Nintendo Power interviews Jennifer Hale

[CapCom]

...And she has practically nothing of interest to say about Metroid. Which isn't surprising considering her entire voice acting for the gig was simply grunts and screams. Here's the Metroid-related excerpts (which are kind of ironic):

"How did it feel to give a voice to Samus Aran, often considered the "first lady of video games"?
Awesome. Shes' been very popular and I'm honored to have played her.

"Was there anything particularly memorable about the recording sessions for the Metroid Prime games?"
Like all games, it had its own world, its own reality, and I really liked the production team.

"Was there anything you were told about Samus that shaped how you played her?"
Samus really came from the writing and the vision of the director and, behind that, the producers.

My response is "what writing?" It was just grunts and screams Not mucht o work with there!

The discussion about Naomi Hunter is more interesting.

Even MORE interesting is that she's working on a game featuring Jack Black and written by Tim Schafer

[Outlaw]

Interesting I must say.

[Tentelumper]

Jennifer Hale: I was emotionally taken away by the dramatic manner of which the script writer wrote the meaningful utterances you people call "grunts" that I call "masterpieces". They should write a movie based on my lines, and then make a video game adaption of the movie.

[mental]

The auditions must have been interesting.

[Outlaw]

The auditions must have been interesting.

LOL

[mental]

Samus really came from the writing and the vision of the director and, behind that, the producers.

My response is "what writing?" It was just grunts and screams Not mucht o work with there!

In all seriousness, they probably did have production notes on the character which Hale would have been given.

[Tentelumper]

Samus really came from the writing and the vision of the director and, behind that, the producers.

My response is "what writing?" It was just grunts and screams Not mucht o work with there!

In all seriousness, they probably did have production notes on the character which Hale would have been given.

Note: Don't make the fans angry. Note: Your name is Samus Aran.

[mental]

More along the lines of Samus' backstory, her age, what her personality is like, and so on. Typically a project will collect notes for reference on that kind of thing to make sure that everyone working on the project is on the same page. Don't you think Hale's performance would have sounded different had she imagined herself portraying, for example, a Sailor-Moon-like character?

In that respect, Hale's main job was to do a good enough job that the recording didn't sound blatantly wrong for the character (which can be much harder than it sounds). Beyond any character research/preparation, though, it usually comes down to some amount of trial and error in the sound booth, with the director/producers giving advice and selecting takes they think fit a character best. One reason to shell out for someone like Hale for a job so simple would be to minimize the chances of doing a lot of takes without getting anything good.

(And of course if they had gotten someone without much talent or who had an inflexible voice and turned out to not be what they wanted, they might have had to recast.)

[Naner]

Mental is right. For the Simpsons episode "Lisa's first word" (4th season), Elizabeth Taylor recorded 24 times Maggie's first word: "Daddy". The producers thought all the takes were too sensual. She then said "fuck you" and ran off.

About Jennifer Hale, an interview with her isn't all that much. It's not like she became a N symbol.

[Tentelumper]

Mental is right. For the Simpsons episode "Lisa's first word" (4th season), Elizabeth Taylor recorded 24 times Maggie's first word: "Daddy". The producers thought all the takes were too sensual. She then said "fuck you" and ran off.

About Jennifer Hale, an interview with her isn't all that much. It's not like she became a N symbol.

Yes, but Maggie never spoke. It was a popular prime time show and if she didn't do it right, everyone would complain how Maggie didn't sound right. So you could imagine the pressure.

[Naner]

Yes, but Maggie never spoke. It was a popular prime time show and if she didn't do it right, everyone would complain how Maggie didn't sound right. So you could imagine the pressure.

Yes, but Samus never spoke. It was a popular video game series and if she didn't do it right, everyone would complain how Samus didn't sound right. So you could imagine the pressure.

[Tentelumper]

Yes, but Maggie never spoke. It was a popular prime time show and if she didn't do it right, everyone would complain how Maggie didn't sound right. So you could imagine the pressure.

Yes, but Samus never spoke. It was a popular video game series and if she didn't do it right, everyone would complain how Samus didn't sound right. So you could imagine the pressure.

Yes, but [noun] never spoke. It was a popular [noun] and if she didn't do it right, everyone would complain how [noun] didn't sound right. So you could imagine the pressure.

Have fun trying to find more things to fit in that template!

[Redwing]

Yes, but Maggie never spoke. It was a popular prime time show and if she didn't do it right, everyone would complain how Maggie didn't sound right. So you could imagine the pressure.

Yes, but Samus never spoke. It was a popular video game series and if she didn't do it right, everyone would complain how Samus didn't sound right. So you could imagine the pressure.

Yes, but [noun] never spoke. It was a popular [noun] and if she didn't do it right, everyone would complain how [noun] didn't sound right. So you could imagine the pressure.

Have fun trying to find more things to fit in that template!

Yes, but [noun] never [past tense verb]. It was a popular [noun] and if [he/she/it] didn't do it [adjective], everyone would [verb] how [noun] didn't [verb] right. So [person in room] could imagine the [noun].

Fixed.

[Outlaw]

This isn't a competition but...

[Message] I win!

[mental]

[Declaration of success.]