The Women Behind The Pixels

Since the majority of characters in most video games are male (how often do you find yourself shooting a  henchwoman?) the female roles tend to stand out more. More often than not they’re more sensible, more practical, more able and, naturally, more sexier than their male counterparts. Talk about an increase to realism in gaming.

Anyway, in this list of prominent female roles from this generation of gaming, I’ve decided to take a look at the actresses and models who have leant their talents to the character’s creation.

Enjoy.

Sheva Alomar

Game: Resident Evil 5
Modelled After: Michelle Van der Water

Michelle is an Australian actor who moved to Los Angeles to pursue her career further. Since moving there she has appeared in numerous short films and television shows, such as E.R. and the revamp of Melrose Place.

Those artistic directors at Capcom obviously liked the look of her face (can’t say I disagree with them) and used it as the basis for their model of Sheva Alomar – the B.S.A.A agent who’s assigned to the same mission as Chris Redfield and acts as his guide throughout the game. The role required Michelle to dress up in many of Sheva’s outfits and wield some weaponry. Doesn’t sound too bad for a day’s worth of pay; a cosplayer’s dream job even.

Voice Artist: Karen Dyer

So Sheva didn’t go around saying “Sturth!” all the time, they chose American Karen Dyer to perform the voice work and motion-capture for the character. Dyer is not too well known, appearing mostly in small roles for television programs such as Malcolm in the Middle and According to Jim, which isn’t a funny program just quietly. Her role as Sheva was met with very positive response, even if the character herself wasn’t too well received by the entire public (seriously, just get out of the way of my bullets).

Regardless, wasted ammunition wasn’t Karen’s fault – if anything she prevented me from loathing Sheva. That, and all those unlockable costumes.

Madison Paige

Game: Heavy Rain
Modelled After: Jacqui Ainsley

Heavy Rain’s female photo-journalist was based on English model Jacqui Ainsley. Madison’s face, body and movements are a near copy of Ainsley’s own, which were replicated through the use of motion-capture. This isn’t the first time her motions have been caught on film, as she also provided the silhouette of the dancing-and-flaming woman at the start of Die Another Day. Ainsley has also performed plenty of advertising work for companies such as Samsung and Lynx and is currently living with Guy Ritchie, the director famous for ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ as well as for being Madonna’s former husband.

Now I wonder if she provided ALL of the physical traits of Madison (if you know what I’m saying).

Voice Artist: Judi Beecher

Ainsley’s acting abilities probably aren’t to the same level as her looks, as Quantic Dream found actress Judi Beecher to lend her vocals to the character of Madison. Much like Dyer with Resident Evil, Beecher’s body of work isn’t renown, mainly staring in minor roles in full length films, such as The Stepford Wives, as well as some lead roles in indie short films. Her performance as Madison was perfect for the character. She sounded intelligent and confident, like you imagine a reporter would, and her screams were nice and realistic when that psycho-doctor was bearing down on her.

Elena Fisher

Game: Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Modelled After: Emily Rose

While perhaps not the basis of Elena originally (she was a brunette to start with), Rose still looks very similar to Uncharted’s lovely-lady. Since she provided all the physical mo-cap, including all the facial motions, it’s not surprising that Naughty Dog would just decide to recreate a representation of her visage. After all, Nathan Drake was based around Johnny Knoxville though there’s definitely more of an element of Nolan North to him. Back to Emily though, she’s an American actress who has appeared in plenty of television programs and films, though we shall detail them for you further down.

And no, she didn’t star in The Exorcism of Emily Rose, though that movie might have provided the inspiration for those zombie-things at the end of Drake’s Fortune.

Voice Artist: Emily Rose

Yep, she’s the only lady on this list who provided both the physical inspiration as well as the vocals. Elena has been applauded by reviewers everywhere for being a believable, everyday person who gets wrapped up in the extraordinary (mind you, she does learn to handle firearms rather quickly). Rose’s talents have also been applied to films such as Orphan, she’s had re-occuring roles on John From Cincinnati and E.R., and most recently she’s appeared as the lead in the supernatural series Haven, based on the novel ‘The Colardo Kid’ by Stephen King.

With Uncharted 3 recently announced let’s hope that we see Rose return to the cast for the third time. Wouldn’t be the same without her.

Leliana

Game: Dragon Age: Origins
Modelled After: Alexandra Stein

Dragon Age’s most girly character couldn’t have been designed around a less girly individual. Alexandra, or Alleykatze as she is also known in certain circles, is somewhat of an adult model – not quite cloister material, though Leliana was an assassin in the game so maybe there are more similarities than meets the eye. The physical comparisons are certainly there, minus the tattoos and piercings. Besides her modelling career, not much else is known about Miss Stein, though one look at her and you know she probably lives a fun lifestyle.

And yeah, Leliana’s in-game model doesn’t look quite as good, I know.

Voice Artist: Corinne Kempa

There’s nothing better than a French accent, and bi-lingual Corinne Kempa brought that in spades to the character of Leliana. The Orlesian bard’s sweet optimism and Parisian-tone made her a fan favourite (I certainly tried my luck at romancing her) and one has to respect Kempa for reciting all those lines of dialogue. All those thousands upon thousands of lines. Get that women a glass of water.

Kempa is known for her accomplished theatre career as well as her roles in numerous small films. In the near future she’ll be appearing in the New Zealand adventure-western film, Stolen, and a small film she wrote and produced, Zalika, is currently in post-production.

Bayonetta

Game: Bayonetta
Modelled After: Sarah Palin

Okay, so maybe not quite, but it’s freaking uncanny. Surely I’m not the only one who thought that Sarah Palin’s hair could be turned into many coats.

Voice Artist: Hellena Taylor

The seductive and sultry tones of Platinum Game’s disproportioned witch were provided by Hellena Taylor, an English lass with quite the acting resume. She has appeared in films such as Barcelona and The Sweetest Thing, dozens of stage productions, and has done more voice-work than you can point a stick at, including work with other video games such as The Saboteur and Dragon Age: Origins.

I’m not sure how she delivered some of the more…suggestive dialogue in Bayonetta with a straight face. I know I certainly couldn’t, but I guess that’s why her voice earns her more money than mine does.