Voicing one of the most beloved video game characters of all time is no small task, but it’s an even more staggering challenge when it’s your first role in a video game ever. But Briana White was more than up for the challenge of voicing Aerith Gainsborough in Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth, and it’s paid off in spades. She’s nabbed an award for Best Supporting Performer at the Golden Joysticks and has a nomination for Best Actor at The Game Awards. It’s been a monumental task, but according to White, also been a journey of self-growth and learning since Remake.
“I really felt out of my element, because the way the localization process works, it’s not the easier form of voice acting. It’s incredibly technically challenging, and I had to learn all the basics of voice acting along with all the more advanced things at the same time,” White tells Inverse, “There were times I would cry in my car and think to myself they got the wrong girl, I can’t do this. I’m going to get fired, or worse it’ll just be bad and I’ll disappoint everyone.”
But years after the release of Remake and months after Rebirth, it’s safe to say White hasn’t disappointed anyone in the slightest. Aerith has been one of the biggest focal points of the rebooted Final Fantasy 7, and one of the most universally beloved aspects by fans. She’s even started playing through Rebirth on her own streams, attracting thousands of fans on both YouTube and Twitch.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth continues the story from 2020’s Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and it’s a grand reimagining of the middle part of the original 1997 game. The story follows a mercenary named Cloud Strife as he and his friends seek to stop a madman named Sephiroth from destroying the world. Aerith has long been one of the most beloved characters in gaming history because of her charm and overflowing personality, on top of the tragic turn her story takes.
Before her work on Final Fantasy, White appeared in the likes of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders and the cult classic Lonely Island film Popstar. But she was also a part of the surprise whimsical viral hit Princess Rap Battle series, where she played Aurora – White notes that she’d be more than ready to throw down in a rap battle as Aerith, especially if it was against the villainous Shinra executive Scarlet.
Working on Final Fantasy 7 has been a painstaking process stretched across a decade, and one that’s taught White so much about both herself and acting. While working on Remake, she pushed through the doubt, enrolling herself in classes and hiring acting coaches, all while actually recording lines for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the Crisis Core remaster, and now Rebirth.
Voicing a game like Rebirth is a unique challenge, because of how the localization into English works, and how that still needs to line up with the original Japanese version.
“We don’t get the freedom to ad-lib whatsoever, because what we’re doing is translated from Japanese, and the writers are very specific about exactly what it has to say. Our job is to be able to convey the character's motivation, emotion, everything they’re feeling into the words we’re given,” White says, “It’s such a specific technical process because we have to line our words up in the exact same timing it took to say them in Japanese. But ultimately, because it’s challenging, that’s why it’s fun.”
This is where White really had a chance to shine, largely because of how much time and experience she’d already had with the character.
“With Remake I was filled with self-doubt and uncertainty, but for Rebirth I was able to settle into the creative process a lot easier. I already knew things like I needed whether I needed room temperature or hot water, and how to hold my throat so I didn’t injure my voice when screaming,” White says, “I could just focus on the creative side of acting, and Aerith’s character, where’s she’s fun, playful, and sassy.”
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director, Naoki Hamaguchi, has said numerous times that the theme of the game is “bonds,” how these characters grow and change alongside each other, and deal with grief. Aerith represents the core themes of Rebirth perhaps better than any other character – this is the game that had to confront and reassess the most heartbreaking twist in video game history, after all. But the way Rebirth digs into Aerith’s character with nuance and complexity is astounding, juxtaposing her overwhelming positivity against the trauma she’s experienced.
“We have moments where we get to unveil Aerith’s sass and what’s underneath that. In the scene at Costa Del Sol, we get to hear about the fact that she does sometimes think about people who have wronged her, and hates them for it. She hates that her life has become one big, out-of-control thing because of how she was born,” White says, “She’s had a really hard life, and she hates it, but it’s also brought her joy and friendship, things she can truly rely on. That’s intrinsic to her character, and I hope I was able to bring it to her performance.”
The other vital element of Aerith’s arc in Rebirth is her budding friendship with another main character, Tifa Lockheart, and how it’s given much greater detail in these new games, than what was in the original. It’s not just the big story moments, of course, but the quiet smaller moments where the two women can bond over things like an adorable baby Chocobo that looks just like Cloud.
“These are two incredibly kind and compassionate women who are spending all this time together, all in a quest to save the world, so it’s inevitable they would become close. Some of those moments are the best in the game, where they can just be there for each other,” says White, “And to be honest, Brit (Tifa’s voice actress, Britt Baron) and I are close. We’ve done a lot of conventions together and we do confide in each other, because nobody knows better what I’m going through with this whole game and the legacy of taking on an iconic character. Brit’s doing the same thing.”
Like Rebirth itself, White’s journey with the series has been one of perseverance, and the game is undoubtedly better off for the beautiful complexity she’s added to an unassuming flower girl from the slums. White’s time as Aerith has taught her a universal lesson that anyone can take to heart.
“I pushed all that doubt aside because I told myself that’s not actually going to help me here. That’s a lesson I can take forward my whole life, anything that I’m afraid that I can’t do, I now have the knowledge that crying about it isn’t going to help,” White says, “I don’t know how to do everything, but I can probably figure it out. I hope everyone can feel the same way about their lives. If your life isn’t where you want it to be, you can figure it out. You just have to get rid of the fear that you never will.”
