Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, TV | Tagged: X-Men '97

X-Men '97: Carolina Ravassa Talks Polaris, Voiceover Advantages & More

Disney+'s X-Men '97 star Carolina Ravassa spoke with us about how her time on "Overwatch" and "Valorant" prepared her for the role of Polaris.

One advantage of being part of an ensemble cast like X-Men '97 is how each character is allowed to shine in their own right, which is something that Carolina Ravassa has seen first had as one of the newer additions to the cast, playing Polaris, the powerful daughter of Magneto (voice of Matthew Waterson), taking up his mantle and position on the X-Men after his noble sacrifice at the hands of Apocalypse (voice of Ross Marquand). Polaris not only helps the team during their fight against the AI sentient Danger (voice of Rachel Kimsey) in episode 206 ("Danger.exe"), but also helps destroy a mutant power-suppressing tower at the Savage Lands alongside Bishop (voice of Isaac Robinson-Smith) in episode 207 ("Strange Land, Savage Heart"). Ravassa spoke to Bleeding Cool about what inspired her in her performance as Polaris, how voiceover offers opportunities she doesn't get in live-action, the need to be flexible during script changes, and her desire to play Polaris in live-action.

X-Men '97 Star Carolina Ravassa on How Her Past Work in Video Games Helped Provide the Depth and Range Needed for Polaris

Bleeding Cool: Aside from the script, was there anything else that you helped tap into that helped drive your performance as Polaris?

Ravassa: I think working in video games definitely helped prep me for big moments where she's using her powers, because we do a lot of streaming in games, and when we're using our alts, that's when a lot of projection is happening and intensity, so I guess that helped a little bit. I think over the years, just experience in general, trying to step into somebody else's shoes and know what their experience is. That's kind of the imagination the actor must use, so I feel like over the years, I've had distinct and different characters that are really interesting, and they have dark pasts like Sombra in 'Overwatch.' I feel just being able to step in those shoes and create a whole different world that isn't ours, to be able to feel for that character, is part of being a good actor. Hopefully, I've done [Polaris] justice, but I feel like just the over-20 years of acting experience has gotten me to a place where we try increasingly to really act as the character.

Being in both worlds, was voiceover something that you're open to and treated like any other role? Were there doors that were open for you that you found that you could do in that voiceover world, compared to what you would find in live action? Are there clear advantages to one or the other that you've found?

I feel like for live action, if you don't fit the look of what they're going for, that's already points against you, so maybe I wouldn't have been cast in some of the video game or animation roles if they were live action, because I don't look like those characters. I feel like, in this case, what people are hearing and the feeling they're getting, as we act through our voice only, is what they're making these casting choices with. I also feel like we have a more diverse group of characters that we can play, so I love that with animation, we can play little kids or inanimate objects. Sombra is a different skin tone than I am, so I'm really glad that I was able to play her, because if I had to look like her, I probably wouldn't book her if she was live action, so I do feel like voiceover has opened doors for me that I couldn't quite get open in live action, and so I am very grateful for that.

Then again, I think of it as a thought exercise of "What would a person with green hair sound like?"

Well, you know, I didn't focus when I auditioned. I didn't even know it was for Polaris, so I wouldn't have thought, "What does someone with green hair sound like?" But I don't think the hair so much affects, what she would sound like if they had said, "She has gone through war-torn lands and has inhaled a lot of smoke," then maybe I think [changes voice to be more raspy] "She might talk like this," but other than that, I wasn't focusing on, you her looks, because we didn't know what she looked like. I didn't even know I was auditioning for 'X-Men' because they're so secretive. However, I will say that I connected to the initial scenes quite well, and I think that's what I was able to channel, sort of her uncertainty while she was talking to Professor X, trying to figure out who she is. Eventually, just letting her powers go and really like controlling them and therefore being able to wield them to their maximum power.

I've spoken to other voice actors in the past, so I was always wondering, like, when you're in the booth, do you emote along with what's on the screen? Does that visual help you, or is it something that you work directly with the ADR director, and they get the performance of whatever? How does that go down?

It's a mix of both; sometimes, for the most part, we get to do our performance first, and then they animate to what we've done, what they've chosen. But in 'X-Men,' they're rewriting a lot; they're always reworking the scripts so that they're perfect. We actually go in a lot to do ADR where something has already been preanimated, and they might go in to change the lip flaps, or they're still working with that constraint of what was said, but the lines have changed. We're working with that, so it was a mix of both. Luckily, we have a great team led by our director, Meredith Layne, is awesome at helping us fine-tune that balance of what's happening in the moment. Sometimes the writer will come in and rewrite stuff if it's not working as we're doing ADR, so the team is very hands-on, and the workflow is, I find, really awesome.

If there was a dream role where there feels like live action or voiceover or perhaps a genre you want to do, what would you want?

I mean, holy cow! If I could ever audition for Polaris in live action, that would be amazing. Nobody has green hair, so at least we'd all be dyeing it anyway, or wearing a wig. I find her very inspiring. I love my video game characters in 'Overwatch' and 'Valorant,' and this is one of the bigger characters I've done as well. Polaris is a great addition to the menu, and I love that she kind of has a different color, because I have Sombra here, who's a lot of purple, and Raze's is sort of orange and yellow. I feel like Polaris is a great addition, and they're all women who've had to overcome a lot. So, man, if Polaris could exist in live action or Sombra, that would be fricking awesome.

X-Men '97, which also features the voices of Ray Chase, George Buza, Jennifer Hale, Cal Dodd, Lenore Zann, Holly Chou, Alison Sealy-Smith, JP Karliak, Adrian Hough, Chris Potter, Gil Birmingham, and Catherine Disher, streams Wednesdays on Disney+.

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