Rendi glanced at the muted TV screen inside the soundproof booth. There was Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry, wide-eyed, face pale, chest heaving. On the Indonesian script sheet, his dialogue was written in bold: “Aku tidak akan mundur.” (I won’t back down.)
But Rendi stayed still for a moment. He had just spoken the last line of Deathly Hallows : “Kausangka aku tak tahu caranya? Aku sudah cukup umur, tentu saja aku tahu caranya.” (You think I don’t know how? I’m of age, of course I know how.)
He smiled. For seven films, he had been the bridge between a British orphan and a hundred million Indonesian children who couldn’t speak English. He had taught them that bravery sounds the same in any language. Harry Potter Dub Indonesia-
Rendi sat back in his chair. Outside the booth, the other voice actors—Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore—were already hugging. Someone brought in martabak.
He leaned into the mic.
“Expecto Patronum!”
The challenge was the spell.
In a cramped Jakarta recording studio, a young voice actor finds his own courage while dubbing the Quidditch World Cup for Indonesian audiences—only to realize that the boy who lived lives inside all of us. Rendi had been dubbing foreign cartoons since he was twelve, but nothing prepared him for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire .