COVEpod | Carganilla Online Variety Entertainment Podcast | Storytelling, Interviews, Poetry, Music, Arts & Inspiration

Fannie Brett-Rabault | Artistry, Adaptability, and the Dance of Life | COVE Podcast 29

• Paul Carganilla / Fannie Brett Rabault • Season 1 • Episode 29

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Actress / Producer / Dub Casting Director / Director : Fannie Brett-Rabault
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Paris. Hollywood. Angelic Magnetism. James Cameron's Titanic. The cutting room floor. Crappy agents. Francis Ford Coppola. Pivoting. Flourishing. La Vie en Rose. Dubbing. Casting. Building up other creatives. Producing. Directing.

Let's talk about all of it (in under an hour).

Embark on a captivating odyssey with the extraordinary Fannie Brett, whose life narrative unfolds like a vivid tapestry woven with threads of resilience, reinvention, and artistic expression. From the disciplined world of ballet to the dazzling allure of the silver screen, Fannie's journey is a testament to the power of transformation. COVE Host Paul Carganilla delves into Fannie's multifaceted career, uncovering the drive that led her to work with legendary filmmakers and the unique niche she's carved out in the dubbing scene. Not just a story of career shifts, this episode sheds light on the cultural nuances that shape an actor's attitude, and the profound sense of gratitude that underpins success in the entertainment industry.

As we weave through Fanny's story, we touch upon the significance of adaptability, especially when life orchestrates unexpected changes. Fanny's personal narrative of healing and empowerment aligns with the episode's culmination—a poignant reflection on the life-affirming poem "We Danced Through Life." Her empowering decision-making and perspective on embracing life's challenges with grace serve as a beacon for those seeking to reignite their passions or pivot to new horizons. This episode is an invitation to join a heartfelt dialogue that celebrates the beauty of life's dance and the enduring spirit of gratitude and reinvention.

WEBSITE:
OFFICIAL - www.7holdingsmedia.com

EPISODE VIDEOS: www.covetube.com
COVE DIRECTORY: https://linktr.ee/covepod
COVE PATREON: www.patreon/covepodcast
CONTACT: covepod@gmail.com

POETRY PERFORMER: Craig Jackman
POETRY: “We Danced Through Life" [ Bernard Colasurdo ]
VOICE-OVER INTRODUCTION: Jenette Goldstein ( Irish Mommy "Titanic", Janelle Voight "Terminator 2: Judgement Day", Private Vasquez "Aliens" )
SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM: Craig Jackman, Emily Thatcher, Christina Marie Bielen, Dary Mills, Amanda Benjamin
PATREON CURATORS: Jamie Carganilla, Emily Thatcher, The Faeryns, Charity Swanson, Krista Faith King, Kelsey B Gibson, Angelica Bollschweiler, Anna Giannavola, Gina Dobbs, Merrill Mielke, Susan Kuhn, Josefa Snider
INTRO MUSIC: “Papi Beat” [ KICKTRACKS ]
CREDITS MUSIC: “Fat Banana” [ KICKTRACKS ]
HOST, CREATOR, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, EDITOR: Paul Carganilla

Speaker 1:

When it's the unknown. You cannot control everything. You have to learn how to let go. Also, you can't be a control freak about everything, and beauty happens from that.

Speaker 2:

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Carganilla Online Variety Entertainment Podcast. Here's your host, paul Carganilla. Hello and welcome to Cove. This is the online variety show in which we aim to both entertain and inspire our podcast listeners and YouTube viewers through a variety of art forms, including music, poetry, storytelling, special guest interviews, travel blogs, dramatic readings so much entertainment and so much more. I'm excited today to introduce everyone here in the Cove community to a new friend who has an incredible journey from dancing to acting to now casting and producing and dubbing. I can't wait to tell you more specifics about her and introduce you to her. But first, of course, we got to bring the cart back in front of the horse, as we do at the top of every episode, and say hello to our producer behind the scenes, mr Craig Jackman. Hello, craig.

Speaker 3:

Welcome. Hello everybody. Oh, this is going to be exciting, paul. I am looking forward to this interview. You know I was looking over her resume and in my opinion I think she's kind of a renaissance woman.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely.

Speaker 3:

I mean, when you think about it, especially in the world of entertainment, she's literally been reinventing herself all her life and showing the. You can do a lot of things at various times in your life if you have the drive to do it. And no, doesn't seem to be much in the way of in her way at all, the word no.

Speaker 2:

Sure, and I think as we introduce her and you get to know her, you also be just blown away by the size of her heart and her incredible generosity. That is something that I will, I will say, just really, really struck me the first time I met her, and we'll talk more about that, but I will let everyone know the official stuff. Our guest, fanny Brett Raubot, was born in oh, here we go A-Goo-Le-Mah, southwest of France I'm sure I butchered it and became a child of the National Conservatory. From six to 18 years old she studied ballet, drama, singing and music analysis. She won two golden medals for drama and ballet and then her ankles got very weak, as she knew. After high school she wouldn't be able to continue a career as a ballerina, but she continued to honor the stage, not as a ballerina but as an actor.

Speaker 2:

And after graduating from Co-Florant, a premier multi-disciplinary professional performing arts training program in France, she moved to Los Angeles in 1994, where she kept growing as a bilingual actress. She worked with James Cameron in Titanic that is how we met James Ivory in La Divorce and Francis Coppola in Distant Vision just a few pretty good directors. She also had a band in Paris called Artsy Pop, ceo's production, where she produced three albums and exposed herself to intense sessions with mixers and sound engineers, and that's where she was kind of introduced into the dubbing world in Los Angeles in 2018. From 2018 to 2021, she consulted through her company Seven Holdings Media at Roundabout Studio as an English dubbing supervisor, voice casting director and a co-director for 15 series and 16 films. All of these projects were for Netflix, as she has consulted, produced for Encore Voices, some audio descriptions and animations for many other amazing clients like Paramount and Disney, also in English. And in September of 2020, she decided to start taking on projects with her co-producer husband and Seven Holdings Media partner, maxim Rabon. Seven Holdings Media now has five features and its first series recorded remotely from German to English US for Paramount Plus. Seven Holdings Media is very proud to share that from their dubbing workshops they managed to hire five students in that series dubbed in March and April of this year, and they love to give back and create a room for hope for newcomers in the dubbing world.

Speaker 2:

I love that so much. Fanny has a true passion for what she does and gives her actors and co-workers as much compassion and enthusiasm as she can give, and they give right back as she was pushed by her actors to get back into acting behind the mic. She else recently booked Callisto and Call of Duty. So much to talk about. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming to co-podcast Fanny Brett Waubol. Now that I've butchered everything, no, absolutely not.

Speaker 1:

First of all, thank you for wow. I was like wow, that sounds really cool. Thank you for telling this. It's nice at the end of the year. It makes me feel good about myself. Thank you, paul.

Speaker 2:

Well, we've said it before with other guests, when the bio was read, it's like a moment to go wow, that's been my journey so far. And it's so important to we say have a cookie Every step of the way, once you finish a major production or you hit a milestone, to be able to take a second and celebrate it. But then, of course, we move on to the next thing and we sometimes lose sight of everything that we've done in the past.

Speaker 1:

It's very true. It's very true and it looks good on paper like this. But I realized that there's a moment where, even if there's just long times where you feel like you haven't done much in your career, there was a lot of moments where it was very hard for me to push myself. I really enjoyed when I discovered the dubbing department. I learned from the actor's attitude how to present themselves, the American actors, how they are on time, with gratitude, very flexible, very positive, always in us intention.

Speaker 1:

I've come from France. I'm not here to butcher my country or anything but French people. We have a little bit of an attitude. They see the negative first. It's hard for them to say thank you, it's hard for them to receive a compliment also and to be in that general positive perspective of things.

Speaker 1:

So working with actors made me realize what I was not doing right for myself Didn't have anything to do with my talent. It had to do with I just didn't know how to push to. Hey, I'm here, hire me, that attitude thing and I've learned from them tremendously because this is a very hard journey To me. I don't have much of a career really because I didn't honor yet like a big character for a series or a film and then I switch into the real world, so I'm not really on camera anymore, but it's coming back in a way, though it's interesting and it's funny, we never capable of enjoying the process really, because if we books something nice, once we booked it and it's done, we're afraid that we're not going to book another one. And even if you make a living with what you love to do, you're still an independent contractor. So it's never really comfortable. It's a really a choice of life. That's not for everyone, even if you're really talented.

Speaker 1:

You really have to think if you want to engage yourself into the unknown. It's constantly the unknown and that's what I love, because when you stay unknown, you cannot control everything. You have to learn how to let go. Also, you can't be a control freak about everything, and beauty happens from that. But it's also. Greg was saying something very nice during the introduction and I'm going to remember that. Greg, thank you. You were talking about Renaissance and reinventing myself, and I mean truly guys, not only to artists like us. Yes, I've been reinventing myself. Ballerina couldn't dance acting, singing, directing, casting. Now still acting again, da da da. And then what's next, sweetie? You know what? Ai is destroying my business within the next three years. So I'm going to have to reinvent again. It's just the way it is Sorry.

Speaker 2:

No, you're good. One thing that really struck me with when we met and I'll let everybody know we met actually at the Titanic conference in Las Vegas this past August and I went over and I wanted to get met her and get an autograph and she just immediately just opened up and brought over a chair and said sit down, who are you? Nice to meet you, let's talk. And we sat down and we had like a 30 minute conversation. Yes, I couldn't believe how personable you were, how open you were, how warm and just so welcoming and I could just see and we had a conversation about this, about LA and the industry and how my kids are actors now and just staying sane.

Speaker 1:

Oh, by the way, did your kid got the part? Did she get the part?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, everly's worked for you, at least once, I think, so far.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you have very talented kids both of them Very talented. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so I was blown away by just the short conversation that we had, just like the size of your heart and how much you cared about the people and the industry can be so cutthroat, so cold and you were just a shining beacon of light to me that day and I was just like you're amazing, you're the kind of person I want to have on my show, would you do it? And you jumped on and, before we go any further, because I feel like I can talk to you all day long we kind of just skipped over one of our favorite parts of the podcast to do at the very beginning, and it's to take 60 seconds to not think about the professional stuff, just think about you as a person in your life and tell us everything that your resume didn't tell us about you, anything that you can hit on in 60 seconds or less.

Speaker 1:

OK. So I discovered that I have a gift with my hands and I've been learning angelic magnetism for a while now, which is like, basically, I went back to my country to eight and a half years two weeks in August and I met a right key woman and she was very powerful. She did some energy work on me and she's like you can heal with your hands, sweetie. It's like it's there. So I've been reading about it working with my energy and with my hands. And my husband he had major two days ago Like his tummy was hurting and that was poisoning or something. He was going to the bathroom a lot. He's like baby, my tummy hurts, my tummy hurts. So I did some work on him, Put my hand in my heel down in five minutes. Then he had some issues with his face the other day and I passed it. So I'm starting to test my ability, with the energy from my hands, to give some healing stuff and it works. I'm practicing also. I'm meditating a lot, letting the light in and stuff, but I feel like a fairy now.

Speaker 2:

That is incredible Real life magic in the palm of your hands.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, yes, paul, it works. It's really interesting. So I'm not saying I'm really like a student yet and learning from my friend reading the right books, but I definitely feel like sometimes I have lots of energy in my hands. It tingles. I have tingling, it's really there and I'm testing. Of course, my husband is my guinea pig. He's really enjoying it.

Speaker 2:

That is awesome and do you find that? Have you just started the meditation stuff or have you been doing that for a while?

Speaker 1:

I've always been in my life the spirituality on and off. When I was younger, I was very much a follower. I didn't have much my parents, I mean. I had a complicated family situation. I was left. I was on my own very early. I've run like 18, 19. So I did. I was like my first time in Los Angeles. I got there in 1994. I was 24, I think. So I surrounded California at that moment.

Speaker 1:

It's like lots of people that work on the spirituality, yoga and five rhythm dancing, reunions and all that. And then there's a moment where I was very much into it and then there's a lot of crooks also and people that are very obsessed about it and it comes too much. Some people behaving too much like goos and stuff. And that's when I'm like, OK, you're not God, all right, you know, we all at the same level on this earth. You're not superior to me, I'm not superior to you. This kind of like those egos show up also in this world. So, but over time, paul, I think I piled some knowledge with it, some good books, and I'm really going back into meditation. Now. I have some YouTube links that I follow, with Rikimasters just throwing energy at you with their stones, it really works.

Speaker 1:

You have to be clean. Though you can be an alcoholic or a drug addict, you have to have a clean body and not eat crap food to let. I'm not also like, not crazy about being paranoid about everything I put in my mouth, right, and yeah, I'll have a little bit of sugar, yes, I'll have a glass of wine once in a while, come on, come on. But I really believe it's our responsibility today, paul, I mean, especially if you have children also, it's like the information, everything that are bombarding to us and the access we have now. It's so important to remain clean. You have a clean core. You know what you're giving your people, your children, your family, your protecting, and you have to be able to adapt again. So, being clear and going back to your core, meditating and knowing, trying to be closer to your purpose, is a person.

Speaker 2:

Being so in touch and connected. That is something that I really want to do more, and I've talked about it on this podcast. But every time I sit down and meditate, I think why don't I do that more? But I just don't set aside the time for it Because we have a lot of lives. But every time I do, it's like I need to be doing this a lot more than I am.

Speaker 1:

Well, and you know, Paul, you can do it any time. You know what I mean. We make it like a big thing. For example, in the morning, when you wake up, before taking your phone, before worrying about the kids, before hearing what your wife has to say, just spend five more minutes laying down in bed with your eyes closed and just listen to your breathing, that's it. And just listen to yourself just before starting. You know, like when you go to the bathroom, like when you take your shower and stuff, there's a moment where you can just be with yourself for a few minutes, Just those little moments that we don't, because we're always in our head.

Speaker 1:

But we need to also tell our head to shut the fuck up. And I tell my students, my actors, when I teach them how to dub, you know it's like it's really about relying on your instinct and the movement, and what will come out of your mouth will sound fair If you connect it to your body and your center. You're going to sound like a fair actor with a real intonation, authentic intention. If you are too much thinking about how you should do it, you're going to sound not right. You know you need to be connected to your core to be able to honor a honest delivery.

Speaker 2:

I think being in the moment and not being too much in your head. I think we all battle with that, but once you can master that, then you can. You know your acting and your performances just take off. Let's talk about real quick your journey professionally. So you started with your training, your dance, music and acting, and then what made you want to come to America?

Speaker 1:

So at that time I went, my family went through a very difficult divorce. My mom, just, you know, was, it was difficult and there was no place for me there and you know I had to get on my own, I guess. And I had an uncle, my sort of my mom's younger brother. He was my, my, my godfather actually, and he lived in America. He was a horse trainer and when I was a child you would come back from America and he was, you know, my favorite uncle. I was very physical with him, always hugging him. You know I was, it was my, it was my first love, you know, like as a little girl. You know what I mean. It's like I would see him. I was like, you know, I was blushing, you know, I was like really attached to him. He was kind to me and he would come back from America once in a while. And my head, my little girl's head, I think, you know I promised myself that one day I would go.

Speaker 1:

There was that there was a few French singer called Julien Claire who was singing La Californie, la Californie, la Californie N'est pas loin d'ici. Well, and then and then I was very small but I was like La Californie, but so I think I I kind of like called on my colleagues at a young age and then what happened? I was 19,. No, I was 20,. Yeah, I was 23, 24. I was in touch with a friend of a friend in LA and I had the opportunity to go there for three months, but I obtained a visa at that time. I asked for a babysitter visa, like an au pair visa, and at that time they were giving it much easily than now. So I asked for a six months one and I got a year one one year, which is amazing. So I knew as soon as I got there that I wanted to stay there. So I was an au pair and I was also studying acting, went straight back to studying acting in English.

Speaker 2:

And how did? Was Titanic your first big role?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I at that time I didn't have my papers, it was my. I was studying my second year in America and I didn't have that passport anymore but that visa anymore. I was starting to look for a sponsor for my paper situation. It started to become very difficult and then my boyfriend at that time we did a you know, we got married to help also for my green card situation. You know, we were together, we were in love. I think we're too young to do this, but I think we did that also to help myself. And he was an actor too and he was like okay, let's do this, because it's not fair. It's like you're a better actor than me and you can't audition. So it's like I can't look at myself in the mirror right now. That was very sweet of him.

Speaker 1:

So we did and I got my manager at that time was helping me to get an agent and Earthshake to company in LA Told me no, we can't take you. You have too too strong of a French accent. It's true that at that time I didn't know how to drop my accent yet. You know, I was very fresh out of the, you know. And but he said look, hold on, though, I have a very good audition for you. The director wants you to speak American and English and it's an improv and I'm like, oh, I love improv. It's like, well, I'm going to. You know, I'll submit you. I'm not taking you in the agency, but I'm submitting you and of course I booked it. So of course they took me in the agency and you were not very good agents. Actually they didn't send me to anything exciting. I think I had somebody in the agency that looked like me a lot and that had also the French background. I didn't know who she was, but she was getting all the auditions.

Speaker 1:

So after a while I did it, let go of me. They should have pushed me with this, but my manager and them did suck at that time. Now I'm saying it because I don't care. I'm seeing these people. They were not. I was very. I needed to be driven and guided and advised. I was very young and they just didn't know how to push me or probably my fault. First I didn't know how to ask for help because I was left alone at pretty young, so I went on my own at a very young age. So it's very hard for me to ask for help at that time. Now I'm better.

Speaker 2:

And when you went. So that's an amazing story that they get you one gig and then you get kicked to the curb. But that one gig is James Cameron's Titanic, and I guess we haven't even said it yet. You play Madame Albert. Is it Albert or Albert, albert, albert.

Speaker 1:

Very good, very good.

Speaker 2:

Most people would know, as Benjamin Guggenheim's mistress, and you're at the table in the dinner scene, the first class dinner scene, with the whole Jack's speech. Make it count speech.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

And I know from hearing you speak at the conference that you had a whole scene that got cut before.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, the story is actually very sad. So the positive thing is that I stayed in the picture, because some people give six months of their life they can't even see their hand in the film. So if we don't see your face in the film, although you spend six months on set, your name won't be on the credits, so nobody believes you. You can say whatever you want I mean, of course you can have pictures or whatever but at the end of the day you're not in the credits, you're not getting residuals, nobody can verify you were on it. So I stayed on it for just 10 days of shooting, which is very lucky. Now the reason why James casted me was because he saw that I was very available emotionally and the scene that I was auditioning for. He wanted to see how in control of my tears I could be, and I was hired to lose it in the life's boat. Like Guggenheim was supposed to fall from the Titanic and I was on one of the life's boat with the ladies, with the first-place ladies, and losing and crying, going hysterical. Nobody would have remembered me if I would have done this. But unfortunately what happened is that James spent way too much money at the beginning of the shoot of Titanic because it was on the water tanks, the water scenes, and of course there's nothing more difficult than shooting water. It's hell. And he lost a lot of. I think he spent like three quarters of the budget of the film at the beginning. So I mean 20th Century Fox, everybody was like, okay, this guy is nuts. Everybody started to kill his reputation, making me very guilty about it. So basically I go there, they just done shooting the water tanks, but there is a very, very, very tense atmosphere on set, everybody's welcoming you, saying welcome to Titanic. Okay, who are you? What do you do? I do Madame Obert, okay, over there, all right, okay, you know, everybody's really tense. And I do my scene around the dinner table scene, as you say, to make it get count, to make it get count, you know. And then James actually gives me an extra line, which was cut, you know, but whatever, but I belong there. And then he comes to me and he says look, fanny, I'm really, I'm really happy to see you. You're a great actor. But you know, it's going to be interesting for you when you come back because we're going to shoot your scene, you know.

Speaker 1:

And then a month and a half goes by, my boyfriend comes and picked me up at my restaurant where I work and he's like Titanic just called you. He's coming to pick you up tomorrow at noon to you know, limo is coming to drive you to LAX so you can go to Rosarito. And so I leave my job, I pack my bag the next morning, the next morning, and then I wait in front of my house and then there's no. Limo is coming for like 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes. I'm like I don't have a good feeling.

Speaker 1:

I call them and thank God I made friends the first time I was there with one of the assistant directors there. She was third AD there and because I call them and I'm like, guys, you said that I was coming today, nobody can pick me up. But she's like hold on, and then I wait for like I don't know, and now we're on the phone and then somebody finally comes. I'm like can I speak to this person? I want to understand what's going on. Finally she comes and she's like oh my God, fanny, I'm so sorry, what's going on? She's like well, we had meetings all night long. We had to cut character scenes parts because we have budget issues. We don't need your reaction anymore, because Guggenheim's is going to die inside the boat with a whiskey. But we don't need you, poor me.

Speaker 2:

Take through the heart.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that was a tough one, but I'm still in the picture and you know I still talk about it. But it didn't exist as a true emotional actor there. That's what I was hired for. I didn't get to perform that, so yeah. Perspective.

Speaker 2:

But you had the 10 days in the dinner scene. What was the experience like working with James?

Speaker 1:

James. I mean, as I shared with you at the Titanic con, and I will never stop to say this, there's a lot of people saying, hey, the asshole Guess what. The asshole has been giving a lot of work to a lot of people over the years in this industry and every time I've seen him losing his school it's like it's when he's repeating things over three times. He doesn't like to repeat himself more than three times. I don't like it either. You know, I mean I'm not good at explaining specifically things. Many times I don't like to explain. I like people to shadow me and jump in with me and my teams. I'm not good at explaining either. I'm not saying it's a good thing to say, oh, come on, you know this. You know I mean it's not saying I'm not encouraging in patients or putting somebody down, but They've been at this guy in so many ways. You know I mean the guy had to move to New Zealand because he's so tired of being attacked all the time by idiots sort of jealous of him. That wants some of his money, that wants some of his connections, that wants his scripts, who wants whatever. The dude has done so much for everyone and everybody always has like, yeah, but Jameson, well, he's amazing. He's incredibly smart, he's a gentleman. He's very generous of explaining and guiding and reassuring.

Speaker 1:

It was my first gig. I was terrified, you know, and everybody was very tense. A lot of people were complaining on set. There's a lot of older people. They're like, oh, I like better where I work and I'm like go back. It's Titanic and I was so young, you know, I was just impressed, but at the same time I was like, wow, a lot of people are, like, you know, complaining. You know, we're being paid, okay, we work long hours. They're paying us three times of salary, okay, so we're okay, all right, we'll remember this all our lives. So it's, I think the guy is a genius and he's an extremely hard working man. You don't get where you're at by just like this. He's a very hard working man. His brain is continuously creating something. Even if he says I'm in a vacation, I'm not working, he's always thinking about something.

Speaker 1:

Lou, you know, who was at TitanicCon. Paul, shared with me some anecdotes. I mean, he and James are very good friends, you know, and we and I don't know James as well as Lou knows him but we agree on a lot of things. It's like people like to fucking bother people who are making it and are giving a lot of work to other people, you know, and there is this problem with people not being able to be inspired by other people's power, because they have power, but they're sharing With their power. They need you also.

Speaker 1:

You know, I had this experience at a very small level, of course when I started the dubbing department in Burbank and this big studio for Netflix. I started to give work to directors. Where they were. One of them, she was.

Speaker 1:

I mean, how can you be so dumb? Instead of like being grateful that I gave her her first directing gig at 30 years old, she's trying to get my jobs and sends me lawyers letter. How dumb can you be? Don't you think that it's gonna be sad and told and I'm gonna be pointing fingers at you every time? Can you just be grateful when you ask somebody? She was smooching me and I was helping her. She has a kid on her own at that time.

Speaker 1:

Blah, blah, blah. I'm helping her. And then all she was. I want her, I want what she does, I want to be her and give work to other people. It's like girl you, 20 years younger than me, you know, have some gratitude and show some positive attitude, and those people in the industry and there's some people like that in any areas of work. It's just like if I'm sitting here and you're sitting there, there might be a reason. Let's be a team. You know, instead of comparing each other, what I can do for you, what I can do against you when it's convenient. You know, again, with everything that's shifting so fast, it's our duty as human beings to stay close to the people that are well-intentioned, because you know what, paul, you don't know whose help you're gonna need tomorrow. You know If they're cutting electricity tomorrow. Do you have a generator? Who do you know has a generator close to your house, whatever? So, guys, get ready for the shit to hit the fan. So the petty bullshit is gonna be really not useful.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I couldn't agree more with how important it is to work together and collaborate. We're all here to build each other up. One of the things my friend, Kevin Gregg, told me a long time ago he's a mentor of mine was like as one hand is climbing up, the other should be pulling up someone else with you.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

And I love that you are, so I can tell it like at your core, you're all about building each other up and working together and making it the best product you possibly can collaborate with yes, yes, yes, and it's like you know, almost also, like you know when we met, because, like, for example, what happened?

Speaker 1:

also, you know you connect with somebody, you connect in the moment, all right, and when I say something to you, I mean it. You know, like your kids, like you know, and you were not pushy at all about it You're like, oh, so you know, my kids are actors. If you and I say, send me what they do, first of all, we always look for kids. They're very hard to find good kids. Okay, and again, I meant it when I looked at you, because what I saw is like a good person who wants to be a good father and knows the difficulty in this industry. We had a great connection when we met. Okay, I didn't promise you anything, of course, because I cannot promise anything about casting, of course, but if I'm truly connected in the moment with you and I know you're a solid father, you're not gonna be a pain in the ass of a father, first of all, with producers.

Speaker 1:

But some parents are really annoying. You know it's not their son's gig, it's their gig, you know? No, it's different. You're in the background. You're pushing your children. You're pushing them. You're not in the light. They are in the light. You're not.

Speaker 1:

First thing, some parents have a difficulty, you know. The second thing I have this opportunity where the age range of your kids and I could see that your kids had experience, and it's like, oh right, in the moment I can honor what I shared with Paul. It doesn't happen very often, but it happens, you know, and we both grasp it at the right time. And that's why I ask you, because you know what? We didn't even talk about it. I just gave you the number of the kids. I pushed them with the right agent and then I'm doing my own thing.

Speaker 1:

I was coming back to France too. I was really jet lag, so, but you know, it's like we don't even need to go berserk about it. And so, oh, we connected. Oh, your kid is great. Oh, it happens and that's it, and we keep going, you know. But then, oh, and then you go with Fanny. She walks her talk, hmm, pretty cool. And I'm like, oh, I didn't hear back from the kid and stuff. So I know they did great, because if I hear back generally, I'm gonna hear back stuff we don't hear back. Oh, it's good. So you know what I mean it's like and then let's just go with it, because we don't know who's gonna need who next.

Speaker 2:

I mean, I think I sent you a thank you. I tried to. I think I sent you a thank you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, you probably did. No, no, you probably, when I said didn't hear back, I mean I didn't hear back from the studio.

Speaker 2:

Right, right right.

Speaker 1:

You know that's what I meant. No, I'm sure we had a perfect exchange, but you know it's like it's super important with what we do today. Again, we have different talents. It's wonderful that your kids are actors too, and I'm sure they wanna be actors and they're wonderful, and I'm sure you're developing other talents also with them. It's your responsibility as a dad. Nowadays you can only be sure acting with your kids, especially if they're good, because they're gonna clone them.

Speaker 2:

Well, yeah, and it's life talents too. Like jumping back to what you said about James Cameron when he gets upset. Like my kids know, the only times I get upset are when I have to say something more than one several times, like that's, you should come on first time, let's go. But it's being a good building good life skills, I think, in the kids.

Speaker 1:

Listen. When you ask a question, listen to the answer.

Speaker 2:

And so back to your journey. You did some films and then tell me about the transition to dubbing and voice work.

Speaker 1:

So basically, I went back to France in 2002, and going back to my country was complicated psychologically. I you know the energy is lower and darker in Europe for a lot of reason. I'm sure you understand and it's not a negative criticism, it's just a fact. You know. We have less light, we have less sun, people are a little lower energy, you know. So it was complicated. I lost my dad there. He died at 59,. He was the only guy in my family that was healthy, decent, like oh wow.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, that was very tough, but I met Max. I met my husband, love of my life. He was a wonderful cameraman in Paris and we decided to move together in 2015. I realized that not sure if I wanna continue to go with acting, but I get accepted as a guest at the actor's studio, so I'm starting to meet amazing actors. You know, I get the bug again and then I, somebody at the actor's studio tells me you would be perfect. Francis Coppola is doing an audition for a live cinema concept. It's a 26 minute films and he's auditioning himself. So I'm like, ooh, I'm gonna go and I did. I auditioned. I sang to him Lavian Rose. That's awesome. Do you want a little bit of Lavian Rose? Yeah, let me just open quickly the lyrics, because I finished the program allergies. Oh, when he takes me in his arms, he speaks to me all over. I see the life in Rome. He tells me words of love, words of love. I'm doing something, something, something. It's a little piece.

Speaker 2:

Amazing, you like? That we got some music on the podcast too. I love it we love to celebrate live music here. I wasn't planning on having any, but wow, that's special. Thank you.

Speaker 1:

You're welcome, paul. So I sang that to Francis and he cut me like a little after a few lines after that and he's like, excuse me, I have to cut you, but I like it very much. Can you speak English without an accent? I'm like, oh yeah, francis, I can speak with an American accent. He's like, okay, thank you. And then I got it. I was Mrs Miller. I was the wife of an American who was coming to Italy to sell his concept of television. It was in the 1920, a little bit after a Titanic time, and I worked with Francis for a whole month Wow. So I learned a lot about directing, improv, all that. He was a wonderful man, very much family oriented, a good person. He deserves his reputation. Love to hear that.

Speaker 2:

Love to hear that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, and I think we get a lot of bad news lately right About, oh, I'm playing with people. So, yeah, it's nice to hear that he's not a pedophile it's the truth or a sex trafficker or you know. But then I started to look for another agent in LA and I started to hear you know, a lot of people know Francis anymore. You know casting assistants. They don't know who Francis is anymore. So I told my husband I'm like, okay, I don't want to fight for my acting career anymore, I want to do something else. And I started to learn about real estate. I realized it was too business oriented for me but not creative enough. And I was introduced to a person who was looking to for someone to help him with is dubbing company, but it was only in French and I entered with him. I'm not going to mention him too much because he's a horrible person yeah, a horrible person. So I had very intelligent but extremely narcissists will throw you under the bus no matter what. So I really am very, very grateful of what I've learned from that person at the beginning, but you know I was also coming from. You know studio productions. You know I knew for tools and you, but you know very much about him. So he wanted to enter around about entertainment because you knew one person at Netflix that wanted to learn how to dub. So what I did? I went to run about, I created some meetings, I went there with this guy who had his little dubbing company and I became a producer there who was dubbing, producing, choosing the sound engineers, the director, doing the casting and the coordination. Sometimes I had five projects at the same time.

Speaker 1:

So 29 months of my life that I was really in a tunnel. I was there at seven o'clock in the morning. I was independent contracting for this guy. So I mean I was free of doing what I wanted. But I was setting up a department, which is extremely exciting because you end up creating a department. They don't know what it is and love that about American people. They'll go oh my God, what is it? What is it? Oh my God, yes, yes, let's audition, let's learn and you know, and you start to give more work to new work to VO actors. So just amazing, Amazing night. That's cool. It was really special. Runabout Entertainment is a great facility. They are in Burbank.

Speaker 2:

We've spent a lot of time there recently, everly's been doing a regular dubbing gig on a series.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, runabout has a family feel to it. The owners are British people. They like to throw a little party once in a while. They do gift us Christmas. You know they have Dawn Clark. She's a little bit of a mama there. I love her. She cares about her employees.

Speaker 1:

And then you know the vice president there, janet Zepeda, is also a critical woman. I have lots of respect for her. I could not do what she does. The woman is like all over the place. They open the doors.

Speaker 1:

You know they let me use their studios. You know they're in this dollar workflow. You know, of course that's what studios do. That's what they wanted. You know there was an all understood politically. Of course I couldn't become an employee there. They wanted me to. But I, you know, I'm more creative than just an employee in my head. So but yes, that definitely gave me confidence, self-esteem.

Speaker 1:

I started at that time to really own my power as a woman, as a producer and also as an actor that I came back acting, came back to. At that time I saw also how my brain was functioning. My brain can function really fast on many different levels at the same time. I was impressed. I didn't know I could do so much in such a short amount of time.

Speaker 1:

That's why the guy I was, you know, because he was taking all the money Basically wherever I was working on one project, so five. He was being paid for five, but he was paying me twice a month, you know, the same amount I should. I try to find, I try to get a work contract from him and all that. But he knew what he was doing, you know, he knew. So it's okay. I mean, I'm not mad anymore. I felt used sometimes but the reputation now I do have, you know, because I was there to welcome the actors. I was there to give them confidence. I was there to replace the directors when they were sick or tired or depressed. I was there to make sure that everybody was on time. I was the one communicating with the studio. So you know, people talk about me and no one talks about him.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so you know karma, you made your own thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I made my own thing and he was mad. He was like, oh, he's like everybody's just going to think that you own core voices. And I'm like, well, I mean, everybody knows I worked for you. I always put you on a pedestal. I said you are just not into, you're just not grateful that you even at the source of creating that department. I said I'm happy about it. I'm sorry that I'm happy about it and you're not. It's your choice, you know. It's your fucking choice not to be able to embrace what you wanted to create. Actually, it was his idea, you know. So it's like, dude, go and work on your issues, but not in my life anymore. You know I gave him 30 months of my life. It's a lot.

Speaker 2:

So much of. We just talked about this on a recent episode of life and the life that we experienced between birth and death is about our choices, and not only like the choice of the actions that we choose, but how we choose to feel about certain things and how we choose to react about certain things.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 2:

Before. I know we're running against the clock here and I just wanted to get pick your brain about. You know, any advice? You've had a long career of chasing, you know, chasing the goal, chasing the dream, and a lot of times being on the cutting room floor or like, if it's, you know, in ballet, having the ankle problems on satanic, not even getting to shoot your scene, and the way that you're able to pivot and not just pivot, but I don't know become stronger along the way and build up the team around you along the way is inspirational to me. What other than the way that you live your life and you have you've worked throughout your professional career what advice would you give to someone who is maybe afraid to, or intimidated to, take a step and start a journey towards something that they've always wanted to do?

Speaker 1:

Do it, you know, do it. I mean it's, I understand. I mean for me it's been Paul. You know I've. It's been a lot about surviving. You know I again I stopped surviving around 46 years old. I'm 51 today. So I'm, you know, I'm not a kid anymore. I've been around the block I, I was surviving until I was 46.

Speaker 1:

I started to own my power as a woman, as a human being at around that time. It's pretty late in life and then again I think if I had children I don't think I would have been able to reach that point with myself. You know it was a choice also not to have kids because I had to do a lot of healing. You know I saw a lot of trauma as a younger kid, so I'm much more like psychological than anything. But it leaves traces. You know you got to do a lot of work on yourself to be okay with what happened and heal. What you can heal for what I would tell somebody who has dreams and has desires to make things with who they are is. I think TikTok is a great platform right now. I like TikTok because it makes you really face facing your how honest you are with what you want to accomplish, but today we have no excuse. If we want to be present and be seen as a performer, do it.

Speaker 2:

You've got a video studio in your pocket, you carry it around with you everywhere and you have the ability to get out there and be seen. But you know what I'm hearing from you. The message is be adaptable, be able to pivot and don't be afraid of new technologies, new stages, new platforms. And if you want to put yourself out there, do it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think over thinking nowadays is not going to serve us. It used to be more about prepping, planning, you know, and the other that, yeah, I understand it's important, but you know you might have a good idea. Just try it, see what happens. Over thinking is, I think, definitely not serving us today.

Speaker 2:

Just like being on stage or in front of a microphone if you're in your head, you're not really living, You're not really doing your best.

Speaker 1:

It's not organic.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much, Fanny, for joining us here on the show. Let's hear it. Ladies and gentlemen, Please give it up for Fanny Brett Waubull.

Speaker 1:

Very good.

Speaker 2:

Oh my goodness, she's awesome.

Speaker 3:

Boy. There's just so much to take in Everything that she has done. And I'm going to go back to her early days. She is still dancing, when you think about it. With whatever move she's making, she is dancing to that, and then, when she needs to pivot and change, she takes a different turn and it goes into a totally different direction, but she is still in control, still has the poise, the stature, the confidence of going into what it is that she's doing and doing it. And I found a poem on poetrysoupcom that I just think is perfect for this episode and I'm going to say for her, because it's called we Danced Through Life and it's a 2012 poem that was written by Bernard Colassurdo and, in a sense, it's not only her. It's not just her as we go through life and we dance through it, but it's everybody.

Speaker 2:

Can't wait to hear it. Here's we Danced Through Life by Bernard Colassurdo.

Speaker 3:

We danced among the stars that night, when joy had fallen, far from sight. We danced under the sun, so bright, and when all seemed lost, we held on tight. We danced to the music of hummingbirds and we danced in the silence when there were no words. We danced in the shadows of fear and doubt and we danced when we questioned what life's about. We danced among the evergreens that posed for painters winter scenes. We danced in the winter's bitter chill and when we danced, our world stood still. For that's what love was meant to be to find the dance when we cannot see, to write a new song when the music stops, with lyrics that caress, every tear that drops, for when the rhythm changes and tempo slowed. We're called to dance with the seeds we've sowed. For life is hard, there is no doubt. The dancing through it is what life's all about.

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Paul Carganilla

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