Jane Perry, the voice actress of Selene from Returnal has responded to the negative reactions on the character’s appearance.

Jane Perry, the actress who voices Selene in Returnal, has responded to negative comments about the character’s appearance. She spoke about how the negatives were turned into positives by the character’s facial model, Anne Beyer. She specifically addressed the comments that the character was „old” and „not attractive enough”. Speaking to Eurogamer, Perry called the reactions “interesting”.

Selene is not the protagonist we are used to

“I look at Selene and I see somebody who’s inspiring to me, I see someone who is breaking the boundaries of what we might expect from a woman. And I just think, why the fuck not? I know women who are strong and powerful and brave. I have so many women like that in my life. So why shouldn’t they be represented in games?”

Over the years, gamers have become accustomed to certain types of female characters. Returnal differs from their expectations in this respect, as the main character, Selene, is middle-aged and a mother. With that said, comments calling Selene “ugly” would have been more offensive to facial model Beyer. According to Perry, Beyer took the criticism calmly:

“She shot right back at this person and said ‘Your comment was actually so great because in fact I’m a fashion model, and in my acting career I’ve been told too many times that I’m too glamorous and that I’m too beautiful ’”

For Beyer, playing the role of Selene was an opportunity to not only be a glamorous and beautiful woman, so she actually took the comment as a compliment.

Source: PSLS