Anjali Bhimani on Medusa in Stray Gods, Candela Obscura, Tabletop RPGs, Acting, Voice Acting – Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKXn35ZTwoo

Anjali Bhimani has had an extensive career on stage, in television and films, but also has a rabid fanbase that appreciates her work in the video game sphere with major roles in games like Overwatch. As it turns out, she’s quite passionate about participating in another growing gaming subculture, the world of interactive tabletop role playing games. We had a chance to talk to Anjali Bhimani about her latest projects in that sphere and the enthusiasm was palpable.

Anjali Bhimani: I started gaming when I was a little girl. I was tabletop gamer from age eight. My brother got me the D&D Starter Set, and I was off to the races. Then probably around high school, I started playing RPGs on the computer and I would I would venture to say that I stopped computer gaming in maybe like 2002 or 2003 for some ridiculous reason, that I can’t remember. Thankfully, I’ve come back to it. But now I’ve come back to it from the other side. It’s pretty fantastic. 

Adam Pope: How does the opportunity to work in video games, doing voiceover work and that type of performance come your way? 

Anjali Bhimani: Well, I wish it was a sexier story, Adam, but it’s just auditions. My my voiceover agents had started to send me copy for different voiceover auditions. In fact, the very first one I booked was right before Overwatch, which was like a Tosh.0 disclaimer in Hindi. Which was interesting because I don’t speak Hindi. But I learned it for that day. So that’s basically it. The auditions just started coming through. Most of my career, with the exception of when I first started in theater, most of my career has been a series of ‘Oh, I didn’t know I could do that. Thank you for submitting me. That’s awesome. Let’s try it.’ Sometimes going with that, not even knowing if it was something that I could do. 

I remember being sent out on an audition for an opera and I was like, ‘Well, okay, here we go.’ I mean, I’m a singer, but who knows and ended up getting to do that. So it’s been just a series of reminding myself that it’s not my job to discount myself. Let them decide if they want me or they don’t want me, but it’s not my job to say no. Unless I don’t want to do the job.

Adam Pope: So getting back to your early days in tabletop gaming. My older brother was definitely in the world of D&D back in the 80’s. I mean, he was real deep into that. Then in high school, my friends got into RPGs and I actually got kicked out for being a little too “out there”. They’re like, ‘You can’t play anymore’. But you’re talking about being a theater kid, about performing and things like that. What do you think it is about the roleplay game experience that really does seem to gather people that have that interest? 

Anjali Bhimani: Oh, I think it’s very, very clear.So much of it is long form improv. Instead of getting the suggestions from the audience, you’re getting the suggestions from your Game Master and the dice are deciding whether or not you can actually do the thing that you do. So it’s all collaborative storytelling, which is essentially what theater film, voice over and video games are. That’s what it all is. It’s all some form of collaborative storytelling. Then you take these tabletop role playing games, and it takes it a step further, because not only is it collaborative storytelling, but it’s the combination of the improvised collaborative storytelling.

In TV and film and voiceover, more often than not, it is scripted. So you don’t necessarily have ownership of the story and the characters, you sort of slot yourself in and use your skills to be able to fit into a story that is already existing. There are some exceptions, obviously. But in the TTRPG (table top role playing game) world, you are as much the author, the writer, the director, all of those things. You are as much a part of it as anyone else and so it really is this wonderful transcendent experience to watch how the story develops. 

Some of the TTRPGs that I’ve played, particularly the ones that have been publicly streamed, we couldn’t have written the endings, the way that they ended, because the dice gave us the challenges. There might be someone who’s got an incredible strength score, or incredible wisdom score, but it doesn’t matter. They rolled crap and now we got to figure out how that translates into the story. That to me is very, very exciting. It’s as exciting for us who are playing, hopefully as it is for people who are watching. 

Adam Pope: So when I got kicked out of the RPG campaign with my friends it was like, ‘We didn’t know you had this in you.’ Because I wasn’t playing my morality, I wasn’t playing as myself, I played as a character. So when you play, do you try to align yourself with a character that’s going to be more like you or do you like to go outside of that? 

Anjali Bhimani: It’s funny you should ask that. Specifically, with the shows that I have done that a lot of people have seen, I feel like the characters are sort of what I would hope I would be in those circumstances, or at least a good portion of them. But I have definitely been yearning for/leaning toward experimenting with characters on “the dark side”, shall we say? Or just characters who don’t necessarily have my vibe. So far, I have tended to lean into characters who are very good at what they do, who are very effective in their lives. 

I think the first one that I played that bucked that norm was Lady Amangueax in Season 20 of The Ravening War, which Matt [Mercer] did that was the A Crown of Candy prequel. And for her. it was a character who was very effective in the world that she started in, but at the very beginning of the campaign, she was getting launched out of that world. So with that, and then seeing what she would do to scramble to survive herself, and who would she throw under the bus? And who would she protect? How does that happen when it’s someone who has good morals and theoretically good decision making skills, but ultimately, she has her priorities. So that was very exciting to me to do that. 

So now, not to put too fine a point on it, but I think it’s time for me to play an asshole. I think it’s time for me to play someone who either has no filter, much like one of my video game characters, Rampart, or someone who is morally ambiguous. I have a couple of games coming up right now, one in particular, where I think I’m going to experiment with that a little bit. 

Adam Pope: One of the role playing games that you got to promote at San Diego Comic Con this last year was Candela Obscura from Critical Role. What was it like participating in that game itself and then to bring it to Comic Con in front of all those people? 

Anjali Bhimani: First of all, anytime I get to play with my friends at Critical Role it is just joy upon joy upon joy. It’s such a wonderful environment, the people behind the camera and people on camera, it’s just an embarrassment of riches. But this game system in particular was so exciting to be a part of because it’s a brand new gaming system that they had created, something new from them, and I wanted to support what they were bringing to the world. But also because this new gaming system that they created I feel like it’s more accessible than a lot of other gaming systems, in that it’s easier to pick up. It’s just a simpler set of mechanics and those mechanics, I think, are much more geared toward leaning into the storytelling vibe of role playing games, rather than necessarily focusing on the mechanics. The mechanics are useful, but they are tools to an end, they are a means to an end. 

Also, I said this at the Comic Con panel, I traditionally am not a huge horror fan in general. It’s not the genre that I love to watch movies in. I like thrillers, but not horror movies. But what I love so much about Candela Obscura is that I call it “horror with hope”. There is a win scenario. Someone brought up that normally in horror, the main character is the bad guy, that’s the person or the the creature you know who is going to continue on for all the sequels. But you don’t know that the characters are going to continue on for all the sequels, they could all die and that would go on. Whereas in this one, the goal is to keep your characters alive. Whether you do or you do not is the big question. But that’s definitely the goal is to keep that afloat and to keep that party afloat or in this in the case of Candela Obscura, that circle afloat, the circle of investigators. 

So I love being a part of anything that they create and they’re so great at developing so many new and innovative things. Going with them to Comic Con was just like a giant party. I love it so much. I’ve been a few times with Overwatch amongst other things, but getting to share this with them this year was a new treat. I got to get the audience to sing happy birthday to my brother because his birthday was the day that we were having our panel and since he’s the he’s the responsible party for me being involved in RPGs I feel like he deserved it. So that was great. 

Adam Pope: Also coming out this week as we’re speaking, you’re appearing as Medusa in this game Stray Gods, with a premise that got me so excited: romance, murder and musical numbers. What was your initial response upon hearing the concept and what got you to jump in on this project? 

Anjali Bhimani: Well, first of all, I didn’t hear the concept before I said yes. And this is why because I got a text from Troy [Baker] asking, “Can I sing” and I was like, ‘Yeah, sure. What do you want? Up tempo ballad? What do you need? Musical theater? You need rock? Tell me what you need.’ And Troy is one of those people, much like the folks that Critical Role. where if he asks, ‘Hey, can you be a part of something immediately?’ I will say yes. And then I’ll ask questions later because I trust him so much. And sure enough, when the offer came in, and I saw exactly what it was, my head exploded with excitement because here we are combining four of my favorite things in the whole world: musicals, video games, role playing games and mythology.

I’ve been a huge mythology buff since I was a child. When I was growing up, I learned Indian mythology from these comic books that you can get in India called Amar Chitra Katha. So the gods and the goddesses were like my superheroes because I was reading them in these comic books. And then I took a Norse mythology and Sumerian mythology, and just every bit that I could get my hands on. I think in the seventh grade, I wrote a Norse myth. My own little Norse myth about this fisherman name is Sven Svenson, which is hilarious because it’s such an original name. (Laughs) 

So when I heard all of it put together, I was just thrilled. I had no idea how it was going to be done. But the lovely thing that this entire career has trained me for, and really, this is one of the many things that I’m grateful to my career for teaching me about life, is I am very comfortable being uncomfortable. I’m very comfortable in a situation where I’m like, I have no idea what’s about to happen. But here we all go, because we’re trying to do the best together, and let’s find out what’s going to happen.

I was in incredible hands. I was walking into a studio with Austin Wintory as the composer. I mean, just the music from Journey [2012 album] alone is so gorgeous, let alone his entire body of work with David Gaider as the creative director, and he was just like a giant source of light. Of course, Troy, who is not only an exceptional actor, but as a voice director. He is so insightful and incisive with his direction, the way he goes in and knows how to talk to actors in a way that we can actually understand and turn into a playable action. 

A lot of times there’s a disparity between what a director communicates and what an actor is able to take in and play. Because a lot of directors don’t have that experience and maybe have a little bit of difficulty communicating what they want with the actor. A great director obviously does not have that problem, but sometimes they do. Troy just knows, he just knows. So as soon as I walked into that studio, I knew this is a place to play. 

They had sent me the music ahead of time, and it sounded nothing like the music that we were going to end up with in the final project. It was like plunked out on piano, with a dude singing it. So I listened to it and I looked at the lyrics, I essentially learned as much of it as I could, I knew I didn’t have to memorize it, thank God, because we’d be in the studio. But that’s when I got to play with, ‘What do I think this character is going to sound like?’ So I’m playing Medusa, which is a very iconic character from mythology and so I really wanted to lean into something different with her and they gave me the leeway to do it. So those of you who played through the game, you will hear her and and hopefully you will enjoy her as much as I enjoyed playing her. 

Adam Pope: I’ve seen the trailer and it just looks like a real fun adventure. 

Anjali Bhimani: I should let people know something that I love about the game. It’s very light lifting, for those of you who aren’t gamers, but are interested in gaming. I feel a first person shooter is way too hard for me, I can’t play Overwatch or Apex Legends to save my life. I can’t get past the training module on Apex. But this is very low lifting, because it really is just about choosing next steps for your character and then seeing how the music and the narrative changes based on your choices. So it’s a ride that you get to control but you’re not in charge of if that makes sense. Like you don’t have to have to worry about, ‘Oh crap, I made a decision, then this guy just shot me from behind’. There’s a lot more to it than that. 

Adam Pope: It sounds like that is the way things are going, as you said with Candela Obscura, that they’re trying to make it more accessible and then when you mentioned about not quite knowing where your career is going to take you or what opportunities is going to come your way, it made me think of a question, Obviously video games are becoming a huge part of entertainment these days, it’s been growing and growing over the decades.

What do you feel is going to be the place this digitally crafted interactive style of storytelling? Do you feel that at some point it will ever overtake in popularity, the standard, traditional live actor dramatic presentation that we see captured on film? 

Anjali Bhimani: Games that have mo-cap [motion capture] like The Last of Us, the game itself is like an extraordinary film, right? So extraordinary that it was made into a series that was completely different, but still the same. I mean those two mediums were able to tell the same story in a completely different way. So I do think that right now, they are already very similar. 

How do I put this? They both have their own power, and they both have their own unique power. And as long as people keep understanding that when you make an adaptation, whether it’s a book to a musical or a video game to a television show or a movie to a book, whenever you make an adaptation. The only reason in my opinion to adapt something to a new medium is because you have a different way you want to tell that story, because each one of them has has its pros and cons in terms of the the ability to tell a story a certain way and it has a different set of tools. They’re all related languages, but slightly different. 

It’s like taking all the Romance languages. They have the root in Latin, but they’re completely different languages that have completely different virtues with completely different people. So do I think they’re going to overtake them? In terms of pushing them out? No. I think that each medium will continue. Theater has survived the fall of the Roman Empire! Theater has been here forever. There will never be a substitute for human storytelling. However, there is also room for all of the new things that we are discovering through technology and I’m really excited about crossing the streams, even though the Ghostbusters told us not to. I’m really excited about our ability to cross the streams in ways that are innovative and just exciting. 

My friend Jen Cohn from Overwatch, she just did a performance of Hamlet in the virtual reality world of GTA [Grand Theft Auto] and it was a huge success. They won some award in England because of it. Who would have thought to do theater in VR, right? Someone did, and someone thought, ‘Cool. How can we use these different ways to access a different group of people and tell them stories?’ So I’m in my dream world, which I think is very close to reality, in terms of this. I really do think that no one medium has to push another one out, as long as we understand that each one has its own virtues. And as long as we highlight those virtues. If you are making the exact same thing in two places, why? Why spend the time and the money and the effort? Why would people spend the time and the money? I think it’s I think it’s important to celebrate the difference between them all. 

Adam Pope: So we’re talking about fantasy realms, creating our own universe and characters and things like that. For you, is there a character, whether it’s from existing mythology or even that you’ve created in a campaign from way back that you would love to see adapted to any particular medium for you to play?

Anjali Bhimani: Oh, there’s so many. I look all of my TTRPG characters, I would love to play them on television or film, because they are already in that world where that is a possibility, right? The first thing that leaped to mind, honestly, is a character I play in EXU, Exandria Unlimited, named Fy’ra Rai, who has a twin sister named Fy’ra Kai. Now we haven’t really met Fy’ra Kai. We’ve seen her but we haven’t really met her in the EXU universe. But she actually came from a one shot that I did for charity with a fellow named Andrew Strother for Roll Persuasion and I would love a chance to play both of them either on film or on television, because spoiler alert, they are vastly different human beings. They are twins, but they are vastly different human beings. I’m actually really hoping that we get a chance to meet her because obviously, you know, Aabria [lyengar], as the DM or whoever is DMing would be the person to play that character in a TTRPG. But yeah, I think that would be exceptionally fun. Plus, we would have to figure out how on earth are we going to represent a person whose hair is made of fire, like, I think that would be really cool.

I also very much love the character that I played on Undeadwood, Miriam and the character I played in We’re Alive: Frontier, which was the first TTRPG show I did back when Geek & Sundry was doing those and I really, really, really have a soft spot in my heart for those. And then finally, I kind of wouldn’t mind seeing one of my characters….well, I don’t know if I’m allowed…I think I’m allowed to talk about this during the strike. There’s a character I play in a show from a big old company that rhymes with “harvel”, and I would love to see that character in one of my tabletop role playing games. In fact, I might run a one shot just to put her in a TTRPG that might be the way to do it. Like in my own home game. 

Adam Pope: Well, here’s hoping at least one of those projects comes to the fore for you and good luck with all these awesome projects that are coming out. 

Anjali Bhimani: Thank you so much. And thank you so much for your enthusiasm, you are you are an excellent host. It’s really fun to get to talk to you.

You can watch a video version of this interview on the Popgeeks YouTube channel here.