Sacramento’s Emma Berman, age 12, talks about her breakout performance in Pixar’s ‘Luca’

Over a year ago, Emma Berman, 12, was home with her family when she received a life-changing call. She was offered a key role in Disney and Pixar film “Luca.” Overwhelmed with excitement and tears, the Sacramento-based voice actress accepted her first movie deal only one day before California entered its first stay-at-home order.

Typically, cast members read lines and record together in person. But for Berman, who has yet to physically meet her castmates, a substantial amount of her lines were recorded within the walls of her bedroom.

“I know a lot of people were recording just in their closets but how my house was, you could hear everything that was happening on the streets,” Berman said. “So we had to build an actual little soundproof studio booth.

Directed by Academy Award nominee Enrico Casarosa and produced by Andrea Warren, the one-hour and 35-minute film dances around the idea of celebrating the differences that make people unique.

Based in a seaside town along the Italian Riviera where humans and sea creatures are afraid of one other, the coming-of-age film follows Jacob Tremblay’s character Luca Paguro and Jack Dylan Grazer’s character Alberto Scafano as they take shelter in a town that hunts sea monsters of their kind.

But when Luca and Alberto meet Berman’s character Giulia Marcovaldo, a sassy red-headed Italian girl, the three bond in what they all have in common — being the underdogs.

“When I got that Zoom call, I knew my whole life would change from there,” Berman said. “There are just so many ways that this experience has changed me. ... I mean when you look me up now my title is American actress.”

Like most actors, Berman worked with a voiceover and language coach to prepare for her breakout role. But to further immerse herself in the Italian language, Berman visited her local Italian restaurant shortly after scoring the role of Giulia and befriended a native Italian-speaking waiter who helped her perfect the accent.

“I definitely relate to Giulia a lot,” Berman said. “I mean we’re both very passionate and outgoing, we’re both determined and hard-working.”

Berman found her love of performing at 8 years old after asking her mother to sign her up for summer camp at the Children’s Bay Theatre in Berkeley. Within the same year, she signed with Stars The Agency in San Francisco and was given her first voiceover gig, voicing an educational toy for Leapfrog.

Berman has acted in numerous live productions, voiced several toys and worked with Netflix. She said she always performs like she’s in front of an audience regardless if the job is done in a booth or on stage.

“You have to make those ginormous facial expressions so everything comes through in your voice,” Berman said. “That’s the same thing with theater because you have to be very exaggerated so that every single person in the theatre can actually hear you and see what you’re doing.”

“Luca” is set to be released on Disney+ on Friday, June 18.

“There are so many absolutely incredible messages in this film,” Berman said. “There’s silencing the voice of doubt that’s telling you that you can’t do all these things and is stopping you from having these wonderful experiences, but there’s also accepting yourself and accepting others.”