“There were some comments that came up on Twitter after the game was released saying ‘Oh, she’s ugly, she’s not very attractive, I’m not interested in her’,” says Jane Perry, the voice of Returnal’s lead character Selene.
“And I thought that was such an interesting comment, I thought it was kind of illuminating in some ways in terms of what is expected of female characters in games, especially if they’re going to be a kick-ass hero like Selene.
“And I just got to thinking, that person probably feels that because he or she has been fed a steady diet of a particular stereotype. And I think when you’re fed a steady diet of one thing, you’ve been educated to expect that in a way.”
Let’s Play Returnal: Ascension Co-op Gameplay Update 3.0 – SELENE DUO-N! Watch on YouTube
Selene isn’t your typical video game protagonist. As Perry mentioned in her speech following her BAFTA win for Performer in a Lead Role, Selene is a middle-aged woman and a mother. There’s a tension between duty to her career and to her children – as well as shooting tentacled aliens on an isolated, time-cycling, inescapable planet.
Perry explains how Anne Beyer, Selene’s face model, spun the Twitter remarks into a positive.
“She shot right back at this person and said ‘Your comment was actually so great, because in fact I’m a fashion model. And in my acting career I’ve been told too many times that I’m too glamorous, and that I’m too beautiful. And so being able to play Selene was my chance to not be that’. And so she spun it around and took it as a great compliment and I sort of took it as a great complement too.”
Returnal’s narrative director Greg Louden told Perry that – in reference to stereotypically glamorous video game women – everything that Selene isn’t makes her what she is.
“I thought that was such a profound and wonderful statement,” says Perry.
“I look at Selene and I see somebody who’s inspiring to me, I see someone who is breaking the boundaries of what we might expect from a woman. And I just think, why the fuck not?
“I know women who are strong and powerful and brave. I have so many women like that in my life. So why shouldn’t they be represented in games?”
Indeed, it was Selene’s bravery and fearlessness that drew Perry to the role in the first place, as she describes the character as “determined”, “courageous”, but “flawed”.
“She’s got some things going on in her life that I think, if we can’t relate directly to her circumstances, we can relate in some ways to the sense of loss or a sense of internal psychological struggle,” she says.