Anya Chalotra On Acting, Gaming, And Representation In Unknown 9: Awakening 2s534d

Anya Chalotra wants to escape. Still brushing off the early UK morning start, the star of Netflix’s The Witcher and the game Unknown 9: Awakening sits on a couch entirely too big for one person and patiently waits for our slight audio delay to catch up between questions about life as an actor, her Indian heritage, and the modern-day plight of being Perceived. Softly dancing around answers with consideration, changing thoughts midway and picking up another thread plucked from the air, Chalotra its to being pulled to massive fantasy worlds in a potentially subconscious bid to escape our reality. 462w38

Whether it’s the physical form to be wielded in her extensive acting career, the existential trap of social media, or even the weight of representation in media, Chalotra brings herself in her entirety to Unknown 9: Awakening as we unpack what that means for the soon to be released action-adventure romp.

Can you tell me a bit about your history with video games? 6c3n1x

Anya Chalotra: I first became interested in video games and delved into that world when I got Witcher and I got Yennefer because it was such a big game with such a big following. So I played that then. Before that, I played Mario Kart with my family *laughs*. But I’ve always been quite fascinated by them. And especially in COVID, I’ve noticed how huge it has become (and) I never thought I’d see myself in a video game. That’s incredibly exciting.

I can imagine. Can I quickly ask, who did you play Mario Kart? z1r2t

Anya Chalotra: I think I was Luigi! Who did you play?

I’m always a Peach girly. But tell me how your involvement with Unknown 9: Awakening came about? 4e5y6z

Anya Chalotra: The opportunity presented itself, and I grabbed it because it was something that, honestly, I wanted to do. I think maybe I was manifesting it or something. I work with my body before anything else and I’ve always been inspired by Andy Serkis in Planet of the Apes. So I fantasised about being an ape in that because I desperately wanted to use my body in that way *laughs*. And, obviously, Haroona isn’t an ape, but I got a chance to do motion capture and learn on the job because I had no experience before. And there was a lot! Everyone around me was a lot cleverer than I was when it comes to motion capture. So I just learned from them. And I know a lot more now than I did. That’s for sure. I’ve learned a lot.

Are you able to talk a bit about how acting and using your body in that way for something like a Netflix series or on the stage is different from what done now with mocap for a video again? 5r6q6t

I thought it’d be a lot more different, to be honest, because I just thought it’d be more technical. But you still are interrogating the same depths of truth in the story, in the scene, in the character. We worked with the director who pushed us to find the best version of truth. And we did take after take after take. It was very similar to being on set but the thing that was different was the freedom I had to explore. I don’t have that on set. I had no makeup, and I didn’t have to fulfill the expectations of costume. And that’s not how I approach it in film and TV, I use it to my advantage and often it builds character building for me. But when I am stripped back, everything has to come from a really vulnerable, true, authentic place. And I want to carry that in every medium now…find that play, that play, because only in that can you access everything.

Unknown 9 feels quite unique in the video game space because it highlights a culture that we don’t often get to see represented in mainstream titles. Was the authenticity of Indian representation important to you while making this game? 1w3p4f

I am half Indian, South Asian. It’s funny when I get a role, I’m either one or the other, one half of myself or the other half. But in every role, I bring both. In this role, I very rarely get to lend that side of myself to a role because of the way I look. So it was so lovely to be able to explore that in Haroona and to be with a lot of British South Asian actors on this job as well. And to work with them, it was just wonderful to have that. In any fantasy or any world with another dimension…why wouldn’t you want many voices to create that world? So I’m very proud of being in this game because of how diverse it is and the culture that we’re celebrating in the way this world has been crafted and the way it looks. And at the heart of it, Haroona, who is this Indian woman who…when I play an Indian character, I often feel the weight of family, ancestors, behind everything they do. Especially in Haroona. I wanted to make sure that every choice was about something bigger.

I was reading your Vogue India profile from last year, and you talked about how, I think it was in 2019, you got a chance to get over to India and meet some of your extended family. Does getting to show them a character like Haroona mean a lot to you? Is it a surreal experience to be able to bring something like that into your family and your heritage? 5l112n

AC: I know when I watch anything with an Indian woman in it, I was heavily influenced by it…I was brought up Indian with those core beliefs and values. So when I watch an Indian woman represented in a really whole way, in a really full way, it ignites a fire in me and I can’t quite explain, but it’s warm and I’m proud. And with characters like Haroona, you’ve got such a considered character here. Such thought has gone into why she is who she is and why she makes the choices she makes. And I’m excited for my nieces and my cousins to play this game. They’ll be to play someone that looks and thinks like Haroona and will have, hopefully, the same feeling.

What’s your favourite thing about Haroona and did you bring much of yourself into the character? 105o11

AC: My favourite thing? I think she’s funny! I think she’s funny because she’s got bigger fish to fry. Cut the faff. She just shuts people down with a look, no words. She’s witty…and yeah, I mean, a lot of it has come from my instincts. And then I’ve been challenged by the circumstance and the situation in this new world, these new rules. I trusted in the fact that the people who originated this story and gave her life, trusted in me to do that. And I just go.

With Unknown 9 and with The Witcher as well, you maybe inadvertently gravitate towards these epic fantasy franchises. Is it a genre that really works for you, or did you just fall into these things? y423h

AC: I don’t think you can just fall into anything *laughs*. I think there is something in you, maybe I’m just calling out to just not be in the real world. Maybe people see in my eyes that I’m desperate to escape. Maybe that’s it. I don’t know. I like to believe things happen for a reason.

Something I’ve read about you is that you’re not hugely into social media. As a person coming up through the Hollywood system that’s an interesting position for you to be in. Do you find that with the whole video game side of social media, have you become more aware of it or is that something you have still have no desire of being a part of? 6m2z1q

AC: I’m still figuring it out. I know that I feel better off social media. And I know that when I’m on social media and I’m aware of the people who are very aware of me, I stress out a bit. It doesn’t make me feel very good. So I try and stay off it. I’m very aware of the gaming community on social media and how big that is and how much of an impact that has had on my life. But in general, social media, I struggle with.

It’s a strange tension, isn’t it? Between being perceived in ways you want and don’t want. And you’re obviously someone who throws yourself wholeheartedly into the art that you make. So to have that part of you so open and so out there versus maybe the way people want to engage with celebrities these days… 2a1s6b

AC: Yeah! Because I pretend for a living, I also find myself pretending, even though I don’t mean to, on my Instagram. Why am I doing that? What’s going on? Because I suppose whatever you put out there is a version of filtered truth, it has to be to keep private. So what’s the point? Because it’s then taking up all my time.

As someone relatively active on Twitter for his job, yes, I fully agree! But most importantly, what are you most excited for people to see in Unknown 9? 1w1v46

AC: The whole thing. Because it’s so much thought, so many voices have gone into this. And I think the characters at the heart of it, I know Who these characters are, what all the actors have done to bring them to life. And I think if you don’t feel it, if you don’t align with a Haroona and you don’t maybe like her as a character, because it’s possible! Then you’ve got these really vivid characters to align yourself with too. It’s a very interesting world. And the visuals as well. They’re insane. I can’t imagine anything like it in a game. This culture. The representation of the world. I answered that terribly, but all of it.

Not at all, your answers have been wonderful. I got to play a couple of hours of the game a couple of weeks back and one of my biggest takeaways from it was just how nice it was to see an entirely different world represented in a game in a way we don’t really see all that often. More often than not, we’re playing the white hero who comes into these cultures and ransacks and shoots off on their way. And to see it from an entirely different perspective has been really refreshing. 35u68

AC: Yeah, that’s how I feel. Ditto. That’s my answer *laughs*

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