We recently connected with Veronica Labretta and have shared our conversation below.
Veronica, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?
I started studying artistic disciplines when I was only 6 years old, so it all started as a game. But I felt free, when I was in the theater and had to perform in front of many people, when you act, dance or sing, when you do something that gives emotions to an audience for those moments you feel like you are in another world. There is only your character, a new life, you stop being the person you are every day, and it’s beautiful when you can make someone move. In my artistic career I have studied musicals, screenwriting, dubbing, acting and the question I get asked most often is… “If you had to choose between acting, dubbing or doing a musical, what would you choose?” and I never know what to answer because you can’t answer, for me you know, there are different emotions you feel but acting in general makes me feel alive. Certainly they are different ways of working, different emotions, in normal acting you know, you create the character, you study her, you choose every nuance of her, you give life to a character that only exists on paper, you feel like God. Dubbing is already a specialization It’s more complex but gives emotions and satisfaction when you do it well, the difficulty of dubbing lies in empathizing with another character. You can’t decide anything you have to live another person’s character but in another language but it gives pure emotions when you rewatch it and say “oh my God this actor speaks English, Italian or Spanish with my voice”. Then like for acting if you give your voice to the animation you bring to life a character for kids so is the most beautiful emotions. It’s wonderful, while musicals are pure emotion, light-heartedness, singing, dancing, acting at the same time, I always say musicals bring a rainbow to the heart even on a stormy day, in the sense that it’s always good to see a musical . Speaking of emotions, yes I started doing this work seriously to give them to everyone, to be with my characters whether they are dubbed or acted, someone’s smile. I understood this awareness when my mother was ill, then she passed away, but there was a series in Italy called “braccialetti rossi” and this series gave her the strength to face the illness and so I said to myself “here because I want to do this job to change the day of someone with my talent, even for a second.”
I was very lucky in dubbing, because then with social media I started dubbing Nicola Coughlan, Bridgerton actress and the Italian and foreign fandom started to love me and thanks to this I started doing small dubbing jobs once I arrived in America , dubbings that I make together with my dubbing family, a group of dubbing artists and amazing dubbing artists in Italy.
As a creator it all started by chance, I started making video comedies on Bridgerton and created my community, now I also make videos on other TV series, both informative, also giving information on dubbing and acting, and comedy videos always, because ‘I believe that in life you need to laugh, they say that laughing prolongs your life, right? So why not have a good laugh every day.
Hmm.. did I start at the right time? Could I have started my career in dubbing or television earlier, instead of doing years of musicals? Hmm maybe. Maybe I could have started earlier or maybe it had to be like this. Honestly, I don’t stop to think about the past, I live in the present moment, there is no going back and if I could I would do everything the same way, because every single thing that has happened to me in life, from successes to defeats, to disappointments, have led me to be the person I am today, the person I love to be. The only reason I would go back to the past would be to hug my mother and grandfather and tell them that I am making my dream come true. I would hug the little girl I was to say thank you, for never giving up on any difficulty and for having always fought for her dream. For these small emotions I would go back, but not to change my life, I was lucky, I grew up full of love from my family, I grew up with a family that always believed in me and helped me cultivate my every dream, and now I’m living my dream, and I intend to grow in my career more and more, not only for myself but to give a wonderful gift to my wonderful niece. I’m very grateful for the life I’m living and I’m living it thanks to all the small steps I’ve taken in the past, so I wouldn’t change anything.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My first important role, I got in evidence of power, is a short film where I play Stephanie Lucas, a secretary in a company where women fight for power. This role was a real surprise, because it was a short film that was filmed during the pandemic, and in Italy we had yellow, orange and red zones. We couldn’t move, and the production was in another region. So for Covid reasons they initially told me that I couldn’t be casted due to state laws. Then at the end of the casting, the director contacted me again telling me that they hadn’t found another actress capable of giving emotions, strong reactions only with body language, visual expression and therefore that being the only one capable of acting in this way who had chosen me. And we did the rehearsals online on zoom or meet, meeting only on the day of filming. It was very hard but nice, because my character had few lines but acted a lot with eyes.
Before this I had started doing small roles in Vancouver, winning the working holiday visa in 2019, a visa that allows us Italians to work and holiday in Canada for a maximum of 6 months, it was at the time, now I believe that after the pandemic they extended the deadlines, but I’m not sure. During Covid I started studying dubbing in Italy and in the meantime I started applying for a visa to work in USA, it wasn’t easy because it required about a year of documentation to obtain the visa, so it’s a process that I always recommend to start on time. And thanks to the pandemic, like everyone else, I also started my journey on social media, I give away information on TV series, bringing reviews both for an adult audience and for a children audience, Books reviews also, I bring comedy videos regarding the Bridgerton TV series, I give away dubbing tips and acting, and I’m well known for being the Italian voice of Nicola Coughlan. I bring all the projects of this great actress, a colleague I respect very much, into Italian and give the Italian community her interviews all in Italian, especially those related to Bridgerton with her co-star Luke Newton, another exceptional actor and person, more project with Ivana Pozzuto and Alessandro Russo, two amazing voice actors, who studied dubbing with me.
I am very proud of my community, I managed to create a social family, in my community only love and mutual respect reigns. I’m so lucky because I no have any haters (laugh). And I think it’s one of the things I’m most proud of, my live on tiktok are super interactive, we have a reading group on Tuesday evenings, where we read and comment one book, and it’s beautiful because many people, even though they don’t understand the Italians come in and stay with us, also because I also speak English and Spanish and have no problems translating what I say.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I think the most rewarding aspect is giving emotions, being someone’s smile, being the rainbow after a stormy day. They often write to me in chat “My days would be too sad without your videos”. Or “without your interviews in Italian I would never be able to follow anything”, and it is gratifying, there are dyslexic, blind people who could not follow many things unless they knew every language, and dub them knowing that a person cannot feels different but feels part of something special fills my heart with joy, same thing with audiobooks, knowing that a blind person experiences a book through your voice, as if you were their eyes, it’s a super thing rewarding. Then if, like me, you often work in a language that is not yours, you also have immense personal gratification. Especially if like me you have worked hard to have the level of English and Spanish that I have now.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
The advice I give to anyone starting a journey on social media is to be themselves, be true. Don’t think about followers, about those who follow you, do what you do because it makes you happy. And this joy of yours, this passion of yours will reach the people who will come to follow you. Surely I also have things that I keep private, but since my first video on social media I have always shown myself as I am, both on good days and on bad days. Making your audience think that the days are all pink and flowers will not bring you real followers for me. To create a community that respects you, you must show reality. You may be the person with the best career in the world but no one’s life is perfect, every person has bad days, days full of emotional storms, why not show them? I make my community part of my day. So yes my advice is be yourself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thelittlefeatheringtonworld.wordpress.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vikiy_lab/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@vikiylabrettaActress
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vikiy_labretta
TheLittleFeatherington ig: https://www.instagram.com/thelittlefeatherington/
Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/nalabloggerrpg
imdb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12630821/
