On the series premiere of American Gothic, the patriarch of the prominent Boston family the Hawthornes dies. Somehow his death is linked to a series of murders over several decades that were left unsolved. Turns out, one of the upper crust members of the family is a serial killer who likes to leave a silver hand bell by each of his victims. (A stash of silver bells is discovered in the basement.) One of the suspects is widow Madeline Hawthorne, who is portrayed by Virginia Madsen (Sideways).
Madsen recently posted a photo of her “doing a little ADR for the show” (see below). ADR stands for Automated/Automatic Dialog Replacement. It’s when an actor re-records dialog that was lost in production tracks. The actor watches the film and then matches the wording and lip movements to recapture the tone of her performance on film. According to FilmSound.org, Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep is a big fan of ADR, and legend has it that Marlon Brando intentionally mumbled so he could use ADR to perfect a scene. American Gothic airs Wednesdays at 10pm on CBS.
