relationship problems. In Lima, a young woman – who works as an advertiser – with love-related problems decides to start a blog, where she begins to write about her life as a single, and she is then taken aback by her initiative’s big success.
One of the friends who assist her in this endeavour is Carolina, dubbed by Benedetta Ponticelli, who tried to “make her light-minded and deep-hearted”. Here’s how she did it.
«Soltera Codiciada is one of those films we still feel the need for, because we – women – always need something that reminds us of our strong points. The character I dub is somewhat peculiar, because she seems to be very resolute, but she actually conceals a number of weaknesses. In order to properly render these nuances and try to stick as much as possible to the original character, I resorted to a few gimmicks. In this case, the director Barbara Castracane guided me a lot in the search for the character. For example, dubbing directors often tell us to dub the gestures, or even a look, in order to fittingly reproduce the same voice inflections. To do so, I must physically move a lot at the bookrest: sometimes the sound technicians warn me I’m getting too far from the microphone!
Benedetta Ponticelli
What makes dubbing difficult is that we are basically actors without a body. Worse still, we must fit someone else’s body, therefore we must know what we might have done in that particular scene, we must understand how to step in and quickly get hold of a sensation, a gesture and figure out how to express it through our voice.
For me, fantasy is crucial. We dub, which means that we personify twice. Actors themselves must stand in the shoes of their character and become it. We, on the other hand, must take it a step further, a step we can only take with our fantasy – because in our minds we must recreate a scene we are not directly experiencing. I can assure you it’s not easy: perseverance and humility are essential.»
