DUBBING SIGOURNEY WEAVER INTO SPANISH

Spaniards talk and wonder about American actors and actresses they admire. Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, and... Sigourney Weaver who yesterday was awarded an International Award in Valladolid for her acting career. All foreign films are dubbed into Spanish and it is difficult to have access to original versions. Ms. Weaver was very thankful for the presentation and very kindly mentioned the Spanish actress who has been dubbing her into Spanish for 40 years, the voice Spanish movie-goers associate with the American actress. She mentioned 85-year-old María Luisa Solá, a dubbing actress since 1959 who has said that Weaver´s words have spotlighted her profession at long last. Moviegoers who applaud Sigourney Weaver as an actress forget that the voice they hear is not the actress´s but someone else's. Further, they forget that María Luisa Solá is mouthing the Spanish text translators have poured into Spanish. So, in the end, the actresses or actors Spanish audiences admire and love are people who only move back and forth in the film, and whose words and voices are not theirs at all. I am glad that Ms. Weaver has seen it fit to recognize the role of dubbing actors.