Interview with Mirko Cannella, voice of Rio de La Casa di Carta

Interview with Mirko Cannella

Also this month we had the opportunity to interview one of the professionals of the dubbing world, hand in hand with Voices, the show aired on the Twitch channel of Pop Culture every first and third Thursday of the month. Today is the turn of Mirko Cannella, born in 1992, voice of Rio de La Casa di Carta, who has been in the world of acting since he was a child; theater actor as well as voice actor, he graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Art of the Golden Theater in Rome and also had the opportunity to act with Enrico Montesano at the Brancaccio Theater in Rome with the show "There is something in you ..." .

We also invite you to follow the live broadcast of Thursday 20 May on the Twitch channel of Pop Culture, in which we will have a chat live with Mirko where he will tell us personally his experiences in the world of dubbing.



A classic ritual question to break the ice: why did you decide to pursue a career as a voice actor?

From an early age my dream was to be an actor. Among my friends there were those who wanted to be a footballer, some an astronaut, some an archaeologist ... but I have always had this goal. What, however, limited me a lot at the beginning was the fact that I was very shy. My father was (and is) a dubbing assistant, so I often went to work with him and attended shifts in these rooms so dark, but at the same time so magical. And it was this, coupled with the fact that I didn't have eyes on me, that helped me a lot in overcoming my fears. And so at the age of 12 I began this wonderful adventure, which took me a few years to also attend various acting courses, essential for improving and growing from an artistic point of view, but also from a human point of view.

You studied at the Academy of Dramatic Art of the Golden Theater in Rome, receiving a complete artistic training. How important was the theater for you?

Theater is life for me. When they ask me to choose between theater and dubbing, I honestly don't know what to answer, because it's like choosing between mom and dad, and it's practically impossible! The academic path I followed has allowed me to improve a lot and be able to aspire to increasingly important roles in dubbing. And over the years I have continued, and am continuing, to attend theater masterclasses to learn.

From your theatrical experience the group of "Nerd Pieces" was also born. Where does this idea come from?

The Pieces of Nerd are my “theatrical family”. We met at the academy (we attended the same course) and there was a particular alchemy between us and so, between one joke and another, we decided to found a group. We started doing a bit of apprenticeship in the cabaret evenings organized in the Roman squares and over time, we realized that we had great potential, especially as regards the writing of comedies: in fact we wrote three shows, I adopted my brother , Rented parents, and If I remember… I marry you, with whom we are touring Italy from north to south. We are also about to make the 100th replica of the first of these, a very important milestone for such a young group! Our only regret is that we should have done it last year and for obvious reasons we have "lost" more than 12 months. But the important thing is not to give up and continue on your own path! And we are succeeding fortunately.

Unlike some of your colleagues, in your dubbing resume you have many different roles, rather than always linked to the same actor or character. Is there one in particular that you would like to constantly lend your voice to?

I have had the pleasure of voicing many characters in these years of career. I did the first round in 2004, so a lot of time has passed and I admit that I would really like to "tie myself" to some actors. Of course, I dubbed some of them even three or four times, but unfortunately there was no continuity on their other projects. Among those I would like to continue to dub are, for example, Miguel Herran from La casa di carta, or Cole Sprouse from Riverdale. It would be really nice to lend them my voice on a constant basis.

Of all these characters, which one are you most fond of?

It is very difficult to choose! For a response to the audience, I must necessarily mention Rio from La casa di carta and Jughead from Riverdale. For an emotional speech I tell you Mickey from Shameless, a wonderful series that unfortunately is coming to an end, but which lasted 11 seasons: we can say that he almost grew up with him! And thanks to Mickey I also won my first prize, in 2015, as the best male voice of a TV show for the Le Voices of Cinema festival.

Let's talk about “La Casa di Carta“. When you started dubbing the series, did you ever think it would become such a media phenomenon?

I never expected such a success! We knew it was going to be a nice series, but there are so many just as good, but that didn't follow. With La Casa di Carta, however, it was incredible. I am proud to participate in this production and I will always be grateful to the dubbing director Lucio Saccone for giving me this opportunity.

Is there any particular anecdote or episode that you remember with a smile?

Yes, there is an episode that, in retrospect, makes me smile a lot, but when it happened not so much. A premise: sometimes, when a character we dub eats, the director can choose whether to have us simulate "the effect of us eating" or let us really eat something, to make everything even more plausible. On one occasion (unfortunately I don't remember the name of the production) my character ate and at a certain point choked for a few seconds. I make the scene by eating a snack (never choice was more wrong) and at a certain point I choke for real! Unfortunately, it happened to me right together with the actor on the screen and nobody cared. In fact, they complimented me because it seemed real! Fortunately nothing serious happened, but I got quite frightened; maybe I got too into the character (laughs, ed)

I would like to have your opinion on the recent issue of "politically correct" dubbing, that is, having to necessarily match a certain ethnicity of the voice actor with that of a certain character.

As far as I'm concerned, these "politically correct" controversies regarding dubbing seem anything but "correct" to me. Indeed, they also seem a bit racist to me. Because it is not right that only actors who have "the same skin color" or "the same ethnicity" should be dubbed. In this way, we regress instead of improving, as many artists are deprived of chances. And it will no longer be those who are good at work, but those who belong to the same ethnicity as the original actor, which I find quite absurd and ridiculous. What must count, especially in a job like ours, is talent and "voice-face" adherence. End. The rest, in my opinion, are just talk.

If you want to know the background and the curiosities about dubbing, you can buy the book by Tiziana Voarino entitled "Dubbing & Dubbing: Voice actors, voices, cinema, television, entertainment, festivals, characters, background and much more" simply by clicking on this link.