While the French culture sector has ground to a halt, with theatres and cinemas shuttered, the dubbing industry is still going strong, as demand for series and films has increased with Covid lockdowns and curfews, reports Yahoo! News.
France has the world’s largest dubbing industry, with most viewers looking for French versions of foreign-language productions.
French voiceover actors are hard at work providing dubbed shows for those stuck at home due to Covid lockdowns and curfews.
“I work every day. In dubbing, there is a lot of work,” says Annie Milon, actress who regularly dubs English-speaking actresses Taraji P. Henson and Jada Pinkett Smith, among others.
Over half of what airs on French television are foreign productions, most from the United States. And though viewer preferences are changing, French people still overwhelmingly prefer French versions (VF) to the originals with subtitles (VO).
While Covid restrictions have drastically reduced the number of people going to the cinema, there is an increase in demand for content at home. But the Covid lockdowns have slowed down the production of the French versions.
“We had to stay home like everyone else,” says Milon of the first lockdown in March 2020. She is the French voice of Maeve Millay (played by British actress Thandie Newton) in the sci-fi series Westworld, which had just started airing on Canal+.