NintendOn: In an interview, the english voice actor of Zelda, declared that she didn’t know which character she had to dub. Did you have the same experience?Pietro Ubaldi
: Not exactly the same experience. They explained to me what was all about for sure, I saw some images and listened to the original english voice but they didn’t gave me much time to study. For us (italian dubbers) it’s a little different. We dub the scenes when the game is already done, and we create our character quickly on the moment with the help of the original support. In fact, some dubbers seem to assume the future emotions of their characters, anticipating them, but I think that you have anyway to try giving a sense of freshness to the feelings of your character.
NintendOn: Have you had any particular demand from Nintendo?
Pietro Ubaldi
: No, I’m quite intuitive myself and I quickly understand what they want from me, besides, I can say that I have some experience in my job. Obviously I don’t dub every character in the same way [laugh], or else… They left me free to create, but I’ve always accepted advices.
NintendOn: Do you prepare yourself before dubbing a character, like searching on the net, watching videos and listening to the original voice, like you mentioned?
Pietro Ubaldi
: I listen to the original and the directions of my client. For some characters that require particular technical and physical preparation I obviously prepare myself. For example, I’ve dubbed Doraemon for a long time. He yells a lot, you know, and if I have to dub him at 9,00 in the morning, I have to prepare myself, unless you wanna hear a tired drunken Doraemon who has smoked a lot [laughs].
NintendOn: Is there a difference between dubbing movies and videogames?
Pietro Ubaldi
: In videogames we dub it when the game is ready. We watch the labials and work on them. With movies, in most of cases, we work with sound waves. We have to respect pauses, time constraint, even the shapes of sound waves should be the same. You know, it’s a delicate job.
NintendOn: Have you ever been a Nintendo fan?
Pietro Ubaldi
: Nintendo fan? Well, everyone is a Nintendo fan, so I’d say yes. Though, I’ve never been very good with videogames but I do like them. I kinda like everything that has the word “game” in it.