Lady Dimitrescu first appeared in a January 2021 teaser trailer that rapidly cemented Resident Evil Village’s place within the public consciousness as “the sport with the massive vampire girl.” She swept the hearts, minds, and artistic outputs of hordes of fan artists with such ferocity that I’m nonetheless undecided whether or not I may safely do a google picture search on my work browser. According to Maggie Robertson, the actor who introduced the vampire giantess to life, the position was equally transformative for her.
Robertson just lately spoke to Entertainment Weekly as a part of a gaggle interview with the “Pixel Pack,” a gaggle of excessive profile videogame voice actors gathered by Neil Newbon, who performed Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3. The Pixel Pack goals to boost consciousness and solidarity for his or her craft as they face challenges like the continued SAG-AFTRA strike.
Many of the interviewed Pixel Pack actors, like Mass Effect femshep actor Jennifer Hale, spoke a couple of fading distinction that used to separate videogame performing expertise from their theater and stage friends. Echoing that sentiment, Robertson stated that her Lady Dimitrescu efficiency was knowledgeable by her historical past in Shakespearean performing.
“Having a Shakespeare background, I pulled a whole lot of Shakespeare stuff into this. There was one thing very Shakespearean in the way in which that she makes use of language,” Robertson stated. “It’s not simply the claws, it is not simply her reworking right into a beast on the finish that does harm. It’s her phrases. She actually makes use of the ability of her phrases to harm.”
I am unable to communicate to how effectively Shakespeare’s works channel the presence of a towering monster girl, however with the ability to make use of these extra conventional performing strategies for her Dimitrescu efficiency clearly paid off—even when Robertson wasn’t solely ready for the affect the character would have.
“I had no idea at the moment of what being in a online game may supply me in my profession, in my life. My solely intention was to do the most effective work that I may do and, actually, not make a idiot of myself,” Robertson stated. “And then to see the way in which that she was embraced by audiences, it was simply very surreal. It actually really modified my life in each potential method.”
Since taking part in Lady Dimitrescu in Resident Evil Village, Robertson has continued her voice and movement seize performances in video games like God of War: Ragnarok, Baldur’s Gate 3, and extra.
We spoke to Robertson again in 2021, the place she went into deeper element in regards to the overlap between her theater background and her work in Resident Evil. Comparing her expertise in Lady Dimitrescu’s movement seize periods—her first time doing efficiency seize—to black field theater, Robertson stated her classical performing background made her “uniquely primed” to inhabit the position.
“It’s simply taking part in. It goes again to being a child and utilizing your creativeness to create these fabulous worlds,” Robertson stated. “That feels prefer it will get at the actual core of why I needed to be an actor within the first place.”
