Dubbing Sylvester Stallone in the cinema represents a particular challenge for the actors who had to give him a voice in French: you have to avoid speaking well.
• Also read: Death of Alain Dorval, the French voice of Sylvester Stallone
Several generations of moviegoers can attest to this. Sylvester Stallone is more of a monosyllabic type and his vocal actors, especially French actor Alain Dorval, whose death we learned on Tuesday after dubbing him for 50 years in France, have to take this into account.
“In real life, Stallone suffers from facial paralysis. The problem with him is not to articulate too much, but to still be audible and credible.”
The author of this observation is Pierre Chagnon and he is an expert in this field. Since Cliffhanger in 1993, he has dubbed the voice of the famous Rocky and Rambo singer for Quebec around thirty times.
Pierre Chagnon archive photo, QMI Agency
Poorly paid films…
When he arrived on set, all the major films in the Rocky and Rambo series had been filmed. The Quebecer still dubbed Stallone in Rocky Balboa (2006) and the Creed series, as well as the last two episodes of Rambo.
Although Alain Dorval is considered the one who established Stallone's voice in French, Pierre Chagnon assures that he did not try to imitate him in his Quebec version.
He says he quickly realized that while dubbing the American actor was flattering, it wasn't the most lucrative contract.
“The dubbing works line by line, the lines consist of five words and Stallone is known for being a man of few words. In general, he knows machine guns more than words,” explains his Quebec voice.
… but paid advertising
The only time Stallone made a lot of money was when the Nestlé company hired his services to say “Adrian” in an advertisement aired in the United States.
“My biggest contract of my life,” says Pierre Chagnon.
“I was brought to New York 25 years ago for an iced tea commercial. They had me rehearse four times in a studio in Times Square. I had paid for my suite and my plane. I got paid very well because it was on all the American radio stations and it took me five or ten minutes to do it. For that I say “Thank you Sylvester, thank you Adrian!”