by Aaron Amendola. It’s not so difficult to imagine a voice performer preparing for an upcoming recording session. There are vocal warm-ups and plenty of throat-coat tea to go around; then, the actor enters a booth to deliver a performance that will eventually be edited to fit whatever project they’re working on. For Patricia Summersett, the voice of Princess Zelda for the last three Legend of Zelda titles, there’s more than vocal preparation to consider when channeling a beloved character for an enormous project such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. “I write in TP Hylian fluently,” she tells us. “I learned it over a period of months while recording the first game.” And she’d love to be able to speak a Hylian language for the games, too, only the opportunity has yet to arrive. In her words: “Alas, this isn’t Star Trek.”
Summersett, an accomplished, classically trained actress with credits in film and gaming that span a wide range of genres, has a refreshing enthusiasm for her character. Zelda is, in fact, a true-blue passion for her — she cites Shakespearean influences and Legend of Zelda references every which way but Groose. You might have heard of her latest project by now: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the latest in Nintendo’s critically acclaimed and best-selling Legend of Zelda series.
Like its predecessor, Breath of the Wild, TOTK arrived on the Switch in May and immediately captured the hearts and minds of adventurers everywhere. This new game chronicles Link’s quest to reunite with Princess Zelda to discover the forces plaguing the land of Hyrule and restore power to the Master Sword before malicious monsters take over their world for good. To say more would give away some of the shine and wonder that TOTK expertly unveils over time; we’ll have more to say on that in an upcoming LOAD FILE review. Here’s the tl;dr — it’s good. Really good. Fantastically good. And Summersett’s performance makes it that much more magical.
With The Legend of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom casting spells on Nintendo Switches everywhere, Patricia Summersett spoke with DoomRocket about finding Princess Zelda’s voice and what she believes is the true heart of Hyrule.
1. I’m currently playing through The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and am quite fond of it. It reminds me of my first Zelda game on the Super Nintendo, A Link To The Past. Every generation seems to have a new Zelda game that changes the landscape of video games for a few years — did you have any experience with Zelda titles before the role came around, or was Breath of the Wild your first trip to Hyrule?
I grew up with an NES in our family house in rural Michigan. I was super young, but my older sister would play the original Legend of Zelda. I was more into Mario and the track pad, Duck Hunt. Ocarina of Time in high school, a bit of Twilight Princess eventually… I was familiar with the series.
2. With Tears of the Kingdom, it feels like everything from Breath of the Wild has been elevated. The game is sitting at a 97 on Metacritic, and it’s already being heralded as one of the best games of all time. One highlight of Tears of the Kingdom for me is its superb voice performances found throughout Hyrule, which is interesting; before you, Zelda never had a voice. How does it feel coming back to such a beloved character — and such acclaim — after Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors?
That’s a lovely compliment. Thank you. It’s such a gift to revisit a character and reprise a role. Inevitably certain pieces of a character will morph and evolve — which is great. But you already have a connection to the material, so your primary research material can be drawn from some of your own previous work. I could never have predicted the success this game would garner.
3. When it comes to Princess Zelda, there are many different interpretations of the character, from Ocarina Of Time to Smash Bros. In BOTW and Hyrule Warriors, there is a very strong interpretation of Zelda that feels much more realized than in previous games. As someone who has spent more time with her than anyone else, what do you think defines Zelda?
Currently what comes to mind for me as an actor are descriptors like… wise but still visceral, deeply empathic, observant, silly, earnest and driven, highly intelligent.
4. The vibe of TOTK feels like something out of a Miyazaki story. There are moments of horrific drama and action interspersed with a world that’s actually pretty chill! This version of Hyrule feels earthy and confident. A specific vision like that needs a focused performance and Nintendo seems lucky to have someone like yourself who has been a lifelong performer, learning about different acting styles from a young age. Were there any specific performance techniques you rehearsed to attune yourself to the character and the world she inhabits?
Voice acting to me is acting, so it starts from a script. A script needs to be filled in with your own subtext so that it feels real to you. I come to roles from a theatre background. Booth work for a role like Zelda, which has nuance and an arc — or other roles for stage, live action, and motion capture — is a full-body experience. I warm up physically, do release work, find where the tones — and psychology — are sitting in me on that day, and how to access them fluidly. I do this before a session… and I sometimes use a steamer for my vocal cords too.
5. What does the process of understanding the character look like when you can only use your voice for a role?
If I’m given the time, I’ll research using books, films, other video game footage, new experiences, memories, and throw them into the brain pot. They all serve to help flesh out a world. Most importantly though, I try to prepare in a way that I can adjust my choices on the day because a creative team and a director may have a very different idea of how something needs to be delivered. Directablility is such an important skill in this business! Make specific choices, but don’t get too precious.
How many sessions did this game take?
As many sessions as there are frogs in a moat.
6. When you look at the journey that Princess Zelda has been on since Breath of the Wild, she’s truly been through the wringer. Yet she always feels down-to-earth and incredibly composed at any given moment. One of the things I like most about this current version of Zelda is her sense of focus. If you could equate her journey to any other dramatic character from fiction, who might you pick? There’s a Shakespearean element to her, I think.
Shakespeare. Hmm. I can’t think of a character who shares an identical overall journey — especially in terms of female protagonists of Shakespeare, who would also carry her personality traits — but perhaps there would be splashes of many characters? Beatrice, Rosalind, Juliet etc. Right now I find myself thinking of pieces of Henry IV with a bit of Hermione from Winter’s Tale, in terms of the coming-of-age elements, mixed with the metaphor of being frozen in time. But I’ll keep that really loose! Hard one!
7. I haven’t finished Tears of the Kingdom yet, but I can only imagine what a third game in the series might look like. Rumor has it that producer Eiji Aonuma wants to make more Zelda games in this style. How would you like to see Zelda’s journey continue if a third game gets made?
I hope it would turn into a triforce of open-world Zelda game innovation, of course! And to be honest? I haven’t thought about what is beyond this game. I only just picked up TOTK and haven’t played it yet.
8. The Zelda games are stacked with secrets and fans have been discovering new story tidbits for years. Other times, fans create all sorts of music videos or even fonts to use online. This leads me to a rumor I heard: is it true you can write in Hylian? Your IMDB page says you can actually write using the language from the games. If so, how long did it take to learn?
Yes, it is true. I write in TP Hylian fluently. I learned it over a period of months while recording the first game. If there had been an official spoken language for LOZ, I’d have attempted to learn that too. Alas, this isn’t Star Trek.
9. The Super Mario Bros. Movie was a huge hit in theatres. Its success has prompted talk of sequels and other Nintendo-based adaptations that might soon be in development. There are plenty of properties that the developer could more fully realize and flesh out on screen, including The Legend of Zelda. If Zelda was adapted for a movie, how would you want her to be written?
Like an absolute boss. To be more specific, I enjoy that Zelda has a deep strength but also a softness to her. I wonder what that would look like onscreen? Who knows.
Would you be interested in the role, if offered?
I’ll always be interested in offering my services for these awesome characters in any iteration I can.
10. According to the Twitter account @CanYouPetTheDog, you cannot pet any dogs in Tears of the Kingdom. If there’s a third game, can you tell the Nintendo devs to let us pet the dog?
I shall paraglide into many sky-rise windows searching for the devs who can make this happen. Once I’ve found these exceptionally talented individuals, who were actually on the ground the whole time, I will let them know that the dogs are too cute to ignore. Then I will thank them profusely — before I am arrested.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available for the Nintendo Switch now.
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