Getting voice actors right in Borderlands 2

Posted by on September 23, 2012 in Games

A surefire way to tell great voice acting from not great voice acting is to consider how annoying the dialogue would be if you were to read it. Take Tiny Tina, the murderous 13 year old girl in Borderlands 2. If someone were to hand me the script to her dialogue, I would be filled with the desire to take a red pen to it. “Do me a flava and lure the guest to the party or I’ll eat your babies.” What? How could that sound anything other than grating?

Let Ashley Burch demonstrate exactly how that’s going to happen (embedded). Burch is an actress with an awkward enthusiasm that reminds me of Gilda Radner. She’s also related to one of the developers at Gearbox, so it makes sense that she’d have a unique appreciation for Borderlands’ humor and how to make “do me a flava and lure the guest to the party or I’ll eat your babies” funny. She’s furthermore a videogamer with her own popular show and fan base. She is exactly the right way to do what Electronic Arts has tried to do with Jessica Chobot and Felicia Day. You hire an actor for his or her talent, not celebrity.

A lot of Gearbox’s humor is awful on the page, but perfect with the right voice actors. Fortunately, Gearbox is really good at nailing the second part of the equation. Hence Claptrap, Scooter, Ellie, Tannis, and especially Tiny Tina. Here’s hoping for more Tiny Tina and Ashley Burch in whatever DLC Gearbox has planned.

  • http://gangles.ca/ Gangles

    “She’s also the wife of the one of the developers.” I believe she’s actually the writer’s (Anthony Burch) sister.

  • Joe

    Yeah, first thing anyone I talk to about Borderlands 2 asks is “have you gotten to Tina yet?” She is the most awesome character in a game full of awesome awesome. (I believe there is a great line from the Boondock Saints that covers the preceding sentence)

  • tomchick

    Oh man, that was quite an assumption on my part. My bad. I’ve emended the article to cover a few options.

  • Jared Garst

    I’ve heard the part was written explicitly for Ashley Burch by her brother, the lead writer. Looking at their youtube videos (
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agJ8WQMLKNk) I suspect the part required alarmingly little acting on her part.

    Seems like one of the fastest ways to a great voice acting performance is to personally know the actor. Worked for Bastion, worked here.

  • Sean

    “She is exactly the right way to do what Electronic Arts has tried to do with Jessica Chobot and Felicia Day. You hire an actor for his or her talent, not celebrity.”

    Ouch. I can hear the dying screams of a thousand fanboy’s. ;)

  • http://www.facebook.com/Cfolliot Dan Sorenson

    Chobot I’ll give give you, but yes I’m the fanboy drinking Day’s Kool-Aid.

  • NarcoSleepy

    Well you never know.. sister-wives and all.

  • tomchick

    If I recall correctly, EA hired Felicia Day to make a Dragon Age “fan film” in which she played an elven thief. And whereas I think Felicia Day is funny and charming, I’m assuming that wasn’t the best use of her talents.

    Of course, I could be wrong, as I didn’t see it.

  • Ronecvan

    Claptrap is such an annoying and condesending robot it’s unbelievable.

  • JT

    She was awesome as Veronica in New Vegas.

  • sid

    I too am quite the Day-ist (theological pun, just for you Tom). However, despite the decent budget and semi-professional actors, the Dragon Age fan film was quite painful to watch, but more due to the fantasy context than any fault of the actors. Ms. Day is a competent actor, she has had small roles in Buffy and Supernatural, and she plays to type in her ever improving web series The Guild. Cinematically, high fantasy is just so hard to do well regardless of budget (cf. Eragon, Dungeons and Dragons, the movie).