Paddington brings out the child in Xian
Even if he had done it before, Xian Lim is visibly enthusiastic about lending his voice anew to Paddington for the Philippine release of Paddington 2. It was last December when Xian first took to Twitter his excitement for the said international movie that is set to premiere on Jan. 31.
“Getting into the Paddington character brings out the child in me,” said Xian after the presscon to drumbeat his newest project distributed by Captive Cinema, the same film outfit that released locally Heyday Films and Studio Canal’s first installment of the animated movie. “More so now in the second (installment) since it is more fun; kulitan and it will all happen in his journey. So, I hope people will like it, especially when they just wanna have fun, wanna relax. This is the movie for them.”
While the first Paddington movie introduced the marmalade-loving bear’s personality to moviegoers, Paddington 2 reveals his plucky yet funny side through his newlydiscovered skill as soon as he settles with the Brown family. He picks up a series of odd jobs to be able to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy’s 100th birthday, only for the gift to be stolen. What follows is a string of amusing scenes that will put one’s woes and blues away. To perfect his role, the 28-yearold star said he did research about the hat-and-coat wearing furry bear to familiarize himself more to the character. “I have this knowledge about Paddington because it was airing as a TV show in the US before (I came here). Isa s’yang makulit na bear that gets into different kinds of trouble. So when we started doing it two years ago for the first one, I felt somewhat nervous but deep inside, I love dubbing ever since; na-enjoy ko talaga. And right after we were through with different scenes, everything seemed fluid as I’ve already imbibed the character.”
He continued, “Compared to the first, I found dubbing for the character a lot easier this time with me completing the work in two days. What’s challenging for me was this expression of theirs that when they talk, the British (people) have an expression which is unusual for us to say kaya medyo naging challenging but other than that no more, probably because we — me and the dubbing supervisors — kept on repeating the lines. It took more than 10 hours to record. Not to mention those shouting parts that we did towards the end to, well, conserve my voice.”
According to reports, Xian’s voice resembled the original voice of Paddington by Ben Whishaw. But according to a Captive Cinema exec, Xian was perfect for the role as he speaks English as natural and as fluent as can be. Xian stressed that imitating the way Whishaw delivered the dialogues is far from happening.
“We’ve made our own interpretation since their humor is different from ours so in terms of delivery pwedeng baguhin. And that’s where the dubbing supervisors and me needed to put a lot of effort kasi medyo weird if the
accent is so (thick)…I have a coach who’s from here.”
Xian, too, didn’t deny that other actors were also considered for the role. Still, the producers found his voice most fitting for the role. “I was happy that they chose me again for Paddington 2. Of course, it was a surprise for me since I’ve never expected that a second part will come. But I’m grateful that I have been chosen for this. It just made me so proud to be part of this new version. Kung hindi na ako, mag-iisip ako kung may nagawa ba akong mali sa una.”
Xian assured that moviegoers will find in Paddington a display of principles similar to Filipino values. “Paddington is all about values and getting to know about oneself so Filipinos can very much relate with the movie kasi ganun tayo.”
Asked what it is in the Peruvian bear’s personality that appeals to him the most, Xian pointed to its innocence, adding, “even though there are many circumstances happening around him, he’s being innocent to things is genuine; very amusing.”
(Paddington 2 stars Sally Hawkins, Hugh Bonneville and Hugh Grant, to name a few.)