ATmedios: Clients prefer children’s voices for child characters

For the dubbing of The Zone of Interest, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, AT Medios brought in two girls and two boys to portray the four child characters.

Dubbing with children for the interpretation of child characters has special requirements. “With each actor, the dubbing director provides guidance, and with the support of parents in the studio, we manage them. Some are very skilled, and with others, we need a bit more patience, but in the case of this movie, we didn’t face major challenges with the children’s dubbing process,” explains Luis Guillermo Torres, director and founder of ATmedios.

In many productions, high-pitched adult voices are often used to interpret child characters. “The advantage of adult actresses is their greater availability of time and, in general, it’s easier to negotiate with them than with the children’s parents. The advantage of using children is that the final result is more realistic and, therefore, better.”

Clients, says Torres, prefer children’s voices for child characters, and that is the trend since it produces a more natural result, although there is limited talent availability. Therefore, some clients make decisions based on other considerations, such as delivery times and costs, rather than who provides the voice.