Highlights
- Fans are debating the performances of Ronda Rousey and Megan Fox in Mortal Kombat 1, with both being criticized for lackluster acting.
- Some argue that Rousey showed more emotion in her portrayal of Sonya Blade compared to Fox's flat delivery as Nitara.
- The controversy surrounding celebrity casting in video games continues, with debates over whether professional voice actors are a better choice.
Fans are once again debating Ronda Rousey’s performance as Sonya Blade following Megan Fox’s controversial turn as Nitara in Mortal Kombat 1. The decision to cast Megan Fox as the vampiric Outworld warrior Nitara was met with heavy skepticism even before Mortal Kombat 1 launched back in September, and hearing the Transformers and Jennifer's Body star in action won few of these critics over. Many players decried Fox’s performance as dull and emotionless, and quite a few were left wishing that her Mortal Kombat 1 backup actress Cristina Valenzuela had played Nitara full-time instead.
Megan Fox’s divisive take on Nitara isn’t the first time a major celebrity was cast in a Mortal Kombat game, nor is it the first to be met with a cold response from diehard fans. For example, famed MMA fighter and WWE superstar Ronda Rousey was cast as franchise mainstay Sonya Blade for 2019’s Mortal Kombat 11. While Rousey certainly showed enthusiasm for her role outside the game (to the point where she dressed as Sonya for that year’s WWE Elimination Chamber event), fans found her performance to be lackluster and uninspired - even drawing comparisons to the notorious “Jill Sandwich” line readings of the original Resident Evil.
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Ronda Rousey and her now-infamous performance as Sonya Blade have been brought back into online discourse in light of Megan Fox’s similar showing in Mortal Kombat 1, with fans debating which one is worse. Reddit user TrappedInLimbo recently argued that Rousey was at least just as wooden as Fox on r/MortalKombat by sharing a montage of Mortal Kombat 11 character introductions featuring Sonya. Many users seem to agree with TrappedInLimbo’s sentiment, with some noting that they forgot how flat and monotone Rousey sounded in Mortal Kombat 11 - though some were quick to point out her lack of acting experience in comparison to Megan Fox.
Others argued that while Ronda Rousey was far from ideal in Mortal Kombat 11, she at least conveyed emotion while confronting combatants like Scorpion, Shao Kahn, Baraka, and Kabal - whereas Megan Fox was seemingly just reading her lines from a script as Nitara in Mortal Kombat 1. Fox’s detractors have pointed out that she doesn’t have the excuse of not being a professional actor like Ronda Rousey.
The controversy surrounding Megan Fox’s role as Nitara in Mortal Kombat 1 sparked a renewed debate over the merits of hiring big-name celebrities over professional voice actors for video games. For every warmly received performance like Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat 11 there is one that splits the fanbase like Ronda Rousey and Megan Fox, and the debates over which one did a weaker job will likely continue until the next A-list star appears in a Mortal Kombat game.
Mortal Kombat 1 is available now for PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: The Gamer
