[00:00:00]
Hey, this is Alessio coming at you before the episode with a very special message from

[00:00:04]
one of our patrons, Terry Wolf himself.

[00:00:08]
Thanks Terry.

[00:00:09]
Terry writes, No matter when you got into the Metal Gear series or how seriously you

[00:00:13]
take it, the time has come to harvest what we can from the games and pay it forward as

[00:00:18]
creators and community members.

[00:00:20]
For me, this meant studying stuff like the dangerous role that technology can play in

[00:00:24]
society, or government secrecy and coverups, as well as going deeper into the subtext of

[00:00:28]
creators I enjoy.

[00:00:30]
For you, it may be about the humor, the film influences, or something else.

[00:00:34]
Whatever speaks to you as you play the games or listen to this great podcast, make it part

[00:00:37]
of your brand and your message.

[00:00:39]
Let's make that the true legacy of the Metal Gear series, and remember to fight for what

[00:00:43]
we believe in.

[00:00:44]
Very very awesome message from Terry, and if you want to be cool just like Terry, you

[00:00:48]
can patronize us at patreon.com slash metalgear Mondays and include your own 150 word message

[00:00:53]
at the appropriate tier.

[00:00:55]
We really appreciate you guys' support, and it's because of that very support that we

[00:00:59]
can provide interviews like today's.

[00:01:01]
So enjoy the episode.

[00:01:02]
Thanks guys.

[00:01:03]
Hey, this is Alessio coming at you before the episode 2.

[00:01:08]
Just kind of let you guys know that we were utilizing some different equipment.

[00:01:12]
We were on the road, we were traveling, and all of us were huddled around a microphone.

[00:01:17]
So if you notice there are some more pops of peas or anything like that, just be aware

[00:01:26]
of the fact that we are kind of away from our typical traditional recording equipment.

[00:01:31]
So apologies on my part for all of my popping.

[00:01:34]
Pop, pop, pop.

[00:01:35]
But yeah, enjoy the episode.

[00:01:47]
Here's to you dear listeners, and welcome to Metal Gear Mondays, the most thorough

[00:01:52]
Metal Gear podcast on the internet.

[00:01:53]
I am your host for this week's Sam Wright, and I'm joined live in person in the flesh

[00:02:01]
in Seattle, Washington by Alessio Summerfield.

[00:02:04]
Hey, what's up everybody?

[00:02:07]
And Isaac Loon.

[00:02:08]
Hello, hello, hello.

[00:02:09]
That was a weird voice.

[00:02:10]
What is that?

[00:02:11]
What did you do that?

[00:02:12]
This is my voice now.

[00:02:13]
Hello, hello.

[00:02:15]
Is that one of your characters?

[00:02:19]
Yeah.

[00:02:20]
Gerald told me to do this one.

[00:02:21]
He said he liked this one a lot.

[00:02:23]
Okay, you had a little session with Gerald.

[00:02:26]
A little private tutorial session.

[00:02:27]
A little private tutorial vocal session.

[00:02:29]
Yeah, so we're on a goddamn roll, man, with these interviews.

[00:02:35]
We today are talking to Stephanie Houston.

[00:02:39]
We've been saying her name wrong this whole time.

[00:02:41]
It's not Justin.

[00:02:42]
It makes a yes sound.

[00:02:44]
Yeah, if you're from the Netherlands, but Americans just say whatever the fuck they

[00:02:48]
read on the paper.

[00:02:49]
That's very true, as we did.

[00:02:51]
But I feel like let's be, let's say it properly.

[00:02:56]
Yeah.

[00:02:57]
Stephanie, say it with me, boys.

[00:02:59]
Houston.

[00:03:00]
Whitney Houston.

[00:03:02]
No.

[00:03:03]
Okay.

[00:03:04]
Houston, we have a problem.

[00:03:06]
No.

[00:03:07]
She just hops back on.

[00:03:08]
Yeah, she's like, what are you doing?

[00:03:09]
What are you doing right now?

[00:03:11]
Yeah, no, we had a really great, we talked to her for about an hour.

[00:03:15]
We had a really great time talking to her.

[00:03:16]
She's the sweetest, the sweetest person in the world.

[00:03:19]
Confirmed.

[00:03:20]
Confirmed.

[00:03:21]
And yeah, we had a really great time.

[00:03:25]
She talked about a lot of character motivations that she had with quiet and kind of like some

[00:03:31]
underlying stuff.

[00:03:32]
She definitely did talk about the quote controversy around her appearance in the game, as everybody

[00:03:39]
is well aware of.

[00:03:41]
She actually got a chance to tell us a little bit about what it's like working with Hideo

[00:03:43]
Kojima, because she's actually one of the few people that we've talked to that has

[00:03:48]
frequently worked, like worked with him a lot during the process.

[00:03:51]
Like actually worked with him.

[00:03:53]
Yeah, during the process of the games.

[00:03:54]
It was directed by him directly.

[00:03:56]
So that was, it was really cool to kind of get that, that kind of inside scoop.

[00:04:02]
So yeah, I hope you guys enjoy this episode.

[00:04:06]
We're going to.

[00:04:08]
You want to do the front plugs?

[00:04:10]
Yes, gross.

[00:04:11]
Let's do the front plugs.

[00:04:14]
You can support us.

[00:04:16]
You can find all of the links to all of the things that we do at Metal Gear Mondays.com.

[00:04:21]
But especially go to patreon.com slash Metal Gear Mondays.

[00:04:23]
If you are looking to support us monetarily anywhere from a dollar all the way up.

[00:04:29]
We've got a lot of different tiers.

[00:04:30]
You can see which one is right for you.

[00:04:33]
But starting off, you get access to our discord server where a lot of listeners are kind of

[00:04:40]
in there chatting and talking.

[00:04:43]
Everybody but Isaac.

[00:04:44]
Everybody but Isaac.

[00:04:45]
I'm not a patron.

[00:04:46]
Oh my God.

[00:04:47]
You're, you're a steward of the patron.

[00:04:51]
A steward of the patrons.

[00:04:52]
Yeah, so that means you get him automatically.

[00:04:54]
Oh, what?

[00:04:55]
Yeah.

[00:04:56]
Cool.

[00:04:57]
Brownie points.

[00:04:58]
Brownie points.

[00:04:59]
Um, so, uh, so yeah, so check that out.

[00:05:04]
Um, chat with us and our fans, listeners.

[00:05:07]
I just feel weird saying fans.

[00:05:09]
It's a weird, yeah, listeners.

[00:05:11]
Yeah, they don't like us.

[00:05:12]
They don't actually listen to what we're doing.

[00:05:14]
Exactly.

[00:05:15]
Um, and not Isaac apparently.

[00:05:17]
Um, just like you go on Twitter and get not Isaac.

[00:05:21]
But, um.

[00:05:22]
Doesn't have a Twitter.

[00:05:23]
You can get reached out.

[00:05:24]
Stop.

[00:05:25]
Um, but yeah, so, um, two dollars a month we have a special podcast called the Patriot

[00:05:32]
Club where you can listen to us ramble about other random stuff.

[00:05:37]
That's fun.

[00:05:38]
And we've got a whole bunch of other things like that.

[00:05:40]
Um, get scoops, get early access to episodes, all kinds of shit.

[00:05:44]
So check those out.

[00:05:46]
Um, uh, and you can also review us on iTunes and other platforms and allow reviews of podcasts

[00:05:54]
if you like.

[00:05:55]
Um, uh, that really leaves us.

[00:05:58]
Leave a comment on a YouTube video.

[00:05:59]
Yeah, leave a comment on a YouTube video.

[00:06:01]
As of recording, we are very, very close to our 100 subscribers for our custom URL.

[00:06:07]
Um, so, uh, check that out.

[00:06:09]
Subscribe, leave a comment.

[00:06:10]
Tell us what we're doing right.

[00:06:11]
We're wrong.

[00:06:13]
Leave singular comment.

[00:06:14]
Leave and comment.

[00:06:15]
And that, that it.

[00:06:17]
Um, Alexio, where can they find you on the internet?

[00:06:21]
You can find me at AC Summerfield everywhere.

[00:06:25]
Dot com.

[00:06:26]
Isaac, where they find you on the internet?

[00:06:30]
You kind of spoiled it already, but go ahead.

[00:06:31]
Yeah, I tried Sam.

[00:06:32]
Go ahead.

[00:06:33]
Go ahead.

[00:06:34]
Go ahead.

[00:06:35]
Go ahead.

[00:06:36]
Go ahead.

[00:06:37]
Go ahead.

[00:06:38]
This is a much different experience looking directly at Isaac's.

[00:06:40]
It is really weird.

[00:06:41]
Like giving him shit for this when he's like right in front of my face is very strange.

[00:06:45]
Now I know what Sam does in his bedroom when we're recording.

[00:06:49]
Well you can just reach out and just, that little boy, you know.

[00:06:52]
That was us kissing our hands.

[00:06:55]
We didn't just smooch Isaac against as well, but.

[00:06:58]
And when we against as well Isaac loves.

[00:06:59]
It's consent.

[00:07:00]
It's consent.

[00:07:01]
Yeah, Isaac loves smooches from us.

[00:07:03]
Doesn't have a tweet.

[00:07:06]
That's it.

[00:07:07]
One day he's going to be like doesn't have a tweet and Isaac wlem.com.

[00:07:11]
No man.

[00:07:12]
Whoa.

[00:07:13]
What's the W stand for?

[00:07:14]
He's told us whatever you want it to be.

[00:07:17]
Isaac, whatever you wanted to be baby.

[00:07:18]
Lim.com.

[00:07:19]
Baby.

[00:07:20]
Baby.

[00:07:21]
Um, you can find me on the internet at sandal.

[00:07:24]
It's S A N J U U L on Twitter.

[00:07:27]
That's about it.

[00:07:29]
Yeah, let's get into the damn interview.

[00:07:31]
Let's get in there boys.

[00:07:32]
Play that track.

[00:07:40]
Stephanie, thank you so much for joining us.

[00:07:43]
It's an absolute pleasure to be able to talk to you.

[00:07:45]
Thank you for inviting me.

[00:07:47]
It's a pleasure to be on your show.

[00:07:48]
Yeah.

[00:07:49]
Where are you recording from this today this evening for you?

[00:07:52]
Um, well, I'm recording from the Netherlands.

[00:07:55]
Um, I'm back at my apartment here in the south of the Netherlands.

[00:08:01]
Very nice.

[00:08:02]
We actually were just watching earlier this morning a vice documentary, uh, where they

[00:08:07]
followed you.

[00:08:08]
Um, yeah.

[00:08:09]
Oh, that's cool.

[00:08:10]
Well, that's the same space I'm in right now.

[00:08:13]
So you, I guess you have an image of that now.

[00:08:17]
Perfect.

[00:08:18]
So, does it like to have the vice documentary crew follow you around, uh, invading your

[00:08:22]
privacy?

[00:08:23]
Uh, well, it was pretty cool to be able to tell them the story of my career, I would

[00:08:29]
say it's a cool platform.

[00:08:33]
Um, unusual, like they, they interview the more like unusual lesser known people mostly.

[00:08:39]
So it's, it's a good audience to reach to, I think.

[00:08:44]
Very nice.

[00:08:45]
Um, I, uh, it's interesting to hear you refer to yourself as a lesser known person because

[00:08:49]
I feel like most of the folks who listen to this show would, would disagree with you,

[00:08:53]
but I understand.

[00:08:54]
Well, you know, like in mainstream culture, um, I still feel like, uh, I'm still in a

[00:08:59]
niche culture and the culture of gaming, uh, even, even though how it, it's huge worldwide,

[00:09:06]
but, um, I think in the Netherlands, it's still considered a niche.

[00:09:11]
Is it difficult kind of growing up with that as an interest given how niche it is in your,

[00:09:17]
in your, uh, I guess home, hometown?

[00:09:20]
Mm-hmm.

[00:09:21]
Uh, it was pretty difficult, actually.

[00:09:24]
Um, I didn't have, uh, especially I, I didn't have any girlfriends who enjoyed playing video

[00:09:33]
games.

[00:09:35]
It seemed like, um, I always felt like I was being told that it's, it's not a, it's not

[00:09:42]
a girl hobby to have.

[00:09:44]
And, um, it was just pretty unusual.

[00:09:47]
And, uh, I guess up until when I went to college, um, I studied, uh, Japanese culture and language.

[00:09:58]
And, uh, I, I actually found a lot of friends who had the exact interests, same interests

[00:10:04]
as me and or were gamers too.

[00:10:07]
So it just depends on where you are.

[00:10:09]
I would say.

[00:10:10]
So we were doing some reading, um, a little bit before doing our research before the interview.

[00:10:15]
Um, and we found, um, something that said that you unknowingly auditioned for Metal Gear

[00:10:20]
Solid 5.

[00:10:21]
Um, what does that mean and how did that come about?

[00:10:26]
Uh, right.

[00:10:27]
Um, at the time I was working for a Japanese talent agent, uh, and I was living there in

[00:10:33]
Tokyo and, um, I went to lots of auditions for lots of different projects, but, uh, I

[00:10:39]
was asked to audition for a new video game, uh, that was going to be released by Konami.

[00:10:47]
And that was all I was told.

[00:10:49]
So, um, I had an idea that it was, well, especially when I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

[00:10:55]
actually got to the, to the, uh, audition.

[00:10:59]
I, I immediately realized it was, it was, it was a big deal.

[00:11:06]
It was for, obviously for, for a big AAA game.

[00:11:11]
And, um, but they, it was a top secret project.

[00:11:15]
Um, Kojima Productions, they didn't want anything to leak out at that time because it was still,

[00:11:23]
uh, it had about three, four years to go in development from there.

[00:11:27]
So it hadn't been announced to the public at all yet.

[00:11:30]
So that's why they were so secretive about it.

[00:11:34]
Nice.

[00:11:34]
You get the secret inside scoop, I guess.

[00:11:37]
When did, when did you find out that that's what the project was?

[00:11:41]
Well, I had an idea pretty soon after I auditioned, um, because at the audition, um, there

[00:11:49]
was this long table of, uh, I guess like a jury, you would say.

[00:11:54]
And in, uh, lots of people were watching the auditions and in the middle of those people was,

[00:12:00]
of course, Hideo Kojima.

[00:12:03]
Um, I actually hadn't been playing the Metal Gear Solid games up until then, but, um, I,

[00:12:13]
I kind of recognized his face somehow, even though I, yeah, I guess because,

[00:12:19]
just being interested in video games, it was a, it was a familiar face.

[00:12:25]
So, and it was also like the whole atmosphere of the audition and the scene I got to do,

[00:12:32]
uh, it was just obviously an espionage theme.

[00:12:37]
And, um, so after I walked out of the audition, I started Googling and I immediately was like,

[00:12:45]
okay, this has to be a new Metal Gear game.

[00:12:48]
That's awesome.

[00:12:49]
I hear that there were plastic guns during the audition.

[00:12:51]
I don't know.

[00:12:52]
What was that like?

[00:12:54]
There were.

[00:12:54]
Well, they were actually quite, um, realistic replicas.

[00:12:59]
They, well, they were all obviously not real, but, uh, they had the real weight to them.

[00:13:06]
So, um, they wanted people, um, to, uh, pose with them.

[00:13:12]
Well, there were actually, there were two auditions that I went to.

[00:13:16]
And the first audition was for, they were actually just looking for, um, model to base

[00:13:23]
quiet's model on.

[00:13:24]
Um, and also they were looking for lots of other people to model for, for different

[00:13:29]
characters.

[00:13:30]
And, uh, that was just mostly posing with the, with the guns and like seeing if you had

[00:13:36]
a feel for it and make it look realistic, I guess.

[00:13:41]
And, um, the second audition I went to, that was the motion capture audition.

[00:13:47]
And, uh, that was when I was actually handed a piece of script to memorize and do the

[00:13:54]
scene and also, um, do some improvisation.

[00:13:58]
I was asked to pretend to infiltrate an enemy base.

[00:14:03]
So I had to improvise on the spot.

[00:14:06]
It was, it was, um, it was pretty funny.

[00:14:10]
It was just, it was unlike any audition I've ever done.

[00:14:13]
So they gave you, so they gave you these like replica guns and just said infiltrate

[00:14:19]
a enemy base.

[00:14:21]
Right.

[00:14:22]
Well, uh, at the infiltration part, I wasn't, uh, actually, uh, holding any guns, but, um,

[00:14:29]
yeah, so I, I, I just did some sneaking, crawling, um, hiding behind.

[00:14:37]
Uh, boxes and stuff.

[00:14:40]
Well, I guess they just wanted to see if, if, um, if the actors had any feel for,

[00:14:47]
um, for the whole atmosphere of, of the game, I would say.

[00:14:53]
You said they handed you a, a, a portion of the script.

[00:14:56]
Did you have any lines on that script?

[00:14:59]
Yes.

[00:14:59]
It was actually the scene that was, um, the first scene of a quiet appearing in the

[00:15:04]
game. It was the hospital scene.

[00:15:06]
Oh, gotcha.

[00:15:07]
Oh, very cool.

[00:15:09]
Yeah.

[00:15:10]
It was a pretty cool scene.

[00:15:11]
It was really cool to do that at the, at the audition and it actually being the

[00:15:15]
first scene to record in motion capture as well.

[00:15:20]
Yeah.

[00:15:20]
So it's, it's pretty memorable.

[00:15:22]
Yeah.

[00:15:23]
Um, so before like Metal Gear Solid 5, Enterprise Production, you were in a TV

[00:15:29]
series called Giggitsui.

[00:15:32]
I don't know if I'm saying that right.

[00:15:33]
Oh, right.

[00:15:34]
That's right.

[00:15:35]
Is that right?

[00:15:35]
Okay.

[00:15:36]
Cool.

[00:15:37]
Um, what was that?

[00:15:38]
Like working on like a television program and how are you a cast for that?

[00:15:42]
Uh, it was, I have to say it was a pretty small part I had in, in that series.

[00:15:49]
Um, I was doing a lot of different acting, um, work in, in a lot of commercials as well.

[00:15:58]
Um, when I was working in Japan, I started out as a model.

[00:16:02]
And, uh, after modeling for a while, I, um, I actually don't, don't have a theater background.

[00:16:09]
Um, but I was, my agent was recommending me to audition for acting roles anyway.

[00:16:17]
And, um, well, the system in Japan is, is, um, is pretty different, I would say, from

[00:16:24]
a lot of places in the world.

[00:16:26]
Um, there's more of a hierarchy.

[00:16:29]
Um, I got involved in a theater production in Japan and you just kind of, um, start

[00:16:35]
at the bottom and you have to work yourself, work your way up and learn from experience.

[00:16:43]
And I, I had a lot of experiences to, to learn from, um, just, yeah, a lot of variety.

[00:16:51]
And, uh, one of those was having a part in, in Gekitsu.

[00:16:56]
Um, it was about, uh, World War II, a scenario.

[00:17:00]
And, uh, I had the role of, of, uh, the lover of the main character.

[00:17:07]
So it was more of a supportive part, but it was, it was a very nice production.

[00:17:11]
It was fun to work on.

[00:17:12]
That's awesome.

[00:17:13]
Have you, um, just sort of off topic, and I'm always curious about this because I, um,

[00:17:18]
my, my mother is Sicilian, so I spent a lot of my time growing up in Europe.

[00:17:22]
Um, yeah.

[00:17:24]
So a lot of my family's in Italy.

[00:17:26]
Um, I was actually born in England as well.

[00:17:28]
But, um, I, it's weird because I, I work in film in the United States and a lot of

[00:17:34]
the Europeans that I've worked with that come to the United States, say how different it is.

[00:17:38]
Um, had you worked in media production, um, where, like in your home country before

[00:17:44]
going to Japan and working in, in media there and how different are the two?

[00:17:48]
If, if yes.

[00:17:50]
Well, before I started, um, working as an actress in Japan, I, I didn't have any

[00:17:55]
experience working as an actress in the Netherlands.

[00:17:58]
So, um, it was kind of unknown territory to me.

[00:18:04]
I, I just have a very different background.

[00:18:07]
Um, I grew up having this dream to go to Japan.

[00:18:13]
And, uh, I just had a huge passion for Japanese culture and, um,

[00:18:19]
so yeah, I ended up majoring in Japanese studies.

[00:18:23]
So, um, that was a pretty different route.

[00:18:25]
Um, I think growing up, um, I grew up in a pretty small town and I just never really

[00:18:34]
felt like it would be a possibility for me to become an actress in the future.

[00:18:41]
So, I, um, I never, it was always inside me as a dream I had, but I, I didn't really pursue it

[00:18:53]
or I didn't have people surrounding me that encouraged me to pursue that dream.

[00:18:58]
Nice.

[00:18:58]
In Japan, I, I was surprised to suddenly have this opportunity in front of me

[00:19:05]
and I just completely went for it.

[00:19:08]
How surreal is it to be where you are now considering where you were before?

[00:19:14]
It is very surreal.

[00:19:16]
It was just such a dream come true and it was also like two fields of two of my dreams

[00:19:23]
just falling together, um, growing up as a gamer and then being able to work as an actress

[00:19:31]
on one of the biggest most legendary series of the world.

[00:19:36]
I, that was just, it was, it's just such a dream come true.

[00:19:42]
Very nice.

[00:19:44]
You said that you, um, that you had a love for Japanese culture.

[00:19:48]
Where did, where did that come from?

[00:19:49]
What was sort of the catalyst?

[00:19:50]
Do you remember, uh, maybe a moment when you were growing up when, when, when it kind of

[00:19:55]
triggered for you or was it like a, like a slow process?

[00:19:58]
I grew up as a, as a pretty geeky girl and I think the first thing that got me into

[00:20:06]
in touch with Japanese, uh, like anime was Pokemon.

[00:20:12]
I, I adored Pokemon.

[00:20:15]
It was one of my favorite things and I watched the anime as well.

[00:20:21]
And, um, then there was Dragon Ball Z, which I loved too.

[00:20:26]
And, um, that was, I think my first, uh, connection to Japan, just really geeky things,

[00:20:34]
but, um, I felt somehow also the video games I was playing, um, I loved Final Fantasy games and

[00:20:42]
RPGs in general.

[00:20:44]
Um, but I just started noticing like all these things I like.

[00:20:47]
They're, they're from Japan.

[00:20:49]
So there, there has to be something special about Japan.

[00:20:53]
And, uh, also I started researching on the internet, uh, about Japanese music and films and series.

[00:21:04]
And I just fell in love with the language too.

[00:21:08]
So I felt like, oh, this, this is something I have to learn it.

[00:21:12]
And yeah, it wouldn't even like give me a deeper understanding of, of everything Japanese.

[00:21:18]
So I was, I was just obsessed growing up.

[00:21:22]
Um, can I ask, I want to ask a really quick random question since you mentioned Pokemon.

[00:21:27]
You had the opportunity to see Detective Pikachu yet?

[00:21:29]
Yes, I went and I went to see it.

[00:21:32]
Yeah.

[00:21:32]
I was, it was so nostalgic to me.

[00:21:36]
Did you see it?

[00:21:37]
I did.

[00:21:37]
It was very cute.

[00:21:38]
It was, it was fun seeing all of them, all of the Pokemon.

[00:21:41]
Yeah, it was, wasn't it?

[00:21:43]
I felt so warm inside to see them.

[00:21:45]
Exactly.

[00:21:46]
They gave my, uh, they gave my, uh, my best, my best boy, Sanctuary, with some love and that one.

[00:21:50]
So I was very happy to see that.

[00:21:53]
Yeah, it was pretty good.

[00:21:54]
So what would you kind of say over the years that your most challenging role has been?

[00:22:02]
And then what would you say your favorite role has been?

[00:22:06]
Um, that's a good question.

[00:22:08]
Donna Burke's friend.

[00:22:12]
Oh, right.

[00:22:12]
That was, that was quite the challenge too.

[00:22:16]
But that was a lot of fun.

[00:22:20]
Um, well, the most challenging experience I had was, uh, I worked on a big theater production in

[00:22:29]
Japan. It was called Bonsan.

[00:22:32]
And, um, I was the only foreign person in that production.

[00:22:41]
And, uh, it sounds so strange too.

[00:22:43]
But it really changed my perspective, um, because, well, I was able to speak Japanese fluently, but

[00:22:52]
there's still a lot of differences you feel.

[00:22:55]
Um, well, just the culture I grew up in, in the Netherlands, it's still very different.

[00:23:04]
And, uh, it was just, it was a really tough, the Japanese theater world is just, it's,

[00:23:13]
it's pretty tough, I would say.

[00:23:17]
Is it that it's like an in-sealer kind of thing where, um, there's just sort of like,

[00:23:21]
you have to be in the, in the, in the fold or, or what's tough about it exactly?

[00:23:26]
Well, it was mostly the director I worked with, it was just really difficult to work with.

[00:23:31]
And, um, it was just such an intense guy. And, um, we, we, we were rehearsing for a month,

[00:23:41]
a month and a half for, uh, every day, we didn't have any days off.

[00:23:48]
And, uh, it was really intense, but, um, the director was just so intense. Like, every time

[00:23:55]
you acted, uh, the scene in a way that he didn't like, or, uh, he would just, he would just have

[00:24:02]
so much, he would express everything in, in just expressing his anger. So he would actually throw,

[00:24:09]
uh, like bottles at people. It was just such an intense guy. And that was just a really, um,

[00:24:17]
tough experience to go through. Oh my gosh. So it's sort of the Japanese stereotype of, uh, like,

[00:24:23]
perfectionist kind of high, high, high bar. Right. But also just having this feeling of,

[00:24:31]
wow, this, this guy is kind of crossing the line. It's not okay to treat people like this,

[00:24:36]
because he was treating everyone like that. And, um, Japanese people were just, um,

[00:24:42]
it has to do with this, um, SEMPI-KOHI thing where there's just a really strong sense of, uh,

[00:24:49]
hierarchy. And, um, it's just people are not able to speak up. They just accept what they're being

[00:24:59]
put through. Gotcha. Yeah. We, we spoke with, um, a guy named Jeremy Bloustine, who actually

[00:25:05]
translated the original Metal Gear Solid. Oh. And he, uh, very similar to you, uh, got an interest

[00:25:12]
in Japanese culture and moved from the United States to Japan. And now he's been there for

[00:25:17]
like 30 years and he's married and has a kid. Um, but he, it was interesting to speak to him about

[00:25:21]
Japanese culture versus living, like, uh, he's originally from like Long Island, New York.

[00:25:26]
So it's like the difference between New York City and, and living. Right. So, um, yeah.

[00:25:33]
Yeah. Um, speaking of, speaking of SEMPI, uh, how would you describe your relationship with

[00:25:39]
Donna Burke? Oh, she's the greatest SEMPI I could imagine. Oh, she's, oh, she's just, she's amazing.

[00:25:49]
I've had so much support from her over the years. I'm so glad I got to meet her through Metal Gear

[00:25:56]
Solid. And, um, it was, oh, it was so amazing to be able to do Metal Gear and concert together with

[00:26:04]
her. I haven't seen her for a couple of years, actually. And it was just so great to be reunited.

[00:26:12]
She had, um, she, we had talked to her a couple of weeks back and she had mentioned that, um,

[00:26:18]
you kind of bonded over the idea of keeping the momentum going after five was over. Um,

[00:26:24]
how have things been in that respect? Like, have you, I know you guys did, um, shortly after the

[00:26:29]
game came out, you guys did the, the Stefan Donna show, which is, which is a treat. Oh, it was so

[00:26:36]
much fun to work on. Um, yeah, I guess it was a surreal experience for us both to, when Metal

[00:26:44]
Gear Solid 5 came out, um, it just reached everywhere, all across the world. And I've just never, that was,

[00:26:54]
I was like a breakthrough in our careers. And, uh, just being in Japan, um, it was just very surreal.

[00:27:04]
But I'm glad we, uh, we got to work on, on, on new projects after that. Um, it gave, just the,

[00:27:16]
being in Metal Gear Solid 5, it, it gave me so many opportunities afterwards, um,

[00:27:23]
from a global stage, because before that I'd only been working in Japan. And afterwards, um,

[00:27:30]
I, uh, was able to be, um, part of a few films. I worked on a Japanese feature film called Alessandra and the Fitter.

[00:27:39]
Uh, and I was, um, I was able to do my first film in the, in the Netherlands. It's called Hostage X.

[00:27:47]
Oh, congratulations. Thank you. Just all of a sudden having these fans all over the world and,

[00:27:54]
um, being invited to gaming conventions and Comic-Cons and be able to meet those fans,

[00:28:02]
it has just been such, such a wonderful few years.

[00:28:06]
That's awesome. I, um, I have a very, this question just popped into my head and, uh,

[00:28:11]
and I'm very curious to hear your take, um, after Metal Gear Solid 5 came out in, I think it was

[00:28:18]
September of 2015, if I remember correctly. Um, it seems like, uh, shortly thereafter there was the

[00:28:26]
entire sort of drama, um, er, I guess shortly before there was sort of the drama of, uh, Hideo Kojima's,

[00:28:32]
uh, relationship with the studio and kind of the, the split. Um, everyone's asked everyone, I feel like,

[00:28:39]
um, kind of what their stance was. Like we've heard, uh, David Hader, The Voice of Solid Snake, talk

[00:28:44]
about it. We've heard other people attached to the games kind of talk about their hot take. Um,

[00:28:50]
what was it like for your big break to also be like the end of this director's legacy with Metal Gear?

[00:28:57]
Like how did you feel when you heard that news? Right. Um, it's difficult to talk about it because I,

[00:29:05]
I am still an outsider to the whole situation. Um, the work on Metal Gear Solid 5 had already

[00:29:13]
been done, so, um, my part was, was done, but I just felt like it, um, the release of Metal Gear Solid 5,

[00:29:26]
it, um, it could have been much more of a celebrated event. I felt like it, um, it wasn't

[00:29:36]
celebrated in the way it should have been. Yeah, no, I could definitely agree with that. I think it

[00:29:40]
kind of got overshadowed by, um, sort of the drama, if that makes sense. Yes, yeah, that makes sense.

[00:29:47]
I, I just felt, yeah, it was just, it was just sad to not see it get the attention it deserved.

[00:29:56]
Yeah, I remember leading up to that as well, and I don't know if you've seen it at all. Um,

[00:30:00]
if you haven't, you should check it out. Um, there was a video that I think Konami put out right

[00:30:04]
before the game came out that was sort of celebrating the release that was impending. Um, and part of

[00:30:10]
that video was Kojima going to this family, I think in like Texas or California, and delivering them

[00:30:16]
a copy of the game. Oh, I remember that. Yeah, and I remember on like leading up to the game coming

[00:30:21]
out, I watched that trailer and I, I was just like in tears, like watching that. I was like, oh my

[00:30:26]
God, this is insane. Um, so. Yeah, it was, it was a very strange situation, but I'm glad still,

[00:30:36]
I feel the fans, they still all love the game, I think, and the game was, in spite of it not

[00:30:45]
being released in the way that it should have been, it was still, it's, it's, it's adored by, by many

[00:30:51]
people. And I'm glad it was celebrated on the internet and everywhere in the gaming community.

[00:31:01]
But yeah, I just felt that developer could have, give it more of the celebration it deserved.

[00:31:07]
Right. So moving forward, you got anything new or exciting in the pipeline?

[00:31:14]
Well, I'm, I'm working on two games at the moment.

[00:31:19]
Whoa. Are you, are you allowed to tell us about that?

[00:31:21]
Or? Yes. Um, where I'm pretty, they're pretty far in development right now. So,

[00:31:31]
I'm, I'm just wrapping up my, wrapping up my work on them. One is called Space Lords. And

[00:31:38]
I got to play the character Soma. And it's, it's a multiplayer shooter, online shooter. And with

[00:31:51]
just a lot of unique characters, all, they all have their unique personalities. And, well, the

[00:31:59]
unique thing about my character is that again, she was based on my appearance, appearance.

[00:32:06]
Oh, wow. But she, she looks completely different from quiet. So I really love how

[00:32:11]
it's just such a completely different style. So that was a lot of fun to also do a lot of

[00:32:18]
vocal work on that character. Very nice. What's it, what was the other game?

[00:32:23]
The other one is called Last Labyrinth. And it's a VR game from a Japanese developer called Amata.

[00:32:31]
And it's my first time to be involved in a, in a, in a VR game. I was just, I got to play the demo

[00:32:40]
and I was really amazed by, wow, what, like how VR can be. And it's, it's sort of an escape room

[00:32:53]
type of game. And I play the character of Katia, which she's a, she's a young girl. And

[00:33:07]
in Last Labyrinth, I'm just voicing the character as a voice actress. So she's, again, like a

[00:33:14]
completely different character from any. Very cool. So that they're both scheduled to come out later

[00:33:21]
this year. So that's something to look forward to. Yeah. Well, typically, whenever we put these

[00:33:26]
episodes out, we will do like a website write up where we throw links into the sort of like a blog

[00:33:32]
post. Oh, that's great. Yeah. And so we'll, we'll be sure to go through and drop links to any of

[00:33:37]
these projects or just different places people can find your work and stuff like that. That's great.

[00:33:42]
There's a trailer out for Last Labyrinth. And actually I'm singing the theme song for Last

[00:33:48]
Labyrinth. That's awesome. You get to hear that in the trailer too. Very cool. Before we move on to

[00:33:56]
the game proper, you had mentioned the concert, the concert that you did at the beginning of the

[00:34:02]
month. We had talked to Donna beforehand. But now that it's all said and done, how, how did it go?

[00:34:09]
How did you feel it went? Well, I was very nervous. But I think it went well. It was just so wonderful to

[00:34:22]
have a huge audience of people that are just the greatest fans of Metal Gear solid, the whole series.

[00:34:33]
And I felt like it was just so amazing to have that opportunity to celebrate the series once more.

[00:34:42]
And it was beautiful performing with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. It was my first time to

[00:34:48]
ever sing in front of a Philharmonic Orchestra like, like that. I was just overwhelmed. Wow,

[00:34:56]
it was just beautiful. I wish I could, I could share it with everyone. But for now, it was just

[00:35:05]
doing the show in Tokyo. But it was really, it was an amazing experience. It was one of the greatest

[00:35:12]
experiences of my life. Yeah, we, when we finished, it was very surreal. Donna, we'd reached out to her

[00:35:19]
and she was like, yeah, I'll talk to you guys. And somehow we ended up talking to her like the

[00:35:22]
same night that she had responded back to us. And it was like 10 minutes after we finished talking

[00:35:27]
to her, she's like, all right, boys, I've got to hop in a cab and go to rehearsal now. Oh, wow,

[00:35:30]
that's amazing. So I'm sure she saw you and spoke to you like right after you got your show, your

[00:35:36]
podcast. Hopefully good things. Yes, yeah. She was telling me, yeah, you have to talk to them.

[00:35:45]
Oh, that's very kind of her. Yeah, we had a lot of fun speaking with her and we have a lot of

[00:35:48]
Australian listeners. Oh, really? And I think they really appreciated hearing just her story and

[00:35:55]
I don't know, just seeing another, another Aussie. Right. Well, it was amazing to see Donna perform.

[00:36:02]
It's just, wow, her voice is just such so full of power and she, oh, she just did amazing. The

[00:36:09]
fans loved it. Yeah, is there, is there any way, I'm not sure I wanted to verify, is there any way

[00:36:15]
for fans to see any of that performance? Like, is there any sort of video that would,

[00:36:20]
that would release or is there a clip on YouTube or anything like that?

[00:36:24]
Well, no, I'm pretty sad about that. I wish I could, I could have shared it with more people.

[00:36:31]
But this time they weren't recording the concert.

[00:36:36]
Understood. Yeah, I hope they'll be able to do another one in the future. Who knows?

[00:36:47]
Yeah, I just, that's a strong feeling I have to, I wish I could share it with more of the fans.

[00:36:55]
But unfortunately, as far as I know, there isn't any footage.

[00:37:00]
Gotcha. At least of my performance, there isn't.

[00:37:03]
There were a lot of beautiful photos. I remember on Twitter, it seemed like Donna was retweeting

[00:37:07]
quite a bit and one, one of the things that I've noticed and we've actually shared it kind of on

[00:37:13]
our Twitter feed as well. I don't know how you do it, Stephanie. You seem so happy anytime you're

[00:37:20]
on camera. Really? And so like, I can't, no one, I can't tell if you're nervous or scared because

[00:37:26]
you just look ecstatic and excited every time we see a picture of you. So congratulations.

[00:37:31]
Well, thank you. I'm glad I come across like that because I was pretty nervous, but also at the

[00:37:37]
same time, of course, so excited to be part of it. So that's funny. So being being cast for

[00:37:49]
something like Metal Gear, kind of unlike traditional film and TV work, there's got to be a lot of,

[00:37:58]
let's say, imagination involved in acting a scene in an empty room. Was it difficult to

[00:38:04]
kind of sink your teeth into this abstract idea of acting or did it just kind of come easier to you

[00:38:12]
than you expected? I think the whole team of Kojima Productions, they did a great job in

[00:38:19]
preparing the actors for the parts, at least for the motion capture. When we were doing the

[00:38:27]
motion capture, there was really, there was hardly any kind of 3D environment or footage

[00:38:35]
they could show us because it just wasn't there yet. And they had this whole wall of concept art

[00:38:42]
and we got to look at those to get a sense of what it would look like. And that really helped a lot.

[00:38:51]
And also, Hideo Kojima was there every day and he was just really, he really went into detail

[00:39:01]
about every scene and what there was supposed to be and what kind of environment we were in.

[00:39:07]
And so that was really helpful. It was still a lot of imagining.

[00:39:13]
Did you have any kind of like creative flexibility with it or was it kind of like here's what we

[00:39:18]
want, go do that? For most of the scenes, Hideo Kojima was pretty specific about what he wanted.

[00:39:30]
He has a pretty clear idea of what he wants, I think. But there were still opportunities to

[00:39:39]
be creative. There were a lot of little fun cutscenes. I remember the birthday cutscene.

[00:39:52]
And I was recording that together with Eric Brown, who did the motion capture for Snake or

[00:39:59]
for Big Boss. And it was a really comical scene. So he would arrive back at Mother Base and

[00:40:13]
he would hear these bangs and they were supposed to be firework. So there was fireworks going off.

[00:40:21]
And Eric just suggested, oh, should I just pull my gun out and act like how

[00:40:31]
Big Boss would be if he senses a dangerous situation. And it was just a really funny idea.

[00:40:38]
Kojima immediately went with it. He was like, oh, that's great. Yeah, let's do that.

[00:40:44]
It was just really fun to have these little comical scenes where

[00:40:49]
there was just a lot of room to be flexible and creative.

[00:40:53]
It's really interesting that you just told us a story of Kojima being open to improv. Because I

[00:41:00]
think never in a million years would I have thought that, based on his reputation, that I would have

[00:41:05]
thought that he'd be open to like, oh, okay, yeah, that looks great. So that's very cool. Thank you

[00:41:11]
for kind of sharing the reality of what that looks like.

[00:41:16]
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed those little just funny playful scenes in between.

[00:41:26]
Also, the scene in the rain, quiet, kind of dancing in the rain with Snake.

[00:41:35]
It was just a lot of fun.

[00:41:37]
Have you seen, so notoriously, fans have gone in and replaced you with Ocelot?

[00:41:44]
I've seen those. Those are hilarious. Yeah, it's pretty great.

[00:41:48]
I wanted to ask you, Stephanie, just because, and this is probably going to date our episode a

[00:41:52]
little bit and kind of tip our hand to our longtime listeners when we're recording this,

[00:41:58]
the reason why all of our voices sound kind of shot is because we've been at a convention for

[00:42:02]
the last three days. We get to talk to David Hader, who voices Snake and Chamblard. And while

[00:42:10]
talking to them, I guess it became pretty apparent out of all the interviews we've ever done,

[00:42:14]
that nobody's ever really spent time with Kojima. But here you are, having seen him like every day

[00:42:21]
in the studio. Can you tell us a little bit about like his direction style? And I mean, I don't know,

[00:42:26]
just like his personality, because I think you might be the only person we've talked to who's

[00:42:30]
spent a considerable amount of time with him. Right. Wow. I didn't think of that. I guess it's

[00:42:36]
pretty unique to doing the motion capture because it was done in Japan. And well, I think people,

[00:42:46]
a lot of people don't realize how much time goes into it. And it's such an essential part of bringing

[00:42:51]
the characters to life. And well, at least I think it's something Kojima loved doing as well,

[00:43:02]
because you really get, he really got to be a director on set, just like a movie director would

[00:43:09]
be. So he was really involved for every scene. Yeah, he would just run through all the scenes.

[00:43:21]
Sometimes he would even, if he was pretty specific about a certain way,

[00:43:31]
like, for instance, even quiet when she jumps out of the helicopter to, you know,

[00:43:42]
enjoy the rain and kind of be dancing there in the rain, he would kind of like show me an example

[00:43:48]
of, I want to see something like this. And he would just crawl over the ground. And, you know,

[00:43:56]
he wasn't embarrassed to do any of that. He was just so involved in it. And it was so much fun.

[00:44:04]
Nice. With how enigmatic and, excuse me, quiet your character is, I think one of the things that

[00:44:12]
I've sort of been curious about, both from like a filmmaking background and like as a metal gear fan,

[00:44:18]
is I guess what sort of character direction and like motivation that you were given. So like,

[00:44:23]
I think, especially, and this is kind of jumping towards the end of the game, but especially

[00:44:27]
towards the end of the game, I think when quiet leaves, there's a little bit of, I guess on the

[00:44:34]
player side, sort of this fondness and relationship that's been kind of cultivated throughout the

[00:44:39]
game, were you given any direction that like quiet does have any sort of like feelings or

[00:44:46]
relationship or romance for Venom Snake or is that purely just like fans kind of clinging to

[00:44:53]
your character and not wanting to see you leave? No, I at that point, there really is a strong bond.

[00:45:01]
And throughout most of the story, it's a little ambiguous. While I

[00:45:12]
interpreted quiet being like, while she was very conflicted about her mission and

[00:45:22]
then feeling touched by being accepted by big boss like that. And she definitely developed

[00:45:32]
feelings. So, but it was pretty interesting because going through the motion capture,

[00:45:43]
there were actually like, I was, I kept being told like it completely depends on how on the

[00:45:53]
play style of the player, how far this relationship between her and Snake will develop.

[00:46:02]
So, I don't know if this got into the final game, but sometimes we would even record different

[00:46:12]
patterns of the same scene. And they would be different depending on how close the relationship

[00:46:21]
between them would be. So, I can't quite remember what it was like exactly, but

[00:46:29]
Was it just sort of like minor detail kind of stuff or was it bigger?

[00:46:35]
Right. I remember now the dancing and the rain scene. If the relationship wouldn't be as close

[00:46:46]
as it was at that point, Snake would come up like he's holding quite boots. And if the relationship

[00:46:57]
if the bond is not strong yet, she would just like take them out of his hands and just like

[00:47:03]
coldly walk off. I'm not sure if it's in the final game. But I think like most players, they

[00:47:16]
really accepted quiet. And I'm so glad to hear that people feel there is a bond.

[00:47:23]
And they choose to take quiet with them as their buddy. And yeah, it's just great to see

[00:47:31]
like people choose that path. So, they are accepting quiet as a character. And that just

[00:47:39]
feels very flattering to me, I think. For sure. We had a listener question from Brandon Parbs. He

[00:47:47]
mentioned that the Poetry, the choir's portrayal brought some controversy.

[00:47:57]
How do you feel about that regarding her physical depiction within the game,

[00:48:01]
especially considering that she's one of the few female characters?

[00:48:05]
Well, as soon as I got involved, when I heard I got the part after auditioning,

[00:48:14]
I immediately went into research mode and I played through all of the Metal Gear Solid games.

[00:48:22]
So, having played all of them, I didn't quite finish Metal Gear Solid 2. I have to admit.

[00:48:29]
Oh no, that's what favorite.

[00:48:32]
And I got stuck somehow and it was just pretty hard. But playing the games, it just really gave

[00:48:41]
me a sense of what the characters are like. And I feel like people are so quick to see

[00:48:53]
quiet and complain about how she's sexualized. But I think the same goes for some male characters

[00:49:02]
in the series too. And I think the characters are portrayed in a fair way. They still have

[00:49:14]
their distinct personalities. And well, I just think people are too quick to judge

[00:49:25]
about just going off looks and not really actually getting into the character's story arc.

[00:49:31]
What was your opinion on, because I want to say that quiet is probably taller than you are in real

[00:49:37]
life. I don't know if that's true. But yeah, what was your sort of thought on seeing the final

[00:49:43]
character? Like, did they ever show you sort of, hey, here's, now that we've got you modeled,

[00:49:48]
here's what you look like? Did you have a reaction to that?

[00:49:50]
Well, the first day of motion capture, I was shown the concept art for quiet.

[00:49:58]
And it's really close to what she looked like in the game. I think it's also in, if you have the

[00:50:11]
concept art books, it's just the most well-known concept art for quiet. So,

[00:50:19]
of course, I was surprised. That was the first time for me to see that she was just wearing

[00:50:25]
bikini and these tights. And I was surprised. I was like, oh, wow. But on that day, immediately,

[00:50:36]
also, Yoji Shin-Kawa was involved. And he and Kojima talked to me about

[00:50:46]
the whole condition of that quiet head that she had to breathe through her skin. And also how

[00:50:53]
they were inspired by, I think they were calling them like scout soldiers. And they were drawing

[00:51:04]
inspiration from, apparently, it happened in real life at some point too, that people would actually

[00:51:13]
be scouting naked, because it would also be really practical to not having a lot of gear on that would

[00:51:21]
make sounds. And yeah, I was also told a lot about the way they would move and just being

[00:51:29]
really stealthy. So that was really interesting to just see the whole

[00:51:36]
idea that went behind the design. So I was mostly just intrigued.

[00:51:45]
Yeah, working on the project. I don't know how it works on a set like that, but

[00:51:51]
were you aware of any of the plot points, like the twists that happened at the end,

[00:51:56]
or are you just kind of working with what day to day was given to you?

[00:52:00]
No, we were, me and all of the motion capture cast had a whole briefing about

[00:52:10]
while going through the whole story. And also the plot twists and

[00:52:18]
it was, they were very clear about that was such an essential plot twist that was compared to

[00:52:28]
like, how you shouldn't tell someone who hasn't seen Star Wars yet about Darth Vader being looked at.

[00:52:38]
So we were told it was that big of a thing. So, of course, we had to sign an NDA and

[00:52:47]
make sure we were very discreet about it. Nice.

[00:52:52]
One of the, when we were covering Five for the show, one of the things that we had come up with was

[00:53:01]
wondering why Quiet maybe didn't communicate with a Venom Snake with sign language.

[00:53:08]
Do you think that would have worked? Even it would have solved some problems at all?

[00:53:15]
Well, I just think she wouldn't, she would never consider that. There was also a lot of hesitation

[00:53:25]
on her part about her mission. And, you know, in the beginning it would work to her advantage

[00:53:34]
to just not communicate at all. Yeah.

[00:53:36]
Nice theory solved. We can go back and tell our fans. Stephanie, I had a quick question,

[00:53:42]
sort of more kind of personal question. So Quiet is like a very, what's the word I'm looking for,

[00:53:48]
kind of reserved person, I think. I think based on at least her depiction in the game,

[00:53:54]
she doesn't really, I don't know, it's weird. She doesn't share anything until the end.

[00:53:59]
And do you find that like, that sort of reservation resonates with you, or are you more of like a

[00:54:05]
super hard on your sleeve, very open person with people that you know?

[00:54:10]
No, I think it does resonate a little bit. I grew up being pretty shy of a person. And I've also,

[00:54:23]
I'm pretty introverted. So,

[00:54:30]
yeah, it's something like growing up, I've learned to be more open. But it does resonate with me.

[00:54:38]
And also, I think Quiet had a strong sense of feeling isolated.

[00:54:47]
She was treated as, she was seen as a freak by most soldiers at Mother Base. So she was,

[00:55:03]
she must have felt so isolated. And it also, well, not being able to communicate,

[00:55:12]
there was just a sense of loneliness on her part.

[00:55:17]
Which also kind of, it reminded me of when I came to Japan for the first time.

[00:55:24]
And I was just starting to learn Japanese. And I wasn't able to

[00:55:29]
to say what was on my mind or to express myself. And that's a very frustrating feeling.

[00:55:37]
And it reminded me of that feeling. And I think I channeled that throughout my performance.

[00:55:44]
That's interesting. Did you, I guess other than your relationship with Donna, did you

[00:55:50]
living in Japan for a bit and kind of being in this weird solitude like you described,

[00:55:56]
did you find it hard to kind of make friends or make relationships? Like how,

[00:56:02]
how long did you go before you had somebody that you could talk to in Japan?

[00:56:05]
Oh, well, it wasn't, I made a lot of friends pretty quickly. Also in Tokyo,

[00:56:16]
just there's a huge international scene. So there's, I think, more acceptance. And it's

[00:56:27]
just more international. So people are not as surprised by you having a different face.

[00:56:36]
When I, during my studies, I actually lived in Kyoto for one year. And I had a feeling like

[00:56:45]
it was just much more unusual for Japanese people to see a foreign person. And that was

[00:56:54]
interesting to experience that, to kind of be viewed as someone just exotic or foreign.

[00:57:05]
But then again, the people are just really kind and warm. As soon as you, you know, start talking

[00:57:12]
Japanese, sometimes it's just that they're scared that they're so shy about, or self-conscious about,

[00:57:19]
oh, like, oh, I can't speak English very well. And then when they realize you're able to speak

[00:57:26]
Japanese, they're so surprised. It's just not in their expectations.

[00:57:30]
Donna was telling us about her constant reliance on Google, Google Translate. Did you ever have

[00:57:36]
to translate for Donna? Not really. She manages, I don't know how she does it, but I do think she,

[00:57:45]
well, she has a decent understanding of Japanese. So it doesn't, it doesn't really get in her way,

[00:57:51]
I think. Nice. Yeah, she definitely made it sound like she was, she was just sort of like, yeah,

[00:57:56]
I'm not really sure. I'm not very good. I think she was just being very coy about it.

[00:58:02]
Yeah. I guess going back to the games and with quiet story, if there was, if they had continued it,

[00:58:12]
where would you have liked it to see Quiet Go or the direction of her character?

[00:58:18]
Wow. That's a good question. I was so sad on that last day of motion capture when I was recording

[00:58:29]
Quiet's last scene. And it was so emotional.

[00:58:33]
Yeah, part of me just wishes to wish to see Quiet have like just,

[00:58:47]
and they lived on happily ever after kind of ending. I think she would, she would have been really happy

[00:58:55]
being at Venom Sneak's side and fighting with him.

[00:58:59]
Oh, yeah. Because I think her ending, her ending was probably one of the most emotionally impactful

[00:59:07]
portions of the game. And there was a, there was a whole lot of, I remember there being a whole

[00:59:13]
lot of backlash to the point where they patched in the ability to get her back where she left.

[00:59:19]
Yeah, it was, it was amazing to see how much that impacted players. I wouldn't have, well, I just,

[00:59:28]
I had no idea how, to what point people would, how connected they would feel to Quiet.

[00:59:35]
So I was really happy to hear that people were sad about him, even though that's a strange way to say it.

[00:59:41]
I'm happy that you're sad.

[00:59:44]
Because it means you did what you intended to do, which is always awesome.

[00:59:49]
Yeah, I think so.

[00:59:51]
Nice. Well, Stephanie, we want to make sure that we're respectful of your time. So I want to ask

[00:59:55]
Isaac and Sam, if you guys have any sort of questions before we enter, sort of the wrap up.

[01:00:00]
I had one quick question.

[01:00:02]
You're, you're one of the few people we've spoken to that actually does play,

[01:00:09]
not only the games that you are a part of, but games in general. So I was curious what,

[01:00:15]
what was the most recent non-metal gear thing you played?

[01:00:19]
Oh, let me think.

[01:00:22]
I have to say, I'm not playing a lot of games recently. I have been enjoying Star Wars Battlefront 2,

[01:00:34]
being a big Star Wars fan. I really enjoyed that. I'm a big Final Fantasy fan. So right now,

[01:00:43]
I'm really looking forward to the Final Fantasy 7 remake. I'm not sure how long it's going to take

[01:00:50]
until it's there.

[01:00:52]
But yeah, I used to play a lot more video games back when I, as a teenager.

[01:01:02]
But yeah.

[01:01:04]
Yeah, I had a more off topic question. I mean, what's the music scene like over

[01:01:12]
then in the Netherlands? And what's, what's like, what kind of music are you into right now?

[01:01:17]
The music scene. Oh, I listen to a lot of different styles of music.

[01:01:27]
I listen to a lot of indie music.

[01:01:30]
Nice.

[01:01:33]
Yeah, there's this, it's not very recent, but there's this

[01:01:38]
band that I love. Let me see. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it the correct way. I think it's

[01:01:49]
Breton.

[01:01:51]
Breton.

[01:01:51]
E-R-E-T-O-N. And they have this album called A War Room Stories, and I'm completely in love with it.

[01:01:59]
It's a very cinematic style of music. It's one of my favorites.

[01:02:05]
I think we're all frantically googling it so we can listen to it later.

[01:02:09]
I have to put it on my list.

[01:02:12]
Stephanie, we've got a listener who's actually been in Afghanistan for a while,

[01:02:15]
which is interesting because he sends us pictures. He's out there doing some contract work,

[01:02:20]
but he'll send us pictures and be like, it looks just like Metal Gear Solid 5.

[01:02:23]
Oh, that's so cool.

[01:02:25]
And when his name is Zach James, when he heard that we were talking to Donna,

[01:02:30]
and he heard the mention of Metal Gear and Concert, he wanted to know if Metal Gear and

[01:02:35]
Concert would ever come to Afghanistan.

[01:02:37]
Oh, that would be so cool. Yeah, I'm hoping that there's going to be more

[01:02:48]
Metal Gear and Concert in the future. And unfortunately, I don't know

[01:02:58]
if they'll be able to hold more in different places. It really depends on Konami's plans as well.

[01:03:09]
Yeah, I definitely hope to take part in them again.

[01:03:14]
Well, they ever do go to Afghanistan. You've got at least one big fan out there that I was for sure.

[01:03:20]
That's great to know.

[01:03:21]
So, Stephanie, before we wrap up and get to the end of this, I wanted to ask,

[01:03:28]
being a big Final Fantasy fan and having interests outside of games even,

[01:03:33]
what would be ideal world, paradise situation? What would be your dream project?

[01:03:41]
Oh, wow. At this moment, I'm not sure if I have just one dream project. I really just hope to keep

[01:03:56]
working on video games because I feel so personally connected to them. But yeah, since I'm doing more

[01:04:05]
film work now to maybe someday, I would love to be in a big movie production.

[01:04:17]
I would love to, if they would make a Hollywood film of Metal Gear Solid 1,

[01:04:24]
I think I would love to play Meryl.

[01:04:28]
Very nice. Yeah, we actually just spoke with Debbie Maywest, Meryl's voice actress.

[01:04:33]
Oh, cool.

[01:04:34]
And it was super interesting to just hear about that whole experience. But yeah,

[01:04:39]
there are people who want to see a Metal Gear movie get made,

[01:04:41]
so I don't know how far-fetched that is. You might get your wish.

[01:04:46]
Who knows? It would be really amazing.

[01:04:51]
Well, very nice. Stephanie, I think that's all the questions that we have for you.

[01:04:55]
Where can people find you online? Where do you want to send people?

[01:04:59]
We have listeners all over the world, so if they're interested in you,

[01:05:02]
where can they find more of what you're doing?

[01:05:05]
Well, I think I'm the most active on Instagram, so you can just find me at Stephanie Yosten.

[01:05:13]
And it's mostly where I keep people up to date about what I'm doing, I think, or Twitter.

[01:05:19]
But yeah, I hope people will get to see the last Labyrinth trailer and also Space Lords.

[01:05:34]
And I have actually an animation series coming up, but it's still pretty far in the future.

[01:05:42]
It's called the Genyu Project, and I will be voicing one of the main characters in that.

[01:05:48]
That's awesome. Well, cool. We are one, extremely excited to have been able to speak with you.

[01:05:55]
It was my pleasure.

[01:05:56]
We're very grateful that you took time out of your day, so thank you so very much.

[01:06:01]
Yeah, we really appreciate it. And from our listeners to you, I hope you have a good rest of your day.

[01:06:07]
Thank you. You too.

[01:06:09]
Perfect.

[01:06:10]
And yeah, I love that your show is called Mill Gear Mondays, because I think Mondays are like the

[01:06:17]
hardest day of the week for people to get through, I think. So it's cool to give people something

[01:06:24]
exciting to look out for.

[01:06:25]
Yeah, we get a lot of listener responses that are like, ah, this week's going to be terrible,

[01:06:29]
but boy, am I glad that we've got another Metal Gear Mondays episode to listen to.

[01:06:32]
That's great.

[01:06:34]
Yeah.

[01:06:34]
All right, so before we wrap up, we do this thing where we kind of stumble our way

[01:06:42]
to exiting the interview by saying it's just a box, which is something that the guards in the

[01:06:49]
original Metal Gear Solid game said when they saw snakes sneaking around.

[01:06:54]
I was wondering if you could give us, in your best quiet impression, it's just a box.

[01:07:06]
Right on. That's perfect. Thank you so much.