Gone Gold with Simon Hill
Welcome to Gone Gold with Simon Hill, a show that features fun, insightful interviews with some of the biggest names in video games. From developers, to actors - this show delves in to what makes your favourite video games tick.
Gone Gold with Simon Hill
Chloe Elmore
All the way from New Zealand, Award winning actor Chloe Elmore joins Gone Gold for a fun-packed, energetic insight in to her decorated career so far. From her voice work in Path Of Exile 2, to her stories on which games inspired her as a child growing up. We delve in to some of the biggest characters that Chloe has bought to life and so much more.
Follow - https://x.com/GoneGoldShow
Hello and welcome to another episode of Gone Gold with me, Simon Hill, esports host, Indies presenter and TV personality. Hello everyone, how are we all doing? We've got another fun-filled episode lined up for you. Just before we get into that, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who tuned in to the episode with actor Craig Lee Thomas, who shared so many fun career moments, which of course included his standout performance as John Helldiver in Helldivers 2. The episode went global, putting us in brand new charts that included Indonesia, Chile and Japan. So thank you to everyone Thank you for watching. in your region and bring these episodes to more people. Also help me be able to approach more guests in the future. So if there's anyone you're interested in hearing from, let me know in the comments. All this is out of the way, so let's get to what you're all here for. Our next guest is a multi-talented actor who has graced our screens in numerous ways, from global commercials to TV shows. And for us gamers, she's also appeared in many great titles, including Path of Exile 2, Sko and many more. It's an honour to have her here. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Gone Gold with Chloe Elmore. Best part of my job is that I get to speak to some of the most talented individuals from all over the world. This episode epitomizes that. I'm joined by an award-winning actor who has been heard across the globe with her performances across some of the biggest worldwide brands. Her credits in the gaming industry include Path of Exile, Warframe, recently the fall of Avalon, all the way from the picturesque New Zealand, Chloe and Elmore. Welcome to the show. Oh, thank you, Simon. You talk me up.
Chloe:Honestly, I just feel like I'm a bozo on the bus. Just enjoying life. Yeah,
Simon:just loving life. Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for joining me. And I think one thing that I've got to do as an additional thank you, you don't seem to do many interviews, I've noticed. So I'm honoured that you chose to come on here amongst the very few that you have in the past.
Chloe:No, it's an honour. It's a pleasure honestly whenever I'm asked I do do it and it's always really fun I love interviewing other people in just my personal life I'm a big question asker so it's great to be sort of on the other side of it you know having sort of people interested in things that I've done and I do think the point of having a story is to be able to share it anyway you know like what's the point in me having experiences and going through the ups and downs of life and the ups and downs of this career and not being able to share it you know I think I think our stories are there to be shared so it's great I mean hopefully someone comes away with something some nugget of nugget of gold some little like bit of wisdom encouragement even you know so yeah I love sharing my story it's great thank you for asking me
Simon:that's what life's all about and we're going to get into so much because you do have one hell of an enthralling career to say the least but let's kick things off how are things in the world of Chloe Elmore life looks like it's keeping you busy yeah multiple projects recently have been released how have you been
Chloe:it's been really good it's been really good I've I've actually been getting quite a bit of work recently and in my New Zealand accent which is rare for me it's quite a departure from my norm I had a message from a newcomer into this industry yesterday going like how do you do it when you've got an Australian or New Zealand accent and like how do you get by I'm like I wouldn't I wouldn't know. I would not know how you do that. I would be working at a cafe if I had to do work in a New Zealand accent. So most of the work I do is in an American accent, whether that's commercial, corporate. Yeah, there's all sorts of random stuff, you know, like bioengineering voiceovers and the bread and butter, you know, the corporate narrations and a few commercials. I've had a couple of American voiceover friends going, Chloe, like you're on a national commercial in America, like advertising a very American product. And I was like, yeah, I'm so sorry. It's very unpatriotic, isn't it? And so... But, you know, there are very few jobs in New Zealand, so I have to kind of steal magpie from other people, from other cultures. Actually, one of the first national commercials I was ever in a few years ago was for Ireland. Ireland. And at the time I was like, I don't even know if I can do an Irish accent. So I'll just, I'll just try. And they hired me for this car commercial. It was, it was actually, it was actually not, it was gambling, but it was around cars. And so I was like, wow, well, this is a moment, like the first like national commercial I've ever been in and in an Irish accent in Ireland, never done, never really tried an Irish accent before. And, and it's gambling. Okay. This is cool. I hope this is not a preview of coming attractions. But yeah, I've been doing a lot more in my New Zealand accent recently. Again, car stuff keeps coming my way. I've done Peugeot and MG and Alfa Romeo and a few others in my New Zealand accent. And so I'm like, you know what? Maybe this is, you know, there's always, there's always, maybe I was going to say signs from the universe, but actually I think sometimes there's trends or, I also think that on a spiritual level, if I'm like, you know, I used to hate my accent, you know, years ago. And I think, you know, it'll show. It'll show. People can hear when you've got insecurities. It just comes out of your... Your soul comes out of your throat, you know. Shakespeare said, the eyes are the windows to the soul. But I believe that the voice is a window to the soul as well. And I think... Maybe if I've had like just, just resistance to maybe my New Zealand accent, if I'm like, it's just, it's just a bit of an unlovely thing. There's way better accents out there that I feel more comfortable with. You have a wonderful
Simon:accent, Chloe. Come on.
Chloe:Well, I'm, you know, I'm getting more comfortable with it for sure. But I think, I think clients can hear that. And I think maybe they hear now that I'm way more comfortable with, selling luxury cars in my own accent than with a British accent. And so, yeah, so I'm getting a bit more work through my New Zealand accent, which is fun.
Simon:That's great. And do you know what? We're going to touch on a few points that you made there. But whilst I was putting my research together for this interview, I stumbled on the list of brands and companies. You just mentioned some of them there that you've worked with. It's such an impressive list. But from a gaming perspective alone, you've worked with the Skyrim, Path of Exile, Warframe and Fortnite, just to name a few. How has your journey been as an actor working within video games?
Chloe:Really, I love this question. Honestly, out of any genre of acting, I mean, I love all of it. I love, I love all of it. I, I mean, I love on camera too. I just, yeah, maybe I'll get into that. That's part of my backstory. That's really how I got into voice acting. But with video games, it is my love. I think you might hear that from a lot of people. I feel like everyone must say that, but I love, absolutely love, love, love video games. And audio dramas, for sure. You can kind of play in the sandbox in an audio drama because you aren't having to like you know like match the lips of any character animators aren't worried there aren't animators involved and usually the director is the writer of an audio drama and they're often more free with their writing with video games you do have to there's a of course there's room for ad-libbing but generally speaking you kind of keep pretty solidly to the text I don't usually you know I'm not as you know like brave as at ad-lib as maybe some of the pros out there. And so, yeah, with video games, it's like, oh, I love it so much. I think because I gravitate to the more dark and gritty, you know, animation. Animation, like I hear every voice actor going, oh, my gosh, animation is like the pinnacle, the summit of my career. That's all I'm aiming for, animation, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network. And I've certainly never had that. I've never had that. I digress from a lot of voice actors by going... I don't know. It's quite high energy. I'm more into like the dark, slow, painful, gritty stuff. So video games definitely have me right there where there's a lot of pain to be explored. You can take your time. Like the player is literally journeying with the character sometimes for hours. Dozens and dozens and dozens of hours, you know. I was speaking at the New Zealand Game Developers Conference last year and I was like, oh yeah, I'm in Warframe to one of the guys. And he was just like, oh my gosh, I've clocked up like 1,000, 1,048 hours in 26 seconds or something. And I was like, wow. What? What? That's
Simon:a lot.
Chloe:What?
Simon:Were you a gamer growing up and were there any games that kind of intrigued you before you got into the voice acting world?
Chloe:Barbie. I played Barbie. I tell you what, one thing that really formed me was– if anyone knows it– Monkey Island. And the voice actor who plays Guybrush Threepwood, the protagonist. Holy moly. Even to this day, I haven't come across someone with the most incredible comic timing. And just, I think I... Yeah, I did actually. Not video. Yeah, computer games. There were computer games back in the day when internet was sort of quite a kind of a brand new thing. And we had dial-up connection and we'd have these video games, Barbie. But, you know, but Monkey Island was my jam. And I would just play it like way too much obsessively to the point where I could quote like the entire game from beginning to end. Brilliant. One of the
Simon:greatest games of all time. Yeah. Really
Chloe:is. To this day, my family, we all quote it, you know, even my dad, he's a plumber. And, you know, when I say that, he's like, you know, just a normal staunch kind of guy. And he'll be quoting Monkey Island, you know, around the dinner table. When he goes to bed, he's like, goodbye, cruel adventure game. Nah, forget it. Which is one of the quotes of the show. Every night, every night he quotes it. This has gone on for years. I
Simon:love that. And I was listening to your video game voiceover. Your range is incredible. Being able to comfortably portray these characters and truly embody each role is fantastic. What kind of process do you go through to ensure each performance sounds unrecognisable from the last?
Chloe:That's a really good question. I actually, I feel like I've been told by a coach that I'm one of the laziest voice actors she's ever come across. And I was like, oh! But then I was like, actually, she's right. I don't honestly... I feel quite guilty, actually, because I think every good voice actor worth their salt, every actor worth their salt needs to do preparation, character analysis, script breakdowns, even warm-ups, experimentation with what their character is going to sound like. I don't. I don't even read anything. I feel like this is Chloe's confessional booth. This is like a new confessional. But I usually just, I get a script. I suppose like some of it happens in the audition where I must have nailed some element of their vision where they're like, yeah, this is good. But usually I'll just give my gut instinct read, even on an audition. Yeah, this is really confessional time. Even on an audition, I'll just do one read. I won't even do a second take. I'll just do one read. Send it off. Sometimes if I'm really, really keen on the role, I will give it like two, three, four, five goes, usually nothing more than five. And I'll go, yeah, I think that's worth sending in. So if they like the audition, they'll usually, before I actually start recording the actual role, they'll say, I really liked your audition. You were probably a little bit too breathy here. Yeah. We wanted more like a barbed bitterness in the character. But usually, yeah, usually there's just a few minor notes and then I just barrel in. And I don't know if other voice actors read the whole script before they do it. I just start recording and it's the very first time I've seen the lines. It's the very first time my mouth has felt the lines and I'll just start recording. And... usually if there's a little bit of character art that can inform, quite powerfully actually, it can inform something about it. You know, I was looking at, my mum is a big fan of my work and she loves this character that I play, Iceland, in this animated series called Codename Nightfall. And she's a kind of a similar archetype to another character I play in AI Limit, who's a knight. They're both these armour clad, like goddess, like, you know, women and, um, very powerful, very, you know, their presence takes up an entire kind of arena. And, um, and, um, and I was like, um, mom was watching them and I was, it's so funny when your mom is like on her phone watching your work. Ah, it's so cute. Um, so she was like, um, she was like, wow, Chloe, it's great. Like both of these have a similar voice print. Um, Both of them are this sort of– like there's a dreamy but powerful, knightly, regal, queenly quality. But, you know, Aislinn is– I think she's got issues. She has got issues. I've actually written a backstory because I couldn't quite figure her out. And so I think she's got like a stony heart where she does not trust. She is– she just doesn't trust. And with Lost Kid, I– I think she's, she wants like righteousness to prevail and she, you know, she hasn't got this hardened heart, but she's got like, she's very righteous. So anyway, they both ended up kind of sounding a little bit similar, but, um, but quite distinctly different as well. You could tell, obviously they're me, um, in a similar kind of archetype, but, um, But yeah, I think I think about the character's heart really as I'm going and I'm thinking. A lot of what you're supposed to do is go, what's my character's want? What's their obstacle? What's their greatest fear? What's their greatest desire? Blah, blah, blah. I think it just comes naturally in a way. I've had another coach tell me that she thinks that I have a very, very rapid character assessment. On the first maybe five words of a line, I'll go, oh, I think I know who this character is. And I'm sure I'm wrong a lot of the time, which is why whatever I don't get cast for, I might have been wrong about the character's interpretation. But I think my own self-analysis, I've sort of done so freaking much self-diagnosis since I was five years old. I've been psychoanalyzing myself for a long time. And so I think I've clocked up well over 10,000 hours, much more than that in looking at myself so that if I know my greatest fears and if I know my greatest desires, I think it's way easier now to just go, oh, I think I understand this character because I've understood if I was in their shoes, myself. Yeah, so I think that it's... more of an instant and like a short answer to your question it's a sort of an instinctual kind of thing but I do think that it takes time to get there and it takes like a lot of experience life experience to get to there when you when you're like yeah I'm gonna I think this is this is the vibe of the character this is her spirit this is her soul and this is how her soul comes out of her mouth sounding like this um Yeah, I hope that answers your question.
Simon:Yeah, it's a very detailed answer for sure. And I guess we get to expand on that now with this example. So Path of Exile 2, you played the Huntress alongside another character, which we'll go into in a second. Your narration was heard in the official Path of Exile 2 Dawn of the Hunt gameplay trailer. Safe to say this was a fairly big project for you at the time. Yeah. Tell us about your character that you portrayed and the process diving into the multiple roles you had in this game. Mm-hmm.
Chloe:Okay, well, this is cool. This is a cool story. So, okay, a little bit of backstory. I do have barriers to my job that Americans and British people don't have. Because the UK and the US sort of have a treaty with each other, Brits can work on jobs, AAA games, I'm talking about AAA games, other jobs where they don't have to have a social security number because I'm a New Zealander and I'm not in that, I'm not in those two major markets and I don't have a social security number because I'm not an American citizen. There are, and I don't live in LA. That's another thing. Like the UK, if you really wanted to, you could fly from London to LA pretty easily, you know, compared to me, which is It's going to be like a 25-hour flight and probably not worth the payment you'll get from the video game to pay for the $4,000 flights. So, you know, there's barriers to me getting into the AAA gaming space big time. And sometimes I get into like a Sally Saab story. But also, you know, I'm just so... and blown away by the quality of jobs I do get with the barriers of not being able to work in these major spaces. And so, yeah, so I never thought that I'd ever, ever be able to work in like in the AAA game space. Hopefully I do. I don't know if that will change anything. I'll have to probably marry an American man and become an American citizen and maybe move over to America. I don't know. That's the only thing I can think of at this point.
Simon:You've got plenty of friends in Los Angeles, right, that you could go stay with. You'll
Chloe:be fine. I'll be fine. So... When I first auditioned for Path of Exile, I hadn't a clue what a AAA game was. It was probably only two years ago because I've been doing voice acting full time for three years. And it was like two years ago, I was like, what is this thing people call a AAA game? What even is that? I'm not that much of a gamer. I don't even know. But I had just got changed agents in New Zealand. I got this Scottish druid and this Irish elf sort of character. And I auditioned for them. I'm like, I just did a great job. And I didn't get either of them. And I'm like, what? I can't believe there are other Kiwis out there. If they can smash a Scottish and Irish accent out legitimately, my hat's off to them. And so, you know, I was like, I was like sour. And I don't think I'm a competitive person really, except in my job where I'm like, I wanted to, I've got to win. And so I set on a path, my own like war path to go. I just out of peak and pride, maybe my pride was hurt I was like, I'm going to make sure these guys hire me. And so somehow I found another little job from them. When I say little, from Grand and Gear Games Path of Exile, when I said little, it was literally two sentences. It was a chant. It was some disembodied character reading a chant on like an epitaph.
Simon:Yeah.
Chloe:And they put out this audition for this, just two lines. And so what I did, I was like, I just want them to meet me. I want them to meet me and realize that I'm a fun person to work with. And if they like working with me, surely out of just pure bias, they'll give me more jobs. Maybe if they'd known that I was a fun person to work with, they would have given me the Scottish or the Irish character or both. And so I think Kane... Kane Bennett bless his heart from I think he's like she's she's asking to set up a live director session for two sentences she must be like the most incompetent ass ever you know and so anyway we set up this we set up this session and it was in like a cruddy cruddy I was house sitting at the time so it wasn't even a studio it wasn't even a booth it was just it was terrible it was terrible um And anyway, so I was like, it's great to meet you. And then he's like, I'm actually moving over to Singapore soon. I was like, so my networking was all for naught. Anyway, so like a year later, this other character came up who I actually, I know who the actress is who it's now gone to. The character was called Asala. Yeah. And I was traveling, speaking at the New Zealand Game Developers Conference, and this audition came through for Path of Exile for this character, Asala. And I was like, oh my gosh, while she's a Middle Eastern character, I can do that. And so I was in this hotel room. I said to him, I was like, okay, and I'm just about to, like, I'm just about to come back from my studio and come back to my sort of my hotel and I'll audition for you straight away. And so I was in this little hotel room auditioning for Asala under the bed covers. And yeah. And we went back through about... We were messaging back and forth, emailing back and forth four times during that weekend to nail the accent. Anyway, he was pretty certain he was going to give it to me. So he gave it to me. When I came back to Auckland, we recorded about eight hours of Asala. And it's gone to a beautiful voice actress called Nadia now. And... And anyway, I just remember doing this amazing speech. I like, I severed the head of Jaminra and I blew out my voice. I literally couldn't speak for three days, which is pretty, like, it's pretty serious. I was so into it. And they were always like, you can go further, Chloe, you can go further. And then they, like, a few days later, maybe, or a week later, they said... They said, actually... We want to give you a bigger role. I hope you don't mind. We're probably going to have to recast Asala. And I was like, no, please don't. I'm so attached to her now. Couldn't you do both? And he's like, well, we've tried actually. We've tried sort of getting your voice as this other character and Asala, but they interact quite a lot. And it's, you know, we've tried to do some vocal sort of editing sort of effects, but it just still doesn't. You know, pretty obvious. And I was like, okay, whatever. Tell me who this character is. So this was actually before The Huntress. This was The Ranger. And I was like, okay, cool. I'm playing a stoic Brit. That's great. You know, I was like really into the fiery Middle Eastern character. But I will do anything you want. If it's bigger, then definitely. And then they said– I think, no, they didn't even say– I walked into the recording session for the ranger and, um, and I was like, they said, I was like, I was blown away. They said, so, um, we probably won't get through it all today. We've got you for like, you know, four hours, but we'll, you know, we won't get through it all. Obviously we'll, so we'll book you in for a few more sessions, a few more. Um, and, um, It ended up that they're like, we've just got about, we've got, she's got about 45 pages of dialogue. I'm like, what? 45? And then I realized she's a class character and she's like a, like a lead. And I was like, what? So, so we recorded. Um, and then in the end we had like an eight hour recording session there as well. We were like leaving at 10 PM at night. And, um, and then I, you know, did a few more sessions for the ranger and it was just amazing. I haven't been able to like explore such a large character maybe ever. Um, I was going to say in a long time, but no, I think when you're, when you're recording for maybe a cumulatively 20 to 30 hours, um, of a character, um, it's, it's just, you, you just, you connect with them on a deeper level. Um, so the ranger came first and then they gave me the huntress as well. And I, when I went into that, I was like, oh, well the huntress must be, it must be just a two hour session, just another little, you know, little, little character who doesn't interact with the ranger very much because otherwise they wouldn't have cast my voice twice. Um, and they're like, well, this isn't quite as big as the ranger, but she's still got about 30, 39 pages. And I was like, what?
Simon:Um,
Chloe:You've given me another. I was just like, I'm creaming it here. And so I was listening to Egret from Game of Thrones a lot to kind of nail the particular. And yeah, so I was her personality as well as her accent is very, very similar. So that's sort of the backstory of how I got those characters. But Flip, it was awesome. So awesome. Awesome. A highlight of my career. Maybe I'll never be able to, you know, top that sort of pinnacle.
Simon:No, of course you will. This is just the beginning, Chloe. You got to explore different emotions. The Huntress is a bit more feisty, no-nonsense, completely different from the Ranger, as you said. Were you able to kind of get in the booth, ad lib a little bit, but also add some of your own personality to the characters as
Chloe:well? Yeah. The Grinding Gear Games team, Kane and Elijah and... Oh my gosh, they were so good. So good. Sometimes they were like, it was like being in a lounge with your brothers. It really was. Cause then they'd come across a line where they're like, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if that really suits, especially with the huntress, her accent, you know, cause we're all, we're all Kiwis muddling along with a Yorkshire accent. And, um, and you know, um, They're like, yeah, obviously she wouldn't say was. She'd say were, you know. I were really upset like, you know. That's way
Simon:too good. That's better than some of the Yorkshire people over here.
Chloe:I should have done, I should have actually just done this whole story. And just, you know, none of us, we weren't really on a time crunch really. Um, and which is great when you get big budget games when they're like, I don't care, we could pay you, you know, eight hours is the same as 16 hours. It wasn't worth it to me. Um, so we took our time, like making sure that the dialogue was, was great. And if some of it felt a little bit weak or it felt whatever, um, it was cool because we could just change the lines and rejig things. And, um, It was a very collaborative process. Like we were creating as we went. And yeah, since I had... done the the ranger first and sort of discovered that you know she was very understated very stoic you know often they'd be pulling back my emotions because if I gave it if I gave her too much passion they're like it's just she's that's not her she her anger is more sort of crushed down suppressed frustration and I can say this because I am a descendant of the British and Scottish and that you know Brits are very you know there's a there's a suppressed element to it you know And New Zealanders have got that. We've got a different vibe of that. We're like, yeah, everything's fine. You know, everything's really boring. Everything's totally fine. And so I certainly channeled that just more suppressed, repressed, stoic attitude. Probably she had, you know, again, if I did a backstory, she'd have hurts that she just had built into a hardness of heart or a big, big walls up, big, you know, just barriers up. With the Huntress, no barriers, really, you know, just very feisty. If she was hurt or heartbroken... She would let it be known. And I love that. I think I'm quite a passionate person as well. So, you know, I have stoic moments in my life sort of, you know, but I'm definitely more towards the huntress where if I'm angry, I will show my anger. And if I'm joyful, I will show my joy. And so, yeah, it was more like– Is it more like me in some way? No, not really. But, you know, I could identify a lot more with the Huntress, with her passion and her sort of variance. And, yeah, very, very, very cool to play. Very cool to play. But, of course, if I went too far one way or the other, the team was like, yeah, no, we'll tweak her, we'll pull. And... I love being an actor rather than a director because I'm just like, tell me what to do and I'll do it. You know, like I'm a marionette, you know, just pull my strings and I'll do whatever you want me to do. And I think as well, like going just, I feel so crazy, crazy honoured that they would have, you know, worked with me for that little chant, the two sentences, and then go, actually, we'd like to work eight hours over Asala. And then, nah, actually, let's give her like a lead role. Now let's give her two lead roles. And just like the profound, like, oh, the profound privilege that that was, that they'd be like, we'd like to spend hours. Dozens of hours, dozens of hours recording with her. There's nothing greater in my professional life. There's nothing greater than that. I don't care how many awards people get. To know, to be a joy to work with and to have someone entrust their characters that they've been working on for years to me is like, it's just, it's amazing. It's just incredible. Bless those guys so much. They're too good to me. Yeah. The
Simon:smile on Chloe's face here is brightening my room at the other end of the world. Let me tell you, playing such a key role in the game must be a rewarding experience for an actor. Does this give you added motivation or are there pressures and challenges you face to bring something... to life so vigorously?
Chloe:Yeah, well I think when you're doing a role sometimes you don't even know that they're a lead character. Because some things are so coded or there's so many NDAs and there's so much hiddenness. You're like, I wonder how big this character even is. How major are they? Since I did kind of know by the time that, you know, having the Ranger and Huntress, I knew by the sheer fact that there was like 40 pages of dialogue, like pretty packed dialogue as well. 40 pages of like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I... I don't know if there was a pressure necessarily because I felt so supported by these guys. I felt like they trusted me and they'd chosen me like fully knowing. They weren't probably going to like backtrack or, you know. They didn't recast me as Asala because I couldn't do the accent or because I was a crap actor. They were like, well, we want to give her more. And if she can do Middle Eastern– Well, Yorkshire will be a piece of cake. So I think that me knowing these guys trust me. I'm not a fraud. I don't have so much imposter syndrome in these sessions. I came with, I think, a greater confidence, you know, less sort of apologizing for myself or kind of going, what do you guys want me to do? I was sort of like, yeah, these guys are so backing me and I can bring the full force of Chloe to this and even bring offers. And definitely, like you mentioned before, ad-libbing a lot. You know, yeah, there were a few sort of jokes. Yeah, like the huntress. She's got sort of obviously some insults to all the bosses she fights. And there was one where it was like, I was like, what is, this creature she's fighting you know and he's like oh it's a slimy it's a slimy kind of boss and so sometimes I would ad-lib like that and there was this yeah now it's sort of an in-joke to me where she's like you just you know die you slimy bastard and now like with every boss I was like you know whatever my insult was you know I'd throw in you slimy bastard so that you know my ad-libs sometimes became little in-jokes and so yeah I think when it comes to other characters I've done It's really interesting as a voice actor knowing what your archetypes are and not being threatened by being boxed into an archetype or to like, you know, a particular lane or avenue. I think it's good just going, okay, this is, you know, my God-given vocal cords and my genetics and everything that, you know, I don't have any control over how I sound. I have control over my acting, but when it comes to my actual voice sound, I don't have need control over that. There are some people out there who have been told they've got great voices who can't act and your vocal cords, it's great, but it doesn't... But for me, acting plus your vocal cords and everything contributes to your archetype. And so... I was told in drama school when I wasn't even thinking about voice acting, I was simply wanting to be an on-screen or on-stage actor. One of our artistic director, she said to me when we were maybe a month before graduating, she said, Chloe, I just want to say, you've got a very unusual look. You don't look like a New Zealander. You will never get lead roles. You're... You'll never get lead roles. You're not lead role material. You will probably just have to get used to the quirky sidekick or just something quirky, the comic relief maybe, sort of the Simon Pegg of roles, whatever. And I was so crushed by that, so crushed. And I could see she was trying to just get me used to the stone-cold, hard reality of acting. You know, so I had to, you know, but my voice, different from my looks, I think my looks stopped me from getting a lot of jobs. I have had very little success in on-screen work. I've had probably 700, over 700 on-camera auditions over the last 10 years of having my agent. And I've booked five of those roles. So my... My ratio of booking is abysmal, abysmal. So I think when those doors were firmly shut, I was like, well, what do I do? I'll work, you know, cafe jobs. That's what I'll do. But working cafe jobs, it just was soul destroying. Anyway, so the long story short, I ended up getting into voice acting. But now I'm like, actually, I think with my vocal cords, I... I don't know if– I think I do– I obviously am more prone to probably getting lead roles with my voice, not my looks. And, yeah, I think a lot of– I've been told that my archetype is domi-momi. Yeah. Particularly like Iceland I was talking about before and other roles where they may not be like the lead role, but they're sort of a powerful figure in the story. I would love to get more lead roles like heroines and that kind of thing. But yeah, but so far, so far, I'm sort of often a subsidiary, like a strong supporting character who is, yeah, I can actually have more fun. Because sometimes, sometimes the key character, the protagonist, is a bit more vanilla, the everyday man or woman, like Frodo, you know, if you ask who's your favorite protagonist. sort of character in The Lord of the Rings, probably not many people will say Frodo because he is the everyman. We can all relate. But, you know... I think sometimes the supporting characters have way more fun because they can be spicy. They're the pepper and the salt to spice up the bland dish in the middle. But in saying that, I'd be a lead character any day. For
Simon:anybody listening, I want to ask you all, after you've listened to the rest of this interview, go over to Chloe Elmore's website, check out her TV and commercial showreels, and then come back to us, tag ChloeElmore, Chloe in social media and tell her how worth TV screen time she is because you certainly do have the look and you're very talented. So ignore what those people are saying, Chloe. You're very, very, very good at what you do and it isn't about the way you look or don't look. So anyway, back to her. There you go. So there's a little task for our listeners. Path of Exile has such a great diehard community. The early access reviews were overwhelmingly positive. The Huntress actually became a quick fan favourite. Videos right, left and centre all over YouTube. What was it like for you to kind of see some of that feedback from the community on what you were able to deliver for Path of
Chloe:Exile? YouTube sort of second to that. But yeah, it's been really, really fun. I think because I haven't done gaming since I was a child, you know, the computer games, I'm not in like the gaming sphere. And then to realize how huge it is and to realize just like, I still don't think my brain understands. My brain just doesn't understand. You know, when I saw the trailer for, for Dawn of the Hunt. Like within the first five days, it had like 4.1 million views. And I was like, I just numbers, just the numbers. I don't even, it doesn't even like what. Um, so I think my brain told me that's 4.1 people, you know, like 4.1 people have watched this, you know, like I was just like, my brain can't compute. Um, and so when people reach out to me and, and like, you know, comment on, on X or on YouTube, and I'm just like, I can't believe this. The player base is so huge. Um, Yeah, my little brain just can't comprehend
Simon:it. It's crazy now how video games have become the most profitable entertainment entity. In the world. This thing that we used to think, you know, a lot of people used to have a stigma about, oh, it's nerdy, it's geeky, it's just for people that sit in their bedroom. It's now the biggest form of entertainment in the world.
Chloe:And I love that because at first it was movies, but then movies were too short. Even two hours was too short for people. So long running TV shows where you actually... this, you know, doing relationship with these people. Anyone who I know who watches Friends, I, again, I'm not a huge watcher of things. I'm like, I bless you if you've got time to watch long running TV shows and, you know, I feel bad. But I do, a lot of my friends watch Friends and you end up doing relationship with these people. And I mean, I did, I did not play, but watch the gameplay of Final Fantasy. And so I did spend 84 hours with Ben Starr. Oh, it was so said when i found out that he was engaged to someone else i was like no i will move over you know but um that that
Simon:man is too talented for his own good he's too good looking for his own good i'm trying to find something wrong with that man and i
Chloe:can't i know like he's it's unfair unfair oh my gosh i think he's a robot because he's too perfect Honestly, I'm like, I would spend 84 hours with that man every week of my life. Just give me a chance. So I think when you're doing relationship with these characters, because you're not watching them on a TV show, you're actually moving with them, interacting with them in real time, unlike a more spectator sport like on camera, you know, films and shows. And so there's something very powerful about the generation, that as a millennial or whatever I am, maybe, yeah, I think I'm a millennial and the generations below, we're like loneliness. There's such a huge epidemic of loneliness. And so, you know, and there's so much just loneliness difficulty in relating to other humans you know having friendships I'm a I'm I work with you know youth I work with teenagers as like a volunteering kind of thing weekly and the stuff they're going through is so deeply heartbreaking and I'm like no wonder you guys are going to video games because you know those characters aren't going to hurt you they're going to support you you're going to fight together and win and and if you if the boss kills you you've got a life to get up and try it again until you win that boss fight and life is way more heartbreaking than that and you know you don't you can you in real life you don't just die and then you get your HP points back and you you know you it's it's much easier to do relationship with like video game characters and who kind of have your back and then you've got this you know you've got your your tribe um you've got your posse you've got your group and um So in a way, it's interesting. I worry about this generation coming up going, they are interacting more with video games than they are with real people. And in a way, I love that because they get to journey with me. I've got one voice actor friend who he just met me and then he messaged me going, Chloe, that's your voice on The Huntress, right? And I was like, yeah, it is, yeah. And then like a few days later, he'd spent like just day after day, I don't know if he ate or slept, I don't think he slept, but he showed me a picture on his phone of like, I've literally played your voice and heard your voice for 148 hours. And I was like, what? And he's like, I know your voice better than you do now. And I'm like, yes, I think you do. But it's awesome to He's a real friend of mine. I'll be seeing him in Dallas when I go to One Voice Conference soon and hanging out with him. But when it's just like they have journeyed with my voice and my character and my spirit, what I've poured out into The Huntress, my own life experience, my own passions, my own sorrow, my own anger, my own grief, I've channeled it into The Huntress. And And it's amazing that, yeah, people who are relating to the Huntress and journeying with her, they are relating to a big part of me. I mean, that's magical. That is just wizardry. So it's so rewarding, so rewarding.
Simon:It's such a beautiful perspective that you've put onto how others attach themselves to gaming and they find solace in that. It's a truly beautiful perspective. I think a lot of that is true as well. And without kind of bringing the mood down here, I think... what's really beautiful is gaming is an escape now the medium has become so easy to access that it's become an easy escape because you can get lost with these characters you can get sucked into this beautiful world whatever game you choose to play I mean we're going to get on some more of your fantasy based games in a short while and that's kind of my favourite genre too but you're able to then get sucked into these worlds that you never would usually so it is a beautiful medium absolutely absolutely also We don't have video footage. I do have photos, but I actually got Ben Starr, Neil Newbond and Deborah Wilde to do Just Dance live on a stage in front of thousands of people. And the video footage just happened to corrupt at that moment. But I do have the photographs. Ah!
Chloe:that is so wild
Simon:it's my bribery to get Neil to come on the show one of your recent projects was the dark fantasy RPG Tainted Grail the fall of Avalon you portrayed Alyssa who had some very different dynamics in comparison to some of your previous roles in video games what do you remember about the role that you played here in this
Chloe:one yeah I think she was the first one I auditioned for out of the four characters I played in Tainted Grail it was two years ago maybe and she was so sassy so sassy I was like this I watched the trailer because I'd never again I'd never heard of Tainted Grail oh forgive me forgive me Awakened Realms I'm so sorry and so I watched it and I was like this is a really dark this is dark like I'm sort of you know 20 seconds in and I'm like oh this is this is dark graphic gory blood, demons, like occult stuff. It's like... And then there's this character who's just... My husband, Duncan, he doesn't like the riffraff of this town. You know, like, I'm like, she seems really kind of out of place here. You know, shouldn't she be dark and gritty? But I'm like, this game has a sense of humor. So anyway, I just bought my most noble posh, you know. And it was just so fun. So I remember recording with them, with the team, three of them. And they had to be on mute the whole time because they were laughing and laughing and laughing. And I had to put my Adobe Audition in front of their faces so that I wasn't laughing. And because there's a lot, there was a lot of lines. The first time I recorded for her, there was probably like 11 pages, which took, you know, two and a half hours or something three hours. And then they gave me a Scottish character, one of the Dalriata nest, who's like imprisoned in this dungeon and she's very like foul mouthed and angry and so fun. Oh boy. And again, one of my first, like maybe my first actual Scottish character where I was just like, yeah, I'm going to own this. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to do it. So, you know, like I have, I feel very confident in my accents now, but this was like two years ago. And I was like, oh, I'm not sure if I could really pull off a Scottish accent. But I listened back to it occasionally. I'm like, yep, still holds up. Just to, you know, soothe my imposter syndrome. So with Alyssa, yeah, she was so fun. And when they... the team actually reached out to me so I auditioned for Nest and Alyssa and then they got back to me and didn't even ask me for an audition but they said in our next session together recording for these characters we're going to give could you do a cursed chicken and I was like yes I can I can do a cursed chicken do you want me to audition they're like no no it'll be fine we'll figure it out and And so I was like, what should I do? What should I do with her? Hmm. Maybe I'll give her a Yorkshire accent. Yeah. Anyway, she has probably been, to date maybe, one of my most crazy characters. She, you know, she says the F word more than many other characters I've played. And she is this angry little Yorkshire chicken. It was, um... And, yeah, she was just so, so fun. She was like, yeah, I don't like you, you hooman. She calls humans hoomans. I love that. I love that. Anyway, she was just so crazy. And so, yeah, recently, a couple of months ago, they said, you'll be happy to hear that we've brought more of Alyssa back and more of Muriel, the cursed chicken. And I was in America working on an audio drama in Chicago in March. And I was recovering from a week of COVID. I actually... couldn't end up doing any of the four characters I'd been cast in in this audio drama because I was so sick with with some kind of American strain of maybe it wasn't COVID it was just it was just a very very very bad flu and I thought I was gonna die so I was in a hotel room for nine days just dying or what felt like dying and so when Awaken Realms contacted me I was like I I haven't got my Neumann, I've just got my Sennheiser travel gear and I'm really sick. Are you sure you can't wait a few more weeks till I come back to New Zealand? And they're like, no, we've got release. We've got to release in like a week. Okay, I can rouse myself from my sick bed. And so again, it was probably like... Oh, it was a good 1600 to 2000 lines. Um, so it was, it was another long, it was a long session. Um, and, and again, we were, I think they were like laughing the entire time. Um, and I, of course with this one that like you say, the dynamics of she has a romance track, um, this time and she is in so very interactable with the player. And I was like, yes, my little, um, I'm such a hopeless romantic. I I'm always like, can't you just get My character's in romance. I just want to flirt outrageously, please. And so I was like, yes, finally. I think that's why I want to play a heroine or a lead role because I'm like, just give me some romance, you guys. So finally I got to have some romance with a character.
Simon:There you go, it filled the quota for you.
Chloe:It did, it scratched my itch.
Simon:Quite a few of you roles, as we've just mentioned, in video games have been fantasy based. Is Chloe Elmore a fan of fantasy in her real life, whether that be books or films,
Chloe:novels? Yeah, I think especially growing up, listening to my mother reading The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, even though it's a very Lord of the Rings isn't like woo-woo kind of fantasy. It's a very grounded, very real fantasy. But I think that's definitely my vibe of fantasy. Yeah, I was never really into like– my sister was into Harry Potter. I wasn't. I was definitely into Lord of the Rings and then Narnia for sure. There was something even more gritty and grounded about Lord of the Rings that I gravitated to. And to this day, I'm a massive Lord of the Rings fan. Like I've got Lord of the Rings jewelry. I've got, I've got, I've, it's anyway, I've got the even star. I've got like Nenya. I've got the one ring. It's crazy. So very much I've related to, to that kind of fantasy. I, I think my first, um, my first like drug of choice really is, is, is escapism and fantasy when I was, um, you know, different, different computer games and that kind of thing when I was growing up, um, aspects of the fantasy land. Um, but it's for me, it's always got to have a very human emotional element, you know, and I think that's the case with I think it's the case with everything, really. With anyone who wants fantasy, it's gotta have like grit and reality because um i think we're wanting to escape into a land where the characters are dealing with what we're dealing with grief sorrow pain and yet there's this incredible magic um and a magical element where you can rise above the struggles and when just like uh a wave of a wand or some kind of magic casting spell can take it away um Final Fantasy, definitely. I was a bit too poor to own an Xbox or PlayStation or Final Fantasy, so the best we could do was video, computer games, PC games. But our neighbors, our wealthy neighbors, they introduced me to Final Fantasy and so I would just watch I didn't really know how to use a console so I would just watch over their shoulders for hours as they'd play Final Fantasy and it just to this day I remember my little soul that was you know going through lots of life stuff going through lots of pain and You know, I was very, very, very depressed, very depressed growing up. And I remember just going, wow, this is like just taking me into this amazing land where everything It's beautiful. It's powerful. It's, you know, it was very mesmerizing. I can't really describe it, but you are sort of enveloped in this world, this incredible score, the incredible animation. It's just like something I can't really describe. So, yeah, I think for me, yeah, I've learned in my adult life to– to press into the pain of life and to not escape it and to like face my darkest fears every day and to keep, you know, facing into, pressing into rejection and facing rejection until it passes, feeling my feelings until they pass, doing hard relationships, having hard conversations and growing. So I've learned from my gravitation to fantasy. I'm learning everything I need to pull myself back and be in reality. But now I get the best of both worlds because I get to live in this difficult, painful, dark world we live in and escape in my job and just go, you know what? I'm just going to be a little British cat today, which is what I was doing yesterday. I was like, I'm going to be a British cat. I'm going to do, you know. So I get to kind of shut the world out of the Studio Bricks booth. I get to put the world and its pain out there to a certain degree and still do my escapism in my own way. And the goal of my life one day would be to be a lead in something like Final Fantasy. Not even a lead. I would do a two-line chant. I would do the minimum. I would scrub Ben Starr's feet, honestly. Maybe that would be better than a lead role. I don't know.
Simon:Now you've got that connection. Maybe you've just got to use those connections You're wonderfully inspiring, Chloe, with some of the outlooks you have on life and being able to implement them into your professional career as well. And looking at some of the incredible work you have done, is there any game in particular that you're most proud of when it comes to your work or performance?
Chloe:That is a great question. My gosh. The one thing about me is my memory is like a goldfish. It's like a goldfish. I do know that there are so many roles, even though I've only been doing this three years, there are roles that I can't even remember. I played about 184 characters last year in different indie animations and video games and audio dramas. It's a good question.
Simon:Yeah.
Chloe:I definitely think the ranger and the huntress have got to be up there because I journeyed with them for such a long time. And, you know, I mentioned Iceland before as well. For some reason, Iceland really just got my heart. And she certainly, she's gone viral on TikTok and a lot of different places. She's gone viral. And I'm like, I wonder, you know, she seemed very, very, one-dimensional in one way. But for some reason, I'm so magnetized to that character. I don't know why. I think because I know that there's a depth to her that I haven't plumbed yet. And I think... But I enjoy– because I'm so expressive in my normal life and because I wear my heart fully on my sleeve and to the point where I've moved back with my parents. I was living away from them in the city for 10 years and I've moved back recently and my father is out there right now making my tiny home, a two-story sort of two-bedroom tiny home. My mom calls it my tiny mansion. It's actually almost bigger than their cottage. Anyway, I've moved back with them, so they get the full force of my emotions. Usually I'm pretty good. Usually it's a lot of joy that I bring them, but sometimes I do bring lots of frustrations. But because some of these characters I play, like the ranger and Iceland, they are so closed off. I think I love exploring what it's like to be, I guess to be, just to know what it's like to feel and suppress those emotions. I think that makes for a really interesting, complex character. I think sometimes some characters that are fully out in the open and wear their heart on their sleeve, there isn't much mystique or mystery to explore or to kind of draw you in. I think I'm drawn into the roles that are very, yeah, more suppressed and more hidden. And yeah, I was doing a, I'm a, I guess she is kind of a heroine archetype in many ways, but I'm on an audio drama called The Strata and I play this character called Davina. And I haven't been able to reprise my role as her because she's, that's been sort of two seasons where she hasn't been written back in, but she was written back into this season 13. That might be a bit of a spoiler. But anyway, she, I was having a lot of fun with her because again, like I'm a hopeless romantic and I'm just like, I don't have any romance in my personal life. So give me romance in my, again, this is, I think the question around fantasy, maybe my fantasy is like living out all the things that I'm not. And so living vicariously through my characters whether that's because they're particularly stoic and they know how to kind of pull in their emotions and characters who are doing like intimate deep relationships certainly yeah, certainly romantically where I'm like, I'm probably, maybe I'm too scared about doing that. Maybe I've got commitment issues. I don't know. But I'm like, I'm like, at least I can fully unleash that in a character. So I think Davina, Iceland, definitely the ranger and huntress and probably so many I'm forgetting right now. Oh, there is a, honestly, sometimes roles come my way where I'm like, that was so left field or I'll go on, a very obscure casting site. Um... and get a student has made I do a few student films because often they're so like they're passion projects and you can tell the heart and soul and love that goes into them is sometimes better than big budget stuff and there's this girl who's in her third year of animation and she is doing a really cool slice of life animation and she's cast me as the lead female and this other guy Mike Badgley as the lead male and we have so much fun bouncing off each other in this live session. And she just wanted us to ad-lib a lot so that she'd do the animations after and incorporate our ad-libbing into their mouth flaps. And things like that often are just a joy. Maybe only 100 people will ever see it, but it just brings me to life. You know, it brings my soul to life when I found a real, a real person who's got complexity and who's got layers and who's not one dimensional. And, um, yeah, yeah. But, but in sort of a short answer is gosh, there's so many of them I've done. I've done, I've done 84. I'm, So we're July 8th right now. I've calculated, I've played 85 characters to date thus far. And so, yes, 85 characters this year, 184 characters last year, 85 currently right now this year. So yes, I need to look back and look at them and sort of star the ones that I like.
Simon:One thing that has shone throughout this interview is your love for the craft, your passion for what you do and how much you enjoy telling that story. And it's also with intent to inspire others. You've been nominated for multiple awards in your short career so far, as well as picking up a few on the way. You've truly a remarkable story, Chloe. So before we do kind of end this interview today, Do these awards give you the validation for knowing how much hard work you're putting in? And does it give you motivation to do more?
Chloe:Yeah, it definitely does. It definitely does. It comes to sort of fight against a lot of the lies that I believe about myself where I'm like, oh, never make it to the big time because I don't have a social security number and because I'm contending with real, you know, real British people for British characters. I'm fighting against real American people for American characters and roles and I'm fighting... real Australians for Australian characters and roles. And so I often think, you know, have I just, is this just a fluke of the last sort of three years of, you know, really blessed sort of success and amazing characters? I'm like, is it just, is it just, is it all going to come crumbling down any moment? And so I think awards, awards are so great for my clients and collaborators to have, to give me credibility, I think is huge. It's, it's really, I think a powerful thing for yeah my definitely my soul and my little insecure the little insecure heart that's still being healed as well as other people to say to say yeah yeah like she's she's worth her salt you know like it's not just that she did a one cool character that time but it was an accident that she did it you know it's like oh she's done you know these are you know she's she's doing good work across the board so I think for my collaborators if they're if they have doubts about hiring me or working with me I think that can give them a sense of security um that I'm going to hold their characters preciously and I'm going to be you know hopefully hopefully my my life dream is to be a joy to work with um being professional timely fun you know great offers all these all the things all the things um And so I think hopefully it gives people who want to work with me just more security. But yeah, yeah, it's definitely... I do have so many insecurities. And so, you know, I try to tell myself, ah, it's just an award. What does it matter? You know, I've got another voice actor friend, Peter, and he's like, oh, they're just silly. And I'm like, you have so many awards, Peter. You probably don't even have enough shelves for it, you know? And he's like, oh, but they're just silly. And I'm like, well, that's your British modesty, you know? And I'm like, you just keep telling yourself that, Peter. You keep telling yourself they're silly. And if you ever believe it, you let me know. Okay. Because, I mean, any of us who are, you know, yeah, we're all insecure and we all want some validation for sure.
Simon:well I can confirm you've been a joy to chat
Chloe:with
Simon:Chloe this has been incredible and like I said at the top of the hour I'm very honoured that you chose to come on to this show because there's evidence that you don't do many of these so the select few I am very grateful that you chose to come here I'm glad we got to hear some of your story I can confirm to our listeners we haven't scratched the surface there's still about 8 questions I never got to so part 2 towards the end of the year we'll have to get Chloe back on what I love to do is end each show with my guest having the final word you can choose to do with that what you will but I would like to once again thank you for coming on and thank you for joining me all the way from New Zealand it's like 8, 9am over there so thank you again appreciate you coming on
Chloe:thank you Simon honestly like I said at the beginning it is just a deep joy to be able to share some of my story and hopefully encourage people, you know, encourage just even people who are not voice actors or actors, you know, and, and, you know, bring a bit of joy and interest and entertainment from, you know, from my reality, not just, you know, not just the fantasy, but from my reality. I just think like, like saying yes to life, saying yes to life, surrendering what, surrendering what I can't control and saying yes to life and pressing in, not leaning out, pressing in and pressing into the pain pressing into all the difficulties of this industry because then you do you see the benefits and you see the rewards afterwards so I'd say to anyone who's just like wrestling or grappling with you know acting voice acting life just to keep just to keep going through to keep going and keep going and taking baby step after baby step one day at a time and eventually you'll look back and you'll go wow all those seeds I planted that were wooded and now I'm actually living in the harvest and a bountiful harvest, I hope. So yeah, I think just the, you know, hard slog does pay off. You know, I've been sort of slogging it away for 11 years at this acting thing. And I'm just so loving seeing that 11 years of so much discouragement and so much hard work is paying off, at least for me. I may never be famous, but I'm a steadily working voice actor. And that is the thing that... that I always want to be. You know, it doesn't matter about being famous. It's just like doing good work with good people. There we go. Another
Simon:fantastic interview and my job helps me be able to speak to these worldwide global stars who are doing amazing work and truly wanting to change the business and the world. Chloe has great perspective. She's very talented and no doubt with the amazing projects under her belt, there'll be many, Many more to come. I'm not going to keep you on this. This has been the longest episode to date here of Gone Gold. Make sure you join us next week for another episode with an award-winning actor. Until then, you know what to do. Keep it Gone Gold.
