Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
The following article contains spoilers for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth .
Summary
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirthfinally arrived at the end of last calendar month , taking the protagonists beyond Midgar to extend the journeying begin inRemake . The second entry in the planned trilogy , Rebirthallows for an extended retelling of the original 1997 game . Actor Cody Christian , sleep together for role in appearance likeTeen WolfandPretty Little Liars , made his vocalisation acting debut as protagonist Cloud Strife in the title , institute new life history to the fibre .
One of the main goals of the trilogy labor is to reimagine and expound upon the human race fan have intercourse , and a key constituent of that lies with Cloud , and in turning , Christian ’s performance . excellently a stoical character known for repressing his emotion , thepast two biz have render Strife room to grow . Much ofFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth ’s story has changedfrom the original , opening up new opportunities for the protagonist to interact with other fictitious character and have more overall development - no small undertaking for any performing artist , but particularly for a first - prison term vocalism thespian .
alternative timeline act an significant role in FF7 Rebirth , and certain character are able to interact with and shape those timeline .
Screen Rantinterviewed Cody Christian to talk about his story with gaming , jumping into the creation of articulation acting , and the biggestFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthrecording memories .
Cody Christian On Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
The actor reflects on the voice acting process
Screen Rant : First , I ’m singular about your own personal account with video games . Have you been into them for a while ? Have you been intoFinal Fantasyfor a while ?
William F. Cody Christian : I ’m not going to rest and say I ’ve been a monumental fan of this genre . Of video games , yes , but not Final Fantasy , not really RPGs , not JRPGs . I did n’t really arise up playing them , my older brother did . My elderly brother is very to a great extent into not only that musical style , but just a lot of Japanese acculturation , a peck of manga , a lot of gum anime . My brother actually was in a alien interchange because he was get word Japanese in high school day .
He in reality go out to Japan for a student head trip for two weeks . But , long tale short , I ’m a big devotee of video recording games . When I say that , I think , I really grow up playing because my circumstances were a bit different . I was homeschooled from a very unseasoned age because I was working in this industriousness . So I never really had a normal Kyd schedule . So I would go to work , I would be doing schoolwork at ungodly hours . And then because of that , I did n’t really have a mickle of veridical life friend . So picture game were something that I resort to for connective , for contender . I play a mass of first individual hitman .
Yeah , I was curious what kind of secret plan you gravitate towards .
Cody Christian : So my first game that I really grow up with , I grew up playing Halo . That was my first secret plan ever . Grew up playing Halo and then all of the Call of duty , and then I step away from gambling for a little chip , but I ’m back in it . I ’m playing a game call Overwatch on PC . It ’s the first game I ’ve ever played on PC .
But I do know what it ’s like to have a very special , intimate connection with television games and the stories being told in them . A muckle of people do n’t understand that when you are gaming , one , it ’s accessible for everybody regardless of what you are , who you are , what circumstances have hap in your life - gaming is always approachable .
But the more important part of that is gaming is approachable to people in a mode that is so versed and is so vulnerable because , think about it , most of the time you ’re there by yourself unite with this game . Or you ’re sharing it with friends . So I do know what it ’s like to have a very , very special connecter with telecasting games . So to have this opportunity to act this part , both in Remake and Rebirth , to be something for somebody of this caliber is quite particular . It ’s not lost on me .
And you mentioned your brother is a cock-a-hoop lover of the JRPG genre and stuff and nonsense . What was his reaction when you order him that you were rifle to be Cloud Strife ?
Cody Christian : He lost it , because I did n’t empathize the gravitational force of the situation at first . I ’ve portion out this story before , but when I originally got cast , there was no data . It was all like - I forget the word that they use for this , when they put a script out and it ’s bogus . There was no information .
So I did the audition , and a month and some variety run low by . They call us up and they say , " Hey , this is what it is , and this is the labor , this is the role . " And at the time I had heard of Final Fantasy , I knew what it was , but I did n’t really know Cloud like that . So the first someone I call was my brother ; I was in California , he was East Coast .
So I called him up , I ’m like , " Hey , I got this affair . I do n’t even know where to start in attentiveness to my inquiry . Can you head me in the right direction ? " And he was like , " Yeah , of course . What is it ? " I was like , " I ’m doing this guy named Cloud , this Cloud Strife dude . " And he was like , " What ? " I was like , " Yeah , this guy named Cloud in this biz , Final Fantasy . " And he just went quiet for a 2nd and then just lost it .
But he ’s been such a huge support scheme for me . I always find out myself leaning towards him in regards of finding the effect of authenticity in this material , and this fib , and this character , because my brother is an exemplification of a real genuine lover . Not only with this , but just the writing style in and of itself . I ’m well-chosen that he ’s on my side .
And what was it like transitioning from - evidently you have a lot of experience with regular on - camera acting , but going to video game , voice acting , what are the unique challenge and difference of opinion that come along with that than what you ’re used to ?
Cody Christian : Well , there should be the major one , which is something I never really intend about until I was in that environs , being I do n’t have a television camera to play in front of . So now all of a sudden these picayune matter of just existing , these human mannerisms that I ’m able to communicate with and emote with , they ’re not being pick up any longer . The only thing that ’s in that way with me is a microphone . So now when you cut optical aid and have to tell a taradiddle that entrance citizenry , and because you ’ve got to keep in mind during the recording process , I would say 80 % of the clobber , we do n’t have visuals .
So that was the most apparent and most drastic change was understanding that all of these small micro expressions , there has to be a triviality behind them now . There has to be an try . They ’re all slight moments . Me getting up and shifting in this chair right now on camera is telling you a fib , but without that , how do you create that same sort of reality that the audience phallus can attach themselves to ?
But now you ’ve got to do it like here . And it was daunt at first , I ’m not going to lie , but I had an incredible team of the great unwashed around me . Everyone is so passionate about Final Fantasy and create this world for the fans , not just for themselves , but for the people that have been involved for decennium and hopefully next fans . Everyone wants everyone to succeed .
So I had my director in there , Kirk [ Thornton ] , who - he ’s been like my anchorman from the very beginning , the first session . He made me feel comfortable . He taught me the tricks of the trade about the thing that I did n’t eff . There is a lot of technicality behind vocalization acting that I think the great unwashed just do n’t understand because it ’s not always speak about . But yeah , transitioning from - most of my career is on photographic camera piece of work . This is the first time really I have the opportunity to separate a story with just my voice , which is cool . But it was challenging at first .
The first game , I think just with all the expectations and the pressure , inevitably I could n’t enjoy it as much . Not to say that I did n’t enjoy it , I had an amazing meter . But this second go around , now that I ’ve learned , I feel like I actually bed what I ’m doing . And to be quite frank with you , I do n’t feel like a hoax anymore . I reckon the first game and leading up into it , and I allow myself heed to a lot of chatter outside what was important at that meter , so I think it filled my head with this imposter syndrome . I was like , " Oh , you ’re an actor , but you ’re not a vocalisation actor . What are you doing ? "
I guess that was something that I had to grow out of , and thankfully I have , and I ’ve only done that with the support of everybody involve in Final Fantasy and a Square , and also my amazing cast , too . I got some big dog , some genuine cock-a-hoop player involved in this with extensive sketch . So to have their financial support and to have them on my side with all of it , I believe it ’s made this plot specially so much easier and much more enjoyable . And I think people are blend in to see it when they act as it , I think it ’s a dissimilar tone . It just feels a small bit more fully grown and a fiddling bit more mature , a picayune scrap more settle into .
And you refer how there are these difficulties because we ca n’t see you when you ’re recording . And this was an particularly hard character to start out with , I sense like , because Cloud is a character who sometimes does n’t utter that much and is trying to smother his emotion . I feel like it must ’ve been really hard to still total so much personality and nuance when you do n’t necessarily always have that much literal dialogue to exploit with .
Buffalo Bill Cody Christian : Yeah , it was difficult at sentence , but I think in those present moment it was crucial to prompt ourselves not to get caught up in this trap of attempt to always do too much . To the tip you just made , we make out this character . This character has been around . We ’ve set up him . We know his personality , so the stoicism and this guardedness , it ’s justified . So I remember just playing the reality of all of that and knowing that , okay , we do n’t have to do too much . A niggling is go to say a lot , just being able to stay comfortable in that .
So I ’m not going to lie , there were some sessions where we would go in there and for four minute straight , I would be doing the most pernicious , the most micro sighs and grunts and looks and moan and groans to the point where I was go wild . I ’d be in there and I would celebrate if I got to say a word , do you realise ? [ Laughs ] Four hour of that is crazy .
It was a fun prison term though . I ’m incredibly grateful that the 2nd game , we get to dive in a little bite more , and this guy , he becomes a trivial chatty cattie and require to partake everything about his life . I ’ve enjoy it . It gives me so much more to play around with .
What has it been like evolving this character in these games that give more elbow room for the character to breathe than in the original ?
Buffalo Bill Cody Christian : It ’s splendid . I think it ’s what everybody has always wanted , even if they did n’t know it at the time . We fall in love life with these characters from - when did Final Fantasy 7 come out , in 1997 ?
Yeah , I believe so .
Cody Christian : 2024 . It ’s a long- * * * metre . And it ’s softheaded because when you grow up with something or you have a connection to something that would be dated at this point , to the current generation , it may seem antiquated . It may seem like it ’s age out of grace , but you have a limited connexion to it . There ’s a sentiment there . And I can only imagine how many multitude for decades were like , " Oh my gosh , I would love to reimagine or re - research . Or what if they say this ? "
Or just the fact that the archetype was not voiced is crazy . Everyone had such an intimate connexion with that game , and there were n’t even vocalisation worker attached to it is baffling . To go back and to have the space , have the power to do so creatively that the film director , that the producers , that the 1 that are really having their hand on this story understand the grandness and the chance they have here to retain to flesh these characters out . To take something that ’s already made such an immense impingement and say , " Okay , rent ’s reimagine and let ’s re - research . " Not recreate , but just flesh out even more . I think that ’s a very beautiful affair to be a part of .
You mentioned how , in the beginning , with the audition mental process , first there was just a dummy script ; it was fair tightlipped . I ’m singular , once you were cast and stuff , was there still a portion of secrecy surrounding it ? Did you get to see the whole script at once for the two plot ?
Cody Christian : No , not at all . And I do n’t know necessarily if it was a confidentiality issue or they felt the need to protect it , because I do n’t necessarily - every sentence I asked for anything that was available , it would be provided . But the issue is that there ’s so much work to be done .
There ’s so much work being done in Japan . There ’s scripts being written , there ’s MOCAP being done , there ’s animation being build , there ’s the recording and everything has to be done there , and then translated in a new hand with the same interpretation , but for it to make sensory faculty in the westerly world has to be produce .
So I imagine it ’s just this gargantuan machine that ’s doing the best that it can to keep up because it ’s such an acute summons . So with that , we do n’t inevitably always have access to the stuff to prep it , which is unearthly for me because I come from the film and TV world where it ’s like , " Give me my book and allow me to dive in . " The first game was knotty because I ’m literally reading lines for the first time , rehearsing them before I record them .
It was a destiny of just , and I guess even in the 2nd game , staying inquisitive . I just had to ask a short ton of questions just so I know : what is going on here ? Who am I with ? What happened before ? Because we jump around so much and record what ’s available to be tape , so nothing really follow anything chronologically . So just rest super , extremely inform is imperative . Now it ’s a picnic because I feel like I get a bit of the Cloud essence .
I have two button lines , really . It ’s crazy , I intend in the first duet sessions that I had , there were lines that just never left me . And whenever I go to say them , they convey me right back to not only the tone and the register that I need to be in , but also just the mindset . It ’s the , " Not interested , " line and then there was , in the first chapter of Remake , when they link up for the first time , he has a credit line where he read , " Different kernel , different nuclear reactor , count on when it was built . "
And I do n’t fuck why , but those two line - I think it ’s because it ’s within the first couple sessions that I recorded . We really drilled that because it was part of the trailer poppycock in the very , very beginning . But those became my little backbone lines , so if I ever feel lost in the recording process or if I ’m ever unsure about something in the playscript or I feel myself start to slip aside , I ’ll always cast off those two back in my mind .
And you talked a little bit about the transcription unconscious process with the director . Were you ever recording with other castmates , or was it always just you ?
William Frederick Cody Christian : It was always just me . And that ’s something that - I did n’t think that this unconscious process would be what it was . When I booked this and I thought about the transcription and voiceover , I thought , " Oh , all of us are going to be in the studio apartment at the same time . We ’re going to be capable to go back and away and banter . " But this process , especially a JRPG , is very different than if you were doing an animated movie or aliveness because everything has to be so exact .
There ’s not a lot of room to countenance the actors to go back and forth off of each other . Thankfully , there were some second where , based on the schedule , other multitude ’s lines would be immortalize . So if we were doing a vista , I would sometimes have what they did and vice versa . I would show a crowd so some of the other actor got to listen to what I did and act as off of that . But more time than not , you ’re just solo dolo . It was elusive , but at a certain point , once you get to jazz everybody , you hear their spokesperson enough sentence , it ’s almost like you could imagine how it ’s going to play out . you could hear it - what they ’re going to say , how they ’re going to say it , wnd almost establish that fake scenario in your nous to toy off of and run with .
And are there any scenes from recording that really stand out to you as either being specially unmanageable or excited to put down ? We can put a spoiler warn on this so you do n’t have to interest about what conniption you ’re sing about .
Cody Christian : I feel like the question is lead to the solvent that I ’m last to give you , so well done . [ Laughs ] It [ Aerith ’s last scene ] was a very brawny , emotional fit . It ’s a panorama that shake the scene , if you will , of just television game culture , honestly . It was such a devastating reveal in the first , so obviously we stay true to that , and that moment plays out .
However , with the re - opine there was an extra snatch of importance put into : this is current and this is 2024 , and this movie - I say " movie . " [ Laughs ] This game feel like a movie , where it ’s in a cinematic way . So with that , there ask to be a fragile approach with how this scene plays out . And I remember the transcription process of it . I plow it just as I treat most of these performances , but especially that one , I treated it as if I was on a film curing , as if I was shut my eyes and holding her in my weapons system and really live that moment . And I even feel stuff coming up in me now speak about it .
It ’s unbalanced . As an actor , I ’ve had so many different performances in my career so far , and so many of them still subsist in me . I really palpate those thing , truthfully , authentically , and very strongly charged emotion . And as human being , you ’re , in a way , a supercomputer saving a little highlighting of something that has shoot in your sprightliness , so that scene is no dissimilar . I can verbalize to you about it now as if I was there show it . And I remember we were talking about it , I remember taking a good five , 10 proceedings just to get into a promontory blank space to go and record everything , because we did it all in one scene .
There was just a lot of tending . It was a wad of focus . The mood change over . Usually it ’s very light , we ’re jest around , we ’re ingest a skilful time , or we ’re get great work done . But that one , everyone that day - myself , our transcriber , Ben [ Sabin ] , was in the session , our engineer , Justin [ Kozonis ] , and my director , Kirk - everyone just matte the chemise in tone . It was a somber mood . And everyone approach it as such and regale it with the regard and professionalism it deserved . So I trust , even though it ’s rattling to most , I hope that it ’s well - incur , because it was n’t something that was just skimmed through or skim over .
Talking about the game being find by participant now , have you been keeping tabs on public reactions and reviews at all since the game officially launched ?
Cody Christian : A small fleck . I ’ll be good with you , I taste to do my skilful to not be so engross in the response , because for me , the beautiful part of this journeying was the act of doing it . I last and take all of my joy and fulfillment out of the universe process . And then when everything is enounce and done , I seek to just give it aside and go forth it to the audience . But having said all of that , in the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. and eld that we live on in , it ’s hard for me not to see everything on my phone . So yeah , I ’ve assure it . I ’ve seen the public reception . I ’ve actually been paying a mass of attention to the people that are pour the game .
Everyone seems very thrilled about it , and that to me is a job well done . There ’s some people that are n’t going to like it , there ’s some people that are go to have negative things to say , and I still see it . I still see the unbalanced nitpicking , the stuff that I ’m like , " Really ? " The hundreds of 1000 of hour and resource and all of this went into it and you ’re conk out to talk about - listen , I do n’t even want to shell it , but I saw something the other twenty-four hours that just blew my mind . It was about a niggling detail in the plot , and someone was just throwing the biggest fit . And I had to sit back and go like , " You ’re going to let this tiny … "
I ’m very , very happy that it ’s being get well , and I hope it go on to do so . And not only just for my sake , but for everyone ’s sake . For everyone that was involve in this game , for every one of my castmates , for every single individual , because there ’s an all-embracing amount of study that go into this . I ’m talking masses give their life .
I remember our translator , Ben , for two years this man ate , slept , drank nothing but this . So to see the success , it makes my spunk affectionate , because I think about every exclusive person imply , and I go , " Damn , they deserve it . They really merit it . " And who deserves it the most ? The fans merit it . So to see them winning , Ws in the chat , you know what I mean ?
After what sounds like a really glowing experience that you had with this , is voice acting something that you definitely require to follow up on more of , either TV biz - wise or elsewhere ?
Cody Christian : Long , long answer : yes . I ’ve always been a fan of liveliness . Even now , I ’m about to be 29 age sometime , I think what I see most is cartoons . I grew up with it . I think the storytelling and how it can be done in animation is just unique . So yes , animated serial I would absolutely love to do .
SpongeBob was my favorite thing ever . Rick and Morty is one of my preferent show ever . So be and create something in that blank would be a ambition come true for me . And also video biz - wise . If there ’s ever a re - imagining of Halo , even a new sub in Overwatch , there ’s so many amazing opportunities .
And I recollect before this experience , I did n’t really think that they could or would exist for me , and I was fine with that . I was at pacification with it . But now that I ’ve done this and I palpate I ’ve attain a little bite of self-confidence and some assurance of like , " Okay , I may not be the good , but I recognise what I ’m doing to a small extent . Let ’s see what else is out there . " So if something were to arrive up , and if it was right and I could tell a cool story and be a part of something special , I ’m all for it . And I ’m happy that this plot has given me the chance to have those succeeding chance .
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