We Interview: Patricia Summersett, Princess Zelda from Tears of the Kingdom/Breath of the Wild, Ash from Rainbow 6 Siege, and more!

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a fan of The Legend of Zelda franchise. I’ve played every game I could get my hands on if it be main series or a side story. I love the land of Hyrule and the characters involved. So when I was presented the opportunity to speak with Patricia Summersett, the Princess Zelda herself, I was so extremely excited. We want to start by saying thank you to Patricia for her time and some amazing answers to our questions. Now, without further ado, let’s jump in!

Adam Moreno: Hello everybody and welcome to our we interview series here at gaming trend. Today we have a special special guest Princess Zelda herself, Patricia Summerset! How are you doing today?

Patricia Summersett: I am just fine, Adam! I’ve had my coffee. I’ve had a croissant. It’s great!

Adam Moreno: Now you’ve heard her voice in quite a lot, including Assassin’s Creed, Star Wars: Squadrons. I’m a big fan of Star Wars. But what brings us here today is the hit game, like it is taking the world by storm, Tears of the Kingdom – Legend of Zelda. The sequel to Breath of the Wild. We have some questions for the wonderful Patricia. Are you ready?

Patricia Summersett: Yeah, I guess so! Yeah, of course, of course I am!

Adam Moreno: OK. Question number one, you’ve joined a franchise that is historically a fan favorite. Did you feel any pressure coming into the series at such an important role of being the one that the game was named after? What was your thought process when you originally got the role and when you knew that there would be a sequel.

Patricia Summersett: Oh, well, yeah. Two very different adventures, those things. When I first got the role, I found out what it was, of course, after auditioning and landing the role and then signing the NDA’s. So it was a secret audition as they often are. So when I finally discovered it, I was quite sure it was going to be a big thing, but there was still a lot of mystery around it because there hadn’t been a voice before. I mean, I was elated. There was no… I was surprised. Maybe a little shocked and just over the moon. And then really, really concerned about doing a good job for a while. It’s just been incredible. It was an incredible year recording that in secrecy and then having absolutely no idea what was going to happen with the first game and just how big it was actually going to be. Obviously, the Zelda games are big and they usually come out and they’re awesome. Who could have foreseen, you know, the storm that was Breath of the Wild?

Adam Moreno: I don’t think anybody, I truly don’t think anybody thought that it was going to blow up as big as it. I got it. I had a day one switch. It was the first thing that I ever played. It was just walking out that first time was breathtaking, but hearing the voices coming from characters was crazy.

Patricia Summersett: Tell me about it!

Adam Moreno: OK, so there has been some time between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. How has Zelda changed in your opinion as a character, as a Princess, a warrior, etcetera? How has she changed from the first game to the second game?

Patricia Summersett: Well, it’s so fascinating that you also have Hyrule Warriors in the middle there, where again, it’s the same character, but in a different style of game. And some people have asked me, are you coming from a different place when you were performing that one? And the thing is – not really. It feels like it’s been this really nice expansion. And new contexts for the same character to play within, because it really is all coming from Breath of the Wild Zelda, in my opinion, because that’s the one I started with. So I guess the evolution has been that she’s… I guess when I first started creating the character, you know, for my own voice actor imagination, I was drawing from a lot of different sources and now I feel like she’s dropped into me more. And so I trust what’s already in there. And I feel like. I don’t know. I wonder, there are always different directions that you get in the room for these different things. She’s also had this offshoot game where she’s been able to just be a fighter with a different tone to it. So coming back for this one (Tears of the Kingdom). I feel really grounded in it and I think a word that I have thought of a lot was a sense of relief to be able to come back to a character that I feel I carry around a lot anyway. But then I get another crack at just a full new palette of things to explore within that character. So it’s just such an immense pleasure. And a physical one too. It’s just emotional. It’s really great.

Adam Moreno: I love that! Now this is not one of my questions, but I do have to ask now. Have you played the other games as you got the role you started like looking at the other Zeldas and the other iterations of Zelda.

Patricia Summersett: I did, yes!

Adam Moreno: Was there a favorite one? Did you have a game that was like, “ohh before I start my game,” which is clearly your favorite, I would have to assume. But other than your games, was there a Legend of Zelda game that like, “ohh this was my favorite?”

Patricia Summersett: I was re-enchanted by Ocarina of Time. Remembering just how fantastic that game was to me, I guess I was in high school or something, late high school. Looking at that game being played, trying little bits of it, but to re-approach it as an adult and just seeing the ingenious elements in it. It’s so much. It’s so much more fascinating to kind of come back to that. So I would probably say that one. The original I revisited and Twilight Princess.

Adam Moreno: I love Twilight Princess!

Patricia Summersett: Yeah, and it was from Twilight Princess that I found that version of Hylian to learn. So, do you know, I write a little bit of Hylian and that’s the version that I stuck to. So that one has a special place for me as well I guess in all this!

Adam Moreno: I love that! OK, so back on track, I’m sure you’ve seen the reactions to the game at this stage, from cosplay to fan videos to simply reactions of people hearing the characters or seeing the characters. What’s been your favorite fan interaction/thing you may have observed from the fan base?

Patricia Summersett: Ah, it’s a little crude, but… There is this fusing of weapons and it became a blow up meme. I mean, there’s so many of them now. They’re so good. I think I had just a bunch of them shared with me yesterday. But there’s one where somebody builds a robot with low hanging fruit and then shoots the rocket off of the and it all explodes and falls apart.

Adam Moreno: I’ve seen that video!

Patricia Summersett: That was the first big weapon fusion/mechanical contraption that I saw put together because I’ve been busy this week. Actually, I launched an album on Tuesday, so I was in LA for the game and then I came back and I launched an album with a big show. I have not had a lot of sleep, so I haven’t actually had that much time to be online watching anything. So the stuff that comes at me, that was it. That was the first one in all of its glory.

Adam Moreno: I love that.

Patricia Summersett: That was the first and I was like, “ohh we are in for a ride, we are in for such a ride this year!”

Adam Moreno: It’s been exciting to see the fan reaction to it and seeing just how much is going on. But those videos have been absolutely amazing.

Patricia Summersett: What’s your favorite, may I ask can? I ask you.

Adam Moreno: So OK, I was one of those people that… I tried my best to collect all the Korok seeds. I did not succeed because things came up and I had to stop playing it. But I do love the fact that people are kind of getting revenge by I don’t know if you’ve seen them, but like people are putting rockets.

Patricia Summersett: I’ve heard of this, but I haven’t seen it!

Adam Moreno: They’re putting like rockets on. The Little Koroks and like sending them into air and like there was, “this is ground control to Major Tom,” and it’s like them sending a rocket into space and it’s beautiful.

Patricia Summersett: No. Oh my gosh. Can you send me that right after so I can see it directly please? Because I know I’ll get it eventually, but I want to see it today now.

Adam Moreno: I will send that to you as soon as we’re done! So here’s a big question that I try to ask everybody that I interview on this series.

Patricia Summersett: Absolutely not! No more questions. (Jokingly) Can you imagine?

Adam Moreno: What is one memory about your time working as an actor in gaming that will stay with you forever as a happy memory?

Patricia Summersett: I always take ages to think of these questions. I mean I have a lot. I have a lot. There are so many and with all the big franchises that I’ve… There are numerous just.

Adam Moreno: Whatever you want to talk about!

Patricia Summersett: Yeah, right now the thing that’s coming up for me is actually not Zelda, because there are several. Yeah, there are several moments in and out of the game with Zelda, with fan interactions that have been extraordinary for me. Like just talking to fans, seeing cosplay, tattoos, meeting families that are named after their characters, or have been lifelong fans of the franchise that I get a chance to, like have, great, great old chuckles and hugs with, you know. It’s really, really fun.

But I think of just the style of work that I get to do when I’m doing performance capture or something like that, and there have been some really cool rooms when I’ve been doing Ash from Rainbow 6 where we’ve gotten to sort of train SWAT style infiltration with army people and just I guess, working with like Tachanka in your room? Yeah.

Adam Moreno: Yeah, I can imagine that that’s not easy.

Patricia Summersett: And he’s like 6’7” and very, very Russian. And you know, a big teddy bear ultimately. But in the room, when you’re all in character and in spandex, it’s so funny. It’s so, so funny. And you’re just like, what is? In those moments, OK.

Adam Moreno: That you get to do this moment.

Patricia Summersett: I’ve just thought of one of my all time highlights and this was working with Rodney Mullen and Jon Bernthal simultaneously. The skateboarder doing cutscenes for Ghost Recon that the game didn’t take off, but the actual work in the room was truly exceptionally fun, and we all had this moment in motion capture stage where we were talking about Russia. Because I had trained in Russia for theater, Jon Bernthal had trained in Russia for theater as well. But he’s done like the full program there, which is crazy. And then Rodney Mullen was like, “yeah, I spent some time in Russia. Doing some skateboarding there and going over the monuments,” and you know he’s like, “I don’t think they. Like that very much.” And I was like, whoa, what? They’re then, OK, and ready to ready to shoot? OK. Like what room am I in right now?

Adam Moreno: He drops the bomb and then you have to start acting.

Patricia Summersett: Yeah, it was like, yeah, the triage of Russian memories of just being in Moscow. And then suddenly we were acting together. And I was like. Ohh that’s really cool.

Adam Moreno: Now I absolutely love that and fun fact, Ash was my main when I played Rainbow six. I was terrible at the game, but I did enjoy playing with my friends.

Patricia Summersett: I do not blame you. It is a very hard game. I’ve watched lots of pro players and I don’t… I don’t even try anymore.

Adam Moreno: It’s insane how good some of those people are at the game. So could you tell us, you know, I I’ve got my questions in. But tell us, you said you released an album?

Patricia Summersett: Yeah! Yes, my band. SUMMERSETT (summersettband.com), it’s just this very low key art folk album and the name of the band is actually Summersett. It’s just a little indie band based in Montreal and we’re a duo, so piano/voice duo and then we play with eight musicians. A lot of them are like… the two singers are artists, voice actors, screen actor singers, who are just incredible storytellers altogether. So we do a lot of harmonies and then we have bass drums and violin, cello. It’s like it’s just great and we’ve been doing this for nearly ten years now and this is our second album that we’ve released. So we were working on it, we were supposed to release it during the pandemic. It all got delayed. We went back and rewrote and now we have released May of 2023 instead of May 2020. It took a long time, but it’s so satisfying to make your own work. And I think some of the songs are really awesome and we have a vinyl; actually it’s supposed to come in the mail today. So I’m going to have like 200 limited order vinyls showing up at my door at some point.

Adam Moreno: Wow. And they can get that on SUMMERSETT (summersettband.com)?

Patricia Summersett: Eventually, probably I’ll bring some of them to comic cons when I’m around. It’s a very limited order, but yes, I should make some of them available for shipping so I can ship them. So yeah, that’ll be the place.

Adam Moreno: We’ll put that in the description in the. In the video.

Patricia Summersett: You know, I’ll send you a link to a music video that we just released on Tuesday. It’s really delightful.

Adam Moreno: You’ve been so wonderfully pleasant.

Patricia Summersett: Ohh thank you!

Adam Moreno: I appreciate you.

Patricia Summersett: Are you sure?

Adam Moreno: And yes, I am sure! You know that as a Zelda fan myself, I appreciate all the work that you clearly put into this character that’s so important to so many people. I mean, like you said it earlier, that people have named their kids after these characters. And I’m sure that’s a surreal experience for you. I just wanted to say how much we appreciate you and the work that you’ve put into this character making her so special and making her a strong character. And it’s just, I appreciate you doing this for us at Gaming Trend and thank you.

Patricia Summersett: I love it. Thank you so much, Adam. It’s my pleasure. And just a huge gift in my life. So I’m very happy to be strung along for this fantastic ride.

Adam Moreno: Thank you so much for your time.

Patricia Summersett: Thank you. Take care!

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