Game industry players were among the first to sound the alarm about generative artificial intelligence. As other professions and media now fear being replaced by technology, many actors and writers have already gone on strike because of the lack of protection it affords them.
Even among these early critics of the AI gene, Erica Lindbeck stands out. At a time when AI voice cloning on TikTok was little more than a party trick, in 2023 she spoke out against it being used in her voice for memes and other tricks. Some of her colleagues agreed, like Roger Clark and Yuri Lowenthal, and urged their fans to stop messing with apps that cloned their performances, even if it was just for gags.
Now, several years later, Lindbeck fights back by appreciating humanity more than ever.
“When I go to a restaurant and I have that nice server talking to me and looking me in the eye… I have a new appreciation for human interaction,” she told me in a Zoom interview. “I don't want to order from my car. I want to tip my barista.”
Lindbeck believes this extends to the gaming world as well. Her latest gig, the extraction shooter Marathon, launched last month, featuring Vandal. In a sea of negativity, Bungie has regained a lot of goodwill with a cast reveal that shows it's absolutely packed with talent – human talent.
“I didn't really think about it that way until I read a comment on Reddit that said I think they did it really intentionally,” Lindbeck tells me, recalling the casting reveal. “[Bungie] he wanted everyone to know that there were human beings behind all those voices.
“I totally agree with them. I think they were saying, 'Hey, there's a person behind every voice in this game.'
It wasn't just a gesture to show them all to the world, but also to see who her fellow citizens were. From Jennifer English to Ben Starr, big names were everywhere. “The voice calling is so incredible, everyone sounds so amazing, and the cast list is just… I'm standing on the shoulders of giants.”
“I really love that because with these live service games or multiplayer games, VO isn't as necessary as a narrative game like a longer form game,” he continues. “So I think the game holistically is just really, really, ace.
Why Erica Lindbeck loves VO, no matter what character she plays
Lindbeck is not best known for playing any particular role. Depending on your favorite game or show, she can be any number of characters to you, whether it's icons like Barbie or Futaba Sakura in Persona 5. You could also describe her as a character actor who has thrown herself into a wide variety of supporting roles over the years, several of which we touch upon as we chat.
One of those supporting characters happens to be one of her most popular roles: Misty from Cyberpunk 2077. She also plays Meredith Stout and Spider Murphy in CDPR's dystopian RPG, which were originally intended to be her bigger roles.
“The character I booked in Cyberpunk was Meredith, and Misty was a random side character they threw me in,” he tells me. “We recorded her a few times because we didn't know what to do with her.
Describing this original version of Misty as “empty” and “a little silly,” they finally hit the right note. She and the writers loved Misty so much that her role kept expanding.
“We ended up with the subtle Harley Quinn from New Jersey thing. And now she's one of my favorite characters I've ever voiced. I love her so much,” she says. “They kept writing more for her, so Misty became a much bigger character than Meredith.
“I get bored very easily. So this is kind of the perfect job for me.”
I feel like this is an aspect of VO that many would overlook. The AI wouldn't tell you if the words you're saying just don't sound right, or if it could reflect on them or change course. It does what you ask for with little to no nuance. But here, Lindbeck and CDPR worked together — though she gives CDPR most of the credit for how things turned out.
“Writing is a lot of hard work,” he explains, but adds, “There was a lot of freedom and a lot of trust.”
This love for the game isn't just reserved for these larger projects. As we chat, I make an offhand remark that I heard her voice on Smiling Friends just before the interview and she fondly remembers all the characters she played there. Then we go on a tangent about Sonic starring Blaze and Omochao in all of their appearances since 2019.
In other words, she cannot be said to have a type. “I get bored very easily. So this is kind of the perfect job for me.”
“I both love and hate how fast VO moves,” he explains. “With a camera, you can immerse yourself in one project for six months, move somewhere and shoot. [But] for me, there are always so many auditions and I can work on two different, three different, four different projects in a day. I could do a McDonald's commercial, I could work on Sonic, I could work on Smiling Friends. It's like code-switching, which I love because my brain is always trying to have fun and it really loves that shift.”
Distance from the microphone
VO doesn't just let Lindbeck jump between different roles — it also allows her to be less forward when she wants to.
But in recent years, she says, it's become increasingly difficult, and for good reason — game actors get their flowers. With more awareness of the actors behind the characters in the games we play, that means there's more interest in talking to them about their craft.
“For someone who likes to hide behind the microphone a bit, it was really interesting. It forced me out of my comfort zone,” he tells me. “I literally went to school for theater. I've been acting my whole life, but I've been comfortable in my little ivory tower with a microphone for years.”
“There are so many different mediums of performance. I love them all. I love VO – it's the thing that got me into the industry, it allows me to do so many different roles that I wouldn't necessarily be able to do on camera.”
Staying with VO doesn't mean keeping your face out of the spotlight. Fandom has only become more mainstream, so even if you don't play the main role, your character will have fans and they will want to see who plays them and interact with them outside of the games, the show, or whatever else they call home.
“I like to walk [to conventions] and spend some time with these people and hear them tell their stories.”
“I sort of judge it by convention, don't I?” he explains. “I go to the cons and see who comes. I got bullied into doing a Misty print. So many people came up to me and asked, 'Where's Misty?' I saw Misty cosplayers. So freaking cool.”
Lindbeck admits she's tried to avoid being “chronically online” for her mental health, so meeting fans at conventions sounds like the perfect amount of exposure.
“I like to go and talk to these people and listen to them tell their stories and I feel like… I don't know if it's a verified word, but I'm so excited to be sitting there,” Lindbeck tells me. “It's a huge privilege to be a small part of some of these people's mental health journeys.
“I don't save lives, but if I can be a part of something that gives someone comfort in a difficult time… I've heard a lot of pandemic stories related to Persona 5 and Cyberpunk.”
Still, while we're all a little more aware of who voices our favorite characters, Lindbeck doesn't want to take all the credit. For example, when he looks at his work on the Spider-Man games, he's quick to give credit to everyone involved.
“The Black Cat was created by three women,” she says. “There was me doing the voice, the face capture and some mocap. And then there was the stuntwoman, Amy Johnston, who is incredible. And then there was Jayme Lynn Evans, who is the face model. The three women came together to create the mega babe that is Black Cat.”
From our chat, it was revealed that Lindbeck will reprise her role as the Black Cat in Marvel Rivals.
Actors who could lose the most to AI
Insomniac was apparently happy to bring three different women to life as Black Cat, but the gaming community is increasingly concerned that the cast will be dropped altogether.
Early adopters of AI acting have still hired actors as we saw with Arc Raiders. However, they used voice cloning to create additional lines, shortening the recording sessions and eliminating the need to return the cast for updates (this has since been reverted due to quality concerns). Even though the actors in this case have given their consent to cloning, it still seems like a Pandora's box is opening and will be impossible to close once we cross such a line.
It doesn't look like Bungie will be doing that with Marathon anytime soon, as Lindbeck mentions that he was only recently brought back to record more lines for Vandal. In fact, she's not necessarily afraid of her work, but the next generation of actors.
“I feel pretty lucky at this point that I got into the industry years ago because I think the things that are going to be eliminated are the entry-level roles,” she tells me. “These are roles that can prepare your entry into the industry.
We recently saw this with Jennifer English, who went from playing many different NPCs in Divinity: Original Sin 2 to the award-winning lead role of Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Lindbeck is no stranger to this. “I remember the first triple-A games I ever booked,” she continues. “I believe it was like Civilian A, Salesman B. I'm sure those roles are still seemingly voiced by humans, but I think those will be the roles that come first.”
With that, it goes back to Lindbeck's love of messy human performance, which he thinks will ultimately triumph.
“On a general level, yes, it's very foggy and scary,” he explains. “However, I think the essence of really good acting is the specificity of our choices, our very human choices, that we make to create these characters.
“Call me blindly optimistic, but I just don't see how an AI can replicate that. Just not.”
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