Gone Gold with Simon Hill
Welcome to Gone Gold with Simon Hill, a show that features fun, insightful interviews with some of the biggest names in video games. From developers, to actors - this show delves in to what makes your favourite video games tick.
Gone Gold with Simon Hill
Alaina Wis
Robin Locke in Starfield, Evelyn From OxenFree II, Black Canary From DC: Dark Legion and many more. Alaina Wis is an award winning actor and performer who launched her career after a successful start with Disney before establishing herself as a successful Voice-Actor in video games.
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Hello and welcome to another episode of Gone Gold with me, Simon Hill, esports host, industry presenter and TV personality. Hi, hey, hello. We're here again for another weekly episode. So excited for this episode, but also because I'll be flying out to Florida tomorrow for a two-week holiday. I'll be staying in Disney as well. Can't wait. Got so much planned, as you can imagine. On this show, we've also got a lot of great guests and studios lined up ready to go. Some of my favourite interviews to date. It's been such a busy few weeks. I came off abroad for a Rainbow Six esports event which I should have been hosting originally the finals but the finals take place the day after I fly out to Florida so they got me involved in an alternate broadcast and there's been so much more again lots of interviews as well I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who tuned in to last week's episode with voice actor Morgan Taylor she was super bubbly so entertaining and delved into some standout moments that she's achieved throughout her career her career so far, including landing her first lead role in the new Goosebumps game. Also got that studio coming on the show very soon. We have, once again, seen a huge increase in numbers for the show alongside new chart positions, one in particular that floored me. We hit number nine in the Canadian Apple Podcast charts for video games. Unreal! Thank you so much, everyone. Thank you to everyone in Canada that's tuned in. Thank you to everyone around the globe who who is tuned in 70 countries around the world, have listened to this show. Finally, please take a few seconds to check out the ratings on your chosen platform. Be sure to drop one of your own to help the show continue to grow and be listened to by more people. Let's get to our next guest. I'm joined by award-winning actor Elena Wyss, who has such a decorated and standout career from travelling across the globe performing for Disney to appear in games such as Starfield, Skyrim, Payday and many, many more. She's the true definition of a star. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Gone Gold with Alain Avis. When you take a trained actor halfway around the world, a talent so relentless who has been... Working with the likes of Disney products, Netflix, Amazon and more, from Asia to the US, my next guest has embodied the art of performing from a very young age. She's also travelled the globe to do exactly that. Her IMDb page reads like a Jane Austen novel and she's been heard in video games such as Payday 2, Starfield, Skyrim and DC Dark Legion, just to name a few. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud to welcome the multi-award winner nominated Elena Wyss. Welcome, Elena, to the show.
Alaina:Hello. It's so great to be here. Thank you for having me.
Simon:Thank you for taking your time to be here. So this interview, we might as well just get all of this out there. So I interviewed Morgan Sider, a very good friend of yours. She's just broken through into her first lead role. Very exciting. After that interview, she was like, I have a recommendation. And now we're here. And
Alaina:now we're here. Morgan is one of my very, very dearest friends. And we talked a little bit about this before we hopped on, but she's just so selfless. It's impossible for her to do any job or interview without turning behind her and pulling somebody else up there with her. So grateful for the opportunity. And yeah, shout out to Morgan.
Simon:Big shout out to Morgan. You have done so much in this industry and the entertainment industry in general. We mentioned just some of the IP and products you've worked on in that introduction, and that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface. So again, we should start with how is the life of Elena right now?
Alaina:Oh, man, I'm just glad to be busy. You know, we're in such an interesting time. I feel like every interview I do, I talk about AI, so I won't get too into it. But just knowing that that's out there, it's really I'm just so grateful now, especially with the rise of AI to be consistently working because I know that a lot of people aren't. So I don't take anything for granted. The fact that I'm able to be a full time artist, a full time actor is an incredible blessing. So yeah, even during the day-to-day stress, even today I was running around filming two on-camera auditions and doing 20-some voiceover auditions and then coming straight here. That might be a little bit, you know, makes me a little frazzled, but at the end of the day, that's a really good problem to have. Yeah,
Simon:absolutely. And the fact that you're still juggling these opportunities day by day, let's take it right back for the listeners. How does a girl from Chicago make her way to the other side of the world, chasing her dreams as a performer, before coming back and establishing herself as one of the biggest names in voice acting and performance?
Alaina:Well, yeah, that's a great question. I always wanted to work for Disney. It was my dream ever since I was a kid. And when I was 17, I started auditioning for the company and I actually did 20 different in-person auditions for Disney and just really wanted to make it happen and kept getting told no, kept getting really close and then turned away or never hearing back. And after so much rejection, I really really got clear with myself after I graduated college and I had studied musical theater, knowing that I was going to go into this field and knowing that there is a window of time when you can be the Disney princess and then that time passes you by. And so I decided that I wanted this so bad that I would actually travel the world for it, if it was Disney Cruise Line or if it was one of the international Disney parks that I would want to do that. And, you know, that was scary and that was never in my plan, but I ended up doing my first audition for Hong Kong Disneyland. And then that was the one. It was like all of the other ones were no's because this opportunity didn't exist yet. And then it did. And then I was there and I was ready. And so it was totally not in my plan. And it ended up being, I think, the best Disney opportunity that I ever could have asked for. And so, yeah, I ended up staying there for two years. It was supposed to be six months, but I just loved it. And I kept extending and extending and re-auditioning, re-auditioning, learning new roles. And at the I decided I've kind of done everything that I can do here and I'm going to go back to the States and go back into theater and try to, you know, reach some new goals there. And I also had the mindset of, well, wait a minute, I've just been paid to be a full time actor. I don't really want to go back to having four different side jobs and then trying to make ends meet with acting. I want to be full time. And I had started the voiceover process before I left. And I knew that that was a pathway that that might work to be able to support myself. myself financially while then doing theater at nighttime and on the weekends. So that's what I did. I really put a lot of stock into VO and I really started getting serious, getting training, demos, upgrading my home studio. I lived with my parents for a while and saved money. I also had savings from Disney. And in about a year and a half, I was able to go full time in VO and be juggling theater at the same time and quit all my other side jobs. And I guess I'll stop there because this a whole interview and I don't want to take up all of that on just this one question.
Simon:It's incredible. I was absolutely captivated. I know our listeners will be as well. When you're working in Hong Kong for Disney on this iconic Mickey and the Wondrous book, I believe it was called, a Broadway-style show, you're performing as people like Ariel and all these iconic Disney princesses. Did you learn anything in particular that would then set you up for the future of VO?
Alaina:Oh, yeah, that's a really good question. I I think in general, I just learned to have grace for myself because when you're performing three to seven shows a day and then also warmups and mic checks and there's a thousand people out there and sometimes your bosses are out there and sometimes they're gonna give you feedback afterwards. And at any point in time, there's 500 cameras pointed at your face and your best days and your worst days are equally gonna end up on social media in an hour. It's a lot. And so I went through kind of the pendulum swing of being extremely critical of myself because I went from having no video of myself as a performer to every minute that I'm ever on stage is online now to, okay, there's nothing I can do about this. So yeah, sometimes I'm going to have bad days and that's fine. And that's live performance, baby. So
Simon:you just have to embrace it.
Alaina:You have to embrace it. And with live sessions, that's how it goes. At least with live sessions, probably only three or four people here, you make a mistake and the rest of the world will will never hear it and they're going to think you're perfect all the time. So that works for me. But in live theater, nope, that's not how it goes. So yeah, I just learned to be more compassionate and it's still a lifelong journey to have grace for myself when I make mistakes.
Simon:We've spoken to a lot of voice actors on this show, a lot of whom have a theater background. How important has that element been throughout your career and how do you think it's helped you shape some of the characters that you've brought to life over the years?
Alaina:Yeah, so I kind of mentioned before I went to school for musical theater. But really what it was, was we had the exact same acting training as the acting majors. We took all the same foundational acting classes. It was a conservatory style program, which means that, you know, 95% of my credit load was acting focused, acting, dancing and singing focused. So it was a serious acting degree and then additionally dancing and private singing lessons and then acting through song and specific classes pertaining to the art of musical theater. So really like You're graduating with three degrees, right? Singing, acting, and dancing. We didn't get into voice acting. However, I consider acting training to kind of be like the hub of a wheel. And then you can, you know, explore all the different spokes. There's screen acting. There's stage acting. There's voice acting. There's motion capture and performance capture. There's all these different forms of acting. But the center of that, the crux of that, is being an actor. And then you can learn to speak all the different languages. So I do think that's really important, especially in a world where we're so remote and we're doing a lot of self-directing. A lot of my work, I don't have a director at all. So if I didn't have the tools that I had gained in school, I think it would have been really tough for me to be doing. We can get into this later, but most of Starfield was completely self-directed. So having those tools in my tool belt to be able to get into that character emotionally and also the the vocal technique to find where her placement is and figure out who is this person, that would have been extremely difficult if I hadn't had that training.
Simon:You've also gone on record to say that performing in video games is your favourite aspect of the role. What was it about video games that has drawn you in? We know that it is the most profitable and engaged form of media worldwide and the focus for performance over the years has grown and also the importance of voice actors and mocap That has all become a primary focus for telling stories these days. So where did all that passion and that love begin for you?
Alaina:Well, my dad actually introduced me to video games when I was really little. And we had the Sega Genesis. Oh, wow. And we would play Sonic the Hedgehog. And there was a Little Mermaid game. There was an Aladdin game. There was a Lion King game. And I was five years old, learning to pick up a controller. And at that time, you had to aim it at the receiver because it was like a radio signal. And yeah, and we carried that tradition as I got older. One Christmas, I got a PlayStation and we played all the Uncharted games together. We would just pass the controller to each other. And that series was so cinematic. It kind of blew my mind that a video game could be like that. And while I didn't at the time think I want to be a voice actor, because frankly, I didn't really think that that was I didn't know that that was a thing. I was so focused on musical theater that I was that was my path. Looking back, there There's been plenty of times when I have pulled inspiration from that series in my own work and been really inspired at the grounded and cinematic performances therein.
Simon:First of all, my ultimate goal is to have Nolan North on this show one day. Oh my gosh. The goat. The original OG. Such a great actor and performer. I think also what's really fascinating about that is how you were introduced to video games, but how important was it for you to be such a lover of video games to carry that into performance?
Alaina:Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think it makes me an ideal collaborator when I do get into a session because I don't know any other way. I don't know a life without video games. So I imagine that if somebody comes in who's just got a great voice, but they don't know what stealth mode is, that that's going to take some time in the session to be like, oh, okay, so now we have to explain this to you. And then that person's also never heard what a performance sounds like when you need to communicate to the player that you're you haven't been spotted yet. Like that's really what it's all about is communicating information to the player, whether it's you're getting attacked or you are attacking or you're shouting to an enemy or to an ally. How far away are they? That's going to inform how loud you are. You know, what's the intensity of the situation? All of that stuff. I think you you naturally absorb that as you're playing games and then you just subconsciously bring it into the session and you're like, I know exactly what this is. So I imagine that it makes it easier to work with somebody who has a life time of playing games than somebody who hasn't just because they have that in-body experience, you know?
Simon:Yeah, absolutely. Completely agree. I'll ask the question later what your top three games of all time are. I'll let you stew on it for a little bit. I didn't prep you for that question. 2016, an audition comes down for a point-and-click real-time strategy game called Black Survival for a character who goes by the name of Emma Hardy. This would go on to be your first role booked in video games. Talk to us about what you remember I mean almost 10 years ago now
Alaina:yeah I don't remember a whole lot I just remember getting very bare bones descriptions as we do in gaming maybe a few lines of dialogue maybe one description of the character and maybe a picture maybe not I don't even remember if I had a picture let's for the sake of this example let's say we did because I'm pretty sure I did but I you know they do their best to make sure you don't know more than you need to know so that things don't get out to the general public and I just remember thinking okay I've never done video gaming. I don't have voiceover specific coaching. I don't have video game specific coaching for performance. But what kind of a voice do I think this character would have? And I just went for it and I ended up booking it. And, you know, fast forward, they've brought me in many times now to do different skins. They ported the game over to Eternal Return Black Survival and they wanted the original cast. So I came back and did that. And people love her. So, yeah, that was a really wholesome way to start, I think.
Simon:How has it been, I guess, almost evolving that character over time. If they brought you back and you've had this new revitalized version almost of the character that you played 10 years ago, have you been able to see a growth there in some of the dialogue you're delivering?
Alaina:Oh, that's a good question. I think we've done our best to keep it as consistent as possible. But one thing that I've actually found challenging in maintaining the same voice for nine years or 10 years or whatever it is, is that so before I had video game specific training and vocal training pertaining to voice acting, I was just throwing stuff at the wall, right, and seeing what sticks. And when I developed the voice for Emma, I didn't develop it in mind with, is this something I can sustain over a four-hour session? And I gave her kind of this throaty, breathy quality that over the years, I came to find out when I was in two- and three-hour sessions at 10 p.m. because the client is in Asia and I'm in the States, that it was very vocally taxing. And when I tried to change the I would get clocked, of course, because they would say that doesn't sound like her anymore. And I would go, oh, shoot, I was trying to make it more vocally healthy, but now it sounds different. So I'm kind of locked into this performance that I established before I knew what I was getting into. So that's definitely tricky. And I'm glad now that I have more tools that I don't set up voices anymore that I can't sustain for a long period of time.
Simon:It's a fascinating insight that I always feel when speaking to voice actors. It is more than just putting on a voice. It is so much more than I'm going to talk into a mic and that's going to be the character. There are so many tools that you need to be able to deliver the correct dialogue in the correct way.
Alaina:Yeah, I mean, you don't want to see my medicine cabinet of vocal remedies. It's everything under the sun, three different nebulizers, saline solution, like herbal gargling mixes, all of the things. And I mean, yeah, and that that came from my tradition as a singer as well. I had a lot of that knowledge already. I was already familiar with the process of getting my throat scoped to see what's going on down there. Like you just, when you make the decision to be a lifelong heavy vocal user, you know, you just start picking this stuff up and you just collect more tools along the way. Like when I decided to do additional training in voiceover and learned about vocal combat and I studied with Darcy Smith, that is a completely different thing. And yes, There was overlap with some of the semi-occluded vocal tract exercises that he suggests doing that I had also learned from my speech pathologist. But it's its own language. It's another spoke in the wheel. And it requires specific vocal care to be able to do that safely.
Simon:Darcy Smith has come up several times on this show. I'd love to speak to Darcy Smith at some point. He seems like he's really the ideal person to get out what you need. Absolutely.
Alaina:And to do so safely. There's nobody I would trust more because he developed the technique alongside an ENT friend of his who had the scope going whilst he was screaming. So, you know, we know that these these coordinations are safe for long term use. And that is something that really as a singer and as a lifelong vocal user really put me at ease when I took his course.
Simon:Let's fast forward your regular working voice actor book in multiple rooms. roles before landing a character. In Bethesda's space action RPG Starfield, you would go on to portray Robin Locke in the UC Fly Girl DLC. She's a bit of a badass. She doesn't take any prisoners, but she also has this softer side, which we saw in a monologue. What were your favourite moments from working on Starfield?
Alaina:I mean, yeah, this was really, for me, one of the most satisfying projects I've ever gotten to work on as an actor. And I think it's because it's None of us probably wants to admit this, but it does feel really satisfying as an actor when you get to use the full breadth of emotion and no shade to my commercial and corporate work because it's paying the bills and I'm grateful for it. But, you know, it just doesn't feel the same as staying with one character for I think at this point we've recorded probably 12 hours of audio. That's a lot.
Simon:Wow.
Alaina:Yeah. So she really she really goes on a journey and And that feels like such a connection to the human experience as an actor. And it made me feel like I was in theater again, that I got to go through that. And yeah, it was just such a meaningful piece as a whole. And I love that she has both this really soft, vulnerable side and also this like really messy, quippy, sarcastic, flirty side. And you just kind of never know like when where she's going to be when. I
Simon:absolutely I'm going to clip that part just for the sake of the smile you have on your face when you talk about her and how much it means to you. You can see the passion you have for your work. And I think what was really interesting about this character is, like you said, how she's actually quite complex in many ways. She has several different layers which bleed through on screen. There was this long monologue which was fascinating and really emotional. You kind of had so many heartstrings pulled, but there was a little bit of drama in there. Talk to us about that moment when you were reeling off this dialogue and what that meant for you in the booth.
Alaina:Yeah, I'm like getting chills thinking about it. So I've said this on at least one other interview before, but I think it's worth mentioning that I chose not to read the script ahead of time. I had it and I knew I was going to be self-directing and I had an overview. I had like essentially cliff notes of what was going to happen. This happens, this happens, this happens in act one, act two, act three. And so I knew kind of broad strokes by the end of act three, she gets to whatever point. but I didn't want to know the exact thoughts and words that were going to get her there. I just wanted it to be really live and really fluid. So what you hear in that monologue is one uninterrupted go that I've never seen before. Now, I did provide them two takes of everything, but when I got to this section, I stopped the typical formula that usually happens in a video game session, which is you do the line twice. They say, okay, that's good let's move on and we do the next line twice whenever I get a run of lines I prefer to do them as a run I prefer to do it all the way through uninterrupted because I think that's how it would sound so I don't know for a fact if they ended up taking bits and pieces from take one and take two but what I do know is I gave them two completely uncut passes and one of them was the first time I ever read the script and I think that's at least part of that is the one that they used
Simon:incredible the fact that you were able to deliver that in one take get that emotional range out knowing the journey she'd been on and how much it meant within that moment and you're able to also deliver such a raw emotion thank you to that scene was fantastic and you mentioned something earlier that a lot of your work on Starfield especially the early work was self-directed tell us about that process for you because now we're looking at not just a trained actor voice actor but a director too
Alaina:yeah I mean I think one day it would be interesting to actually direct other actors. I would like to know more about that and kind of how to do that. But for right now, I only have experience directing myself. And it happens, I would say, about half the time I'm offline directing myself, whether it's commercials, e-learning, corporate narration, video games, whatever it is. Typically not video games, but sometimes. And so what happened here was this was through the Bethesda Creator Program. The creator reached out to me directly, offered me the role. We did one session to establish tone and figure out who she is and does this feel like the gal that you were creating you know and he was just more than happy with anything that I did and so I said okay great so it sounds like you're you're good with this we have thousands of words to record I think because of where this is placed in my voice and because of the emotional tax that there is there and the vocal tax that there is there I can probably commit to doing about two two to three hours a day on this and probably no more. Would you be comfortable with me doing that on my own? And he was like, I would actually prefer that. So I ended up setting aside time each day to work on Robin stuff. And it was just, you know, I had nothing else on my plate the rest of the day. I had done all of my other obligations, all of my other auditions and work so that I could have a clear head and I could really go there emotionally and vocally. She's kind of she sits a little bit lower, so I would be a little bit tired. when I was done with my Robin sessions. But yeah, and I just, I worked offline and then I would send him batches of text and he would send it off for approval higher up. He would let me know if I mispronounced any planet names or anything like that and I would do it again. But overall, it was a very, very easy working process in terms of the back and forth. The hard part was just sustaining it. And obviously, and this is not a bad thing, but it was challenging emotionally. So I had to make sure I was in the right headspace and I really allowed myself time to get into
Simon:that
Alaina:place. And I had never again didn't read that line ahead of time. And so when I got there, the tears were real because I was like, oh, boy, does that hit home? I really understand that. I understand being my biggest enemy, my own biggest enemy and getting in my own way and just the mental game of everything, especially as an actor, especially as an artist. There's just it's such a roller coaster. There's so many ups and downs. You get a win. You get put on hold for a job. And then, you know, you're so excited about it. And then you find out they're actually recasting it's going to somebody else or you know maybe you did a job and then it comes out and it's someone else's voice and so it's just like constant ups and downs and it's really hard not to turn the daggers inward towards yourself and go there's something I did or there's something I could have done better so I think you know even though she and I are very different in terms of like our life path and all of that I do understand I think like her deepest insecurities and deepest fears and that's kind of I was
Simon:going to ask you what your favorite line from Robin that you delivered was. I'm not sure if that was it. Are there any other standout moments from the performance during those 12-ish hours of recording?
Alaina:I jumped the gun there. Yeah, that one is my favorite, I think, just because it's just like every time I'd feel like crying when I think about that line. But I think like on the lighter side, I just love how she's kind of always messing with the player character. And we recorded so well. many different options and you have to execute so many different actions to hear them all, but we recorded scenarios for every single thing, whether she's nauseous on the back of a vehicle or a player puts on a funny outfit and she has some comment about it. She really has a rich emotional life and I love that I get to be kind of snarky at times and silly and she's not one dimensional. So I know it's not a specific line, but I think if you play through, we recorded enough options that you shouldn't get bored.
Simon:Another standout performance and one that I personally enjoyed was in the mystery horror graphic adventure Oxenfree 2 Lost Signals where you played Evelyn. This was a very different performance for you. A cool aspect of this character as well at the beginning of the game was used as a tutorial.
Alaina:Yeah, I don't know that I've had many chances to do that this one might have been the first time but man this is such a special project to me too I love Evelyn I think when when the the casting came out the inspiration was Kristen Bell or Amy Poehler or something and I also infused a little bit of Elle Woods in there actually my Elle Woods plaque right here it says what would Elle Woods do oh wow I love that yeah and so kind of those three iconic ladies were were the basis for Evelyn. She's nerdy, you know, she's awkward and she's very type A, which I understand. So it was it was an awesome process. It was so hard to keep that one secret because I think we worked on it. I was involved with it for, I think, over three years before we could say anything. And then I remember getting an email saying like, OK, we're going to start making announcements. And also, would you like to come to L.A. for the release? And I was like, would I? So that was amazing. We got to have this really, really chill, awesome like rooftop party. And I got to meet not only the other actors, but I got to meet all different members of the team and tell them how amazing their work was from the artist to the composer, like the producers, the writers that I worked with who directed me. I got to meet them in person. And it was just so cool because we're usually in our little boxes. And it was it was just really funny to walk up to people and we didn't know each other's faces. And I would start talking. They would go, you're Evelyn. I've heard your voice for hours and hours and hours because they had been working on the art or the sound design or whatever. And I would go, oh, my God, you did that. I love that part. So it was just really cool and super wholesome. And yeah, Night School Studio is just they're just incredible to work with. So that project is super special to me. I
Simon:can see why the game itself is one of those. those very few complete games. It's such a fun experience. Also, the characters are very, very different from what you played in Starfield. How do you prep yourself for that kind of genre? It's very edgy, it's spooky, it's a thriller, it's quite twisted in some ways as well and very dramatic.
Alaina:So I think I kind of had like, not like the easy job, but I was sort of outside of all of that because Evelyn is very like perky and chipper for most of the game, whereas Jacob and Riley are the ones going through the like, something's not right. There was really only a few times when Evelyn had to kind of yell at them to turn off the transmitter or whatever it was. But she's removed from it because she only knows what she's hearing over the radio. And there's really only kind of one section where we get to see Evelyn's soft underbelly. She drops the like type A controlling pretense and she says like, hey, I'm going to go home. You know, this is it is kind of freaking me out. And so I think it's less about like an awareness of the genre and more about just being honest about what would how would you feel in a situation like that? And working with the directors and writers, we really wanted to focus just on realism. And then I think we let the artwork and the sound design and the music and the ambience and all of that kind of inform the genre a little bit more. And we just focused on how would you react if this was really happening? And that's very strange.
Simon:We had a fellow cast member on the show not too long ago on the The next game I'm going to bring up, Mr. Superman himself, Craig Lee Thomas. You were both cast in DC Dark Legion, where you got to voice Black Canary, who was one of the first female characters drawn up in DC Comics. Yet again, another badass character, martial arts specialist. How was your time working on DC Dark Legion?
Alaina:Yeah, well, first, shout out to Craig. Incredible performance. As always, Craig does not miss the correct choice for Superman. Awesome, awesome work. Yeah, DC Dark Legion was an awesome session. It was, first of all, like, of course I totally geeked out when I saw this booking. And maybe I'll just back up before I get to the actual session. I auditioned for it probably nine or ten months before I got the offer, and so I completely forgot about it. I just thought, well, I never heard anything, so that one's done. And it was just so crazy to get that booking, and then once I got into the session, the director was like, Like, oh, yeah, we knew right away it was going to be you. Like, we heard it. We're like, she's Black Canary. Like, no question. And I was like, that is wild because I thought this is done. I have to release and move on. And meanwhile, they had made a decision months ago and we're just getting other stuff in order and they just didn't tell me. So it just goes to show like you have no idea what's going on behind the scenes and how highly people are speaking of you when you're not there. And just because you haven't heard anything doesn't mean that something isn't coming. So that was crazy. And then also just getting the call sheet and seeing James Arnold Taylor next to me on the call sheet. I was like, I've made it because, oh man, Final Fantasy X was like the game when I was in middle school. I loved that game. So it's crazy that we're on the same roster now and we're in the same game. I was like, oh man, things are changing. Like this year, I'm starting to be in games with people I really admire and like that's that's some information to take in
Simon:I can imagine that being a shock to the system well who knows next you'll end up there with Troy Baker with Neil Newborn and yes
Alaina:let's go I'm ready I'm ready I'm sure they're all amazing to work with yeah that would be awesome I would love to meet them that would be so cool
Simon:and when you're playing as Black Canary do you do research into the original character that was written into the comics I mean a very very long time ago now
Alaina:you know a little bit. There's just so much out there and there's already been so many different interpretations that I didn't want anything to really kind of inform or color the performance too much. I was just trusting that what I did in the audition, there was something about it that they liked. And so I really tried to stay true to that and then let the team let me know if there was something in the session that they needed to tell me and they would be specific about. This is what's happening. This is the context. Here's the world building, all of that stuff. So we're working with Warner Brothers on it was awesome. And they were able to bring me up to speed because I was a Disney girl growing up and didn't know too much about DC. So but we got there.
Simon:That answers one of the questions on my sheet. I also asked Craig the same question. I won't give his answer just yet. But if you were given the choice to play any DC character in the world, who would you pick?
Alaina:Well, I mean, of course, like no shade to Dinah because she's my girl. But But I think probably the strongest connection I had to any DC property growing up was Teen Titans, like the version that was on on Cartoon Network. So probably Starfire would be my choice because I always loved the really feminine superheroes who also had something really crazy and weird about them. So I loved her. And yeah, that would be interesting to put my take on that character.
Simon:That's a really good choice. Craig chose Superman obviously that was his guy oh yeah so he played Superman and he said look there would have been no one else I could have played in that game because that's the ultimate guy right and I was like yeah
Alaina:yeah it kind of is goal achieved yeah so he's peaked now I guess that's it gotta find something else to do no
Simon:just
Alaina:kidding that's awesome though dreams come true
Simon:they do clearly and I think what's apparent in this business and this industry and after speaking to so many actors and performers and voice actors is that you are living out your dreams on a daily basis. Yes, there are roles that are tougher. There are gigs that may not be as flash as the next one, but you are essentially just having fun at doing a job you love.
Alaina:Yeah. I mean, again, like I said earlier, it's really easy to get caught up in the day to day and to get stressed out about, oh, I got to answer that email and I got to turn in that audition. And, you know, there's a That's why I think mindfulness is so important to be able to come back to center and say, OK, but eight, nine years ago, I was teaching English online for five dollars a session. And that's how I was making grocery money. And like, you know, that could be what I'm doing. You know, so let's not be complaining too much about these awesome opportunities that are, yes, on my to do list, but it will all get done and it's going to be OK. And then maybe tomorrow I wake up and I do book something really cool. Like, you know, I think it's that you can get used to anything. You can become accustomed to anything. This happened to me when I worked at Disney, too. It was like the first six months were a fairy tale. And then after that, I was like, I'm kind of bored. I want to learn a new role like Space Mountain during my lunch break again. Boring. Like so. But like, you know, because you just pull you. I know. Like so hard to just like do this all the time. But you can get used to anything. And we as humans want growth, I think. So it's like a both and like, yes, we are super lucky. And also, it is just normal that when you do the same thing over and over and over again, that you're going to want challenge. So I always do try to be setting goals for myself or figuring out what haven't I learned about yet. Maybe I need a new technique to dig my teeth into. Maybe I need to look into a new genre because I need a challenge. And then that also helps you show up in the work you are doing from a refreshed perspective.
Simon:Some really, truly wise words. Talking of genre. genres. I've allowed you to stew on it long enough now. Top three games of all time. What would they be? Takes extremely long sip of
Alaina:coffee to stall. I don't know. I really honestly was in the moment and not thinking about it. So don't hold me to this and don't clip this because people are going to be like, what? Those are the stupidest answers I've ever heard. I'm just going to go with like my tried and true, like it's a rainy day. I'm going bust out this game because I know I love it okay so first and foremost Kingdom Hearts boom love it love it I mean I think there I don't think there's any other game I've played more times than Kingdom Hearts and like that's a lot of different games but probably one or two Kingdom Hearts one or two would be the ones that I've played the most and I just I love it because it that is what introduced me to Final Fantasy but then I also because I grew up loving Disney it was a natural way and I was like what there's an adventure video game where you can go inside all the different Disney stories, I have to know what this is. So that's a comfort game for sure. Love it. Love it so much. I think I am going to say Final Fantasy 10, which I mentioned before because I haven't played all the Final Fantasy games, but I've played a handful and I just feel like the story in 10 is just, oh, it's like heart wrenching and it's so good. It has like all the elements of storytelling I would want. It has the romance. It has the really complicated world building and the political aspects. and the spiritual aspect it's just like there's so many different angles and all the characters are complicated and you kind of you get to understand where all of them are coming from and you kind of hope it's gonna end differently every time and then it doesn't and it's like it's so good the performances are amazing so that one's up there also
Simon:the cast in that game stacked I mean I mean Wow all
Alaina:incredible I mean yeah nailed it nail on the head and then I I think for the last one, I would say Uncharted 2, which I think is Among Thieves.
Simon:Yes. Yeah, it is one of the greatest games ever made, in my personal opinion. I
Alaina:think I've played that probably 10 times. It's so good. And the acting is so good. And I was actually just playing it on a vacation with my parents this past summer. And because it was freezing cold outside, we went to the beach and there was nothing else to do. So we had brought a PlayStation. Which is a normal thing to do at a beach. And my mom is like... normal thing to do it's like 40 degrees like okay well here we go 40 degrees Fahrenheit to be clear and my mom is like walking by and she's like is this a movie and I was like well you know kind of like if you're the viewer and she's like wait are you controlling it now I'm like no no okay now you see the camera goes behind the characters back now I'm controlling it and she's like but it's so fluid it all feels like one thing and I'm like I know and this was like crazy at the time okay it's like a 40 hour movie. But yeah, gosh, I love that game. I thought it was cool that there was a character named Elena, even though she spelled it differently than me. And Nolan North's performance and character, just awesome. And I always wanted to play a role that was sort of like the female version of that. And I think I kind of got to do that. There was a VR game we did called Resist. It was for Oculus Quest. And it was sort of like a future Yeah, it was one of the greatest games. I
Simon:will be slightly controversial on that. Two was a standout moment for many reasons because nothing like that had ever been seen before at that moment. I do feel like 4 was the complete game for Naughty Dog. I just feel like that brings out the inner child in me wanting to go on those adventures, go into temples in a cemetery, as weird as that sounds. But, you know, you get the process because you look at it going, man, that's just a life I wish I could live. Totally. When you have a game that does that too, you know it's special.
Alaina:Totally. And I could mention a ton of other Naughty Dog games. Last of Us Part 2 Oh man, that one destroyed me. I
Simon:mean, yeah, they're awesome. So, yeah.
Alaina:I knew she was going to say that. She loves playing, too. Did she tell you that? Yeah, she did. She'll be stressed out and she's like, oh, I got to go play Call of Duty.
Simon:You actually sounded like her.
Alaina:You're so brave. I'm like, are you on mic? Because I feel like I would be bullied out of there. But yeah, that's so funny. And let's manifest it for her right now. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. Love it. Oh, man. I think for me, we can get into this later when we talk about things I still want to do in general. But In terms of, like, a franchise, I mean, I would love to be in a Final Fantasy game. I would love it. I had the pleasure of working with Square Enix on Fantasian Neo Dimension, and that game was actually released without voiceover, and then it did so well, they were like, well, let's re-release it, but for console, and we'll fully voice act it. And so I had already played it, and then happened to get the audition and was like, is this what I think it is? This is no way. I ended up booking it and being very familiar with it because I had played it start to finish already. And I just wanted more. I was like, yes, okay, this is awesome. And now, next step, put me in one of the newer ones. Put me in one of the next main installment in the franchise. That, I mean, bucket list for sure.
Simon:Outside of video games, you have had one hell of a fascinating journey. A professional theatre actor we've already mentioned to singer and you've also appeared on screen, global commercials, and you've also received multiple award nominations, one quite recently as well, which I believe was female voiceover of the year for the One Voice Awards. Congratulations on the nomination, by the way.
Alaina:Thank you. I actually ended up winning in a different category this year. It was my first win. Oh, wow.
Simon:Huge congratulations.
Alaina:Thank
Simon:you. That slipped through my research. I have no idea how, but congratulations. It
Alaina:happened literally day Wow, fantastic. Congratulations. Thank you. So
Simon:when you look back at the journey you've had and your latest work and over the last 10 years, how do you sum that up?
Alaina:Man, I mean, again, like I just I have so much gratitude and I've been so lucky to work across so many different genres from commercial Yeah. I would love to get more serious in animation. I'd love to do animated features. I would love to get into dubbing. I'd love to get into maybe an animated network series. And I also have a bucket list dream to do announcements at one of the Disney parks, because that's one of the things I didn't get to do while I was there. I would love to do the, ladies and gentlemen, in just 15 minutes, wishes will begin. I would love to do that. And I would love to do motion capture and performance capture because I think with my theater training and my screen acting training and my voiceover training, it really is like an amalgamation of all three of those. And I just think it would be such a full body challenge and a brain challenge as well. So I would love to do that. And I really feel like this next decade is going to be about, okay, what's next? Like, what else can I do?
Simon:That's incredibly inspiring. I actually fly to Florida in eight days. So I will go and knock on Disney's door and be like, I'm Show someone,
Alaina:right? Yes. Yes. I love it. Networking. Thank you so much. Yeah. Get my old boss in the room and be like, excuse me. Like, you know, she's been out of a job with you guys for a while now. No, I'm just kidding. But we're working on it. It'll happen one of these days. It might just take, you know, time and persistence and patience.
Simon:Everything is all about hard work and timing, right? I think that's the entertainment industry in Are there any projects that you are working on currently that you can talk about? We know NDA is a real thing in this industry. There's a lot of red tape, but are there any projects in particular that you're working on that you can tell us about?
Alaina:Sure, yeah. Well, in the US, I've got a few national spots running, so you may have heard me and not known. Right now, I have something running for the University of Miami. It's their 100th anniversary. So that's running on Saturdays at halftime during college football I also have a United Airlines spot that's running again, I believe, nationally. And I have a Toyota Highland Grand Highlander spot that's running as well nationally. And then, you know, with these live service games, the ones that have been announced that I'm in, those are live service. So you never know. Stick around. There might be more updates. There might be, you know, new things coming for old characters that you already know and love. That's always a possibility. And then, you know, I can't say specifically, but just trust there's some stuff that's coming down the pipeline that I'm very, very excited about. And you will not hear the end of it when I'm able to finally talk about it.
Simon:That sets us up for a part two in the future. Thank you so much for giving up your time, Elena. Honestly, I think this has been an incredible interview. You're a great bubbly human being, very talented. And what I'd love to do on this show is I like to give my guests the last word. Elena Wyss, thank you very much for taking the time to be here on Gone Gold today.
Alaina:Oh, well, thank Thank you so much, Simon. This has just brightened my day, been the highlight of my day. And yeah, I guess as a last word, I tend to hear a lot from new folks in voice acting. How do I get started in voice acting? And where do I start? Where do I find work? All this stuff. And I want to send, I think, a word of encouragement to all those people because I'm very transparent about the fact that I started out with almost nothing. Like, yes, we talked about the importance of foundational acting training. I will give you that. I had that. That's not a small thing. However, I had no voiceover training. I had no professional setup. I didn't have fancy equipment. I didn't have any industry connections. I was doing it completely alone. And the best advice I can give people starting out is just start. Make it happen, and then you can make it good later. But just start. Just do something. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Don't get so overwhelmed in all the details that you just do nothing. Don't let that paralyze you. Just take one step today, whether that's just Googling how do I start out in voice acting or watching a YouTube video on how to make a home studio or whatever. One thing that takes five minutes, just do that and that's enough for today. And then tomorrow, do another five minutes. Small pieces. You know, don't get so overwhelmed that you don't even start because you really have no idea where you might end up 10 years from now if you just take that first step.
Simon:Well, there you go. I told you that this was a really bubbly, energetic episode. And it was. It was so much fun. And there was just so many happy vibes. That's what made this episode so special. Elena is incredibly talented, very gifted. And she's about to explode to new heights. She's going to get so big. And I know we mentioned about Craig Lee Thomas and his future. But I think Elena's on that path as well. Super fun interview. Great guest. and I look forward to getting her back on the show in the future. Thank you to everyone who has stayed with us throughout this episode. Again, another fun one in the bag. I'm off to Florida tomorrow, but don't worry. The episodes will still keep rolling as I've got some lined up ready to go and I know you're going to love them. For everyone who wants to watch video footage of these interviews, you can by simply heading over to Gone Gold Show on Twitter or whatever you're calling it, TikTok and Instagram that's gongoldshow at gongoldshow and you can watch video footage of these incredible interviews I have now considered putting these on YouTube so maybe that's a future plan I do need to hire someone to edit all 15 episodes that we've got out already and help me get into that so we'll look at that for the future to get these full episodes up on YouTube as well that's it for me for another great episode again if you've enjoyed this episode don't forget on your chosen platform scroll down you'll see the stars or the ratings please Please give one, leave a comment. All that engagement helps this show grow and grow just like it has been already. But that's the end from me, ladies and gentlemen. I've been your host, Simon Hill. I'll be back next week with another killer episode. You don't want to miss it. But until then, you know what to do. Keep it gone gold.
