Emmanuel Curtil

Emmanuel Curtil (born February 7 1971, at Charenton-le-Pont) is a French actor known primarily for his voice work, having dubbed the voice of Matthew Perry (Chandler) for the first eight seasons of the American sitcom "Friends". Curtil is also the "French voice" of Jim Carrey.

Biography

At the age of nine, Curtil's mother (an artistic agent) encouraged him to enter Cours Simon, a theatrical training program in Paris for children. At that time, he wanted to be a singer, then an impressionist , but his mother, knowing that show business was a difficult field but also certain of her son's potential, steered him toward acting. Thus at 10 years old he made his début in "L'Oiseau bleu", a made-for-TV movie directed by Gabriel Axel. This caught the attention of director Robert Hossein, who cast Curtil as Gavroche in an adaptation of "Les Misérables" which aired as a miniseries on French TV in 1982.

Next he played Paul in the musical comedy "Paul et Virginie" directed by Jean-Jacques Debout. In 1983 Curtil landed the role of Stéphane in the film "Vive les femmes!" directed by Claude Confortès. He also counts in his record of professional achievements numerous roles in TV series like "Pause-café" and "Tribunal", a daily episodic program. However, that type of production is very tricky because economic constraints require shooting two episodes a day, and do not allow rehearsals; the actors must therefore spit out lines learned by heart the night before. His artistic development stagnating, Curtil henceforth avoided that type of series. While he had taken singing lessons at the start of his career, they did not serve him well because his teacher had given him lyrics poorly adapted to his baritone voice and to his profession.

But Curtil's entry into the field of dubbing did not occur until Barbara Tissier (whose dubbing credits include the voice of Soleil Moon Frye on "Punky Brewster" and Christina Applegate on "Married... with Children") advised him to audition at SOFI, a dubbing agency that was looking for "young" voices. Curtil was chosen immediately. At that time the field was booming, with the upsurge of private networks that broadcast primarily foreign series dubbed into French. Thus began Curtil's grand career in dubbing (although he had occasionally had to redub his own lines in the past because of technical issues).

Curtil dubbed Mark-Paul Gosselaar in "Saved by the Bell", then Dean Cain in "Lois and Clark", Kyle Chandler in "Early Edition", Doug Savant in "Melrose Place", and above all Matthew Perry in "Friends". At present Curtil voices Doug Savant playing Tom Scavo in "Desperate Housewives".

Curtil first dubbed Jim Carrey in "The Mask". An important casting call was organized, and the distributor chose Curtil, who has been the "official voice" of Carrey in France ever since. [cite web | title=EurekaKids | work=Kazibao | url=http://www.kazibao.net/francais/interview/curtil/page-reponses.php | accessdate=2006-06-06]

In animated features film, he voiced Simba in Disney's "Le Roi Lion" and Moses in the 1998 DreamWorks film "Le Prince d'Égypte".

He dubbed the characters' singing voice as well as their speaking voice, for example in "Anastasia (1997 film)" and "The Lion King", as well as in a musical episode of "Buffy contre les vampires" where he interpreted the singing voice of Giles.

In 1998, Curtil started to take piano lessons, focusing his studies on a classical repertoire. When time permits, he devotes himself to reading and listens to a lot of music. He has a wife and one son.

tage

* "Paul et Virginie" (1992) directed by Jean-Jacques Debout at Théâtre de Paris

elected voxography on television

* Voice of Chandler Bing (actor Matthew Perry) in seasons 1 through 8 of "Friends"
* Voice of Clark Kent/Superman (actor Dean Cain) in "Lois et Clark"
* Voice of Gary Hobson (actor Kyle Chandler) in "Demain à la une"
* Voice of Benton Fraser (actor Paul Gross) in "Un tandem de choc"
* Voice of Zack Morris (actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar) in "Sauvés par le gong"
* Voice of Dennis Sweeny (actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar) in "Hyperion Bay"
* Voice of Kevin Wyat (actor Antonio Sabato Jr.) in "Ally McBeal"
* Voice of Bane (actor Antonio Sabato Jr.) in "Charmed"
* Voice of Chance Harper (actor D.B. Sweeney) in "Drôle de chance"
* Voice of Matt Fielding (actor Doug Savant) in "Melrose Place"
* Voice of Craig Phillips (actor Doug Savant) in "24 heures chrono"
* Voice of Tom Scavo (actor Doug Savant) in "Desperate Housewives"
* Voice of Josh Walter (actor Doug Savant) in "La croisière s'amuse, nouvelle vague"
* Voice of Leroy Johnson (actor Gene Anthony Ray) in "Fame"
* Voice of Tommy (actor Michael Worth) in "Agence Acapulco"
* Voice of David Fisher (actor Michael C. Hall) in "Six Feet Under"

elected voxography in film

* Voice of adult Simba (originally voiced by Matthew Broderick) in "Le Roi lion"
* Voice of Jim Carrey in almost all of his films
* Voice of Moïse (originally voiced by Val Kilmer) in "Le Prince d'Égypte"
* Voice of Raoul Duke/Hunter S. Thompson (actor Johnny Depp) in "Las Vegas Parano"

References

Much of the content in this article comes from [http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emmanuel_Curtil&oldid=7555002 the equivalent article in the French Wikipédia] , accessed June 3, 2006.

External links

*
* [http://www.emmanuelcurtil.com/ Official Site of Emmanuel Curtil]
* [http://www.kazibao.net/francais/interview/curtil/page-reponses.php Une interview du comédien]
* [http://www.planete-friends.com/spip/article.php3?id_article=850&debut_lb=1 Une autre interview, portée principalement sur la série Friends]