Jennifer Hale Interview

The Escapist has a brief article-style interview with voice actress Jennifer Hale, which you may remember for roles such as Fall-from-Grace in Planescape: Torment, Bastila in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and, of course, Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect franchise. Here’s a snippet:

“I have so little free time because I am so fortunately busy with voice acting that when I do have it, I go outside,” she explained. “Tom Bissel wrote a piece on me for the New Yorker and he made me sit down and play Mass Effect 2; I’d never played a game before that… It was very interesting to actually play the game. Being at an event like PAX is fantastic because I get to see the people [games like Mass Effect] are meant for.”

The actress’s next big role is reprising Commander Shepard for Mass Effect 3. It’s inarguably a dramatic character, one that has developed quite a bit over the course of three games. However, Hale pointed out Shepard’s final starring role will feature some major developments for her.

“[Shepard] has such an incredible focus and a singular driving mission. Every character has high stakes or an imperative. With her, it’s huge – I mean, the stakes are galactic, it doesn’t get much bigger than that – but this is such an intense experience.

“In Mass Effect 3, they’ve loosened it up a little bit. There’s a little more emotional life. Shepard doesn’t operate from her emotions, she operates from her mission. Period. This time around you get to see a little more emotion.”