| | |  Entertainment | September 2008 
He’s Been Dubbed a Latin Nic Cage
 Ron Dicker - NY Daily News
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| | Delgado's first job was on 1984’s "Birdy," in which Cage and Matthew Modine play damaged Vietnam vets. | | |
Salvador Delgado makes a living out of putting words in Nicolas Cage’s mouth.
Since 1984, Delgado, a 46-year-old Mexican actor, has dubbed Cage’s lines into Spanish in 19 films, including Cage’s action movie "Bangkok Dangerous," opening Friday.
Delgado is one of the world’s most prolific dubbing artists, voicing such Hollywood leading men as Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe for the Spanish-language versions of movies that screen in the U.S. and abroad.
Delgado is currently the voice of Brendan Fraser in "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" and Pierce Brosnan in "Mamma Mia!" (though he was spared having to perform Brosnan’s singing parts because of contractual constraints).
He also does Hugh Laurie on TV’s "House" and can soon be heard dubbing for Bart Johnson in "High School Musical 3: Senior Year."
But Delgado’s rendering of Cage’s dialogue is one of cinema’s most enduring dubbing gigs.
Delgado attended drama school and worked in theater for 10 years before entering Mexico City’s dubbing industry, which is Latin America’s largest.
His first job was on 1984’s "Birdy," in which Cage and Matthew Modine play damaged Vietnam vets.
Delgado, who has voiced Cage in most of his films since, explains that although he doesn’t know Cage personally, he is intimately familiar with the actor’s inflections and is most comfortable playing Cage’s characters.
"I do have the ability to adapt to many voices, paying attention to whether the intonations are more serious or more comic," says Delgado, in Spanish, from his Mexico City home.
Though he estimates he has worked on 6,000 films, talk is cheap — Delgado was, for example, paid a mere $250 for "The Rock," Cage’s 1996 Alcatraz action flick.
"No es mucho," says Delgado, with no translation necessary.
Mexico City has stayed on top in dubbing U.S. films for decades, partly because the relatively neutral Mexican accent seems to appeal to a broad Hispanic audience.
Competition from Argentina, Colombia and elsewhere has kept fees low.
But Delgado stays in demand because, he says, "There aren’t many who can listen and understand. I can do the work of many actors."
He says he realizes he has chosen a humble career in which many toil in obscurity, sometimes after finding that acting in their own skin isn’t working out.
"But I think I have an artistic job," says Delgado. "And a heartfelt one, too, no?" |
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