最近，TGL（thegamingliberty网站）对雪莉·布隆迪（Shelly Blonde），古墓丽影系列中劳拉的首位声优进行了一次采访。有很多的玩家表示对她的声音印象深刻，而她在采访中也提到了很有趣的一件事，那就是在《古墓丽影：传奇》的制作时期，她曾接受到邀请作为该部作品劳拉的声优。因此，在古墓丽影9尚未正式发布的今天，我们有理由期待她在新作中的回归。
以下是采访中的节选：
TGL：让我们追溯到90年代中期，那时你与Core Design和Eidos合作为古墓丽影努力，你还记得当时对（劳拉）这个角色的试音阶段发生的事吗？
SB：我当然记得。我记得我接到了我经纪人的一个电话，他让我依据一个剧本用录音带录制一小段声音然后把录音带寄了出去。大概一个星期之后，Eidos/Core 给了我一个电话，以一个电话会议的形式，我用电话来完成了新的试音。他们会先告诉我该说什么，比如“welcome to my home”然后我重复这些句子。我不时能听到电话那头其他人的声音，我感到非常的紧张。我知道他们已经为了找到一个合适的声音努力了至少三个月，而这令我感到更加的紧张。
TGL：当时游戏制作队伍对劳拉的构想是怎么样的？在你配音的过程中，他们让你诠释什么？
SB：如果我没记错的话古墓丽影是他们的第一款成人游戏，他们之前的作品都是以孩子为中心的因此他们不知道新作会取得成功还是收获一次打击。我清楚地记得他们让我简短粗放的读台词。他们还说让我念得像饰演邦德时的Sean Connery一样，但却不能带他那种苏格兰口音。
TGL：你喜欢和古墓丽影开发团队一起工作的日子吗？
SB：是的。他们是很了不起的一群人。每个人都对那款游戏感到非常的兴奋。
TGL：在当时你有意识到劳拉克劳馥将会变成一个具有重要意义的游戏和文化标志吗？
SB：事实上我们中没有人意识到这些。但当我开始接到纽约时报和纽约先驱论坛报的访问邀请时我就开始想，“额，这可能真的成功了！！”
TGL：在劳拉的声优这个问题上似乎有一个不断发生的规律，几乎每个声优在下一部作品都会被别人取代。你是否曾经想拥有再一次为劳拉配音的机会呢？
SB：不。我在第一部作品之后选择了离开，因为我不认同Core和Eidos的某些东西而我从来就不是一个只为钱而工作的人，我必须热爱那份工作的一切和公司的政策（我才会选择为之工作）。我的一个朋友，Jonell，成为了第三部作品劳拉的声优，我想第四部和第五部也没变。他们曾数次打电话咨询我是否有兴趣回归为第七部配音……但最终他们还是找了一个明星。
TGL：在第一部作品中你和劳拉的声音有多“相近”？
SB：大概相似吧，但我的声音很有表现力而且我的嗓音显得更低沉一点。我必须为了劳拉将我的声音保持在一个层次上。他们要求我这样做。
TGL：关于录音阶段你还记得什么？
SB：我记得那持续了5个小时，而其中包括了许多类似“噢”、“啊”的声音，那或许是因为劳拉撞上了一堵墙，或是掉下了悬崖。
TGL：你曾经为其他游戏配过音么？SB：是的。在Black and White里我出演了7个不同的声音。我为孩子，妇女甚至是男人配音！！然而我的工作大部分是动画片，推销广告，电视广告，广告歌曲等。
TGL：如果给你一个机会，你会考虑重新开始你的“劳拉”生涯吗？
SB：是的。作为“第一个劳拉”，我感到无比自豪。
原文：
An Interview With Shelley Blond-The Original Voice Of Lara Croft
Shelley Blond……….Voice Actress. Mom. Lara Croft.
With a Tomb Raider reboot in the pipeline, TGL decided to go back to the franchises origins, all the way back to the mid 1990’s when no one, not even the development team behind Tomb Raider realised they were about to unleash one of contemporary video gaming’s most recognisable icons onto an unsuspecting gaming community.
Tomb Raider of course gave birth to the one and only……….Lara Croft.
Lara had just about everything; the smarts, the looks and the voice. She even knew how to take out a T-Rex. So even though many voice performers, models and even Angelina Jolie herself can all claim to have played Lara Croft in some way shape or form in the last 15 years, only one person can say that she was there first.
Say hello to Shelley Blond, the original voice of the Tomb Raider, the original Lara Croft. TGL recently caught up with Shelley to talk about all things Lara. Here’s how we got on.
TGL: Hi Shelley, could you tell everyone at TGL a little about yourself, what you do and where you come from?
SB: Hi TGL! I am a voice over artiste, budding children’s book author and I live in north London..Finchely girl born and bred. Married with a 16 month old boy who mimics everyone..just like his mum..so looks like he’ll be stepping into my voicing shoes at a later date!
TGL: Was a career in acting something you always wanted to pursue or did you ever consider following a different path?
SB: I always wanted to be an actress….from the earliest days. No other job ever crossed my mind. I sat glued to the TV watching anything with Fred Astaire..Marilyn Monroe..mostly dance things or comedies. Most of the work I have done on stage and screen have been either musicals or comedies. Two huge loves of my life. I am very fortunate that I have supportive parents and I worked hard and have been lucky enough to do everything I have ever wanted like present my own TV shows on Trouble TV and CITV, have lead roles in high profile commercials, be on the west end stage and do voice overs which is my passion and hobby as well as my job. My dad always told me…..”whatever you choose to do as a career, we will always support you 100%, but you MUST love it.” He was right. I am crazy about my job. You are in work 3/4 of your life and to do a job that you hate must be torture.
TGL: You’ve appeared in some incredibly high profile TV programmes, most notably ‘Cold Feet’ and even ‘Peep Show’ (a TGL favourite). What’s been the career highlight so far?
SB: I think even though I loved doing Peep Show and all the other stuff, my highlight was being in Cold Feet……simply because it was a show I was obsessed with way before I was cast in it. So to be in something that I watched so avidly was incredible. It was a lot of fun and everyone was just lovely. Also knowing that Angelina Jolie listened to my voice on the original game to get the correct tone and accent for the Tomb Raider Movie is a bit of a highlight!. That’s quite cool!
TGL: Tell us a little about your work as a TV presenter. Is it true that you have presented Room Raiders?!
SB: Yes!! They had a few series of it..I presented the very first two, and they named it Room Raiders because Tomb Raider had just come out and I was the voice of that! It was such fun. Running round all over the country and decorating teenager’s bedrooms. Some loved the result..others sobbed their hearts out…oh well! We were actually the first channel to do anything to do with re-designing rooms in a short space of time. We were all very proud that we came before changing rooms and programmes like that.
TGL: What celebrities room would you most like to ‘raid’ and why?
SB: I think if I had to choose any it would be Sarah Jessica Parkers room…just to get my hands on her clothes and shoes!! Just to be nosey it would be Victoria Beckhams. Given the time..my own room…never get the time to re decorate!
TGL: Take us back to the mid nineties and your work with Core Design and Eidos on Tomb Raider? Can you remember your audition for the role?
SB: I do remember it. I remember getting a call from my agent and being asked to record a few lines from a script into a tape recorder and to send it in. A week or so later Eidos/Core called me and I had to do an audition over the phone on a conference call. They would tell me what to say..for example, “welcome to my home” and I had to repeat it. It was quite nerve racking with all those people breathing down the phone. I knew they had been searching for the voice to no avail for three months at least and so that made me even more nervous.
TGL: What was the team’s vision for Lara Croft? What did they ask you to bring to your voice performance?
SB: If I remember correctly it was their first adult game……all their games before had been with kids in mind and they didn’t know if it would be successful or a hit. I do recall them asking me to read the lines very monosyllabically. They specifically said to read them like Sean Connery as Bond…but without the Scottish accent!
TGL: Did you enjoy working with the Tomb Raider development team?
SB: I did…they were a great bunch of people. Everyone was very excited about the game.
TGL: Did you have any sense at that time just how much of a significant gaming and cultural icon Lara Croft would become?
SB: None of us had a clue how huge she would become. When I had to start doing interviews with the New York Times and The New York Herald I started to think….hhhhm..this might be taking off!!
TGL: There seems to be something of a revolving door policy when it comes to Lara’s voice, nearly every voice actress appears to be replaced with every new game. Would you have liked to have been given another shot as Lara’s voice?
SB: No……I left after the first game on my own terms as I didn’t agree with some things within Core and Eidos and I never just do jobs for the money. I have to love everything about the job too and the company policies. One of my best friends, Jonell, got the job as Lara for the third game and I think 4 and 5 too. They called me a few times to ask if I would be interested to come back for game 7…..but in the end went for a celebrity name.
TGL: How ‘close’ is your voice to Lara’s in the original game?
SB: Hhhm…similar but I have much more expression in my voice and have a deeper tone. I had to really keep it on one level for Lara. They really wanted that. I do lots of stuff for ITV..all the ‘X Factor’ voicing and ‘I’m a celebrity’ promos…..so it’s more upbeat, street and musical.
TGL: What can you remember of the recording process?
SB: I remember it taking 5 hours and it was a lot of ‘oohs’ ‘ahhs’ and sounds of ”oooofs’ when Lara was smashed into a wall…..or falling off a cliff.
TGL: Have you lent your voice to any other videogames?
SB: Yes. I am about 7 different voices on Black and White. I play kids, old women…….a few men!! But my work consists mostly of cartoons, promos, commercials and jingles.
TGL: You’ve appeared in dozens of commercials. Any we’d know off the top of our heads?
SB: They were quite a time ago now…..but we won awards for our Toffee Crisp Cluster one where I play a changing rooms presenter(!) who does up someone’s house hideously and has to calm them down with toffee crisps. Also two David Gray CD Commercials when my boyfriend and I argue over who gets to keep the album when we split up. They were both very good fun and great comedic roles.
TGL: If given the opportunity, would you consider reprising your role as Lara?
SB: I think so. I am terribly proud of being the first Lara.
TGL: What role does music play in your life? You’ve appeared in a number of West End musicals.
SB: I hear a beat and my feet won’t behave. I love all sorts from jazz and Frank Sinatra to heavy rock and R’n'B and funk. I have a huge range of musical loves. I appeared in Only The Lonely, a musical about Roy Orbison, playing one of my heroines..Patsy Cline and that was a dream come true. I love to dance, sing and act. I’ve sung with many bands…recorded at Abbey Road and toured Japan with Gilbert O’Sullivan. I love to sing Rock ‘n’ Roll but Rock is what I love to sing. Give me some Tina Turner or AC/DC and I am away!!
TGL: What’s next for you? Are you involved in any projects at the moment?
SB: I purely do voice overs now. They took off in a huge way and so I do a few per day. My regulars are ITV, Blockbuster Video, On Demand, Biography and History Channel, Disney Channel, Discovery Channel. And it’s the perfect job when you have kids. It’s not 9-5.. You can work around kindergarten. And as I said before it’s my passion.
TGL: And finally….are you a gamer? Have you ever actually sat down and played Tomb Raider.
SB: Hahah…..I can just about type this to you!!! I can email on a computer…..download a few photos…and THAT IS AS FAR AS IT GOES! I am not a gamer..no!!
***ENDS***
TGL would like to thank Shelley for taking the time out to speak to us. She’s an incredibly talented lady and we wish her and her family all the best for the future.
