Hello everyone!
We’re thrilled to share with you the talented cast that bring to life the iconic characters of BLACKTAIL. Read the combined interview with Valerie Rose Lohman (known from What Remains of Edith Finch, Wolfenstein Youngblood) and Avalon Penrose (known for playing Megaera in Hades), BLACKTAIL’s Yaga and The Voice respectively and watch Nergal (Behemoth’s front man) step into The Black Cat’s role.
Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your roles?
A: I am Avalon Penrose, I’m mostly known for my role as Megaera in the game Hades. There are a lot of similarities between Megaera and my character of the Voice in BLACKTAIL. They’re both strong, powerful, dominant women. You don’t see a lot of female characters in the media that are portrayed with this kind of harshness and bluntness. Megaera, however, has an undertone of love for her partner, who she’s always going to love in her deepest soul. The Voice has a different kind of love, for the person that she’s always in the mind of. It’s even harder to distinguish.
V: My name is Valerie Rose Lohman; most people know me from the video game What Remains of Edith Finch and I’m also in Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Wylde Flowers. There’s a big commonality between BLACKTAIL and some of my previous works in that I play a lot of women who are finding themselves. Edith, in particular, is so lost, and I see so much of that in Yaga. They’re both discovering so much about their identity, their family, where they come from… There’s so much exploration, but Edith doesn’t have the type of outside forces that Yaga – who’s very ostracised – has to deal with.
How was it for you to invest yourselves in this fairy-tale driven world?
V: I grew up loving fairy tales, especially their dark versions. I remember The Brothers Grimm and Sleepy Hollow as spooky, fairy-tale driven films with dark legends. I also knew the tales of Baba Yaga. I love the sweet, fun versions of fairy tales, I’m a big Disney fan. But I also love the warnings and lessons that are in the darker versions of these tales. So getting to dive into this was such a treat. I loved piecing together the different influences from fairy tales, myths and legends that were sprinkled throughout. It was inspiring to know that there’s all this magic and talking creatures… Yes the game is grounded and real, but there’s also this eerie playfulness, which was so much fun to perform.
A: It was a joy to play a character in this world. I love rough and gritty tales, the dark side which didn’t make it to Disney movies. All this magic can exist but at the same time, you can’t escape the parts of human life that are morality and all these challenges, which make for such an intense and all-consuming game. I love the juxtaposition of these moral battles over this beautiful fairy tale world with unbelievable graphics and gorgeous character design.
How does BLACKTAIL compare to the way you imagined the myth of Baba Yaga?
V: My first ever learning of Baba Yaga was when I was very little, in a spinoff of the animated movie Anastasia. It was this image of a very old scary witch with her very scary, iconic tree. We never got a backstory from her in that film. Any time I've consumed media that pertains to Baba Yaga, she's elusive. She's this kind of mysterious villain, sometimes morally grey. I was really excited to have the chance to finally dive into this.
A: I knew nothing about Baba Yaga. When I began working on BLACKTAIL, I did a ton of reading to learn about her. I found that a lot of what I read was different from what we experienced in recording this game. It’s really cool because, just as Valerie said, it gives you such a unique perspective on someone who in folklore may be regarded as only evil.
How did you find your voice for the role?
A: It was all about tapping into the darker sides of my own personality. You don't only see the cruelty and the mystery of the Voice at first. But there’s more to it than just being the bad guy. I had to authentically connect with the sides of myself that have been cruel or mean at times. I would sometimes just take a few moments and try to get a little angry and see what voices came out of me, or think of times when I felt anger and was negative and nasty to people. I tried to channel all of that, because I didn't want my voice to sound inauthentic; I wanted it to sound driven by true emotion.
V: For me, it was a lot about finding Yaga’s rage. One of my audition scripts was filled with so many levels of rage, so I immediately knew this was the ride I was going on. We all have rage, anger. All these things inside of us, that we don’t let out because we live in a society and we must be pleasant and kind. But it was tapping into that unfiltered rage. I've not been kicked out of a mediaeval village for being accused of being a witch, but we all deal with loss and grief and people misunderstanding us. So it was about finding that from a really truthful place. I also added a layer with remembering when I was 16, my emotional volatility, still finding myself, feeling embarrassed, scared and lost at this teetering age.
What did you like about playing the roles of Yaga (Valerie) and of the Voice (Avalon)?
V: I just really loved the highs and lows and the layers to find with Yaga. She is so multifaceted, and it was a joy to explore it.
A: I loved finding the mystery of the voice which unfolds throughout the duration of the game, seeing this mystery begin to clarify.
The gaming community loved your performance since BLACKTAIL’s very first demo. Have you kept in touch with them and have they inspired your approach?
V: I have been watching from afar, because we were not yet able to share that we're a part of it. But I've been keeping tabs on the different playthroughs which came out. I’m super stoked to finally be able to interact with such an invested community.
A: I was also watching from afar. For the most part everyone was very positive and received the voices very well. At the same time, there were comments on the harshness of the American voice and all that. It didn't necessarily lead me to change my performance, which I wanted to be true all the way through. But it gave me some context on the effect it was having on people. The Voice is not a comforting presence. It's supposed to make you feel a little uncomfortable, a little on edge. So I liked that people received it as harsh, because that's part of it.
What were your first impressions after seeing the game and hearing the final dialogues?
V: I was so stoked about this trailer. I finally got to hear the other voices and it solidified what this world is, that I've been living in for the last year. The team explains it to me as much as possible, but it’s only after seeing and hearing it all that it finally clicked for me. And it absolutely met my expectations.
A: I love indie games, it's where I find some of the coolest, most unique material. And with that, you don't always know how the final product is going to turn out. And the trailer really blew my mind, it’s incredibly gorgeous! The world is phenomenal and so detailed. The music gave me chills. To see how much was accomplished with just the trailer makes me really excited and intrigued for what’s next. It is way beyond what I expected.
Did Yaga’s adventures leave any significant thoughts and emotions with you?
A: I think it made me more empathetic. In BLACKTAIL, you see that anyone has the potential to make morally questionable decisions when they’ve been ostracised, rejected with no support. As an individual player, you are forced to make those decisions on your own. I hope it encourages people to understand that things are more complicated than they look, and you have to consider the consequences of being an outcast.
V: It got me thinking a lot about what “happily ever after” means. At the end of a Disney movie, the villain is defeated, you’ve found your one true love, and anything bad that happened, doesn’t matter anymore because you're happy now. In BLACKTAIL no matter how you play, the ending doesn’t negate any of the characters’ actions or the gravity of what they went through. I think that's something very relatable, because we can have these happy or life-changing moments, but everything we have been through remains.
As a player, would you choose to play the good witch or the bad witch?
A: I have a history of always wanting to be good in video games. I stop at traffic lights in Grand Theft Auto. That is who I am. I would play BLACKTAIL as close to my actual self as possible. I’m not sure if I would turn out as good or bad, because of that morally grey area. I'll probably still stray to the side of good because I get so worried about hurting even fake people and fake creatures. But who knows?
V: I'm probably around the same path as Avalon. I feel bad if I hurt a character in a game. So I would probably stray towards the good side, though there’s a couple of choices where I think that the bad side is justified. So I end up being somewhere in the middle, in that morally grey area… but I hope more good.
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Special thanks to Avalon Penrose, Valerie Rose Lohman and Nergal for taking the time to talk with us! BLACKTAIL releases December 15 on Steam.
