The secret behind the BAFTA-winning performance by Jane Perry in Returnal

Then-PlayStation exclusive and Housemarque's bigger scale consolidation Returnal took home up to four BAFTA awards after its release in 2021, including Best Game, Audio Achievement, Music, and Performer in a Leading Role, the latter given to Jane Perry as Selene.

In the sci-fi, mind-bending roguelike shooter the protagonist was alone in a monster-filled world, and had to deal with both environmental hazards and her own sanity. It moved many here at Gamereactor, and when we interviewed the actor last month at the Comicon Napoli, we wanted to learn more about her award-winning performance and about working with the Finnish studio.

"It's interesting when you talk about the whole in a video game is actually an enormous amount of story", told us Jane Perry in the video above when asked about the peculiarities of the character and the script. "And as an actor, I think when you're in the moment acting, really all you're concerned with is what's happening in that moment. You might have an awareness of the arc of the story, of the character, but what you're actually dealing with in a more granular sense is what is happening to me right now, what do I want right now? What are my challenges right now?"

"If you have another character, what do I want that person to do right now so that I can get what I want?", she later added as her personal trick to get in the role, before trying to avoid spoilers. "Especially for Returnal, because she does lose her mind, basically. I really felt like I just have to take it one step at a time. Otherwise, I think it would be quite overwhelming, and it's too much to hang on to. And I think this is a nice approach to acting, generally, just to deal with what's happening in that moment, because that's what we're interested in, as you talked about presence earlier, and being present and just dealing with the now."

When we met her in Italy together with Expedition 33's Kirsty Rider, Perry had already worked in other games such as Baldur's Gate, Cyberpunk 2077, the more recent Resident Evil Requiem, or her legendary role as Hitman's Diana Burnwood. This is what she had to add regarding performing for such different studios in AAA video games:

"For example, with Returnal, one thing I really noticed, and maybe this was because I was essentially the only person in the game, Housemarque took a lot of time finding things", Perry came back to the BAFTA-winning project later in the video. "I mean, you're right, sometimes they're like, okay, that, you do one take and they're like, that'll do, okay, let's move on. There was none of that with Returnal. They were like, yes, okay, let's think this through and try different things. And that was a big difference in that game because, as you said earlier, time is money and oftentimes there is this pressure to just get it done really fast".

"So that was one of the differences that I noticed with Housemarque is they just, they relax, they find it. When they've got it, they're like, okay, let's move on, very gentle"

Despite the recent release of Saros (only on PS5) as the well-received evolution of its predecessor, Returnal (available on PS5 and PC) remains one of the best action-packed sci-fi experiences of the generation.