In May 2023, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom had the monumental task of releasing as a direct sequel to one of the most beloved games in recent memory: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In an exceptional feat, the former proved that lightning does occasionally strike twice, with its reception being overwhelmingly positive and with our very own Preston Dozsa awarding the game a perfect score.
With just about a year after Tears of the Kingdom’s launch, I got the chance, at MCM Comic Con London, to ask a few questions to Sean Chiplock (voice of Revali, Teba and The Great Deku Tree) and Patricia Summersett (voice of Princess Zelda) as part of a group interview:
What were some of the influences behind your voices?
Patricia Summersett: Hmm, I feel like I’ve answered different things for this question. Initially, when I went in for the very first audition when I didn’t know what it was, I thought of Emma Watson and other voices, just as kind of a very vague reference. But it’s not exactly where it ended up.
Once I got the audition and I started recording the lines, the voice just kind of became my own and I went for what sat well with me and what made sense with the urgency that’s coming from the character. I also studied in London at one point during my master’s degree in classical acting, so I also used a little bit of inspiration from that.
Sean Chiplock: I looked up London on Wikipedia once, which is pretty much the same thing! [laughs] So, I was blessed beyond words to have three characters, you know, rather than just the one…
Patricia Summersett: …just the one! [laughs] Really?! Why didn’t they give me other characters?!
Sean Chiplock: I’m a people-pleaser, you know! [laughs] I just…I try to fill the gaps when people need it, and it’s a wonderful story for me to tell when I get the chance to do it in long form because Revali, Teba and The Great Deku Tree, which many people don’t realize I also voice, was the perfect mix of stuff that was new to me, stuff that had a challenge that I overcame and stuff where I had utter confidence in what I was doing.
Revali was probably the most difficult voice because I didn’t quite his understand his motivations yet, and so it was hard to get the level of grounded realism that they wanted for him in the English dub compared to the more eccentric showmanship that he was doing in the Japanese and I struggled with that for a while. But that was where I learned to work with the team and let them guide me where I needed to go until I felt confident.
The Great Deku Tree was a perfect example of, like, finding confidence…because I knew I couldn’t do the same big, baritone voice that someone with a bigger chest could do. So, instead, I went: “what does old, wispy and wise sound like?” And that’s how I came up with [in the voice of The Great Deku Tree] relaxing myself, going low and having my mouth very wide open. [In his normal voice] And that blew them away!
Teba was the one that, when I saw his design, I knew exactly what he sounds like: he is a similar character [to Revali] but with a different personality. So, using this information, I made some adjustments.
Seeing how your roles have changed or evolved between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, how have you adapted your performances?
Patricia Summersett: I would say the role certainly evolved from Breath of the Wild: Zelda has more wisdom and a lot more experience and I think that kind of shows up between Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. I feel I was able to spend some time actually expanding upon the work that I did in the first game. And also we had a new script, a new director and partly a new team and it was very exciting to be able to evolve through that.
Sean Chiplock: I’ve often said that I wish I had known what we learned when recording for the DLC for Breath of the Wild back when we recorded for the main game because, during the recording process, we weren’t always given everything in chronological order. So, there’s a lot of stuff I figured towards the end. When I came to record for the DLC and we got that background everything made so much more sense.
And then, by the time Age of Calamity came around, I very much understood the characters from different perspectives at that point. So, for me, it was interesting, from a performance perspective, to go from figuring this out very much like Link would to, by the time we came in for Age of Calamity, being so in tune with the characters that switching between Revali and Teba was easy.
This is a good example of how, as actors, we really appreciate as much having as much information as possible, not because we want to spoil it for anyone, but because if we understand motivations and if we understand backstory, it makes it much easier to make educated choices about why we are saying what we are saying in a way that will convince the player base as well.
Considering that Link is mostly silent besides some grunts and huffs, how difficult is it to voice your characters? And, if it ever were to happen, who would you like to voice Link?
Patricia Summersett: It’s funny…I actually never have a clear vision for who I think Link should be…I don’t think about it too much. Also, when it comes to dubbing and so much video game work…most of it is done without other people in the room.
Sean Chiplock: Sometimes we won’t even have contextual lines surrounding our characters, so in that case, we would get the information from the director on what context the line has. But, there are times when we would get the whole scene and we can see who we are responding to. This being said, we also have times when we literally just get a sheet of, like, 200 of our characters’ lines, and we just go through them one by one with no scrubbing context! So, for many games, if it sounds like everyone was in the room, having an actual conversation with each other…that just means that there are a bunch of really good actors who know how to make it sound realistic.
Patricia Summersett: And also editors and people from the team who decide which intonation of which take they want to put together. So…it almost would be strange to have two actors react to each other because so often we are giving several variations of the same line, and then they sometimes change it around long after the fact based on what they need.
Sean Chiplock: With regards to Link, I would almost argue that in a franchise like Zelda, where the protagonist is known for being silent, that it’s almost a little easier to kind of play up characterizations because I’ve always treated Breath of the Wild as Nintendo’s version of Mad Max in that the story is never really about the main character. The story is not about them…it’s about everyone that they’ve gotten involved with over the course of the game.
There are a lot of people out there who want to see Tingle. So, if we got a game starring Tingle again, who would you want to act alongside as Tingle?
Patricia Summersett: Oh my god! [laughs]
Sean Chiplock: Keanu Reeves! Easily! Easily Keanu Reeves!
Patricia Summersett: I’m going to go with that too, yeah!
Sean Chiplock: He does his own stunts, man! But with Tingle, the funniest thing to me is that, as a team, we’re like: “who’s this creepy man in my Zelda game-we want nothing to do with him!” But then as 30-something year olds, we’re like: “That is life goals right there!” And he’s got that butt wiggle that he does when he runs in Hyrule Warriors where, with every gallop, he makes little funny noises and there’s confetti coming out of his backside at the same time. And, I think Keanu, as someone who basically does all his own stunts…if he can waggle his buttocks like that…move over, TayTay – I’m sorry! New favorite! [laughs]
Patricia Summersett: I’m just gonna leave that there! [laughs]
Who would you like to play any of your roles in the upcoming Legend of Zelda movie?
Sean Chiplock: Who did people want as Cable in the Deadpool movies? Josh Brolin? I want him for Darunia or for one of the Gorons…I feel like he’d do a really good job with that.
Patricia Summersett: I feel like Nintendo knows what they want…so they’re going to come up with something awesome, I’m sure. So, yeah..let’s see!
Sean Chiplock: We try to not ever make any assumptions because I’m sure a lot of people wonder: “would you come back for the movie?” First of all, that is not our decision to make. We are always grateful for the chance to get to reprise roles while also understanding that different companies want to make different decisions about different things, so…
Patricia Summersett: …I’d play any role that involves Nintendo. I just love working with them…
…Even just a Korok?
Patricia Summersett: Seriously!
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available now on the Nintendo Switch.
