In a recent interview with GameSpot, actor Debra Wilson, who you might recognize from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, or God of War Ragnarok, said she’s sick of seeing her face in video games. The actor said the developers choose it and she’d rather play characters that don’t resemble her.
“I don’t necessarily dig it,” Wilson said. “Because I might as well be doing it on camera. It's hard to suspend your disbelief. There are people who are like, ‘Oh my God, she's in every f***ing game. What the f***?’ And there are other people like, ‘I am sick of looking at her face because I just want to play the game and not think of Debra Wilson.’”
It’s become a bit of a meme in gaming communities, with players complaining that they’re being taken out of the experience because they’ve seen Wilson’s face pop up.
“I don't blame them because I feel the same,” she said. “Why do you have to show my face? Amanda Waller in Suicide Squad, Grace Walker in Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, and now with the new Wolverine game coming out, I'm Callisto. Guess who the f*** she looks like?
“They wanted to scan my original tattoos. I was like, ‘Now you're pushing it. No, you're pushing that s**t.’ So I have been grateful for the work that has come in the video game industry where my characters are European.”
Later in the interview, she talked about how she wouldn’t want to include it as a contract stipulation because she wants artists to be able to tell stories in whatever way they like. But as an actor who’s played demons, dragons, and all sorts of other non-human entities, it doesn’t really capture what she’s capable of.
She also noted that it depends on the game. In Death Stranding 2, her likeness was used but so was almost every other actor’s.
“I am not upset at their choice to do that because everybody looks like themselves,” she said. “[Hideo Kojima] knew what he wanted. He's more than a director. He's an artist.”
Wilson recently starred as Jessica Pike in Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, Callisto in Marvel’s Wolverine, and did background voices in Modern Warfare 4.