Lady Dimitrescu became a fan favorite even before the release of Resident Evil Village. The character was originally revealed on a promotional trailer in 2020, but it was clear from the start that the character would be a success among fans. Part of the game's advertising campaign even included life-size cutouts of the 9'6" Dimitrescu matriarch. Soon after the reveal of the character, many started to create memes and fan art of Lady Dimitrescu.
Even though the game was only released this month, Lady Dimitrescu had already become one of the characters fans were most interested in following her reveal in Resident Evil Village. The exceptionally tall character is portrayed and voiced by Maggie Robertson who was recently interviewed about her role. The interview revealed a lot about Lady Dimitrescu's creation and animation process, and Robertson's experience being cast for Resident Evil Village.
In a recent interview, the Lady Dimitrescu actress reported that she had no previous experience as a voice actress, though this does not mean the process was entirely new for Robertson. Even though she ended up following an acting career, she actually started as a singer with classical training. Thanks to her training in acting and her previous voice training, landing this major Resident Evil Village role as Lady Dimitrescu in the video game industry felt natural to her.
Lady Dimitrescu's animation was done through motion capture, which means Maggie Robertson actually played the part for Resident Evil Village. Robertson explained in the interview that the motion capture process was not so different from acting in black box theatre where actors have to imagine the set elements. Robertson tells that, as part of the motion capture process, she had a hat taped to her helmet which helped her embody the vampiric Lady Dimitrescu. The prop helped Robertson figure out how Lady Dimitrescu would navigate through space and how to emote and look at other characters with the hat. This actually helped create Dimitrescu's signature movements.
Even though Maggie Robertson was not aware of Lady Dimitrescu's full backstory, she found other ways to portray her character by learning about Dimitrescu's relationship with her daughters, the other lords, Ethan Winters, and even her surrounding objects. Not only was Robertson in the dark about some of the details of the game, but she was not aware that she was auditioning for one of the biggest titles in the video game industry. Ultimately, she landed the role in the latest installment of the Resident Evil franchise and brought to life one of the most iconic characters around today.
Resident Evil Village is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S.
Source: PC Gamer
