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Jennifer Hale says she didn't see a single line as Mass Effect's Commander Shepard until it was time to record: 'It was all cold reading on the spot'
Voice actors for major games like Mass Effect and Resident Evil Village often receive scripts last minute, highlighting the industry's secretive and demanding recording practices, impacting performance and potentially leading to unexpected recasting with AI.
Longtime video game voice actor Jennifer Hale says that her role as Commander Shepard in Mass Effect boiled down to a lot of last-minute performances since she didn't see any scripts until it was time to record them.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Hale reckons that "85 to 90%" of video game voice capture work boils down to cold reading. "The entirety of Mass Effect, I saw no line before the moment I recorded it," she says. "It was all cold reading on the spot. A couple takes, maybe a few, and it goes out to market. That's it."
The Mass Effect games were obviously recorded quite a while ago, but the games industry is still often secretive and late when it comes to recordings. Hale says "voice performers have to be incredibly skilled in the game arena, even more so than in other arenas" due to the demands this production schedule puts on performances.
Many voice actors don't even know what they are being cast in until much later in the process. Lady Dimitrescu actor Maggie Robertson had no idea what was in Resident Evil Village until after she'd been cast. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Matthew Mercer didn't learn he was playing Vincent until a cryptic message was shared with him at the studio and on camera. Stewart Clarke voiced Strohl in Metaphor: ReFantazio, but didn't realize he was in a big Atlus game until that recording was near its end. This kind of thing happens a lot, and it's just a glimpse into the controlled chaos that goes on behind the scenes.