It's a rare treat for fans when a perfect collaboration takes place, but Game ZXC recently had a chance to get an inside scoop on just such an ideal combo. Jennifer Hale is the narrator for the brand new audiobook To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, written by Christopher Paolini, the author of Eragon. We had an early opportunity to sit down with Hale and discuss the book as well as her prolific voice acting career in games and animation; in her time, she has voiced characters in Metal Gear Solid, BioShock Infinite, Metroid Prime, Overwatch, various Star Wars media, countless classic cartoons, and perhaps most famously in Mass Effect as female Commander Shepard.
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is such a good fit for Hale because it is a tale of interstellar travel, first contact, discovery, adventure, and personal growth, very much in the same vein as some of Hale's most famous roles. She expressed a great deal of love and appreciation for the book and its story too, which only got us more interested in her role as narrator. In discussing the challenges and joys of audiobook narration compared to her traditional work, one of our first questions was which of the story's many characters is Hale's favorite.
The narrator of course! But really, Kira the main protagonist. I think she’s amazing. The journey she goes through is extraordinary. For me I found a lot of deep meaning in where the story goes and how it goes there. It’s such a walk of life, it’s a path that so many of us go through and it channels some of the larger lessons of the universe in a beautiful way.
It's good to hear that the main character of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is so compelling. Often in games and media in general, female characters are written poorly. There is no shortage of heated debate over what makes a good female character, but as someone who has been closely involved with the creation and depiction of so many iconic, popular women in video games and animation, we wanted to get Hale's perspective on what makes a good female character, or just a good character in general.
When they’ll work regardless of their gender, there’s your cue. When they’re just a human being. The minute you put that gender label on them you create a limitation. If you use it like a character choice, a life choice, a person who has retreated into their particular brand of femininity for safety or for power- that’s a specific choice and a very complex being. But it’s a human being making that choice. My current wish is that [people in] the industry at all levels... when it comes to casting who’s in your project: unless a character is specifically referring to their anatomy or their hometown, please remove all gender and ethnicity from your labeling because it opens everything up to everyone. That goes for abilities as well.
GR: That would have been our follow-up question: is it because it's often a female character before just a character?
We could get into a whole conversation about the patriarchy.... We've all lost half of the power in the world by eliminating the feminine. There’s enough space on the boat for everybody and everybody is needed on the boat.
Later on in the interview, Hale discussed some of her favorite roles and characters. When asked if there were any of her characters she thought were underrated, she clarified that "... I don't focus on that part of it. I don't think a lot about what people think of my work because that makes it about me." However, when asked if there were any roles that she was particularly proud of, Hale brought up a few key examples that tie into her opinions on strong female characters and diversity in voice acting.
I’m really grateful for the amount of diversity I’ve been able to have and still have in my career.... The diversity is huge for me, having been the voice of Cinderella for so long is a huge honor, and also FemShep (Mass Effect's female Commander Shepard) because breaking that glass ceiling was everything. It was going to be broken, and I am deeply honored that I got to be the ink in that pen. And there’s more work to do.
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars will be available in audiobook format on September 15th.