Popular voice actress Alix Wilton Regan participated in a Q&A as part of a voice actor panel at The Elder Scrolls Online’s 10-year anniversary celebration event. Hosted by Zenimax Online Studios’ Senior Community Manager Gina Bruno, Alix discussed her role as the new Daedric Prince Ithelia, coming to the upcoming Gold Road Chapter for ESO.
Alix Wilton Regan is a prominent and experienced videogame voice actress. She has appeared in some of gaming’s biggest blockbuster series, including Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed, Cyberpunk, and now The Elder Scrolls Online. In the Q&A, Alix talked about her long history with voice acting, including how she got into it, and her most recent role as Ithelia, the newest Daedric Prince to join the Elder Scrolls universe.
Early Career: Desperate Times & A Stroke of Luck
When asked how she first got into voice acting, Regan replied honestly and earnestly, “I was desperate.” Regan recalls that “it was hard” after leaving drama school in her early twenties. After winning two special commendations from the BBC Radio Carleton Hobbs Awards, she found it difficult to accept “waitressing by day and bartending by night.” This pushed her to try and find an agent to take her voice acting career to the next level. After 18 months, her first audition was for Dragon Age Origins. At the time, Regan had “no idea what it was about and didn’t understand a single word” but ultimately was “really happy to be a part of it.”
Regan landed this huge role at just 23 years old and counts herself “seriously lucky” this early on in her career. This led to Regan consistently landing videogame roles, as it ‘led to the other Dragon Ages, which led to Mass Effect, Ghost Recon, and Cyberpunk.” She feels “very grateful” for all of it.
Acting VS Voice Acting
Alix Wilton Regan feels that one of the biggest misconceptions about voice acting is that it is distinguishable and separate from acting. She criticizes those who look down on voice-acting and clarifies that “we’re actors. We all started as actors. We are actors; that’s what we do.” She emphasizes the point that the performative aspect of voice acting does not come from the voice alone but “your whole being. It’s your manner. It’s your spirit. You’re changing your whole spirit to change the character to express and connect with everyone else”. She believes the misconception is that “there’s no such thing as a voice actor. You’re just an actor.”
Despite this, Regan sees that there is one difference between acting and voice acting: how much more fun it can be. When acting for TV and Film, “You don’t have to use your imagination so much” as “everything is there for you to use.” However, when describing her experience performing for Assassin’s Creed Origins, Regan found her more limited experience more freeing.
She says, “you’ve got a wobbly/wibbly sword that’s meant to be this super blade and a dustbin lid for a shield!” According to Regan, this really will allow you to “play,” and “it can free the actor.” She says, ‘I find performance capture really freeing, because I’m not actually constrained with hair, make-up, and a lot of extra stuff.” Regan much prefers performance capture and voice acting as “in performance capture, you play. You’re free, and it’s wonderful.”
Ithelia: The Elder Scrolls’ Newest Daedric Prince
Ithelia is the first completely brand-new Daedric Prince in The Elder Scrolls Online. It’s a fact that had not gone unnoticed by Regan as she felt “intimidated.” However, Regan became increasingly intrigued the more she engaged with the material. “I got the audition, and I saw the drawings, and I got the brief, and I thought it was really interesting.”
When touching upon Ithelia’s story, Regan says that “she has this incredible arc from start to finish that’s very clearly plotted and very beautifully written. That came across in the audition.” When auditioning for her, Regan expressed that “she really wanted to do this,” especially from “a character point of view.” After finding out it was for The Elder Scrolls Online and seeing concept art for Ithelia made her “really want to do this.” Once she got the role, she felt “a bit insecure and a bit intimidated” due to the series’ scope and nature of Ithelia’s character.
However, Regan eventually found her feet with Ithelia and really managed to connect with her. She’s interested in seeing fans’ feedback and response to Ithelia, even months before the Gold Road Chapter is set to drop. “I’m just excited because no one really knows her story yet.” She says, “at the end of Ithelia’s story, I was really crying.” However, Regan had to stop herself before she went into spoiler territory. She clarified, “I didn’t say they were happy tears or sad tears!” We’ll have to find out what sort of tears they were when Gold Road releases in June!
For more on ESO’s voice cast, check out Wes Johnson’s interview here. For more info on the game itself, be sure to head over to our full hands-on preview for the Gold Road expansion coming to The Elder Scrolls Online.