Accueil blog La communauté de Briana White de Final Fantasy VII Rebirth en portant son cœur sur sa manche [interview]

La communauté de Briana White de Final Fantasy VII Rebirth en portant son cœur sur sa manche [interview]

Non seulement Briana White a fondu les coeurs de Final Fantasy VII Rebirth dans sa performance nominée au prix en tant qu'Aerith Gainsborough, mais l'acteur continue de favoriser une communauté de rebelles étranges axés sur l'empathie en tant que streamer basé sur l'histoire. Site a rattrapé White sur les talons de sa meilleure nomination aux performances pour discuter de l'héritage d'Aerith, de la croissance de Strange Rebel Gaming, des pouvoirs de guérison de la vie est étrange et de la casserole idéale de patates douces.

site: I wanted to congratulate you on your Game Awards nomination!

Briana White: Thank you so much!

What's the story behind hearing the announcement?How did it feel?

Gosh, it felt incredible.It felt like so exciting!

C'était vraiment intéressant parce que, pour les joysticks d'or, j'étais à une convention lorsque ces nominations ont été publiées, donc j'étais complètement concentré sur autre chose et je n'y ai même pas pensé. Quand j'ai découvert la nomination pour les joysticks d'or, je me suis dit juste choqué et comme: "Whoa, cela est venu de Nowhere!" Whiplash! Now I got to think about the awards season and all that. It really set everything off.

For the Game Awards nominations, they have a livestream. C'était vraiment drôle parce que ça a commencé à 9 heures du matin et je me suis connecté au flux à 9h02, mais à 10 ans - tout d'abord, mon père m'appelait et je me disais: «Papa, donne-moi une seconde. Je suis occupé, je dois regarder ce flux pour que je puisse voir si je suis nominé »- et au moment où je suis entré dans le flux, ma catégorie avait déjà été annoncée et je recevais des messages de félicitations.

So, I didn't actually see myself get announced that I was nominated, but then I went back and watched the VOD later. So, it was very chaotic… in the best sort of way.

Had your dad been calling to congratulate you? Had he heard already?

No, he just happened to call at the exact moment that I needed my phone to be free. [Laughs]

With the Golden Joystick Award experience, did you feel like that helped prepare you emotionally for this or was it still just as shocking?

I guess a little bit more prepared. I was a little less like: “Whoa, wait a minute, is that happening? Is it awards season?”

But, at the same time, I didn't expect a nomination for myself. Especially knowing that the Game Awards didn't have a supporting performer category, they just have Best Performance. And that, I really didn't expect that .

My fellow nominees are all incredible. And for some of them, it's not their first nomination.And they've all been in multiple games as these characters as well. It's a lot to be standing next to them, metaphorically.

But I mean, now you're at the point where you have that legacy with Aerith, too. Like we're coming up on almost five years of you voicing her.

Which is crazy to think about.

J'ai parfois l'impression, parce qu'Aerith a été mon premier rôle, j'ai parfois encore un petit syndrome d'imposteur sur le sentiment que j'appartiens à cette étape et avec ces nominations. Juste parce que c'est, je veux dire, c'est mon premier rôle. And even though, yes, I've been doing it now for five years, and I visited her through three games. It still feels like: “Me? What am I doing here?”

How do you combat that Imposter Syndrome?

The thing about Imposter Syndrome is, it's always going to be there for me, I think. But I don't let it affect my behavior.And I think that's the kind of crucial part for me.

Quand j'enregistrais pour le remake [ Final Fantasy VII ], le premier jeu, j'ai été frappé par un syndrome d'imposteur aussi incroyable parce que c'est un processus techniquement difficile à agir mais aussi à se localiser du japonais en anglais. I can't do this.”

Mais je me regardais dans le miroir et me disais: "D'accord, alors tu ressens ça, mais tu vas toujours aller au travail demain s'ils t'ont, non?" Ouais. Oui je suis. [Laughs]

Donc, le syndrome d'Imposter, c'est presque comme, j'ai ces sentiments et je les accepte et les reconnaissent, mais en même temps, je vais toujours faire ce que je me suis mis à faire. Si je n'appartiens pas ici, très bien. But I am here. I'm going to do my best. And that's all I can do.

Si je n'ai pas l'impression de faire du bon travail, que dois-je faire pour me rendre meilleur? J'ai travaillé avec des entraîneurs, et j'ai suivi des cours, et j'ai appris tout ce que je pouvais, et j'ai essayé de perfectionner mon oreille. All of those things were super challenging, but they helped me feel more prepared when it came to recording for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth . So that I could really feel a lot more free and just focus on the acting part of it and not so much the technical part of it.

Retour au début de cette relation avec Aerith, et votre relation avec le genre de l'industrie des jeux dans son ensemble, lorsque vous obtenez pour la première fois l'audition pour le rôle, quel était ce processus de recherche comme considérant que Final Fantasy a tellement de traditions et d'attentes qui s'accompagnent?

Well, when I got the audition material, they told me a codename for the game. They didn't tell me what game it was for. And luckily, because I'm a gamer, I knew already kind of what this was about.

But I also thought there was no way that they would cast me because I've never done anything like this and I'm completely unknown. And her previous English voice actresses are very successful, talented, and famous. You know, Mandy Moore, Mena Suvari, Andrea Bowen, they're legends, right? And I'm not.

Donc, je pensais vraiment que j'allais y aller, pas à réserver l'audition, mais peut-être qu'ils me considéreraient comme un personnage secondaire si je faisais bien? Which does happen in this industry quite a lot.

I thought I would never book it, and this would be the funnest audition of my life that I'd never be able to talk about. But, I still prepared for it as if I was going to do my best. You know, despite my expectations, I was still going to do my best.

I started with a Google search, like many of us do. Et bien sûr, la première chose qui apparaît, c'est [que] Aerith est l'un des personnages emblématiques les plus légendaires du jeu à cause de sa mort en 1997. Cela a choqué les joueurs du monde entier et a déchiré le cœur de tout le monde en morceaux. That's part of why I never thought I would become involved with this character because she's that iconic.

I watched Advent Children , which is the movie that is a sequel to the original Final Fantasy VII . And I watched some playthroughs on YouTube, and some story synopsis, and I read as much as I could about her character.

From there, I had to listen to her Japanese voice actress and try to honor her performance. Maaya Sakamoto has been voicing Aerith since the very beginning. Elle n'a jamais eu une autre actrice de voix japonaise. J'ai dû honorer sa performance parce que je savais que, en allant dans l'audition, ce serait principalement dans quoi le processus est impliqué. J'ai écouté la version de Maaya dans mes écouteurs, puis je donne ma version en fonction de ce que les traducteurs ont écrit dans mon script.

So, I listened to her voice and then listened to all the previous English voice actresses as well. Et puis je suis juste assis ici à ma configuration de streaming, et j'ai donné quelques prises de l'audition et j'ai écouté et j'ai dit: "Puis-je lui donner un peu plus de souffle?" And so, I listened back, and then I did it again. I just did that probably for a couple hours, maybe. And then I had the audition the next day.

Do you think that mentality of going into it with “Oh, I don't know if I'm really going to get this” helped free you up a bit?

It must have. I mean, I just went in there wanting to have some fun and like make a cool memory. I had no expectations. And that must have helped me.

But I don't, it's so hard to know, even in hindsight. It's so hard to know how I was perceived by others, or if it was really just my voice. Je ne sais pas. It's one of those impossible questions.

Well, you did definitely make quite a few memories in the last five years with Aerith.

Assez grand nombre.

And you touched on the localization process of making the game and how thorough that was. Mais je voulais savoir, en tant que personne qui aime les jeux vidéo et les anime, ce que cela a semblé être impliqué dans le Nitty-Gritty du processus de localisation du point de vue des coulisses?

It was the coolest thing ever. It still is. Parce que je sais qu'en tant que fan de ces jeux, à quel point il est excitant d'anticiper comment ça va se passer, puis enfin le mettre entre vos mains, puis jouer et: "Oh, c'est exactement ce que j'imaginais que ce serait et mieux."

And so, then to be a part of the process, being able to have the feeling of: “Oh, I know what's happening and people are gonna love it!” That like little giddy like “I know something they don't know” was like just absolutely thrilling!

But a lot of pressure, of course, too, because I can't say anything. So all of that was very blended together into one complex, complicated experience.

Mais pour la plupart, c'était juste excitant de pouvoir… J'ai dit dans le passé «pour voir comment la saucisse est faite», mais vous ne voulez pas voir comment la saucisse est faite, mais vous voulez voir comment les jeux vidéo sont fabriqués. It's like watching a behind-the-scenes documentary, but you're living it. It was really cool.

That's a little bit of what I wanted to touch on. We're kind of in an era where so many people who are involved in the video games industry grew up loving games themselves. So how does it feel to balance being like a professional in a fandom space and a fan at the same time?

I wonder about that sometimes. I wonder if me being such a hardcore fan does affect the roles that I book.

Luckily, or maybe not luckily, I don't know. When I asked the casting director: “Oh, you called me in because I'm a gamer, right?” She said no. She had no idea that I was a gamer, that I had a YouTube channel, that I was a fan. She had no idea when she called me in.

So, I do wonder sometimes if that affects whether or not people want to bring me in behind the booth. But for the most part, it's just really cool for me. Because when I'm recording, I really only have access to exactly what I need and nothing more. So, I see Aerith's lines, and if I need to see the whole conversation, I'll see the whole conversation. But I don't get a script ahead of time to see like Barret and Cloud having a conversation. If Aerith's not involved, I don't read it.

When I get to play the game, I then get to be the fan too, because there are parts of the game that I have no idea this was going to happen. And so, I do get to have a little bit of that separation. Honestly, it feels for the most part, like I get the best of both worlds.

Are there things you remember, in either Remake or Rebirth , that surprised you most when you played it?

I would say the order of things, in an overarching way. Because we record out of order.

So sometimes, without getting into specifics, the game developers will change the order of some things in order to keep you guessing. Like, “Oh, what's going to happen?” Well, we all know because we played the original Final Fantasy VII that A happens, B happens, and then C happens. But sometimes in the game, they'll do A happens, B happens, D happens … is C still going to happen? And then it does.

Nous enregistrons tous complètement hors service, pour la plupart, nous allons parfois comme l'histoire principale, puis les trucs secondaires, ou, vous savez, nous ferons des micros de différentes scènes qui n'étaient pas encore prête pour nous. So, the order of things is completely fresh to me and a total surprise.

Mais aussi parfois, il y a des choses qui ne se sont pas produites dans le Final Fantasy VII original dans lequel les chuchotements finissent par s'impliquer, et ces choses sont des surprises complètes pour moi.

Speaking of things that aren't surprising, we touched upon Aerith's iconic death. Les jeux vidéo sont souvent une évasion pour les gens, mais il y a aussi beaucoup de thèmes vraiment sérieux qui peuvent se produire dans les jeux vidéo qui peuvent aider les gens à travailler sur le chagrin et à résoudre des problèmes plus graves. Pourriez-vous aborder cet équilibre entre les jeux vidéo étant une évasion, mais aussi être une source d'empathie?

I think Final Fantasy does a really good job of that, specifically. Parce que lorsque vous regardez certains jeux qui sont loués comme étant des jeux basés sur l'histoire, c'est presque comme si c'était très sombre, et cela vous éloigne complètement de votre vie d'Humdrum quotidienne dans un endroit plus sombre. And that can help you put a film over it, a lens over it, to help you look at dark things from a safe distance.

And that's actually a studied thing that we use in therapy, right? Par exemple, afin d'aider à traiter les traumatismes, vous y mettez parfois une lentille pour l'étudier à distance, ou vous mettez quelqu'un d'autre à votre place afin de pouvoir le traiter.

Final Fantasy does that because the stakes are really, really high. I mean, the planet is at stake. It's life or death, and death is real. Like, a lot of these characters that we know and love are dying, and so the stakes are really high. But it also balances it out with these really silly, goofy moments, and the little vacation at Costa del Sol.

You get to see these characters that have gone through intense emotional trauma, but then they also get to have a little bit of fun. I really like that about Final Fantasy , because it gives you hope that even if you're going through a dark time, it won't always be that way. Même si les enjeux de votre vie sont complètement si élevés que vous ne pensez pas que vous allez vous faire de l'autre côté de la situation dans laquelle vous vous trouvez, même là, vous pouvez toujours vous amuser. Vous pouvez toujours faire une blague, vous pouvez toujours faire sourire et vous pouvez toujours sortir avec vos amis. You don't have to wallow in it.

I think that's what I love about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth , specifically, is tragedy is present because that's life. But also, have fun. I think that's a really beautiful message.

Avez-vous eu des expériences avec, peut-être pas seulement des jeux vidéo, mais une sorte de média où quelque chose s'est produit qui vous a aidé à traiter quelque chose dans votre propre vie?

Yeah, I am really, really fond of Life is Strange for that reason.

I had a very tough teenagehood because I'm someone who feels things very deeply. I was called very dramatic as a child. And hey, she became an actor, we can't be that surprised! Mais parce que je ressens les choses très profondément, et surtout quand les hormones font rage et que tout le monde est tout aussi hormonal, tout ressemble à la fin du monde, même si c'est juste votre ami ne voulait pas passer du temps avec vous cette nuit-là.

La vie est étrange fait un excellent travail en honorant ce que signifie être simplement une sorte d'adolescente ouverte à l'ouverture du cœur sans la fréquenter, et sans la courir de sucre, et sans donner l'impression que vous êtes à l'extérieur. Se détendre. It's not that big of a deal.” When you're on the other side of it. But when you're in it, it really feels like it is a big deal. And Life is Strange did a really good job of that.

When I finished that game, I really did feel like it healed something in me. It broke me because it's a very intense game as well, but it healed something in me to know that, yeah, it almost is a universal experience.

I'm glad you touched on feeling things really big, because something I did want to talk to you about is your gaming channel. You cry a lot over there. I think it's hard to be vulnerable like that. And especially hearing that you felt kinda insecure about that as a teenager. How did you reclaim being vulnerable and crying in public as an adult?

It's crazy that you bring that up because it's true. I sorta made a career out of being the crying girl on the internet, which I did not set out to do. To me, it was never an option to be any other way. It's just who I am.

When I first started my YouTube channel, I played lots of different games trying to figure out what kind of gamer I would be on the internet. There's gamers who play Minecraft and there's gamers who play Uncharted . J'étais le type de joueur qui, j'ai essayé beaucoup de choses différentes, et finalement, quand j'ai joué Uncharted , les gens ont vraiment résonné avec le fait que je pouvais parler des personnages et des relations entre eux et pourquoi cette scène et cette scène ont été si percutantes. People really liked that aspect of my gameplays.

So, that is what led me to The Last of Us , which is an incredibly dark and emotional game. At the same time I was playing Life is Strange which, like I said, just cracks me open in the best sort of way. Jouer à ces deux jeux en même temps était juste une expérience si intensément émotionnelle que je pense que cela a cimenté le genre de contenu que les gens veulent voir de moi. Which was fine, because that's who I am.

I sort of fell into being a story-based gamer from there. Because that's who I am, that's what people wanted to see. They want to see authentic reactions, they want to see people feeling things.

Oftentimes, I'll get comments like: “I'm a 52-year-old man, I haven't cried in 20 years, but I cried watching your content.” Et je prends cela comme une énorme source de fierté, que mon contenu pourrait aider les gens, comme nous l'avons parlé plus tôt, d'avoir des sentiments à distance qui les font se sentir en sécurité pour les avoir. Je pense qu'il y a quelque chose de vraiment beau à ce sujet, que mon contenu pourrait aider à ouvrir un peu le cœur de quelqu'un et leur faire sentir en sécurité pour avoir leurs sentiments.

I love your philosophy about what a Strange Rebel means to you. Could you talk about that a little bit?

I had always grown up feeling a little out of mainstream. I was never very popular, I was never very normal. And I always very much wanted to be normal, but, somewhere along the line in high school, I grew out of that.

I had a friend, actually, who was completely, loudly, and unapologetically weird. In the best sort of way. En tant qu'enfant de théâtre au lycée, nous avons tous embrassé cela comme: «Nous ne sommes pas normaux et nous n'appartenons pas au courant dominant, et c'est super! That's so much more fun than being normal.” And I think that's where I picked up this like: “Being average, being normal… that's not something you should want.”

I took this idea of being a rebel to mean going against the mainstream, but not in a bad way. Not in a way that's “wears all black and is angsty and mean”. I don't want to be a rebel in that I want to hurt other people. I want to be a strange rebel. I want to be a rebel in a way that makes the world a little bit better. I want to be a rebel in the fact that I do cry on the internet and I don't feel bad about that.

It's easy to be mean to others. It's easy to close your heart off when you've experienced bad things. But it's strange and beautiful to do the opposite of that. I want people to embrace being rebelliously compassionate and rebelliously kind. That's sort of where Strange Rebel comes from and that's really a huge part of my mission.

I wanted to ask about the channel and how you've seen that community grow since Final Fantasy ?

C'est incroyable. I mean, when I started out on the internet all I ever heard was that it's a terrible place. That's all I ever heard. I heard about harassment, and women being chased off platforms, and I heard about toxicity in gaming. But, what I found on the internet is that most people are really good and kind, and they just want to share their passions.

I started my channel reading every single comment that was left on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, whatever platform. I'd read every single comment, every single message that someone sends me. And I pretty much still do to this day, which is a lot harder now, but I really make an effort to do that. Parce que si quelqu'un fait tout son possible pour regarder mon contenu et me laisser un message qui dit: "J'ai adoré ça", je veux rembourser le respect qu'il me montre pour me donner leur temps de journée et lui donner l'heure de la journée en le lisant au moins et en lui donnant un comme si je le peux. I've found that when I engage with them, that only comes back to me tenfold. Because they're good people, and I like them. I like them as people.

Je veux dire, maintenant, nous faisons partie d'une discorde vraiment incroyable, animée et prospère où nous avons des soirées cinéma, nous avons un club de cuisine, nous venons de commencer un club de lecture, nous faisons des lieux de rencontre avec des vidéos chaque mois, nous jouons ensemble deux fois par semaine. We are there for each other. We meet up at conventions with each other. People in my Discord have found love. I mean, a couple people in my Discord have gotten married after finding each other in my Discord!

I cannot state enough just how proud I am of being able to bring people together in that way because they no longer feel alone. What better thing could I do in this life than bring people together? To celebrate each other, be there for each other, support each other in hard times, and share each other's passions. And all in an amazingly respectful way.

They're so generous. We've raised over $50K for charity, just in my Discord in the past four years.

The fact that Final Fantasy is a huge part of my channel, I do think that that really brings in a good audience. A good group of people that care about the world through the amazing stories that Final Fantasy tells.

But really, I don't care much for numbers, how many subscribers I have, or how many views I get on a video. What I care about is the fact that people have found others like them, that give them faith in humanity, that give back to others. They're not alone in this universe anymore. That's everything to me. That's so much more important than everything else.

Community building is huge, and it sounds like you've curated a wonderful community.

I try, but I don't do it alone. J'ai un manager de la communauté, Jeff, qui fait un travail incroyable qui organise tous ces événements et la planification, comme, nous avons un triathlon de jeu annuel où nous jouons tous à des jeux et rivalisons afin de collecter plus d'argent. We've even had a custom Dungeons & Dragons Strange Rebel Gaming themed one-shot! We've done so many amazing, incredible things because of Jeff.

I mean it when I say I haven't done it alone. Every person who joins the community is as much a part of the community building as me. And I try to throw that back to them as much as I can. And people say: “Thank you for making the Discord.” No, thank you for being a part of it! It's not me in there chatting all day, it's you all.

Je voulais demander avant de partir s'il y a quelque chose dans votre vie en ce moment qui vous apporte de la joie, que ce soit des jeux que vous jouez, des choses que vous regardez, des gens dans votre vie. What's fueling you right now?

Well, the holidays are coming up, and I'm a big family person. So, being able to see my family is everything to me. I'm excited to see everyone.

Actually, after this, I'm making a sweet potato casserole that can feed 30 people.

Do you do the marshmallows on top?

No. So, I used to work at a restaurant called Ruth's Chris [Steak House] that has the hands-down best sweet potato casserole ever! Because it's, if you look at the ingredients, it's basically cake, but with a sweet potato base. The top is brown sugar and pecans and butter and then it crisps up in the oven, so it's like a crust. It's almost like an upside down sweet potato cake.

It's mind-blowing. If you've never had it, you must!

C'est tellement bon. I am not welcome at Thanksgiving without it. I am not allowed to show up without this sweet potato casserole, every single year for like seven years now. People demand this sweet potato casserole. I just get better at it every year.

I love family. Family's really important to me, that keeps me going. Like I said, my dad was calling me the other day. My parents are very proud of me right now, which is really nice to hear!

And your mom's a gamer, too! How does it feel to have that family legacy now being in video games yourself?

It's crazy because my mom's a gamer and I keep asking her to play my game, and she won't do it!

The games for her are like Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask , so with the Z-targeting, the camera's really manageable. Final Fantasy , elle a raté quelques générations de jeux où vous apprenez à contrôler l'appareil photo avec l'autre bâton, donc le contrôle de la caméra est vraiment difficile pour elle. But maybe one day.

But still, they're very proud and very supportive, even if they can't play my game.

Pour en savoir plus sur Briana White, consultez sa performance nominée au prix du jeu en tant qu'Aerith Gainsborough dans Final Fantasy VII Rebirth , son étrange communauté de médias sociaux de jeu rebelle et son plat de Thanksgiving sur le site officiel de Chris de Ruth.

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