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“The Legend of Zelda” turns 40 this year, but the titular princess at the center of the franchise doesn’t look a day over whatever ethereal age the Nintendo video game franchise needs her to be for any given game.
The
magic of the fantasy character is in large part thanks to actress Patricia Summersett, who has been voicing the English-dub version of Princess Zelda since 2017’s “Breath of the Wild.” But Summersett says she crafted the now-iconic voice without knowing it was Zelda she was portraying.
“One of the funny things about how that voice was created was that I based it on the specs in the script — but not knowing that it was Zelda because it was secret,” Summersett tells Variety. “I had auditioned for multiple characters, so I went with the archetype that felt like it rested in my body the best at the time. And I knew that my regular voice was too low for a young princess character, so I sort of pitched it up. I found the place that it sat right on my vocal cords. And then I was like, I think she needs to be a little bit more classic English, that was part of the description as well as it could be anything, because it’s a fantasy world. Then I brought it in for the audition, and we worked around with it for a while. But of course, I still didn’t know what it was. So it happened organically, but I had very good reason to try very hard for the audition because, I just moved and I was really focused on doing some sort of good audition. So whatever that translated into, I can’t be sure, except that I’m glad I didn’t know what it was because that might have changed the outcome and I might have tried too hard on something.”
In addition to “Breath of the Wild,” Summersett has also voiced Zelda in “Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity,” “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and “Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment,” but can’t confirm one way or another yet if she’s involved in the upcoming “Ocarina of Time” remake set to release in November, or if she has anything to do with the live-action “Zelda” movie slated for April 2027.
And though she has done additional video-game voice acting and on-screen roles, Summersett says playing Zelda is one of the most physically comfortable experiences in her career.
“Yes, actually, it takes a little warming up for me to get into any range that it’s going to sit at, but I always feel a sense of deep relaxation after the recording sessions because it’s soft and you have to be kind of relaxed when you’re hitting that range,” Summersett says. “Even if she’s a thoughtful, heady character, the voice itself has to remain relaxed. So you get a sense of feeling very, very nice and warm afterward. Also, holding your center of energy at a sort of young, wide-eyed, youthful place that has a big heart is a pleasant feeling. Not all characters get to be like that.”
See below for more from Variety’s interview with Summersett about her career and the 40th anniversary of “The Legend of Zelda.”
With the 40th anniversary of “The Legend of Zelda” this year, is it causing you to reflect on your own career and part in the IP?
Absolutely. I mean, particularly when fans and media and everything are drawing up the anniversary dates and asking all these questions about it, I, of course, by default, get asked these questions too and it gives me a good reason to reflect on everything. It being the 40th anniversary, it’s interesting to think about the fact that I have been part of the franchise for essentially a quarter of it and that is something I never could have predicted in my life. I’m finding I’m really appreciating the longevity of any project these days, as there’s so much change around in the world and technologies and to have any sort of consistency with these wonderful stories over a series of several years and these wonderful characters, is just a real gem. I’m really happy about it, and I’m very happy for the “Zelda” fans right now with everything that they have coming and the way that it just keeps seeming to grow and expand and keep innovating. It’s just an awesome thing to be associated with in any way.
Do you recall landing the role for “Breath of the Wild” and what the audition process was like?
It happened for me at such a fascinating time in my career where I had made this big leap. I’d been acting for 10 years, but I decided to move to LA. I’d done Canada, I’d done London and I was like, “It’s time to go to California.” In retrospect, I’m kind of shocked at how this was one of the first things that I auditioned for when I got there. But I had packages ready to go and I came in probably with a certain amount of fresh blood. The project was secret; I did not know what it was, and so, like a lot of video games, it was presented as an RPG fantasy-style game with code names and everything like that. So, I just went in, balls to the wall, hoping to make a good impression and to land anything anywhere and just have a sign to tell me that I’d come to the right place. And in the end, it was that I landed. And it was so shocking to find out after I signed the NDAs and everything and that it was like, OK, here we go.
Had you already played the older “Zelda” games when you (unknowingly) auditioned for the part? Were you a big fan?
I absolutely had. I wasn’t a die-hard fan, but I’d grown up with the NES in my house. I’d played the original “Zelda.” I’d played “Ocarina of Time,” and was very familiar with the franchise and very familiar with Nintendo as well because I was more of a “Mario” player growing up. My sister and I were really big into the original “Mario” and “Mario 3.” So coming from that, as soon as I did discover what it was, it was like having an adrenaline rush. Like drinking five Red Bulls or something. Skydiving. I knew it was powerful.
What is your relationship with the “Legend of Zelda” fandom like these days?
Right now, what defines the franchise for me from the outside and just as Patricia, is very much fans and fan interactions because I do a lot of comic cons. I’ve traveled the world with it. It’s now been almost 10 years of that, which is just bananas to me. But to hear what the stories mean to other people, to have people come up to me and play the ocarina, play “Zelda’s Lullaby,” all over the world, you see the universal love of this story everywhere. So what a crazy thing for me to experience in that way, in terms of coming to a character that had this incredible legacy before I arrived.
You cannot play the past and thankfully, all the training that I’ve ever had before landing this role has taught me that you’ve got to come with the script at hand, the people that are in the room and, of course, you can be informed. I mean, when I did discover that I got the role, I went straight into “Hyrule Historia.” I taught myself “Twilight Princess” Hylian. I did a bunch of things to try to reinforce and just sit with the character. But when it comes to the actual recording, you’ve got to just let all that go. Take the direction that is in front of you, and trust that they cast you because you have the essence of what they’re looking for. It’s not some ethereal thing out there. They’re looking for the human in you and what you breathe life into.
Aside from your most recent work on “Zelda,” what projects are you involved with now?
I am working on several video games right now, which I’m so thrilled about. Obviously, I can’t talk about them. The other things that have really come around for me when I think of anniversaries — it’s so fascinating because “Zelda’s” having its 40th anniversary, I’m now in my 40s as well and I’m seeing a lot of things come back around to me that I had started in my 20s. So the things that I’m working on are almost stemming back from these early roots.
I’m going back into music. I’m going to go back into the recording process with my band, but we’ll probably change the name and just do a completely new iteration of it. I’m going back into the writing process, starting to write essays. So it’s a lot of indie stuff that I feel really strongly that I just need to do. Some of it involves going out into nature and being completely untapped from technology. And on the same stroke, the other part of it requires me going directly into interactive technology, hard core, like buying things like Mi.Mu gloves, Imogen Heap’s little creation, and then combining those and seeing where they sit in the middle.
So I’m just kind of interested, as an artist right now, in reflecting what that landscape is on the outside of even the video game world or whatever else I’m doing. Just creative projects that reflect my experience right now, which is it’s a very interesting world to be living in right now, where we have a lot of things at our fingertips, but a lot of fractured energy.
With the “Ocarina of Time” remake coming up, I’d like to know how you approach doing the voice acting for a “Zelda” remake vs. a new game. Are you playing Zelda in “Ocarina of Time?”
Oh, I have no idea for “Ocarina of Time.” I wouldn’t be able to speak to that. It’s not a released game, so whether or not I was a part of it, I wouldn’t be able to say anyway. What I could say about “Ocarina of Time” is that I’m excited for people who are “Zelda” fans because they’ve been waiting for that for a long time. So no, I can’t say that I’m involved in that at all. But I can say that, in a way, I’m as excited as the fans for what everybody’s going to get for an adaptation that people have literally been asking for for, I don’t know, probably since the original came out.
The “Legend of Zelda” live-action movie is set to release next year with Bo Bragason in the role as Princess Zelda. Do you have any thoughts on the best way to adapt the character of Zelda for the big screen?
In a way, I’d be the last person to weigh in on how I think it would be best adapted, because I’m not that kind of filmmaker or expert that they’ve assembled. In terms of different versions of Zelda, I wouldn’t be able to know because it hasn’t been released how it might affect how I feel about Zelda in general. I just leave a lot of room open for all sorts of different interpretations that different people bring to it. In the same way that somebody brings something to a new Harry Potter series or a James Bond or something of that nature that has a kind of cyclical storytelling element with different repeating archetypes.
It’s hard to get video game adaptations right, but we also live in a time now where we’re finding that there are major successes with those adaptations. We’ll see. A lot of people are really excited for it. I’ll be very, very curious to see what they do with it and excited along with everybody else for the people involved because it’s such a massive project and they’re so lucky to be involved in such a cool franchise, too. Just sort of wishing them the best and I’m sure it’s going to be great. But people will always have very strong opinions about it, regardless.
Sometimes for these film and TV adaptation projects, they try to incorporate and make nods to the video games by also incorporating the voice actors from the games. Have you been asked to be part of the “Zelda” movie?
I couldn’t answer that one way or another. Of course, I’m a walking NDA, sort of on the nomad land of the world. I mean, I love it when they do that for voice actors for sure and I hope that becomes a thing that is always implemented in the future as all the technologies sort of meld and video games want to be more like film and film wants to be more video games. That acknowledgment is lovely, but I couldn’t say one way or another.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
