{"id":15966,"date":"2021-12-13T22:06:55","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T22:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blue-subtitle.com\/blog\/?p=15966"},"modified":"2021-12-13T22:06:55","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T22:06:55","slug":"from-the-challenge-to-the-chair-authentic-multi-language-casting-nets-global-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blue-subtitle.com\/blog\/from-the-challenge-to-the-chair-authentic-multi-language-casting-nets-global-appeal\/","title":{"rendered":"From \u2018The Challenge\u2019 to \u2018The Chair,\u2019 Authentic Multi-Language Casting Nets Global Appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the most recent season of MTV\u2019s competition program \u201cThe Challenge,\u201d subtitled \u201cSpies, Lies & Allies,\u201d the competitors initially had to work in pairs, despite major language barriers among them.<\/p>\n

In these games, veteran players from past seasons of \u201cThe Challenge\u201d compete against vets of other series including \u201cSurvivor,\u201d \u201cBig Brother\u201d and \u201cLove Island\u201d from around the world. Everyone must speak at least a little English, casting director Skye Topic says, or it wouldn\u2019t be fair, since host T.J. Lavin gives them the rules of each challenge in English. But because \u201cwe envision the show as a place where it\u2019s an intersection of societies,\u201d she says, they are leaning into bringing in global players, including those from Germany, Turkey, Romania, Spain and Nigeria in this season alone.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen we first started having international cast on \u2018The Challenge\u2019 and I was doing pre-casting interviews, I would be very hesitant if I felt like I was struggling with them because the game is very, very hard. It\u2019s not a joke; it\u2019s very mentally taxing and that extra language thing can be very difficult,\u201d Topic says. But now, \u201cI will just push through a few more questions to see if they can get to their point because our vet cast will be on-boarding these cast members and they are here for it and are ready to step up. People will find their people.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sentiment is true of the audience as well. As the rate to which streaming platforms allow engagement with local-language content from around the world grows, so too does the size of viewership. This is opening the door for multilingual programming in scripted series, as well, and continuing the discussion around the importance of authenticity in the casting process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a stickler. If someone\u2019s written that they speak Korean, then I don\u2019t look for a Chinese person who speaks Mandarin,\u201d says veteran casting director Avy Kaufman, who most recently worked on \u201cThe Chair\u201d for Netflix. \u201cI don\u2019t assume that because we don\u2019t speak it, no one knows the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Chair\u201d stars Sandra Oh as Ji-Yoon Kim, the new head of the English department at a fictional university who is also a single mother that often relies on her immigrant father, Habi (Ji-Yong Lee), for childcare. When Ji-Yoon and Habi speak to each other, it is in Korean, a language Kaufman does not speak. When she held auditions, it was not only to watch a performer\u2019s comfort with the words and ability to drive home the right emotion, as in any audition, but she also wanted to learn a little bit about the people themselves to see if there was anything in their own lives that could be added to the characters.<\/p>\n

Kaufman found Lee while auditioning another actor. \u201cI could tell she was reading with someone,\u201d Kaufman recalls of seeing that footage. \u201cI called the agent and asked who she was reading with. It turned out it was her father.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a character in everything we do that you have to look outside the breakdown [to cast],\u201d she continues.<\/p>\n

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Similarly, casting directors Susan Vash and Alejandro Reza scoured many countries to find the ensemble they would end up casting in Apple TV Plus\u2019s bilingual comedy \u201cAcapulco.\u201d<\/p>\n

Told over two timelines, the show follows M\u00e1ximo (Enrique Arrizon in the 1980s storyline and Eugenio Derbez in present day) as he recounts the tale of getting his dream job at a Mexican resort. Although Vash and Reza were primarily looking for Mexican actors who would speak Mexican Spanish as well as English, the character of Hector was adjusted to be from Spain when they found Rafael Cebri\u00e1n, while Julia was adjusted to be Colombian when they thought Camila Perez was best for the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes for us here [in the U.S.], I can tell he speaks beautiful Spanish, but somebody who is from Mexico would say, \u2018No, he\u2019s not from Mexico,\u2019\u201d says Vash. \u201cAlejandro would help us \u2014 \u2018How does this person sound? Is this the right accent?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to call the actors to do the [scenes] in Spanish and if it was good, then we\u2019d try the English. That was just part of the process. It\u2019s not just like a normal casting where you have to judge the acting; you have to do that plus the accent, and that makes it more complicated,\u201d adds Reza.<\/p>\n

Although it has often been common for English-speaking actors to embody characters of different nationalities than their own and just learn a new accent, the creators of \u201cAcapulco\u201d wanted it to be as authentic as possible, in part to highlight the nuance of cultures that are not often explored on domestic television. The second season of Peacock\u2019s \u201cSaved by the Bell\u201d also dives into this kind of storytelling when Aisha (Alycia Pascual-Pe\u00f1a) is told she is speaking Spanish incorrectly because her high school curriculum has one specific dialect it is trying to impose on all students.<\/p>\n

Many times, shows with characters speaking more than one language feature characters who are not fluent. This adds another layer of complexity to casting those roles. On Netflix\u2019s \u201cEmily in Paris,\u201d for example, it is a plot point that the titular ex-pat (played by Lily Collins) struggles to communicate in French and ends up taking classes to improve in the second season. Sometimes casting someone who doesn\u2019t speak the language is easier in this situation, at least according to Kaufman.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need an exquisite actor who can do that,\u201d she says of putting on a bad accent or purposely mispronouncing words. \u201cIt\u2019s easier to find an original French or whatever language speaker and have them break it down, versus an American pretending they can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the case of \u201cEmily in Paris,\u201d that is what the show did: Collins had learned French at a young age. \u201cAcapulco\u201d took a different approach with characters including Diane (Jessica Collins) and Chad (Chord Overstreet), who own the resort and are making \u201cvery little effort to learn the language,\u201d notes Vash.<\/p>\n

On scripted series, productions can and often will bring in language coaches to help their actors finesse the nuances of language, but with the high stakes of a $1 million prize on \u201cThe Challenge,\u201d the players had to navigate their communication on their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re definitely on not as equal footing. But it\u2019s not in the vets\u2019 interests to not help them. You can get far by having a good social game,\u201d Topic notes. \u201cIt\u2019s in everyone\u2019s best interest for their own personal game to be or try to be cool with everyone, even if they\u2019re struggling with their language.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although all these shows are very different, one thing all these casting directors agree on is that if you want your show to reach a global audience, you should be casting that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to the internet, we\u2019re pretty good at the deep-dive snoop on Instagram. You can\u2019t always ask these questions to the reps, but if you go on certain sites, you find out, \u2018Oh the mother is from Spain, the father is from Mexico.\u2019 We do that all the time because more and more, shows wants authenticity \u2014 whether it\u2019s accents or sexuality,\u201d says Vash. \u201cThose are questions for casting to be asking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source:variety<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the most recent season of MTV\u2019s competition program \u201cThe Challenge,\u201d subtitled \u201cSpies, Lies & Allies,\u201d the competitors initially had to work in pairs, despite major language barriers among them. In these games, veteran players from past seasons of \u201cThe Challenge\u201d compete against vets of other series including \u201cSurvivor,\u201d \u201cBig Brother\u201d and \u201cLove Island\u201d from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7036],"tags":[18513,18514,18512],"class_list":["post-15966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-authentic-multi-language","tag-global-appeal","tag-the-challenge-to-the-chair"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom \u2018The Challenge\u2019 to \u2018The Chair,\u2019 Authentic Multi-Language Casting Nets Global Appeal - blue subtitle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blue-subtitle.com\/blog\/from-the-challenge-to-the-chair-authentic-multi-language-casting-nets-global-appeal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From \u2018The Challenge\u2019 to \u2018The Chair,\u2019 Authentic Multi-Language Casting Nets Global Appeal - blue subtitle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"During the most recent season of MTV\u2019s competition program \u201cThe Challenge,\u201d subtitled \u201cSpies, Lies & Allies,\u201d the competitors initially had to work in pairs, despite major language barriers among them. 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