There he is, Ramza Beoulve himself.
Phil LaMarr is freakin' amazing.
I am assuming Laura Bailey's casting came about the same way Troy Baker's did. Both are superb, versatile actors with a lot of experience with motion-capture, who would be able to easily do whatever was required with the last minute U4 change ups. On the other hand, it's still a real shame a black actress couldn't have had the opportunity to play Nadine. For those saying 'would you be complaining if it was a black actor voicing a white character?', no, because it really, really doesn't happen that frequently. There is no danger of white actors being left cold and starving because all their roles are getting snapped up, there is really no reverse comparison. Considering ND did a great job with the casting of Marlene, Henry, Sam, and Riley in TLOU, it's understandable people are a bit taken back at the casting choice.
It's not that Laura Bailey can't be amazing as Nadine (I'm a huge, huge fan of Bailey's!), it's just the loss of an opportunity that could have benefited someone else, and who could have done an equally good job. Roles for black female characters are extremely limited as is, and it lessens the opportunity again if white actresses are taking them. White-washing characters (especially in the film/television industry) happens at the drop of the a hat, too, so there goes even more roles. There now seems to be a recurring representation of white Europeans ruling Egypt back in the day, I must say! Casting a role that was originally intended to be white with a non-white actor happens extremely rarely. I've been trying to think of positive examples, and Bryan Fuller on
Hannibal is one of few showrunners/creators that actively went out of his way to hire a more diverse cast from the source material when possible. What an amazing cast it was!
I do see Phil LaMarr being mentioned over and over again, but he tends to be very, very rare exception (even over Cree Summer and Kevin Michael Richardson), not the rule. I do understand why this happens, too, because if you've got a voice actor there for three hours on a TV show you're going to get them to do as many voices as they're able to, so age, gender, accent, and ethnicity goes out the window as long as you can do a semblance of the voice. Frank Welker and Dee Bradley Baker seem to frequently break the laws of reality, by the way, what in the hell. Doing multiple characters is extremely sensible financially, but it's still a loss of opportunity for an actor that could have really benefited from it, and have done an equally good job with a different perspective. The 'casting = best choice' argument is 50/50, too, as casting sadly often comes down to what is easiest/what will sell. Sometimes the stars align and you get otherwise, but it's often pretty clinical.
I remember seeing a Troy Baker/Delsin/Infamous Second Son mention earlier in this thread, and the user was right, the casting choice should absolutely have been talked about more.
I know the whole situation isn't cut and dry, as ND has a better track record than most companies, and have made an effort with their casting in the past. Regardless, I think it's always an important issue to be aware of in all facets of the entertainment industries. If it was about using an actor with good mo-cap experience, Laura Bailey could have just done the physical mo-cap (like Robin Atkin Downes did for Tenzin in Uncharted 2) with a different actor dubbing in Nadine's dialogue later. That being said, I understand that it sadly adds a lot more money/work if ND is on a tight schedule, let alone the vocal/physical dissonance it can produce if not done right.
To get back to the trailer itself (phew, long-ass post), Nadine as a character looks a-freakin-mazing, though. It was awesome to see her flip a switch between charmingly amicable to utterly terrifying within a second. The physics on her hair is incredible - hell, her hair is just incredible. Let alone her arms-! The cinematography was amazing, too. As people have said, it feels like a real Bond moment between her and Nate. She looks so real, it's insane. The way her eyebrows scrunch her forehead-! Naughty Gods, indeed.
As people have said, I'm a bit worried Nate's going to spend some quality face time with the glass of those big, beautiful windows. Ow.
