Actor Patricia Summersett has lent her voice to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and many other video games. | Photo credit: Andrea Hausmann
It makes sense that Summersett inspires these reactions from fans of Nintendo’s long-running Legend of Zelda video game series. She is the voice actor for Princess Zelda in the English-language version of the latest game of the series, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which is being hailed as one of the best games of 2017.
Breath of the Wild is the first installment to feature full voice acting since the series began in 1986. The change drew skepticism from some fans, yet Summersett’s performance is proving popular. She attended Montreal Comiccon as a featured guest from July 7 to 9, 2017, signing autographs and posing for pictures.
“There are a lot of people who celebrate this game, and to be part of it is so much fun,” she says.
Concordia played an important role in Summersett’s success. She cites many professors and visiting directors who were a big influence on her, although the Department of Theatre helped in subtler ways too — “even being able to affirm and justify being in the arts,” Summersett says.
“It helps when you are in a program that supports you in that endeavour.”
As it turned out, it was a course in voice acting for animation that became especially important for her later career.
“It was at Concordia that I discovered that you can do voice acting for a living and it suddenly became a viable option for me to pursue,” she says. “I developed my first working voice demos at Concordia, and it led to my first indie games and radio ads.”
Still, Summersett was not ready to limit herself to voice acting alone — and, in fact, still refuses to do so. “I always come from a background of theatre first when I pursue voice work or when I pursue anything that is related to a character at all,” she says.
Before portraying Princess Zelda in Breath of the Wild (pictured), Summersett’s favourite Zelda game was the 1998 classic Ocarina of Time. | Photo courtesy: IGN