Interview with Emmy Award Winning Actress and Voiceover Artist Marabina Jaimes
Marabina Jaimes started her acting career as a voiceover artist at the age of 5. If you speak to her she will say that her passion for acting started from watching a children’s shows including Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Later ask an adult, she found success in hosting a children’s reading program, which garnered her two Emmy award nominations and a win for the series Storytime. Jaimes has also had a lucrative career as a voiceover artist and can be heard in Spanish as the character of Mary Alice in Desperate Housewives.
Where did it all start for you?
As I grew up I was always intrigued with cartoons. I ended up hosting a show called Storytime, which catered to a young audience. Voice had a lot to do with it because that show was about reading stories. We would have celebrities come on with their children or grandchildren and read. I also had a great puppet sidekick. It was a wonderful experience being a part of this program.
Did any interesting opportunities arise from your voice over work?
A couple of times. I had done a Spanish voice over for a producer from Chili. Later on when he moved to LA, I got a call from him saying that they needed someone that was bilingual and I was the first person that came to mind. I went in and auditioned for him and the next thing I knew I was cast as the host in the TV series Storytime.
What goes into voice over work?
There are so many different areas for voice over such as commercials, dubbing and looping.
Commercials would be doing one of the voices for a character in commercials. The main moneymaker is the announcer, the voice associated with the product.
Dubbing is completely different where you are looking at a script that has been translated and adapted to a different language so that the actor can lip sync what is being said. I do a lot of that now as I do the Mary Alice character for the TV series Desperate Housewives. So when I go into the recording studio, I work with the director and the engineer. I listen to the message of the original character and make sure that it is translated properly into Spanish.
Looping is used in every major film and television show. For example, when an actor is in a very busy airport and the audio is being picked up from all the exterior noise, but isn’t exactly audible they will recreate the airport scene and hire a group of actors to recreate the airport voices.
Then other times a major star is working on several movies at a time and is note available to come in and rerecord a line, maybe a line is missed or if the writer thinks that a certain word needs to be added, then a producer will hire a “sound alike” or voice match for this star. I also do a lot of voice matching. Sometimes performances are not what the producer or director want so they will revoice a whole character.
So you host, you act, you do voice and on camera, that’s a lot. What are you looking to do in the future?
I’d like to do more on camera, definetly like to do more television series. I just love all the empowered women out there in police or cop shows and I would love to take that on for my next role. I’d love to win another Emmy so that means I need to get on camera a lot more.
To be honest, I feel that it’s all the same, if I’m not working; I’m creating work for myself.
Can you tell me about your own personal projects?
There were two shows that I was really happy to work on, that were both nominated for Imagen Awards. These awards are given for positive Latino images and the founder of the awards was Norman Lear. The two Internet shows that I worked on is “Let’s Talk”; it is the Latina answer to the view. The other show is called Ylse; it is also a web series. At the 25th anniversary of the Imagen Awards both of the programs I had worked on where up against each other in the new media category and Ylse won!
Can you give us a sneak peak on what you are working on next?
Out of my work on Desperate Housewives a documentarian from New York became interested in the voiceover work that many of us were doing for the show and hopefully next year you will be able to see us in a documentary about the “voices behind the voices” of Desperate Housewives.
What advice do you have to give?
With anyone out there that believes that they have to wait to have someone show up at their door to make something happen, you really don’t have to wait. If you have writing skills, you surround yourself with talented people and you have a computer; basically there is so much you can do. Some of the most exhilarating projects are done this way.
If someone want to find out more information on you or the web series where do they go?
For more information on my web series check out Ylse at www.yise.net or Let’s Talk at www.latinheat.com
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