Outcry Across Europe As Joe, The Black Lead Of Pixar’s ‘Soul,’ Is Dubbed By White Actors

Meanwhile, in Portugal, a petition calling for a re-dub with actors of color has garnered more than 17,000 signatures. The Times adds that white actors voice Black characters in many other European dubs of Soul. A cursory glance at the film’s dubbing credits confirms this, although there are exceptions: in France, for instance, Joe is voiced by the well-known Black actor Omar Sy.

In June, as American society reckoned with its racism in the wake of George Floyd’s killing, white voice artists stepped away from characters of color on a number of high-profile animated series. Apologies and/or resignations came from the cast and creators of Big Mouth, Central Park, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Bojack Horseman. A heated debate promptly ensued about the ethics of voicing a character of another race.

This debate has been had elsewhere. A recent feature in Vulture (written — full disclosure — by me) pointed to similar controversies that erupted in France and Brazil in the past. But each country comes with its own demographics, discourse around race, and practices in the voice acting industry. For example, a common defence of the status quo is that the country in question has too few actors of color to cover all non-white roles.

Moreover, dubbing artists have traditionally kept a low profile — after all, a good translation is supposed to be invisible. For the Vulture article, I spoke to Thomas Wolfert, CEO of the Berlin studio TV+Synchron (which records the German dub of Big Mouth). “Dubbing often stays under the radar,” he told me, “and if people talk about it, it is because something went wrong there.”

All these factors have complicated efforts to discuss the role of race in dubs (as opposed to the original American voice cast). But if the reaction to Soul is anything to go by, that may be starting to change.