With it came certain expectations among the Final Fantasy community. However, outstanding onomatopoeia aside, being a gamer was a double-edged sword. She could take comfort in what was familiar and leverage personal knowledge to get ahead. I nailed those right off the bat.”īeing a longtime gamer had its benefits while traversing through the brave new world of voice acting. When I went in and did the battle grunts - because they wanted to make sure I could do the ‘Ugh!’, ‘Ahh!”, the hits and the hurts and all the stuff like that - I knew exactly how those have sounded since I’ve played so many video games. “Looking at Aerith and this video game audition,” she says, “I went in with no experience in voiceover, but a lot of hours playing video games. So, with an ice-cold beer not in hand, she prepared for the role her way. “Even though there was a part of me that thought the likelihood was so low…In the back of my head, I still was kind of thinking and preparing for it the whole time. She needed to be ready to give Aerith everything she had.Īs the new kid on the voice acting block with every reason to doubt her chances, it would’ve been easy to hold back. The significance of the character was too great. If I did book this role, I would want to take the best, absolute care of myself and my throat…Drinking has to be less a part of my life.”įor months, she did without the bittersweet tonic she loved in preparation for a role she may not get. “As a voice actor, you have to be really knowledgeable about your vices. Given the reasoning behind her epiphany, her commitment to it was nearly instant.
I’m not going to drink at all.”īria na takes a breath as she remembers being on the couch when this idea came to her. I love beer, but I was like, I can’t do it. “When I auditioned, I stopped drinking pretty much entirely. Not the first word you’d expect in an article about Aerith, right? But, thanks to Briana White, the new voice of Aerith in Final Fantasy VII Remake, beer at least becomes a part of the discussion for good reason.