The voice acting of a feature film is one of the most important, but, at first glance, inconspicuous film specialties. At the same time, the voice of the voice actors helps the audience to create a holistic picture of any foreign film translated, adapted and voiced into Russian. It’s very difficult to break into the elite of voice dubbing professionals due to the fact that the specialization is narrow and the vacancies are filled. However, truly gifted people succeed. Among them, Andrei Zaitsev is a professional announcer, theater and film actor, dubbing, television and radio presenter, who has a unique bass-baritone and has a solid work experience of 18 years.
Beginning of a creative career
The dubbing actor, now in demand, began his ascent to professional heights by studying at the St. Petersburg State Academy of Theater Arts with a degree in theater and cinema. He began his career in 1998 with the revelation of game commercials for the MAXIMUM St. Petersburg radio station, after which he acted as the host of the Hermitage radio programs, worked for the Chanson radio station and for about 12 years was the permanent host of the Autoradio St. Petersburg live broadcast .
New calling
2000 was a milestone in the career of Andrei Zaitsev. A vocation actor becomes part of the creative team of voice-over dubbing of the film company Nevafilm. Starting to work on dubbing a feature film, Zaitsev, who received a decent acting education, ran into some difficulties. The fact is that voice acting is many times more difficult than other types of acting. During the workflow, often there are no other artists nearby for interaction, and there is no way to use facial expressions, pantomimes or props for filing. However, the difficulties did not embarrass the artist, because Andrey Zaitsev already had some experience and radio hardening.
Currently, the artist has an impressive track record of movie heroes, who are speaking in the domestic box office in the voice of Andrei. Among the most famous are John Connor in Terminator 3, Orlando Bloom in all parts of the Pirates of the Caribbean epic, Chris Pratt in Guardians of the Galaxy, Rich Sommer in Devil Wears Prada, Matt Lanter in Star Wars. The efforts of the actor were repeatedly marked by significant awards. Andrey Zaitsev is the owner of the “Blockbuster 2003” and “Blockbuster 2014” awards in the nomination “Best dubbing” and the prize of the magazine “Film Business Today” in the same category.
Approved by George Lucas himself
The dubbing artist got the most popularity after the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker spoke in the Russian box office with his voice. In addition to prequels, Andrei Zaitsev voiced this character in the cartoon and animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. As the actor himself noted, the process of scoring this character was quite difficult. It took him a long time to get used to his hero, who was about to cross over to the dark side of the force. The team worked every day for four hours, work continued for seven days. Sometimes Andrei did not even see the screen, he had to guess what his character was doing at the moment and guess the intonation, which was incredibly difficult. According to Zaitsev, the only fact that amazed his pride was that the actors of the dubbing for the role of his character were personally approved by George Lucas.
Currently
Now Andrei Zaitsev is full of creative plans that he is actively implementing. He works as a host of the St. Petersburg television channel, teaches at the Express-TV school of cinema and television, and conducts webinars on the subject of live broadcast and improvisation. The actor tells his listeners about the secrets of improvisation about how to behave live, about the features of voice acting and dubbing.