Patricia Summersett is so much more than the voice of Zelda - Interview

Patricia Summersett is the first official voice of Zelda, from the Legend of Zelda series. The Legend of Zelda is also celebrating 40 years, and Patricia has been voicing Zelda for ten of those years. She has been the English voice actor for Zelda in Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and the two spinoffs of each, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. She has also voiced characters in games like Rainbow Six Siege, Assassin's Creed, and Far Cry. But there is much more to this diverse performer than a stellar career voice acting in video games. Over the course of our chat, we talked about everything from the Olympics, to her band, and of course, The Legend of Zelda. Check it out. And if you want to watch or "Hey, listen!" to the interview, scroll to the bottom. We have that too. Enjoy! 

Joseph: Ladies and gentlemen, I want everything to be proper. I want you to understand where you are and what you’re doing right now. You are right now…BOW DOWN, because you’re in the presence of greatness. Masters in Classical Acting, and an Ice Dancing (Champion), and the first ever English voice of Zelda, from the Legend of Zelda. Not only are you bowing down to a princess, you are bowing down to a legend. Not a legend in the sense of “Oh, she did these things”, but in the sense of "she's doing these things.” Bow down to the Princess of Hyrule. Bow down to Patricia Summersett.  

Patricia: Oh, wow. I have done some interviews in my time, but rarely have I witnessed, been privy to, and had the privilege of receiving such a warm welcome. Thank you, Joseph.

I am here to give a warm welcome. Let's just get into it. I like to start these interviews with flowers, if you don't mind. Some people don't get their flowers, and I gave you a little bit of the flowers, but here's more of the flowers.

An entire bouquet of silent princess flowers?

Well, yeah. You see what she did there? Yeah. Y'all see what she's already in it. She's already here. She is from Michigan. So I don't know if we're allowed to continue this interview because I'm from Ohio.

Oh, well, I mean, unless it depends on what sports teams are warring against whom, but, I think really more I'm like, you're a fellow Midwesterner. So I just think of it. I go for unification first. I'm like, yay. We both come from the Midwest. We understand the Great Lakes and the crazy weather and, and the good people, the good salty people. 

They are very salty. I don't even think Michigan cares about Ohio State, to be honest, but that's another story. Back to the interview, because we can go on tangents. Her work spans stage, screen, voice, and performance capture. She has a band. “Summersett”, an 8 piece folk band, based in Montreal, Quebec. Patricia has a Master's in classical acting from the Royal Central School in London and a BFA in theater performance from Concordia in Montreal. More flowers. She is the First official English voice of Princess Zelda from the Legend of Zelda. She has been in movies such as Mother!, Patty Winger, Doctor Zoe, and she's been in TV shows like The Bold Type, and my editor in chief is gonna be mad at me if I don't acknowledge the fact that you have been on Star Trek. You're the role you played in Star Trek, if I can find it here, you were the Breen leader Primark Tahaal on Star Trek. Is that correct?

That's correct!.

You've also done voice acting for video games such as Hell Is Us, Star Wars Outlaws, and Squadrons, Assassin's Creed games, Horizons Horizon Forbidden West, and Far Cry. There is a trivia thing on IMDB, which you can go check out for yourself, that Patricia has completed the geek trifecta by being in Star Wars, Star Trek, and The Legend of Zelda, which is crazy. .

One version of a geek trifecta. Because one version has others. I think Doctor Who could be considered part of a trifecta. Trying to think of some others. There are a few.

Were you in Doctor who? 

No. No. No. I was not in Doctor Who. No. 

Are you going to be in Doctor Who? Is that what you are about to announce now? 

Who what? (laughs) No. I'm absolutely not about to say that. That would be super cool, but, no. Can't win them all. 

My last thing is that you were a sectional champion in ice dancing?

Yes. And I love that you mentioned that because that's come up recently just watching the Olympics. It's now gotten to the point where the people that I used to train with when I was younger in Montreal where a lot of the coaching is happening. I was on the ice with, I'm gonna say it in French because that's how it was. Marie France DuBois and Patrice Lauzon. They were the coaches for some of the top teams in the world for ice dancing. They're now world class coaches. When I was skating, I was training with them. They were, you know, world class figure skaters. So it's really crazy to watch everybody sort of move up through those ranks. And, yeah, Piper Gillis, her brother skated with my sister. Just really crazy stuff like that where you're like, “oh my gosh.” So the level of visceral rooting for people at the moment, in the Olympics it's been really special the last couple weeks to watch them all do really well.

Yeah. We kinda cleaned up out there. Well, both, you know, USA and Canada. Who did you root for more? (Laughs)

I mean, well, I'll be honest. Right now, what you have is, (Madison) Chock, and (Evan) Bates. They're amazing. I'm rooting for them any day, but Piper Gillis and Paul Poirier who ended with a beautiful bronze medal in ice dancing, I was very much rooting for them. They represent Canada, but Piper is also American. So like me, she's dual. I'm looking for the figure skaters themselves versus the country in that situation because they're both so cool. And for them to be there on the podium it always, they've just overcome such incredible, impossible feats. So, yeah, you know, both countries very much.

Do you ever see yourself going back into anything like that? 

Well, I got back on the ice last year, and I'll tell you a little secret. I fell on my head in November and gave myself a concussion. So I'm off the ice now for a good chunk. It's been very humbling, but I will get on the ice at some point again soon and get back into skating, but it doesn't hold the same place that it used to. It's more like be wary, make sure you're insured, go back on with the right energy, and don't do what I did in November where I got a little bit loosey-goosey and excited and went to a spin and got caught in my clothes and fell on my head. So yeah…

But you're okay?

I'm okay. I'm here now. 

Because there's a lot there's a lot still left in the tank for you. You have things to do. You have responsibilities now. K? I need you to get it together. (Laughs) As it is the 40th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda, and you are the first official English voice of Zelda. How does this even happen? Like, how do you get here?

It feels like just this strange bout of timing and luck, as these things kind of always are. I had made a move to LA back in 2016. And weirdly, without me realizing what the project was because it was secret, the script was bleached. It was one of the first things that I auditioned for when I got down to LA. And it was after, you know, acting for ten years, doing the thing, acting in Canada, in all the genres, doing my London thing, coming back. And then it finally got to the point where I was like, I gotta go to LA to specialize more in voice acting at this point. And I was rewarded for that massively with this, which is exceptional. It just doesn't happen very often. So I'm always looking back and kind of just, I don't know, shaking my head at it and going, wow. Just wow. But it was an audition. You know? It was an audition. 

So you get the call that you're gonna be you're gonna be Zelda. Right? Like, what do you do? Because I know if it were me, no one would be able to tell me anything.

They didn't tell me over the phone. I got the call that I had a part in this game that I'd auditioned for, and I was like, “Oh my gosh. I've landed a role in a game. I was just hoping to make a great impression. I got my first role in this game here. I'm so excited!” Then I went into the studio, and I signed the NDAs. And then right before we recorded the trailer, for that very first Breath of the Wild trailer back in 2016, then they said, by the way, this is Zelda. So this is what you're gonna be doing. And we all just had a moment, and my moment was like, you have to be kidding me. You just don't expect that to happen to you. It's really wild. We can use that word. I mean, like skydiving.

I like what you did there. It was wild. She's an actor. Have you played the game?

I have. I’ve played a few of the games. I played the original and Ocarina of Time…

You know, some people don't. They do the voice acting and then they're like, I did it. 

I wasn't the most die hard Zelda fan that exists. I've met them all now. I think I've met the most die hard fans, and I can't touch that. I really can't. But, I can touch my enthusiasm for the game franchise and the storytelling. I can touch it with that. I’ve done much to throw my heart into it over the last ten years.

Have you seen any of the reaction videos of people hearing Zelda talk, because that's the first time. Silent protagonists, you know, have been a Zelda thing. You know, you’re used to reading the text, whatever. But when Zelda speaks that first time when she first says, “Wake up, Link.” and people lost their minds. How does that feel being on the other side of that?

Like pressure? Oh, I mean, well, I think when I did see those videos in that first year after that first trailer came out at E3, which no longer exists… 

I know. It's so sad.

I really liked E3. I'd gone to several of them. But once that trailer came out and it started to do the rounds, and create a bit of hype, I was like, this is going to be very interesting. I mean, by that point, I'd already started to, like, practice the Hyrule Historia and look at what I needed to do to try to fill up the character, but a lot of the recording had yet to be completed. So I was like, okay. Just focus on the work at hand. You know? Focus on the script. But I felt that. There's some serious momentum behind this, and it's starting to reveal itself in this really interesting way. But, yeah, I did see a few of them. 

It’s a phenomenal thing to be a part of a game that’s been around for forty years, but to be a part of Breath (of the Wild) what is it? Seven years ago? Eight years ago? 

Nine! It says 2017 was when it was released. March 2017. We're now in 2026. So I started recording this, and the first trailer was released in 2016. My involvement has already been ten years. Isn't that wild? A quarter of the franchise. Fortieth anniversary. Yeah. Who knew? 

Now, I'm gonna say this. You are the Charles Martinet of Zelda, right? You are now the Charles Martinet of Zelda. He did the first video game voice of Mario. You are the first video game voice of Zelda. (We don’t count those CDi games. - JMM)

(Laughs) I guess you could put it like that.

So you've done Breath of the Wild. You've done Tears of the Kingdom. You've done (Age of) Calamity. You've done (Age of) Imprisonment. And I don't think they're gonna be like, “Well, see you later, Patricia.” You're the voice of Zelda from here on until you decide that you don't wanna be the voice of Zelda anymore at this point. 

I never make that assumption. (laughs)

I don't wanna make that assumption either, but..

I really just wait until they call me for the next project. You know, you can't predict that it's gonna go for ten years. I didn't know it was going to happen after the first game regardless of the success. People were like, oh, they'll make a sequel. I'm sure. And I'm like, yeah. But you just have no idea who's making the decisions, what parts of the company have swapped over, if the the decision makers have shifted at Nintendo of America. Like, you can't really ever tell until you're asked back into the room if you're gonna be asked back in. I don't own the IP.

So, I've always just been really grateful when I have been asked back, and it is extraordinary now that so much has evolved over the last ten years of being a part of that process. It's like ten years of crazy images from around the world, and cosplay, and amazing art and so many people with personal stories connected to the franchise. And I'm just when I think of the ten years, I think of that. These games are so innovative and amazing. And then you have all the people who played them and the fact that it's a worldwide thing to enjoy, I just really know as an actor I got so lucky, so I hope there's more luck to come.

When you make the appearances, do you have to run that by Nintendo, or how does that work?

That's a great question. A really important distinction for me for this franchise is that I do not represent the company. That is something that everybody's pretty clear about. I'm a voice actor. So when I go to a convention, I'm representing several characters like the ones you mentioned. Another big one is Ash from Rainbow Six Siege. That's ten years running as well. So while Zelda is the most popular, I'd say by far, you also get quite a lot of these other franchises too, Assassin's Creed and and Rainbow Six being two of the bigger ones. And we'll keep going. We'll see. There are projects coming up. But, yeah, the convention space is interesting for that and award ceremonies and all that stuff. So I ride that line. I go there as a voice actor, as an actor, not as somebody who's representing Nintendo. 

So they're not, like, “You can't do this because you are Zelda”? restrictions or anything? 

No. What I have to do is honor the IP and the contracts that signed about all the privacy and you know, nobody really wants me to go into great depth about the super details of the process of making the game or stuff that might actually still be confidential that could come up later as something that was something I wasn't supposed to reveal. And most of the time, I'm not entirely sure what those details are going to be, so I play it safe. That's worked out for me so far. And, actually, for me to record the voice, that would be me violating the IP agreement that I have.

If I were to record the voice and get paid for it and go around and do impressions of Zelda, that's something that I just know I can't do that. So I really do my best to honor that as well. I know it's, like, boring, but you know what I will do is, if people come up to me at conventions or during a Q and A or really anytime, like, I'll whisper in their ear. I'll have a moment with them as long as they're not recording. I prefer, like, the one on ones are great.

Which is why you (audience) should stop asking if she's gonna do the voice. She's not gonna do it. Alright? Stop asking. You stop it. Alright? Get out of here. No. Get out of the comments asking for the voice. She's not gonna do it.

I'm so sorry. Hopefully, I’ll meet you in person. 

She doesn't owe you anything, Chat!  She doesn't owe you anything, comment section. This is her. Let her be her. Calm down. Ok…Have you ever ad-libbed or suggested any lines for Zelda, beyond the script? 

Oh, that's a really great question. This is one of those processes, like, in other video games, absolutely, but this one is such a tight dub that's already being translated. So you do occasionally tweak the dialogue as you're all doing it in a room. But you have writers on-site, you have a translator on-site, you have a bunch of people sort of weighing in on that process and what the lip flaps and the music of the line is gonna be doing. So really, there's not a lot of room for that. Where I think my innovative and or sort of personal touch comes in is, you know, in breath, or levels and the different variations that I can give them on the interpretation, before they choose what they think is working best.

Hari Lee, the director, directed the last three things. She directed Tears of the Kingdom, the Zelda app notes that came back. That was so much recording, and there were long, long phrases. And then, Age of Imprisonment as well. She helped with that as well. So I have her in the room bouncing ideas and and context off of me, and then she's also communicating with several people. So it's like a really interesting collaborative effort in the room when you're recording that way. Good people.

How long do these sessions usually take? 

They're kind of typical. You're usually recording for four hour sessions. That's a typical four hour thing that you do, and then you might have a series of, like, 10 sessions that take place over several months. I would say, that's one version of standard recording. And, yeah, that's it. Sometimes it can take longer as the game is continuing to develop. You might come back in and record, and then you might do some rerecords as things kinda continue to get drawn and processed and everything. But four hour sessions are usually the standard. 

(Self rant about getting into voice acting, pivots). Are we allowed to talk about the eight piece band? The eight piece band?

Yeah. At full max, we are a piano and voice duo at first, and then it can go to an eight piece. Yeah. But the collective, they're all such important parts of it, and we've played a lot together over the years. This year, not so much because, quite frankly, I'm traveling most of the time, and the band is sort of like, after we released our last album in 2023, we did some shows, but we're kinda back to the drawing board, the piano voice duo, Nick and and myself, and might be thinking of creating an EP. So it starts with us and then we sort of, depending on the song, give it to the other band members and they might create percussion and bassline and help us develop harmonies around it.

We all love violin and cello. Those are usually written pieces. Like, Nick will write those, and then we'll bring in people. And then we'll all sort of configure and collaborate together. So the process of that is as fun as the music itself. But if you want to know about that band, what I would say about it is that what makes it so great to do, and so special is the fact that it's original music that we get to create, and it doesn't need to be anything commercial. It doesn't need to go anywhere. It's been that kind of, you know, fresh air in the last years of all these other things that, you know, you have really strong stipulations about how a project is supposed to look and be and who owns the final product. And for music like that, you know, it's just everybody loves doing it. We're so happy when we get a chance to do it, and, you know, musicians just wanna play music. Are you a musician as well? I feel like you're a musician.  

I'm in a 13-piece band called The Conspiracy Band. Cheap plug. We're based out of Columbus, Ohio. The band has been around different iterations for thirty-five years. And we do covers, no original music. I used to do original music, and I got out of it. But I know I mean, there's a lot of musicians. I know a lot of musicians. And it's probably one of the most freeing things to do because you can create your own. You're not under any obligation. You're not you're not trying to meet anybody's deadlines. Which is the most freeing, and what do you love to do the most, I guess, out of everything? 

I will say that some of my happiest moments on Earth are where you think, “Wow. I'm sitting here in a moment of complete ecstasy, complete bliss has been in the middle of the rehearsal process with the band rather than the performance itself. Because I always find when you're doing a live performance, you have things like tech issues and it's hard to to be perfect in a space and to hear properly and to feel, like, so completely involved, when you have a lot of people on stage. There are moments, but I would say my happiest moments have been in band rehearsals when you're just running through the song and everybody's jamming. Just that simple, simple act for each other, just having a great old time, smiling, goofing around, Wonderful, wonderful moments.

But I do love everything, and I think they all go together, all the different genres, and they inform each other. You just need to be in practice somehow creatively. Doesn't really matter necessarily what it is or what the outcome is supposed to be. I think it's just a muscle that needs to be continuously developed in whatever way it can. So find that way. I think that's one of the ways I try to say yes to everything is just for that purpose, just to continue to be a creative. I mean, it's nice to get accolades for projects that aren't your own that other people spend many years developing and funding. I can't complain about that either. 

I just got back from a WWE event, with Gaming Nexus, to play the game early, but they took us to WWE headquarters. It was super cool, but I've traveled more with Gaming Nexus than I ever have in my life, and it's more to play, like, video games. And to me, these are, like, dream come true moments. This is gonna sound hokey, but I am interviewing the voice of Zelda who has been the voice of Zelda for ten years. I've been hyping myself up all week about it. If you would've told me ten, twenty, thirty years ago that this was going to happen…

Aww! Thank you! 

For real. Like, I appreciate you being here. I appreciate, you know, them reaching out. But, like, these interviews, I've seen how these go before, and they're very some of them are very stuffy. Right? I wanna be a fan, but I wanna be professional, but I wanna be also the person who is not taking advantage of something like this. Right? It means more of the world to me for you to sit down and take some of your time to talk to me. But it also feels like, you know, you deserve, you know, any accolades (you receive)  because you're doing bigger things than you could ever fathom. Right? You are making dreams come true for somebody. You're also doing something that everybody has always wanted to do. You gave a voice to an iconic character who's been around for forty years. And if nobody ever thanks you for that, let me be the first. Thank you for giving me your time, for giving us your time, for giving the Zelda universe your time, but more so just being a down to earth person. 

Thank you. I was thinking, you know, my very first cosplay growing up was She-Ra Princess of Power, and I would look at that now like when when I did land Zelda I realized that it's not She Ra but it's pretty darn close, and it's an amazing thing that you can look at your child self and go, she would be amazed right now that I'm doing this. That's a breathtaking moment. I have goosebumps just thinking about it.

And much to your point where you're like, how are you traveling around now for gaming and interviewing and playing games, and maybe you thought of touring. I had wanted to tour with the band. I'd wanted to work on film productions and travel broadly. I never got to do that really, but I did do it weirdly through Comic Cons. So gaming was my engine and avenue to do all those things in a slightly different format than what I would have expected, and yet I've still done the thing. It's just not exactly how you expect it to, but it's there. It'd be silly not to recognize how amazing that is, how it does come to fruition. 

(Pivots, because now, we’re  running out of time)  Are you allowed to talk about what's next? 

I've got, like, two projects that I'm pretty excited about. They both have involved performance capture. I can't even hint at anything about them, but to say it's been exciting. One of them has been quite a new IP, and it's very exciting to work with people on a new IP and a new group of actors and writers. Oftentimes, people ask me what big franchise do you wanna work with or a game company that you haven't worked with yet? And I'm like, basically, all of them. Like, of course, I would.

It's also really nice to work on just new material. So I'm just happy to be working, and I'm happy to be in the room with people who are open and cool. I start there every day because that's where all the creative stuff happens, regardless of what it looks like, regardless of what the game ends up doing at this point. And just focusing on those things. So it makes a better game, makes a better product, makes a better actor. You know? So, I'm excited for those things. And, potentially, an EP by the end of this year, we were writing on the theme of opulence. That's something we've been thinking about for the last year, and it still keeps coming back up. So I think we're gonna start to hammer in more, with more veracity at  that coming up soon because we got a lot of half drafts. As you know, it takes a long time. 

Oh, I know. Process. And not even from a perfectionist standpoint, you go "Yeah. I could record that better." And you go back and record it better, and you're like, I could record that better. Lastly, where can they find you? If there are any socials or any places they could follow you, or the band, anything like that? 

My socials, I've actually pared them down a little bit. Like, I'm still in those other places, but I'm not trying to be active on much more than Instagram. It's really like a mental health thing and just with the enshitification of the Internet and how it's gotten so wildly out of control, and just, you know, full of desperately sad news all the time. I just need to limit myself so I can be hopeful in the world, but, like, Instagram, @Summersett_ and my website www.patriciasummersett.com .

I forgot to mention I've got appearances this year. I haven't done any convention in nine months but I've got several coming up this year so I'll be back out there for that. Maybe a few announcements are coming up where I might make some interesting appearances that aren't out in public yet, but I'm kind of excited. I'm waiting to see what, when, and how I can announce that. Charity events. I've been doing a lot of those. So I got one coming up tomorrow in Idaho, for a really special little charity I'm doing with my partner, Roger Craig Smith. Then we're gonna go and do a signing and a meet and greet for this thing. So we enjoy doing that. That's one other amazing offshoot of doing this character that has become easier. It's like you can just kinda get involved in certain charity work and stuff too, which is just good. And they can just throw you right into it.

Patricia, I could sit here and talk to you all day. But as we said, Zoom is going to kick us off of here, because, you know, we're cheap. Listen. Thank you so much for this time. I lied, guys. I said the interview was gonna be ten minutes. It was all forty. Just deal with it. She's easy to talk to. What are you gonna do? It's Zelda. It's not every day you get to sit and talk to Zelda, or Patricia Summersett.

Thank you for having me. And I had noticed you got the beautiful hearts on the hat!  

Yeah, I Nintendoed out a little bit. I might freak out after this call is over. Who knows? But thank you so much.

Thank you so much! 

For the record. I totally freaked out.