Dubbing has come a long way since those beloved Japanese monster flicks first flashed across American screens, English-speaking voiceovers rambling on long after the Japanese actors onscreen had finished talking. No effort was made at lip-synching, and the acting on all sides was wretched—all part of the campy fun.

But, although many viewers still prefer subtitles, dubbing has improved substantially in recent years. Undoubtedly it's a potential source of income for bilingual actors—especially Spanish-speaking actors, who have a large, ready-made audience in the States.

According to the 2009 Hispanic Consumer Survey on Secondary Audio Programming (SAP), commissioned by the Screen Actors Guild, more Latinos would watch English-language shows if they were dubbed into Spanish and easier to find. Citing Nielsen Co. findings, the report states the Hispanic television audience in the U.S. is approximately 44.3 million. But dubbing is often done abroad at nonunion rates.

"The main purpose of this study is to raise the awareness of this growing market and to promote our qualified dubbing SAG members who are ready to do this work in the United States," said Hernán de Béky, chair of SAG's national Spanish-language media task force, which was formed in 2004.

Carlina Rodriguez, SAG's director of Spanish-language organizing, agreed, adding, "We want to know how big the market is and be part of it. Also, at a time when Spanish-language television networks dominate the ratings, the U.S. English-language networks and advertisers may be missing out on a lucrative opportunity to expand their audience nationwide."

Nothing New

Dubbing TV programs in the United States via SAP is at least 20 years old, said de Béky. "HBO has used SAP since 1989 with great results. My question is, why the difference for the broadcast networks?" But SAP is not unknown on broadcast networks: "Grey's Anatomy," "The Simpsons," "Desperate Housewives," "CSI: Miami," and "Ugly Betty," among others, have employed the service at some point during their network runs.

"We have between 100 and 200 SAG actors who do dubbing work and get union rates in the U.S.," said de Béky. "Traditionally dubbing has been done in Mexico. But the demographics in the United States are changing. We no longer have to depend on Mexican dubbing actors because of the growth of a Spanish-speaking population here. We are trying to organize a dubbing industry in the U.S. Most U.S. films are still dubbed in Mexico. Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts have their own Spanish counterparts who specialize in dubbing them in Mexico. Most SAG actors don't even know they're being dubbed. The goal is to get SAG actors doing the work here in the U.S.

"By fostering this industry in the United States, it's a win-win situation for everyone," he continued. "We will be raising the caliber of the actors who do the dubbing and also make sure the integrity of the English-speaking actor's performance is maintained. In conjunction with SAG Conservatory, we've created a series of workshops for bilingual actors who are not familiar with the skills of dubbing."

Many SAG actors who do dubbing have backgrounds in voiceover, radio performance, and narration. Some have acted on screen or stage in Spanish and/or English; a few make the bulk of their living dubbing. Some even become the voice of a character on a long-running TV series. Mexican-born actor Denise Lebre said 50 percent of her work is in dubbing. She has voiced Kate Walsh's character, Dr. Addison Montgomery, on "Grey's Anatomy" and later "Private Practice." She was Amanda (played by Becki Newton) on "Ugly Betty" and Natalia (played by Eva La Rue) on "CSI: Miami," among many others.

It's a skill honed over many years: She has been dubbing in the States since 1978. A central element is speaking a "neutral" Spanish, free of regional accent. She described dubbing as an art form that marries acting and mimicry: The actor who is dubbing has to merge vocally, temperamentally, and emotionally with the actor onscreen. Still, she admits, "The lip-synching is a very big challenge. The timing has to be precise. When the actor onscreen opens or closes [her] mouth, I have to open and close my mouth at exactly the same time. But one of the most important things is the script, which has to be translated and adapted to lip-synch."

Part of her job, she said, is to make sure the script is accurate and doable. In a session, she watches the program on a screen in front of her. At the same time, she's listening to the actors on headphones performing their lines in English, while she voices the lines in Spanish and lip-synchs as accurately as possible. A major challenge is that she's not interacting with actors in the studio but reacting to characters on a screen, who are not only speaking English—while she responds in Spanish—but not speaking to her at all.

Having a musical ear is a big plus, added Iran Daniel, who has been dubbing in Spanish for five years on such shows as "Lost," "Grey's," "CSI: Miami," and "The Bold and the Beautiful." One of the major issues is the respective rhythms in the languages, she said: "Spanish tends to go up at the end of a sentence, whereas in English the voice goes down. That's something you have to be very careful with. But the big challenge is that you walk into a dubbing session and may have had 10 to 15 seconds to look at the script. You probably have no idea what's happened in the previous scene and yet may have a lot to react to. Only a very good actor can do this. In one TV series I was dubbing, I saw my character getting shot. So I knew I'd be losing my job. My lamenting was genuine." Daniel noted that as difficult as it is to dub a script for a TV series, it's that much more difficult to dub a theatrical feature, for which there are typically no previous episodes to use as reference points.

Still, the acting lessons she has learned from dubbing have served her well as an on-camera actor. "I never realized before how important the voice and tone are. They're inherent to acting. When I auditioned for the part of a lesbian biker, I realized I couldn't use my normal voice. I had to change it, and I booked the role."

Now What?

Achieving goals for SAP in the U.S. will be a long process, said Rodriguez. "The next step is to build support within Latino community and entertainment organizations and move forward from there," she said. "For 2010 we are planning a summit of industry leaders to raise awareness and strengthen this growing industry in the United States and Puerto Rico."

Lebre would like to see English-speaking advertising use SAP. She'd also favor a little more leeway in the Spanish spoken by SAP actors. "The rule is a neutral Spanish, and I would like that not to be the rule," she said. "Everyone speaks Spanish with a different accent in the United States. Depending on the character, I think it would be more natural to have Colombian or Argentinean or Mexican or Cuban accents. The dubbing industry in the U.S. should have a personality of its own."

Daniel's goal is that of SAG's Spanish-language media task force: to see a greater inclusion of Latino actors in mainstream entertainment in front of the camera, not simply as disembodied voices. For her, the increased use of Spanish dubbing is an important step in that direction.

"Fostering the dubbing industry in the U.S. and Puerto Rico will not only stimulate job growth in the U.S.; it will also bring more viewers to the U.S. networks by providing more choices in entertainment programming to the millions of Spanish-speaking viewers in the U.S.," said Rodriguez.