As someone with an understanding of theater that ranges from Zero to None, I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with Maggie Robertson: one of the most talented voices in gaming right now, widely known for her performance as Lady Dimitrescu in Resident Evil Village. As Maggie is a classically trained actress, with an education from the London Academy of Music and the Dramatic Arts, I braced myself to do a lot of post-script research after our interview.
However, the way that Maggie experiences both art and the craft of acting, both in body and in voice, is something that’s much more universal and communicates well to even the most lay of laypeople (raising my hand, here). As I grew to know her more, from her background as a voice actress to her philosophies regarding her craft, I understood even more why she’s such a tour de force within her field.
It was utterly delightful talking to Maggie, and meeting the person behind some of gaming’s scariest, most intimidating villainesses. I hope her bright mind and bubbly warmth translate well through this article!
Portrait of an artist
Maggie’s journey into voice acting was, by her own definition, somewhat unconventional. Even her aspirations as an actress weren’t planned from the jump, resulting in the sort of wiggly path that many of the most versatile artists share.
Growing up, Maggie’s family moved around quite a bit, and since she was an introverted only child, she often slipped away to other worlds for entertainment. She loved reading fantasy and creating art, and very much enjoyed doing anything that involved using her hands.
Indeed, Maggie fit the portrait of a shy young artist to a T, so any kind of stage work was out of the question—until, once again, she switched schools, and found herself in the choir program. With all of the seats in the back already taken, she was forced to sit by the choir director, who heard her voice and told her she ought to pursue singing more seriously. This was the first time someone had ever complimented her voice, and the start of an entirely new path in her artistic endeavors.
Eventually, one thing led to another, and a friend convinced Maggie to audition for a school play with her. Maggie had no intentions of actually being a staple in her school’s theater circuit, yet in the end, between the two, she was the one who got cast. Thus began a fascination with theater that has shaped her career, and the way she’s educated herself as an actor.
The most fascinating example of this was her engagement with Shakespeare during her time at LAMDA, where she got her master’s in classical acting. Maggie spoke of Shakespeare with a reverence that was electric, and it was clear that her time spent with him left a massive impact on her craft. On the one hand, she immediately gravitated towards the “musicality” of his writing, which lended a natural coalescing between her background as a singer and her talents as an actress. On the other hand, she found that the brilliance of Shakespeare was in the way he wrote, how even with language several hundreds of years removed from our own, there was an element to his style that was so effortlessly natural to translate to any modern audience.
In the end, this kind of education fit perfectly within the realm of video game acting—which she similarly never expected to get into, yet has now become almost her entire world.
From Lady D to Orin the Red
After graduating from LAMDA in 2019, Maggie moved to L.A. to find work, as one does. And as one does when they’re new in L.A., she hustled big-time while trying to find gigs, until one day, she lucked out massively with a very secretive project.
Since early-development games are red-taped to hell and back with NDA limitations, Maggie had no idea what she was walking into with Resident Evil: Village. All she got was a codename, with vague descriptors, and names that had nothing to do with the finished product. She only realized how monumental this was when she came to the first table-read, where everyone was whispering with nervous excitement about the fact that they were, in fact, here for the next Resident Evil game. Even as a non-gamer, Maggie knew what Resident Evil was. She described that day as “electric” and tangibly felt the start of something new for her—”one of those lightning bolt moments,” as she put it.
This new path was kind of a perfect melding of everything she loved about her craft and then some. Through mo-cap, she was able to be as physical and playful as she pleased, which the studio happily endorsed. She’d told me earlier that the best actors treated themselves as conduits for Shakespeare’s words, and indeed, that same philosophy worked beautifully with video games. Part of why Lady D was such a charismatic, magnetic character for millions of people was because of Maggie and how masterfully she was able to embody the dramatic flair that a character like that truly needed:
Another aspect of Maggie’s philosophy that works well within this field is her sense of curiosity. When she first got home from that initial table-read, she didn’t just sit on her laurels: She got right to work, researching everything she could about the franchise. And as production went on, she continually got into the mindset of Lady D, to the point where her insight on the character felt less from a distanced perspective, and more of a very familiar, very intimate understanding.
I’m sure not many would immediately peg Lady D as a lonely, vengeful, sorrowful person, deeply in need of control in order to avoid her more monstrous qualities, yet those were the very first things about her that Maggie shared with me.
Which brings us to her latest role as Orin the Red, one of the central antagonists in Baldur’s Gate 3. We’ll be leaning into some spoilers here, so if you want to avoid all of that, definitely skip until the next section!
**Mild spoilers for Baldur’s Gate 3 ahead.**
Alongside General Ketheric Thorm (J.K. Simmons) and Lord Enver Gortash (Jason Isaacs), Orin is part of the Chosen of the Dead Three: representatives of the aforementioned gods of death, respectively Myrkul, Bane, and Bhaal. Whereas the former two, at the very least, seem somewhat human, Orin is disarmingly unsettling from the moment you meet her. As a shapeshifter, her skin is pale and constantly pulsating with blue and purple veins, with white eyes that contrast her blackish lips. From the moment you first see her, you know that she is an unhinged force to be reckoned with—and from the moment you set foot in Baldur’s Gate, you’re given no choice but to reckon with her.
When playing as a standard “Tav” character, your involvement with Orin is fairly straightforward: You’re constantly playing a game of cat-and-mouse, where Orin will take the form of both seemingly innocuous characters and those you trust in order to make you doubt every little place you go. This all culminates when Gortash attempts to make a deal with you, and Orin, unwilling to let him have the upper hand, kidnaps one of your companions in a bid to make you cooperate with her instead.
I certainly went along with her demands, because damned if I’d let her kill my Bae. Yet all the while, I had a hard time getting a read on Orin. Yes, she was horrifying, but there was also something glib and childlike in her approach. It would be easy to get annoyed at her constant intrusions on my plans and privacy, but ultimately, I wanted to know more about this woman who was so mysterious, yet seemed to relish laying it all out.
And truly, after speaking with Maggie, I realize there’s still a lot more to Orin to be uncovered—which I absolutely plan on uncovering in a “Dark Urge” playthrough, for very spoilery reasons. With the same sort of introspection she applied to Lady D, Maggie characterized Orin in a way that I found fascinating. Alongside Orin’s writer, Adrienne Law, she grew very fond of Orin in a way that was almost pitying. In Orin, she saw less of the murder-hungry foe we all see, and more of a broken, twisted little girl, who had become a “thing” to be used by her god in order to survive. She thrills in violence, delights in it, and yet, it is all she’s ever known. I saw this when I learned that Orin’s mother attempted to murder her, in order to become favored in Bhaal’s eyes, yet in turn was strangled by Orin herself.
The way Maggie tried to embody all of these qualities was, again, through intense physicality and a wide vocal range. She gave characterization to Orin’s blades, which she described as the shapeshifter’s “only constants” throughout her lives, and made them extensions of Orin in her most crucial scenes. And, once she identified this lost childishness within Orin, she used that to elevate her lines, making Orin less of a straightforward “evil disgusting villain” and more of a complex being instead.
All of this being said, I did have to ask: What would Lady D and Orin think of each other?
Maggie’s answer was very charming: Not only would Lady D adopt Orin as one of her daughters, but Orin would also find any excuse to see Lady D’s monster form, and then ride it into the sunset. Glorious.
Beyond the horror
Though I’m not as familiar with horror as a genre, and therefore wasn’t super familiar with Maggie’s catalogue of work, I was immediately taken with her warmth and zeal for her craft. It created quite a funny contrast with the kinds of characters she’s gotten the most recognition for, but this is something Maggie relishes. She found that, as an introvert, it’s almost easier to sink her teeth into characters that are so completely removed from her own personal experiences—a philosophy many of the most talented actors and actresses share. (Meryl Streep comes to mind, as a fellow introvert herself.)
Of course, it can’t all be doom, gloom, and business, which is where such outlets as Vampy Heart have come from. Vampy is her own original character, a silly li’l guy that was born from doodles made during a Streamily session. He may have a pair of vampiric chompers, but he’s all about peace, love, and goofin’, and at the end of the day, that’s what matters the most, right?
Similarly, though Maggie is excited to share more projects in the near future, ultimately she’s still finding her own ways of balancing her professional artistry with the artistic passion she’s always had within her. Vampy was one way for her to just doodle for fun, and for herself, but she still wants to reconnect with her artistic sensibilities in ways that aren’t related to work or ambition. And to me, that speaks to her nature as a true artist: someone who still has that love and drive for all kinds of crafts, and who will continue to nurse that love for as long as she can.
I truly enjoyed getting to know Maggie, and I look forward to seeing everything she does next. You can follow her socials @maggiethebard across the board, meet Orin in Baldur’s Gate 3, and of course, support her and your other favorite VAs as they join the current strikes in the entertainment industry!
(featured image: Capcom/Larian Studios/Amy Sussman/WireImage)
Published: Sep 8, 2023 05:34 pm