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Final Fantasy 7 Cloud actor says the most challenging part of Rebirth was voicing a Moogle: 'It was just hard to take seriously'
In 'Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth', voicing Cloud's Moogle version was the most challenging part for actor Cody Christian due to its limited vocabulary and need for emotional inflection.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Cloud actor has spoken about the most challenging bits of the RPG sequel, and it turns out it was voicing the Moogle version of his iconic character.
Cody Christian, who portrays Cloud Strife in both Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth, spoke to Deadline about the toughest parts of the job. Somewhat surprisingly, Christian said the most challenging bit of acting on Rebirth was Cloud's Moogle version, because he could only say one word, and "I don't care how you look at it, they're extremely goofy."
"Going into work - we're doing serious shit beforehand - and then they're like, 'All right, we're going to do this sequence.' And I'm like, 'All right, cool. Well, what is it?' And they start giving me all the information. Then, I saw the script in front of me on a little monitor. And I'm looking at 30 lines and it's all one word. And I'm like, 'Did you guys fuck up? Is this a mistake?'" Christian continued.
If you've got no clue what Christian is on about, you're in for a real treat. As a reward for rounding up all the lost Moogles in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, the Moogles temporarily turn Cloud into one of their own, complete with his own Moogle-sized Buster Sword. You can see the full scene below, in which Moogle Cloud learns to take to the skies.
"It was so ridiculously funny because I had to do a different emotional inflection on every line," Christian continued. The actor revealed he had to go and listen back to all his iterations of "Kupo," and pick out which ones were perfect for the appropriate mood. One "Kupo" might sound a little too similar to when the character is meant to be annoyed, for example, which was a problem.
"So, it was a very meticulous process, and it was just hard to take seriously. Because it is not a joke. But for me, in the real-time reality of doing it, I felt so silly," the Cloud actor concluded. I can definitely see how pivoting from playing a battle-hardened mercenary, who goes through a fair amount of emotional trauma in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, to a Moogle is a tough act to pull off.