Living legend of science fiction, Claudia Black has played ladies in video games who stand out for their strong personality.
The voice is one of the characteristics that gives the most authenticity to a virtual character. A good performance makes an avatar come to life and leaves an indelible mark on our memory. Thus, we remember ladies like Morrigan (Dragon Age), Chloe Frazer (Uncharted) or Samantha Byrne (Gears of War) not only for their imposing personality, but for how they fill the room with their presence and with a voice full of presence. . All these ladies have in common a voice actress with a long career in digital entertainment: Claudia Black, whose resume is almost as extensive as Troy Baker’s.
Queen of television science fiction
Of Jewish origin, Claudia Black was born in Sydney and studied at the Kambala Girls’ College. Her teacher had noticed the girl’s artistic talent and vocation, whom she introduced in her first castings, as Black recounted during a promotional interview for Farscape. “I don’t want to compare myself to people like Mozart or Beethoven, but I think that when you’re an artist you don’t wake up one day and say ‘okay, what do I do today? Do I build houses or do I become a composer? “I think there is something innate in you that you need to express.” Defining herself as “a lazy perfectionist,” Claudia states that one of the reasons that led her to choose acting as a professional career was that she would force herself not to waste her colleagues’ time. In each of her roles, she seeks to give the best of herself, and her keen sense of humor is contagious in each of her public appearances.
Claudia Black as Aeryn Sun in Farscape.
After several amateur and semi-professional productions, Black built a generous television and film career, where she achieved stardom thanks to science fiction: it was Aeryn Sun in Farscape, for which she was awarded Best Actress at the Saturn Awards, which had been nominated on various occasions. She also played Vala Mal Doran in Stargate SG-1, with whom she shone on the big screen with the films of the aforementioned saga: The Ark of Truth and The Continuum.
Claudia’s face is no stranger to television, where she stood out for her voluminous jet-black hair – later dyed to gold – and an attractiveness that had little to do with the canons of the moment: her long nose and hard features turned her into the ideal face to play tough and tough women, whom he made shine with his deep voice and strong Australian accent. She became a high school luxury on Australian series such as City Life and Country Practice. We also saw her on the big screen as Sharon Montgomery in Pitch Black; and as Pandora in The Queen of the Damned; and also in the TV movie Amazon High. She also participated as a guest in series such as Xena: The Warrior Princess, Moonlight or Police Rescue.
Claudia Black as Vala Mal Doran in Stargate.
The After Dark program defined her as “a royalty of science fiction”, because of her memorable roles within the genre. Coming from theater and music, Claudia Black describes in the Farscape promotional interview how her agent led her to make commercials and from there she made the leap into television, as well as giving a European theatrical tour to interpret The Merchant of Venice. In science fiction, however, the actress found the perfect niche: “Although I have had very interesting roles before, I think that in science fiction it is the perfect terrain for very strong women.”
The voice of the Wild Witch
During the filming of Farscape, Claudia Black discovered a new artistic route for which some of her most distinctive features are perfect: her deep voice, her Australian accent and her ability to imitate other accents. As a voice actress, she made her debut as Mikhail in Steel Angel Kurumi, which was the gateway to a prolific career in the world of animation and video games. The list of titles in which he has participated is extensive, and in it we find relevant names such as God of War, Conan, Mass Effect (II and III), Gears of War or Final Fantasy XIV. However, her most prominent roles are the sorceress Morrigan in Dragon Age and Chloe Frazer in Uncharted.
Morrigan in Dragon Age: Inquisition
On the official Bioware channel, Claudia Black describes some of the reasons why she is passionate about dubbing, from disregarding aesthetic concerns to creative freedom: “I love working as a voice actress because I can perform in the studio without preening except when there are cameras. It is a super fun and happy profession, which allows actors to be more relaxed and not so self-conscious. It also has its technical little things, like not being able to wear clothes that make noise, and at the same time finding a way for the sound to come out of your own body. It is very noticeable when something sounds very clinical and cold, and it is very important to warm up your voice, because everyone expects you to be ready to start immediately ”.
Regarding Morrigan herself, the actress highlights that it was a pleasure to play her and bring out all the nuances of such an elaborate personality: “When you are given a well-written character, it presents a series of inherent complexities and Morrigan from Dragon Age is not the exception. I’ve been very lucky to come across a character constructed with as much care as the one David Gaider has given him. I have not been oblivious to the layers of his personality or his expectations, but when I have faith and trust that I can identify with my character, I do so in a very empathetic way. I always find a way to put myself in their place, and the emotion comes out on its own ”.
Claudia Black in the recording studio, during one of her sessions to play Morrigan.
Claudia Black assures that comedy is much more difficult than tragedy, and in the sorceress we find both facets within a very complex woman. The individualist Morrigan sports a sarcastic sense of humor, even hurtful towards her peers. His thirst for knowledge does not bow to the guidelines imposed by the Circle, and he considers that it is the magician himself who must take responsibility for the limits of his arcane practices. However, the sorceress’s coldness is not at odds with her vulnerability; We observe her sweeter side if she falls in love with the Gray Warden, as well as her fear when her son Kieran – played by Odin, Claudia Black’s own son – is in danger.
Chloe Frazer, the intrepid treasure hunter
Chloe Frazer has a few things in common with Morrigan. The treasure hunter follows an individualistic philosophy, despite collaborating with Nathan Drake on his expedition and, like Morrigan, follows some guidelines of the femme fatale archetype that TV Tropes describes as “sensual, aware of it and with its aura of seduction and danger confuses the hero ”. During an interview for Rolling Stone, Claudia Black describes her character as someone very similar to Drake: “They are both proud of their own achievements, they are renegades, they do not adhere to social standards, but Chloe’s moral compass is a little more deviated than Nathan’s. ” Chloe went on to have a leading and playable role in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, where we meet the adventurer beyond the mystery that has always enveloped her in previous installments. In addition, her relationship with Nadine allowed us to reflect on what it means to be a hero, as Claudia Black points out in the aforementioned interview. In addition, by being the protagonist, Black was able to explore more human personality traits: “All decisions we make in life have consequences, and everything Chloe faces involves a series of choices. I think that has a very important value and it is very interesting for the players because they are going to find the surprise factor and Chloe, in that sense, is a whole unexplored territory ”.
Chloe Frazer in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.
Claudia Black’s versatility with accents made her the ideal candidate to play Chloe Frazer, whose Indian and Australian origin required a very peculiar voice. The actress recounts her experience in the Uncharted documentary Behind the scenes: “When I showed up for the casting, I saw the script’s annotations said that [Chloe] it required a distinctive accent, which could be South African, British, or Australian. I said to myself: ‘It’s clear that I’m going to get this role, I can handle all three accents!’ Chloe also gave Black her debut with motion capture, which was a groundbreaking experience, as the actress took time to adjust to the stretchy sensor suit. “But after you get used to it, you leave it on to take the car and walk your friend’s dog, and when you realize that the whole neighborhood has been staring at you,” he jokes in the documentary. In this video, Black explores some of the differences between the traditional and motion capture interpretation. For example, for intimate scenes it is necessary that the actors do not really kiss, since it makes later animation difficult. Also, Claudia Black takes the costumes as a starting point to create her characters, to which she had to give a different perspective in motion capture: “I always look at shoes. ‘What kind of shoes is my character wearing?’ Is something I always pay attention to when playing him. And then I find those second and third hand shoes that other motion capture actresses have used. “
Likewise, the actress had some freedom to interpret certain scenes and propose changes that would enrich the Uncharted narrative: “I told Nolan [North]: ‘Don’t you think it would be cool if I jumped into your arms from the SUV, instead of getting off and doing the animation to go to you?’ I think Chloe is not going to waste time, she is very physical and I think it is fair what she would do. The proposal reached the animation team, who knew how to adapt it to draw the relationship and sexual tension between Nathan and Chloe.
Chloe and Nathan’s reunion in Uncharted 2.
During the official presentation roundtable for Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Black mentioned Frazer as his favorite character among all those he has played. One of the challenges he mentions, both in said conference and in the documentary Behind the scenes, is to reinterpret the same character between shootings so spaced apart by time. Claudia is aware that Chloe has evolved between each Uncharted installment, and Amy Hennig, Uncharted screenwriter, shared with her how they write a story that each player experiences differently: “Each cinematic must give each player enough information, from such that they remember the events that they saw six months before or before yesterday. It is a very interesting way to tell a story and interpret it. Not only must we bear in mind that it is non-linear, but we must be subtle and not be obvious ”.
Claudia Black has managed to carve out her own place in a world as competitive as that of acting. Aware that his characteristic features are precisely what make them inimitable, he has managed to give his characters a unique personality and make them be recognized with just one sentence. Perhaps, we will see new episodes of Morrigan and Chloe Frazer, as well as that of so many virtual ladies that can await in the future of the actress.
Claudia Black during the presentation of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.
