Apex Legends and Overwatch 2 have emerged as two leading names in the esports scene. Sportskeeda recently had a chance to talk to veteran voice actor Anjali Bhimani about her role in the success of these titles.
Developers can create the most detailed and pristine characters and introduce them with deep-rooted lore. However, it is the voice actors who bring these fictional figures to life, giving them distinct personalities that mesmerize and captivate fans. Anjali Bhimani is a veteran in the field and has successfully left a mark with her meticulous work, especially with her expert voice acting for Apex’s Rampart and Overwatch 2’s Symmetra.
Let us now take a look at Anjali’s opinions on some of the game-related queries we put forward.
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Anjali Bhimani briefly shares the story of her journey as a VA with Sportskeeda
Overwatch 2 is Blizzard Entertainment’s latest hero-shooter title in esports compared to Apex Legends, which is a BR experience. Anjali Bhimani has voiced a distinct character in both titles: Symmetra and Rampart, respectively.
Both display vividly different personalities, with the former taking things easy with her makeshift inventions and the latter bringing a utopian vision to reality with her brilliance.
In a brief but fruitful conversation with Sportskeeda, Anjali cited her thoughts on various topics related to Apex Legends and Overwatch 2. Here are all the answers we received to our questions.
Q. How did your journey as a voice actor begin, and what led you to take on the voice role of Overwatch’s Symmetra?
Becoming a voice actor was just another lane that opened up to me in my acting career. I’ve been a professional actor for over 25 years, but I didn’t start really auditioning for VO until 2016.
Thankfully, one of the early auditions I got was for a game by Blizzard Entertainment that was code-named “Prometheus” for this very, very interesting character named Satya, who was of South Asian descent, brilliant, had a strong personal moral code, and seemed unlike any character I’d ever seen in the gaming world.
So when I auditioned and got the role, and then found out it was Overwatch and saw the art for Symmetra, I was blown away. I knew this whole game was going to be something special and that Symmetra would be particularly special to so many players who connected with her.
Q. The community merely sees Symmetra as a playable hero in the game. However, having voiced her for both Overwatch and Overwatch 2, what do you think about this fictional character?
I LOVE how committed Symmetra is to making the world a better place through her work. Whether she’s with the right organization to do that or not, she herself sees all her work as an effort to create for the betterment of the world around her.
I also love that she has taken her struggles, her difficult past, and her personal challenges and turned her experiences into fuel for her to pursue that mission, not reasons for her to give up.
And I love what a powerful depiction she is of someone on the spectrum, a person who has coped with challenges and continues to have to do so but also has learned how unique and special and powerful she is because of them. She’s very inspirational to me.
Q. Players have always enjoyed the variation of dialogues for different characters. How would you say Symmetra is different from Rampart in terms of their personalities?
Well, where Symmetra is orderly and elegant, I’m pretty sure players would agree with me that that isn’t Rampart’s vibe. Rampart has no filter — for better or for worse — and her sense of humor, dark or pointed as it may be in moments, is clearly what gets her through the hard times. I imagine the two of them together would be quite the pair.
Q. Going forward, would you like to voice more game characters with Indian origins or prefer to explore new ones?
I would never choose one over the other! I haven’t ever focused solely on representing one cultural background in my acting for film and television, and the same goes for voiceover. What interests me most of all is the humanity of a character (even aliens or creatures in media tend to have traits that we understand and identify with as humans).
I think it’s absolutely wonderful that we live in an age now where people aren’t just starting to see themselves represented in media, they’re seeing characters that are more than just their cultural background or gender or abilities… the complexity of storytelling is growing and I think that reflects our world much more accurately than just focusing on cultural background.
I will say I am thrilled that the Indian characters I have gotten a chance to portray so far have been ones that were unique and had different stories and histories than the stereotypes that have historically been depicted in media. It’s a joy to be a part of that very necessary movement.
Q. The community has always loved your execution with the voice role for both Symmetra and Rampart. How was working for two games different for you?
Absolutely bliss… so much fun. The folks at Blizzard and Respawn have been such fantastic collaborators; I’ve been amazed at what they have created and equally amazed at just how much of the characters’ stories they’ve allowed me to tell.
Q. What are your favorite voice lines for Symmetra and Rampart?
It’s always so hard to choose! It also changes day-to-day. For Symmetra I love “Welcome to my reality,” “If I can think it, I can create it,” and, of course, her ultimate. For Rampart I think it’s probably a tie between “Time to turn crap into gold” and “If you don’t like whatcha see, put a bag over yer head.” It’s just so wrong.
Q. How has the gaming community's perception of Indian characters changed after the introduction of Overwatch’s Symmetra?
I think there has been an ongoing movement in storytelling and media. More people are realizing that there are so many facets to a human and that while we might have preconceived notions of what a person of a particular cultural background is like, those notions are rarely true for everyone of that background.
I hope that as time has gone on and characters like Symmetria have been introduced, people’s understanding of Indians and South Asians, in general, has just a broader spectrum of traits. We are so much more than just where we came from.
Q. What would an ideal conversation between Rampart and Symmetra be like?
Ha! It used to be that I couldn't even imagine the two of them making it through a full conversation. But Symmetra in OW2 is loosening up a bit, so I think it would probably be the two of them bonding over parts of their history that they had in common, with Rampart trying very hard to get Sym to take everything less seriously.
Q. Who would win a one-on-one battle between Rampart and Symmetra? Who would you support in this match?
No way I’m pitting those ladies against each other! I’d rather see the two of them together on the field; they would destroy the competition.
Q. Voice acting apart, do you take out time to play Overwatch 2 or Apex Legends? If so, do you prefer playing your own voiced characters, or do you have other favorites?
I’m sad to report that my console gaming skills are less than fantastic. I’ve played Symmetra enough times that I can sort of get through events and stuff, but for Apex I can’t even get through the training module! And I’ve played a little of Reinhardt mostly because I love hearing Darin de Paul’s voice. He’s just such a happy maker.
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