The Story of Briana White, the New Voice of Aerith in Final Fantasy VII Remake. Part Two.

In the second part of this four-part interview, Briana describes how she prepared for the role in ways that some may consider unconventional but, for her, just felt right.

Her Way

Beer.

Not the first word you’d expect in an article about Aerith, right? But, thanks to Briana White, the new voice of Aerith in Final Fantasy VII Remake, beer at least becomes a part of the discussion for good reason.

“When I auditioned, I stopped drinking pretty much entirely. I love beer, but I was like, I can’t do it. I’m not going to drink at all.”

Briana takes a breath as she remembers being on the couch when this idea came to her. Given the reasoning behind her epiphany, her commitment to it was nearly instant.

“As a voice actor, you have to be really knowledgeable about your vices. If I did book this role, I would want to take the best, absolute care of myself and my throat…Drinking has to be less a part of my life.”

For months, she did without the bittersweet tonic she loved in preparation for a role she may not get. The significance of the character was too great. She needed to be ready to give Aerith everything she had.

As the new kid on the voice acting block with every reason to doubt her chances, it would’ve been easy to hold back. To try — but not really. To go for it — but only so much. That was never an option for her.

“Even though there was a part of me that thought the likelihood was so low…In the back of my head, I still was kind of thinking and preparing for it the whole time. It was a cautious trust.”

So, with an ice-cold beer not in hand, she prepared for the role her way.

“Looking at Aerith and this video game audition,” she says, “I went in with no experience in voiceover, but a lot of hours playing video games. When I went in and did the battle grunts — because they wanted to make sure I could do the ‘Ugh!’, ‘Ahh!”, the hits and the hurts and all the stuff like that — I knew exactly how those have sounded since I’ve played so many video games. I nailed those right off the bat.”

Being a longtime gamer had its benefits while traversing through the brave new world of voice acting. In that way, she was in her element. She could take comfort in what was familiar and leverage personal knowledge to get ahead.

However, outstanding onomatopoeia aside, being a gamer was a double-edged sword. With it came certain expectations among the Final Fantasy community. A small portion of the fandom who expected their meticulous standards be met at every detail.

“I didn’t play the original game before I booked the role or before I actually did most of the work,” Briana admits before letting out a noticeable sigh. “I think that a lot of people have a chip on their shoulder about that.”

To some, this situation is black and white: The voice actress of Aerith can’t understand the source material if she hasn’t played the original Final Fantasy VII game. End of story. While Briana is playing the original game on her Twitch channel now, she can’t disagree more. Her appreciation of the source material and understanding of the character doesn’t rely on playing one game.

Composed and firm, she explains why. “I could’ve spent the next 70 hours playing the original game. But there’s no voice acting in the original game and a lot of Aerith’s character development is actually not in the original game.”

As an actress committed to honoring Aerith as best she can, she chose a different approach. One not focused on a single piece of media, rather a collection of content to give her a colorful, more comprehensive portrait of this wonderfully dynamic character.

She examined Aerith across multiple game series, watched compilation videos and fan breakdowns, read articles — if she could find it, she consumed it with gusto. Her immersion into the world of Final Fantasy VII lore was exhaustive and her love for the story and Aerith only grew because of it. With every piece of media she researched, her goal became clearer: While helping to create something fresh and amazing, she needed to pay homage to the classic.

“I think that if Square Enix wanted to go with the older voice cast for Final Fantasy VII Remake, there would’ve been a reason for that. But they didn’t, and I think there’s a reason for that, too.”

Briana knows she’s not the Aerith some were expecting. From drastically quitting her vices to rewriting fan expectations, her preparation reflects her quirks, talents, commitment, enthusiasm and all. They reflect her. She’s bringing something new to the table and that’s more than okay, it seems to be working.

“I’ve never done this before. The game’s not even out yet…but from what I hear from people, apparently, they like what I’m doing. I hope that continues.”

I think every Final Fantasy VII fan can raise a pint to that.

You can follow Briana White on Twitter and Instagram. You can also check out her gaming content as TheStrangeRebel on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. And don’t miss her playthrough of the original Final Fantasy VII that’s streamed live on Twitch.