Destructoid Community Interview: Jennifer Hale (Part 1 of 2)

[LightningIrving]

Sheena Fujibayashi! (The REAL one, not the replacement!) Aayla Secura! Female Jaden Korr! Sam! (Totally Spies! and before you ask, yes, I am ashamed...)

[g8282]

Naomi!

[MetalliJag]

I fucking love Bastilla, pretty fucking hot for a bad graphics, animated chic haha

[JammyGit07]

Fem shep is awesome.... but common bastilla was out of this world, she was made for that role

[Meescool2]

Femshep is best Shep.

[SternMann93]

At around 3:00 I think I heard a bit of Shepard.

[RaveEpic]

She sounds like Christa Miller.

[KissesLoveKawaii]

Femshep is only shep!

[Kulgan347]

I like Jennifer's work more than Mark Meer, Jen actually sounds like the character where Mark often sounds so monotone you can almost see some dude reading off a piece of paper or a screen. At least I thought so.

[koshomer]

@Kulgan347

Funny, I thought the exact opposite.

[frankensersh]

@Kulgan347 Yes! Thankyou!!

FemShep is a lot more believable than Male Shep. Same when it comes to Hawke in DA2; Mark Meer just sounds wooden.

[JaminKoehn]

Absolutely peerless voice actress.

[joncameronli]

Her normal voice sounds nothing like Femshep @_@...awesome. Couldn't tell she was Naomi Hunter either, or that blue politician girl in Clone Wars. 

[frankensersh]

@joncameronli I think it sounds a little like FemShep. I think this is how she would sound if she wasn't military.

[BobMcCob]

Every voice she has done sounds totally different and equally amazing.

[StormHawk15]

I played through ME1 and 2 first as FemShep, so she'll always be Shepard to me. I have multiple Shepards now, and while I adore my MaleSheps, FemShep will always be TrueShep for me.

[ssjdagas]

I agree with her. We need more female lead characters that are not just there for the looks (I'm looking at you Lara Croft). Female Shepard is THE Shepard IMO. I hope Bioware and other game makers listen to this. I'm so tired of the Marcus Pheonixes and the Master Cheifs of the video game industry.

[neko9]

always FemShep.

[Dromedarr]

Fem Shep is the best! Can't wait for ME3!!!

[TheRealSimsMaster]

I wish she had voiced Samus in Other M. :-(

[talizorah]

Man, I would so go gay for her.

[EimearMadra]

Aw, she was even nice about Mark Meer. How sweet!

[TheDaemons]

Ha, I lol'd at 5:05. I'm sorry, but Mark Meer doesn't even come close to voicing Shepard as well as Jennifer Hale.

[Leylaashley]

@TheDaemons Agreed I love Female Shepard >>; I cant stand the game with male Shep it just feels totally different

[demonhoopa]

@Leylaashley If you like Jennifer Hale, look up her "Jennifer Mui" character on youtube. It's one of my all time favorite characters

[TheDaemons]

She should have done Samus's voice indefinitely.

[tigasnake]

Wow.. these interviewers need to take a sip of water or something. The dry lips are unbearable.

[Crimm]

Wow, I didn't realize Hale actually understood what Shepard went through and everything. I love her voice, I just always thought she was just read lines. This was a nice revelation.

[CAARaeed]

i played as a female Shepard JUST because of her

[gurezurei]

I am Commander Shepard and Jennifer Hale is my favorite voice actress in the whole world.

[MsTreasuredChest]

i actually want to be a voice actor because of her

[DinaVicky]

She's done a fantastic job voicing commander Shepard, and she sounds like a really cool person. Hope we hear more from her!

[galenwolf]

DAMN I remember her voicing Black Cat back in TAS spider-man back in the 90s - i think she was better than helfer at the role too.

[rubyjuly94]

Jennifer-san could've played Samus' voice in Metroid Other M...she did a successful role of playing her voices in the Metroid Prime trilogy. But instead, it's a local actress by the name of Jessica Martin.

[TheKruton]

@rubyjuly94 SHE'S NOT FUCKING JAPANESE GO AWAY

[IncredibleFulk1]

Jennifer Hale is one of my fav voice actors ever next to Frank Welker, Steve Blum & Nolan North. I loved her voice as Naomi & Bastlilla. I also loved her voice as Opellia in Brutel Legend. I wished they talked about that more. While I love her voice as Com Shepard, it just doesn't feel natural to me. I'm always like with games where you can be male or female. But whatever.

[markinator123]

Jennifer Hale, a voice acting goddess.

[coolfreaks911]

fucking echo cant hear her sexy voice

[MisterCharlton]

I liked her British accent. She did an awsome Bastila in SW:KOTOR

[zedex26]

@MisterCharlton JUST started playing the game, got it for 5$ from D2D's spring sale and I have to agree...

she has an AMAZING voice!

[dork5Rus5]

Don't forget she also plays Jennifer Mui from Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

:D

[ImSamSamIm]

Don't forget she also plays Samus Aran from the Metroid Prime series.

[SquallCloud]

I love my fem Shep but I can understand why Bioware would want a consistent face for the product but the ME3 campaign could utilize the default fem Shep and the default male Shep and really play on the "This is YOUR adventure" aspect of the game. They can even do something cheeky like have them meet and be all "Fancy meeting you here!' about it.

I'm just glad the game moved 2 million units so we are guaranteed our final chapter.

[Ikonicre]

I always enjoy Hale's work, I probably played about two dozen games that featured her work. Being male, I've played a little more with male characters, but 'Jennifer' Shepard just sounds so great, can't resist playing female characters as well :-)

[tacticalzen]

I fell in love with her work when she caught my attention as Bastila in KotOR. Ever since then, I've been a big fan of whatever she's worked on, from Freelancer to Mass Effect. She brings amazing range, personality and expression to her characters.

[spyro201]

Daamn she has a nice voice. Female Shep is fucking win.

[TruthNotReligion]

@spyro201 Amen. Femshep all the way!

[demonhoopa]

@spyro201 Fucking a right.

[digitalshark]

ME2 will be the first game I begin with a female character and may stick with for every play through. I just greatly preferred my female Shep and I find Hale's voice work to be more interesting to listen to. Male Shep is a bit bland, in my opinion.

[Samsukkaa]

@digitalshark Yeah i agree, Female shepard sounds so much better than male shepard :D

And jennifers voice fits a black femshep particulary!

[SquallCloud]

Agreed!

It's kind of a stretch when you have a Black male Shep.

[Buritsu]

@Samsukkaa right on! My Femshep is black (so am I) I think the voice fits well ^^

[Yakko77]

Femshep Engineer all the way!!!!!

[warhawk241241241]

You guys don't forget Hale has a vagina....Meer doesn't...and his name isn't Nolan North....So he already have allot against him....

[MojojojoeJDH]

Nolan North sounds like a pussy.

[Matterialize]

The interviewer sounds fucking creepy.

Hale's an awesome VA though.

[JadedTrojan]

The same reason they don't show custom Shepards.... they want a "face" for the game to represent the IP. So they use a consistent face (male Shep's default face, as is the case) across the marketing campaign.

[quadraxas]

actually as a male, female hero may possibly attract me more? idk, is it just me?

[Kouzui]

@quadraxas Nah, me too. I think part of it is that the male hero thing has been done TO DEATH. To me, a game where the main character is female (and she's not a blatant sex symbol, a la Lara Croft) just seems a more interesting concept because I haven't already seen it a bajillion times.

My first run of Mass Effect and ME2 I played a female Shepard and I haven't been able to bring myself to play a male one because, IMO, Shepard being female just felt so appropriate for the character.

[Nothumbs25]

I love her. She does a GREAT job in Mass Effect (And everything else she does)

[chipsraffertic]

put a sock over your microphone, asshole

[SethSteiner]

I think FemShep should be shown equally to the MaleShep. This is no Ego-Shooter like Half Life with a defined character. It`s a roleplaying game and everyone has a different character. I can`t identify with the MaleShep, this is not my Shepard and yes it looks somehow sexist if just a male Shepard is shown.

[TheTWF]

RE: Rogue151

Default Vanderloo Shepard has ALWAYS been the posterboy of ME. You can see him on the cover, ads, and teaser cinematics.

This isn't about appealing to shooter fans you dumb f*ck, it's about continuing Shep's already existing media face.

[dano25655]

It's not as much as she doesn't exist, alot of people don't like the fact that you can play as a woman. Alot of sexists out there.

[kazic284]

Who doesn't like the idea of femshep? Bio ignores her because of a marketing plan.

[yermomsboxx]

@ dano25655

I wouldn't say that a lot of people don't like or are against the fact that you can choose to play as a female, but instead just prefer not to. Personally, I really like the male Shepard and I think Mark Meer's delivery is great and in my mind he IS Commander Shepard, but I might consider playing through as the female version this time just to see what all of the hubbub is about..

[blahblahghost]

I love how he's trying to inject a deepness into his voice to impress her...just comes off creepy.

[SwobyJ]

She's SO into it. Nice to know :) Still have to work on a femShep playthrough.

[painey86]

Andrew Kauz sounds like sex offender