Auditioning is an actor’s job. Getting cast to perform the job is the vacation. Imperium 7, my voice over agents, gives me a wide berth of roles and genres to audition for and obviously I try to go on vacation as often as possible.
I had predominately acted in theatre, film, and television until voice work lured me to its den. It was a thrill to do voice work on projects such as Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, The Incredibles 2, Moana, Onward, Scissor Seven and about 1500 other projects over my career. I had voiced characters for video games but had never played a principal role in one. That is, until Ghost of Tsushima entered my life.
Early in 2017, I got an audition for the role of Yuriko in a video game. I went into my recording booth with the lines they provided me and imagined the circumstances of the character. I performed each line along with a direction that they gave me: this line is directly to this character, try this one as if calling out from afar, one as if I were on horseback, for this line try saying it as if you are revealing something personal….
I listened to the takes on my headphones. Do I hear the character and not me? Is there life and place in each line? Tempo? I rechecked the directions. When I think I’ve got it, I set the proper gain (volume) for each line, save the file, and label it according to the precise specs. I email my audition and hope for the best.
Some time later, I got a callback. My GPS guided me to a big complex where someone ushered me into a large room, about the size of an airplane hangar. Nate Fox, a game director at Sucker Punch Productions (who turned out to being the director for Ghost of Tsushima), stepped up and thanked me for coming down. Generous indeed. What actor doesn’t love a callback? There were props and sets. Nate explained that unlike theatre I didn’t need to be mindful of the ‘fourth wall’; the camera would follow me. For about 45 minutes, I acted scenes. I then drove an hour back home and made lunch.
Some months later my agents sent an email informing me that I was cast. The work on the project would take me through 2018. Wait, which? What was the name of it? When would I start? What’s MOCAP? (It’s short for motion capture by the way). A friend pointed me to a video of Benedict Cumberbatch, in MOCAP, portraying Smaug for The Hobbit films. All of life and art are in those 17 minutes of footage. It was a revelation about commitment and creating.
In June of 2017 I started working on Ghost of Tsushima. In one session they greased my hair back and sat me in what looked like a barber’s chair. About one hundred Sony cameras surrounded me. A director talked me through varying expressions and the cameras flashed with each one. Another day, a mold was made of my face. In my first voice over session, I was fitted with a skullcap with two microphones attached and a helmet over that where a camera was trained on my face. I learned how to act with what felt like a football helmet on my head while facing Daisuke Tsuji, the actor who portrays Jin Sakai, the protagonist of the game, who was also fitted with the same headgear. Sucker Punch, Amanda Wyatt (one of the game’s voice directors), Yumi Mi (our Japanese dialect coach) and Daisuke were all patient and helpful to this novice. Twenty sessions over three years came and went.
Performing in a video game is a living experience. I didn’t have a full script at the start. Ghost of Tsushima took over seven years to develop. I was cast about three years into the process. The night before a session is when I would often be given the scenes. The scenes were usually short and not necessarily sequential. I tried to memorize them so that Yuriko could truly engage with Jin in the session.
The scenes between these characters are brief, like haiku. Their game time together is also short. The words in their scenes are clues to what the writers wished to convey. Similar to haiku, a poetic form that has three lines and seventeen syllables, the world is reflected in them.
Yuriko, now an elderly woman of Tsushima, was the lead character’s caretaker. She saw Jin as a child frolic with abandon. She tested his abilities, watched him grow, and sent him off into the world. When Jin comes back years later, does Yuriko see him as a grown man or the child she remembers? Answering this question was the cornerstone for everything Yuriko does. For her, Jin is an embodiment of memories. In the story, Jin comes to Yuriko when he remembers that she has the ability to make an important poison needed to fight the Mongols. It’s been quite some time since she made such venom; she has a hard time recalling, but she nonetheless tries. We set off to accomplish an intention and come away with an experience we didn’t expect to have. And that, like a haiku, has the world reflected in it.
In December of 2019, Daisuke Tsuji posted a trailer of Ghost of Tsushima. I watched the trailer and gasped at the sheer beauty of the game. The score was transfixing. Then, the curtain rose, revealing the orchestra on stage playing live. The camera pulled back further to reveal the audience. When the lights faded on the trailer, the logo for The Game Awards appeared to a round of thunderous applause, hoots and hollers. Whoa…this game is a huge deal!
In January of 2020, my work on the game was done. I resumed my life. I had four writing assignments looming. For as long as Sucker Punch had been developing Ghost of Tsushima, I had been writing a play about Akira Kurosawa. I was also writing the book for a musical about Angel Island for Pomona College and Huntington Gardens, and I am still writing an animated feature film for hire.
And then, of course, Covid-19 happened. Actors suddenly found themselves out of work. The quarantine gave me time to focus and complete my writing assignments. As a matter of fact, in the fall, The Blank Theatre will be doing a workshop of my Kurosawa play, 11 Seconds. And on the acting side of things, because I’ve had a home studio for fourteen years, I have gotten calls to record jobs from home.
When Ghost of Tsushima launched in July, I received texts from friends and family. One of my brothers has texted me more times because of this game than ever before. I was showered with praise about the game, my character, and her quests.
Ghost of Tsushima was now the highest rated game, selling 2.4 million copies in the first three days. It was selling out even in Japan! Gamers had been waiting for this game for six years. I didn’t have a PS4 so friends sent me links where I watched walkthroughs. I followed along in amazement while a gamer played one of Yuriko’s quests, entitled The Art of Seeing. I was even privy to his reactions. A surreal experience indeed.
I’m touched Yuriko’s side quests have reached so many people. I’m also delighted to see how they relate my character; gamers have publicly shared their deepest love for their grandmothers, mothers, and nannies and I think this speaks to the depth of their relationships. In a society that puts its focus on the young and nubile, it’s comforting to know how much they care about their elders. At a time when there are rampant assaults on Asians and Asian Americans, my hope is restored by how much gamers love Yuriko. I’m proud to have contributed to the humanizing of her. Thank you to everyone at Imperium-7, Sucker Punch, and Sony. Thank you to the gamers who immerse themselves in this world.
I was invited on The Everything Talk Show to talk about my work on the game. I told Paul Kwo I thought my job ended when the game launched. He said that was just the end of the first chapter. My friends and people like my brother think I’ll go to Comic-Con when it comes back. They seem to think gamers might cosplay my character and want my autograph. Apparently I might get invited to go to Japan, maybe an animated series and possibly a film based on the game. It was a crash course on gaming--what a subculture. It was truly The Art of Seeing.
I don't know the genesis of the game, but it’s fascinating to imagine how Sucker Punch, Nate Fox, Jason Connell, Ian Ryan, and Patrick Downs were all inspired by Kurosawa films. I relearned Twitter so I could find the writers to thank them for realizing this rich and historical world for people to explore. It starts with the writer, who then gets input from the most brilliant and creative minds in every department before it reaches us actors who add our performances to only then go to the animators who implement and bring to life the vision. It is a multi-faceted accomplishment. The fact that it goes through all these channels while everyone is getting notes, making adjustments, considering alternate ideas, negotiating caveats and many other unforeseen obstacles over so many days, weeks, months, and years until the launch and still survives with such an impact on the gaming audience is nothing short of miraculous. Sometimes there are so many revisions on a project, the heart gets written out of it. Audiences watch and wonder why it was ever made. When you know how much an idea has to go through, you appreciate how remarkable it is that something succeeds and resonates the way Ghost of Tsushima does.
For the Japanese to embrace and sell out the game is confirming. It’s a game based on Japanese history created by Americans. But cultural admiration is not new. Akira Kurosawa loved the American westerns of John Ford and samurai films were his version of them. In turn, Americans were inspired by Seven Samuraiand made The Magnificent Seven and A Bug’s Life. The Last Man Standing was Walter Hill’s Yojimbo, which inspired Italians to make Spaghetti Westerns like A Fistful of Dollars. Even Star Wars was inspired by The Hidden Fortress, right down to R2-D2 and C-3PO.
I’m gobsmacked. I did a voiceover audition and performed a character now revered in the biggest game trending right now. I’m so very proud to be part of it all. If auditions are the job and acting the vacation, this has to be a launch to the Moon.
Once, reluctantly, I filled in for someone to play mahjong with three gamblers. I got a full house hand and one gambler threw his tiles in.
“Give me a break! That‘s disgusting! Once again, Karen Huie stumbles into victory!” he said.
And born on that day, was the theme to my quest.
See you in Ghost of Tsushima!
Karen Huie
Karen Huie acts and performs voice overs in theatre, film, television, radio and video games.
Karen Huie was a rebellious, scrappy kid from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. She hung out with a gang, ran away from home, dropped out of school several times, was the lead singer of a band, modeled, wrote poetry, and went to HB Studio to study theatre all before moving to LA. She currently acts and performs voice overs in theatre, film, television, radio and videogames.
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