Patricia Summersett Reveals The Heart Of Zelda
The voice actress became Princess Zelda's first-ever English-language actress with Breath of the Wild and made history in the process.
There’s a reason why The Legend of Zelda is, to this day, one of the most beloved video game franchises of all time. It’s a rich, evocative synthesis of Eastern video game storytelling sensibilities and the archetypal monomyths of Western fantasy like The Lord of the Rings, and to this day its setting of Hyrule remains one of gaming’s most eternally wondrous landscapes, forever filled with mystery and magic. The eponymous Princess Zelda is the beating heart of the franchise. She transforms from a traditional damsel-in-distress to a complex monarch and a powerful and wise guiding light for Link – she even became the playable character for the first time in a mainline LoZ game with 2024’s Echoes of Wisdom.
Zelda is one of the most beloved characters in video game history, which meant that actress Patricia Summersett had big shoes to fill when she became the first English-language voice actress for Zelda in mainline franchise history – and yet when she auditioned, she literally had no idea what she was walking into. “It was a secret game,” Summerset tells Inverse. “I didn’t know what I was auditioning for when I did the audition and landed the role.”
Not being able to prepare for an audition that huge might have been mortifying for some, but Summersett says she’s glad she went in blind. “I might have made different choices, I might have tried too hard, or ultimately had different impulses.” The result? Summersett officially became Princess Zelda’s English-speaking voice with the release of 2018’s Breath of the Wild and forever became a part of the character’s legendary history. Inverse caught up with Summerset to get her take on the importance of the character of Zelda, her favorite game in the franchise, and her thoughts on Zelda becoming a live-action character.
Considering Breath of the Wild is the first game in the series with English-language spoken dialogue, Patricia Summersett is now a part of video game history.
Were you at all intimidated by becoming the first English-language voice actress for Zelda? Was there any apprehension, and how did you manage that?
I think that first year, when a game is being developed, and nothing has been revealed about what it’s going to be yet or how it’s going to be received, and when you know that there’s a lot of firsts with this new game — there’s a lot of pressure. Also, until a game is released, you don’t know if you’re necessarily going to make the final cut. Once I found out what that role was, I was so excited to be part of the process, and then my goal was to just do the best I could with the information I had and hope for the best. I don’t like to celebrate until something’s literally been published, because I’ve had it go the other way with projects that get canceled before they even come out.
It’s been a really fascinating journey because it is an impactful symbol, and to be associated with that has required a lot of extroversion and energy and a certain amount of association with the character that hadn’t previously been the case in my life. You just want everybody to have the best experience with that character, especially if they associate it with you. You want to move people.
What do you think has made The Legend of Zelda such a beloved franchise after all these years?
Oh my goodness. When I think about the series, which is 40 years old, I think it’s this really wonderful combination of classic storytelling and powerful archetypes. A sense of humor, a sense of heart. It’s family-friendly. It tries your brain but also pulls at your heart, with the puzzles but also the beautiful sort of romantic adventure. It’s classic storytelling and innovative technology and the combination of those two things.
What was your approach to creating the voice for a character that has so much legacy attached to her?
Well, I definitely had exposure. I was very familiar with the character; I’d grown up with the NES in my house, and we played the original, and I’d played Ocarina of Time. After landing the role, I went back and played some more games and dove into the Hyrule Historia. But the voice print had already been decided on by the time I figured out what the role was, because I auditioned for it and made creative decisions not knowing. So once that happened, some of the stuff had already been established; then it was a matter of going from what’s on the script and trusting the team and the room. And, y’know, being available and present for the work at hand. When it comes to playing icons, you can research those things, but you can’t play the past.
Princess Zelda has evolved a lot throughout the series, even becoming the pirate Tetra in Wind Waker, and her impact on the history of gaming continues to grow.
What do you think sets apart video game voice acting from the other kinds of acting out there?
As the years go on, I think there’s less and less that separates that style of acting at all. More and more video games are cinematic, and they want to be films, and films want to be video games a lot of the time, right? Acting is acting is acting, always, and because of my particular training, I’m always going to come to any role from a full-body standpoint of theater training. I give a lot to the script.
It’s almost outdated to say that it’s just a voice. I do so much performance capture, so much of what you do feels like you’re on a hybrid of either a theater stage or a film set, so there’s so much crossover in a way that’s really enjoyable.
Do you find Zelda ending up in other characters that you play? And vice versa?
I mean, your unique vocal print is so unique. You’re trying to find the rhythms, the musicality, the inner psychology of whatever character you’re playing, even if they’re fairly simple. So there might be some crossover in the sounds of what’s coming out of you, but ultimately they’re all very distinct. Sometimes, if I find they sound too similar to another character, I’ll think about that, and it might pull me out a little bit, and I’ll wanna adjust my performance and maybe even the psychology of the character a little bit, so it doesn’t cross over too much. I never like to repeat a performance; I do like to move around and have diversity in my voices.
Do you have a favorite game in the series?
Breath of the Wild, for me, literally changed my life. So if you’re not including games I feel very partial to having been involved in, then before that I would say Ocarina of Time. It’s such a defining game for so many, and I was a teenager when that one came out, and it was a really exciting thing. It was one of those special games in terms of art design.
I quite love Twilight Princess and that version of Zelda, but it really comes back down to Breath of the Wild for me. I have so much memory that’s attached to that open world landscape, and the open world experience of me traveling around the world and meeting people involved in the game.
It might look dated now, but Ocarina of Time made history as the first 3D Legend of Zelda game.
Do you have any advice for Bo Bragason as she gets ready to bring this character to life in live-action?
Honestly, I have zero advice to give someone like Bo. I assume she’s gonna have an amazing ride with it, and she’s going to be awesome, of course, and she’s got an entire creative team around her and a different kind of collaboration. I wish her the absolute best with the coolest fandom ever. It’s been such a joy for me, and I’m sure she’s going to have an amazing ride with that, so I’m really happy for her.
If you had to boil down your relationship with Zelda to one thing for future depictions to take hold of, what would it be?
I think she embodies compassion. All of the ways that she problem solves they’re always surrounded by this massive heart. There’s something about her role as a compassionate royal; I think that’s part of the archetype.
And I honestly think the series is very much summed up in the symbols that exist within the game, which is the Triforce. Link tends to represent courage; obviously, Ganondorf represents power, and Zelda represents wisdom. But the way I think of her wisdom, I think it comes from her having the biggest heart.
