Grace's VA on stepping out of Leon's shadow

Angela Sant'Albano said she was nervous taking on Grace Ashcroft in Resident Evil Requiem, a new lead in a long-running series who shares the game with established protagonist Leon Kennedy. "I was really nervous before the game came out because Grace is so new," she told Polygon, worried players might prefer a more traditionally "strong, badass" hero.

She developed Grace by filling in small, specific details — like her stutter and the fact that she doesn't wear perfume — and by shaping how Grace moves and breathes. Sant'Albano ran around the studio to make herself breathless so the character's shaky breaths would feel believable, and she used posture to show Grace pulling herself in and looking up at others.

"When we were on stage, I was clutching my hands and not quite hunched, but clenched," she said. Sant'Albano also worked to create contrast between Grace in the present and in a flashback with her mother.

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