"I created Naoe how I would create a movie character," says Assassin's Creed Shadows star Masumi: "Just very full and honest and a whole human being as much as I can"

Character is at the heart of Assassin's Creed Shadows. Whether that's choosing who to play as between Yasuke and Naoe in order to make use of their unique skills to conquer a castle, or experiencing their own journeys through the violent Sengoku period and learning what makes them tick. Naoe, as an assassin and a stealth Igan shinobi, is a standout hero from the recent games in the series. We got the chance to talk to Masumi (Yakuza Princess, NCIS: Hawai'i), who portrayed Naoe – bringing her to life through motion capture and voice acting – about the process of joining the Assassins.

GamesRadar+: Are we right in thinking this is your first video game role? How did that come to be, and what was the experience like?

Masumi: Yes, this is my first video game, my first voice over – all of that. How it came to be? I think I'll talk about the audition process. It came to me quite a while ago – almost three and a half years ago? It was a while back! When I got the material, I connected to this character right away. At the time, she had a code name [...] but I understood that it was in Japan, and she was a warrior, and I connected with her very much. But I didn't hear a call back for that audition, and I was really bummed about it, because I felt like, 'Oh, this is mine. I understand this character so much!'

Then maybe a year or six months or something like that went by, and I got the same audition again with the same scene. At the time, I felt very happy with what I turned in the first time. So I said, 'Hey, if you guys didn't like what I turned in the first time, then maybe I'm not the person'. So I didn't do the second audition. But then after that, a few months after, I got a call back for the project, and I was really surprised, because I thought I lost my chance with it.

Then the callback was with a whole lot of people in the room. It was over a Zoom obviously, but there were maybe 12 or 13 people in total. I have never had that many people in a room. And there was a tech issue in the beginning on my end, and I was just freaking out, but not trying to look like I was freaking out!

The whole audition was about an hour and a half. It was also one of the longest auditions I've had. They really had me do [the performance] all kinds of ways. And I was just after that praying that, you know, it went well.

I have this moment where I hear that I got the audition on my Instagram. I couldn't tell the project name at the time, but I'm in my PJs, and my hair is all crazy, and I'm just like, fist pumping forever because I couldn't believe that I got this role, I always wanted to play a video game character! [...] Yeah, it was a dream come true really.

GR+: So you said you always wanted to play a video game character?

Masumi: I think I was very attracted to that. It's a fantasy fictional world where you can imagine life that is not here, and you have all these possibilities [and the] potential to do all these different things that you can't do in real life! I don't play video games, however. [laughs] But I always wanted to explore that skill set, explore what it's like to work on a project like that, because I've only done movies and TV and music. [Games are] a very different medium. That was really my innocent curiosity.

GR+: Yeah, games as a medium – there's so much to it. Not just in terms of the length of the character's journey, but also the amount of time someone interfaces with it, maybe taking 40 or 80 hours compared to a movie that's maybe closer to two hours. How did you approach Naoe dealing with that volume of character?

Masumi: That's a really great question. Thank you for asking that, because I didn't realize that it was going to be long like that! I think a movie takes sometimes like three months, right? I don't know what I was thinking – I just never had that experience of working on something for like two years, and I really didn't understand how that would make me feel when I initially started. But I would say it was challenging and rewarding at the same time. Naoe is living through the Sengoku period, which is already a hefty period [with] intense emotions. Every story is very gut wrenching and heartbreaking and it takes a lot to be in a character like that so often – it was a challenge for me. But it was also rewarding, because I got to really explore this character.

GR+: How did you find going from acting in live action to a digital performance? How was it tackling motion capture?

Masumi: The cinematic scenes were all motion capture. And there were some challenges with doing mo-cap because it was my first time, and you have to wear this gear, and you can't act the same way – as in, you don't have the leverage of having the scene there, the props there, you have to imagine it. [...] But I really approached it like it was a movie. I created Naoe how I would create a movie character – just very full and honest and a whole human being as much as I can. Especially because there was so much intense emotion I had to really find Naoe's voice and find her honest emotions, or else I couldn't play these really intense stories.

GR+: As well as time going forward there's a lot of flashbacks with Naoe too, so she goes from fairly young to growing up quite a bit. How did you approach playing her across such a span of years in the story?

Masumi: Yeah, she starts out as a young teenager, and she has to mature quickly because of the circumstances. And that was something that we talked about with my voiceover director and the team in general – about how we shift her tone of voice and her attitude throughout the journey. I hope that you guys will be able to spot that – it was some finessing to do. Also, the writing was so great that it made everything much, much easier, but a lot of collaboration and going back and forth with the ideas.

GR+: There are a lot of emotional high points and low points and lots of intensity in the story. Thinking specifically of the long scene where Naoe is remembering everything her father told her from early on – how was it to record such an emotionally big moment for the game?

Masumi: Well, there's so many emotionally big moments in this game. I would say that's something that I really like to immerse myself in as an actor in general. I really like to go deep into the emotions and play these kinds of intense scenes. The challenging part was to be on it for a long time, like two years, and always expecting these emotions. I really immersed myself as much as I could throughout, and being in a good relationship with all the actors that I got to work with – amazing, amazing actors that I got to work with – that really helped too. Because they were such great actors that it really made the acting feel seamless, like it was actually happening although it was in a mo-cap scene [...] I really felt I was lucky that I got to work with great actors.

GR+: Building off of working with great actors, did you get much opportunity to act across from the actor who plays Yasuke, Tongayi Chirisa in many scenes? How was that?

Masumi: It was amazing. It was really amazing. I mean, Tongayi is an amazing human being, an amazing actor. It was really fun to spend time with him and to shoot together. I wish there were more. He's one of my really close friends now, and he lives in LA, I live in LA, you know, so we will probably hold a little launch party at my house, and I'll invite him. But it was honestly a gift to be able to work with him. I can't say enough how amazing it was to be able to work with him.

GR+: It's interesting with Yasuke and Naoe in particular because they share so many big moments together, so many tense and violent moments like the one with Oda Nobunaga. But then also, compared to some others in the series, lots of cool downtime moments as well – drinking sake, or looking at the clouds, out to sea. How did you find balancing those two modes?

Masumi: I mean those light moments are a gift in such a tumultuous story. [There was] so much loss and suffering all the time, naturally, because we're talking about the Sengoku period [...] When we get to have those light moments, it's such a gift and a breather: 'Oh, we get to just like, have these moments of just connection human to human'. It felt very easy, because we are really good friends. It just makes everything so much easier when you have a great connection with your acting partner.

GR+: It's great how both of the characters have their own perspectives and backgrounds they bring to the story moments, including sometimes things like dialogue choices for both. Some moments, for instance, where Yasuke might consider sparing someone but Naoe doesn't want to or vice versa. For Naoe, where do you think that comes from with those choices?

Masumi: I think Naoe is such a great assassin because of the sufferings and the vulnerable feelings that she has. This whole story she's going through the journey of becoming a great assassin, yet also dealing with her internal war, right? I think it was really interesting to understand why she wanted to kill, or why she didn't want to kill, why she needed to become a great assassin? Why was she a great assassin? All these 'whys' that fueled her action. It was really interesting to immerse myself in it so that it made sense why she was so strong, or made sense why she wanted to kill when, for example, Yasuke didn't want to kill. There was always a reason that fueled these choices and to really reflect on her 'whys'. Naoe's 'whys' made it more tangible for me.

GR+: With the historical aspect, how did you approach being in the Sengoku era?

Masumi: The writing helped so much. I mean, you obviously know about the Sengoku period as a Japanese [person], you know the history. But the characters that they brought to life [with] the actors, that made everything so much more real, especially because the writers wrote the characters to have so many layers. It wasn't just a character from history, it was a human being with all different layers and motivations – it wasn't one stroke of color, if you look at it from a different way, you just see so many different colors about these characters. That made it so interesting for me because I'm not really big on history, but reading the stories and going through this made this period so much more interesting for me. To answer your question, it was really the writing that helped me to connect with this time period in such a layered way.

GR+: Naoe acts against a lot of historical figures in Assassin's Creed Shadows. Did you know much about them going in?

Masumi: Yeah. As a Japanese [person], most of these people are very famous characters, so you know about it, but I feel like I know about them now, you know what I mean? [laughs] I knew of these famous people, and now it was like, wow, I'm really seeing a human being now from these different angles. That's really cool for me – part of the really cool thing that I took away from working on this project.

GR+: Now you actually do know Oda Nobunaga personally!

Masumi: I do know! Yeah, exactly.

GR+: You said you don't really play many video games, but I was wondering if you were that aware of Assassin's Creed before the project, or if you knew people who were aware of Assassin's Creed?

Masumi: I was not aware of Assassin's Creed, but yes, [laughs] I knew people that were aware of Assassin's Creed. That was a contrasted experience of, like, 'you know Assassin's Creed?' It was like, 'Yeah, I know Assassin's Creed!' 'Really? Okay...' Yeah, finding out about it was really cool. But I didn't want that to become too much of a thing for me, because I wanted to focus on being able to do an authentic job for this character, and I didn't want that to become a pressure in any way.

GR+: It's such an interesting series with how it constantly does these different time periods and spotlights these different character stories. So you approached the role of Naoe as kind of a clean slate then, without really worrying too much about the stories that have come before?

Masumi: Right exactly, [and] I didn't do a lot of research into what the other female protagonists were like in the video games – I did do a little bit of it, but I didn't want that to influence how I understood Naoe, or how I would portray her at all. I wanted to be completely from my [own] knowledge of being Japanese and the culture, and just being as honest to Naoe as I possibly can. I'm really proud that I got to do that. I feel like the development team and the creative team helped me to stay, you know, not influenced by anything else, but really making Naoe a unique identity within Assassin's Creed.

GR+: At least with where the game stands at release, Naoe's future is a bit open ended. Where would you like to see it go, and would you be open to returning to do more Naoe in the future?

Masumi: Yes – I mean, I always love happy endings for everything, so I would really hope that Naoe gets her happy ending piece, right? That's something that I would love to see, and we'll see, you know, what would happen. If there is more, then I would love to play her, because Naoe, to me, she is me. I put so much of my soul in her. So yeah, I would love to come back and play more if there is an opportunity to do that.

Assassin's Creed Shadows' dual heroes has been an "opportunity" to enhance immersion in the feudal Japan story: "You get a chance to compare their two perspectives on a situation"