There are a few characters that are just built different. For me, it’s World of Warcraft’s Sylvanas Windrunner, or Dragon Age’s Morrigan – perhaps even add Uncharted’s Nathan Drake to the list. But my roster is relatively obscure, based around the games I played (and was allowed to play) as a child. While I loved all things gory, my mom wasn’t as keen, meaning things like Silent Hill and Resident Evil weren’t exactly accessible to me. If they had been, though, I know that Capcom’s horror series would have quickly become a favorite, and Leon Kennedy would have defined my childhood as much as the Witch of the Wilds or the Banshee Queen.
But the Leon I would have heard wouldn’t have been Nick Apostolides, who I’m sitting on a sofa with in the middle of Digital Extremes’ office in London, Ontario. Instead it would have been Paul Haddad, Paul Mercier, or, given the timeframe, Critical Role’s Matt Mercer voicing the horror game‘s protagonist. While many lives have been touched by Leon Kennedy, Leon Kennedy has also had many lives.
It’s a question I ask Apostolides during our Tennocon interview, where we chat at length about his new character Zeke, the frontman of Warframe 1999’s boyband On-Lyne, who has been corrupted and transformed into a Lich. It’s a far cry from the role of Resident Evil 4‘s monster-slaying DSO agent, that’s for sure.
I ask Apostolides if he ever draws inspiration from characters he’s played before when it comes to taking on new roles, and he recalls that, when it came to Leon, Capcom told him to “forget everything he knew.”
“Leon Kennedy has been portrayed by many, many talented people,” he tells me. “I was playing their renditions when I was a kid, and even when they changed up those voice actors, I’d have my own reactions as a fan and say ‘why did they change the old guy?! I liked him.’ I understood the pressures of playing Leon Kennedy.
“So I asked Capcom that very question when I first took on the role; I said: ‘how close are we trying to match?’ They said, ‘don’t.’ They knew that I was a fan, but they said ‘if you can, forget everything that you know. Put it out of your mind and just trust us; we cast you because we see that version of him in you. Bring your personality, inject yourself into this character.’
“So I trusted myself,” he says with a smile. “What I did bring was my knowledge of the universe and the stakes of those games; they’re very particular.”
Having wandered around Tennocon with Apostolides over the next few days, it’s very clear that he loves Resident Evil. From his boundless knowledge of the series to a collection of stunning artwork that he’s been drawing since his involvement (Yawn is looking pretty damn cool), it’s clear that Leon Kennedy plays such a huge part in his life.
How he’ll cope with transforming from monster hunter to monster when the Warframe 1999 release date rolls around, however, remains to be seen. I do, however, ask him about Zeke in our full Warframe 1999 voice cast interview, and his answer is certainly intriguing.
While we wait for the gates of Höllvania to open and spew forth liches, however, we also have a list of all the currently redeemable Warframe codes. Zeke promises to test your mettle, after all.
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