Interview with Allie Goodell (Patreon)

 Hey everyone,

The release of the voice acting update for Heart of the Woods isn't far away now! Today we have a short interview with Allie, Maddie's voice actress, to share with you. It does contain some spoilers for the game, so if you haven't completed that yet, you may not wanna read this!

First off, please go ahead and introduce yourself.

Hey! I'm Allie Goodell and I voice Maddie Raines in Heart of the Woods. I'm currently a cinema major at the University of Iowa and one of my biggest passions is storytelling and creative expression. Outside of academics, I have a machinima channel where I post episodes for my web series using the Sims 2; machinima is actually what got me interested in both voice acting and cinema as a career.

What was your introduction to voice acting, and what made you wanna pursue it? Was there a particular performance or role that inspired you to pursue VA yourself?

I originally started voice acting in Sims web series when I was 12 years old. I thought it was super cool that people could bring stories to life using a video game and voice actors! There was no particular role that inspired me to pursue voice acting, but the Sims machinima community in general motivated me to start.

What's another role you've played that you're especially proud of?

One of my favorite roles I currently play is Raign Rivers in Latibule's "The Rivers" Sims 2 series. "The Rivers" is bursting with complex character dynamics and is extremely well written, so it is an honor to be part of the series. Raign also reminds me of myself because she is the over-protected, goody-two-shoes sibling of the Rivers family who knows nothing of how the real world actually works (I'm still trying to figure out how to be an adult at 20 years old).

What's something that you have in common with Maddie? What's something different between you?

As I mentioned above, both Maddie and I are filmmakers! I'm also the strict and responsible person in many groups (especially when it comes to academics), so both Maddie and myself tend to come off harsher than intended. I would say I'm a lot more energetic than Maddie though, and I can be extremely carefree at times when I'm not stressing out from my perfectionism and anxiety. Maddie is also a stickler for preserving what I would call the "prestige" of film, whereas I'm mainly interested on bringing a story to life through the film medium.

Other than Maddie, who's your favorite character from Heart of the Woods?

I really love Maddie, but I can't pick her... so instead I'll have to go with Tara! Tara is incredibly zany and her personality shines bright; while she can be irritating at times, she usually lights up a room with her energy and humor. In a way, I also relate to Tara and see myself as a mix between her and Maddie. 

Is there a particular line or scene from the game that you're looking forward to hearing voiced in-game?

I'm super excited and simultaneously nervous to hear Maddie's death scene as well as Maddie and Tara's reunion. These were incredibly emotional moments for me as a player and I hope that I did Maddie enough justice for these scenes.

Do you have any upcoming projects you'd like to tell people about?

I'm currently working on the latest episode of my Sims 2 series, Revival! You can find my YouTube channel here if you'd like to check out my work: https://www.youtube.com/user/OnlyExceptionCollab