“It’s such an interesting thing being an actor, because you imbue so much of yourself into these characters, and you work really hard bringing them to life, but ultimately, you sort of have to pass them off,” Ashly Burch tells me on the BAFTA Game Awards 2025 red carpet.
Over the years, Burch has brought many iconic characters to life. Roles like Chloe Price inLife is Strange, Tiny Tina inBorderlands, Aloy inHorizon Zero Dawn, and myriad others have become household names in the realm of video games. It’s a voice I recognise anywhere, so it was fun to briefly look back on the bond that actors form with characters they are given the responsibility to shepherd.
Ashly Burch On The Relatable Queerness of Chloe Price and Aloy
When it came to Chloe Price in Life is Strange, this was a character that Burch left behind long before the release ofDouble Exposurelast year. Due to a voice actor strike that took place during the development of Deck Nine’s Before The Storm in 2016, Burch was recast with Rhianna DeVries, so Square Enix could skirt around the need for a union actor.
When it was revealed in Double Exposure that Max and Chloe broke up and went their separate ways well into adulthood despite sacrificing Arcadia Bay to ensure their love stood intact, it didn’t sit right with a lot of fans. Burch felt the same, but as an actor, it’s a direction you have little choice but to respect.
Another project of Burch’s we talked about was Disney Channel’s The Ghost and Molly McGee, which came to an end at the beginning of last year.Read more about that here.
“They decided that’s what was best for the game, and I respect that” Burch says. “With my own canon in my head, I might not have written it that way, but we all got our headcanons. So it’s a funny thing to be like, I love that character and I put so much of myself in her, but she is someone else’s baby now. It’s an interesting thing and such a surreal part of being an actor.”
Touching on the fate of Chloe Price inevitably led us to discuss the queerness of Aloy, a character played by Burch in Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, who finds herself in a sapphic romance with Seyka depending on decisions made by the player. I’ve always viewed Aloy as a queer character, but exactly how this was defined has evolved consistently over the years.
“I personally always imagined Aloy as queer,” Burch explains. “This is me, this is Ashly the actor, don’t at Guerilla. This is not canon, this is just me. I kind of think she’s demi a bit? That’s my take on her. She’s had some stuff to work through, you know what I mean? So I think she had to work through some stuff to sort of open herself up the possibility of like, ‘I deserve this. What would this look like?’ But I think she has to really respect the person to have that sort of connection.”
But For These Characters To Exist, We Need Human Actors To Play Them
After touching on many of the characters Burch has played over the years, I brought upa recently leaked prototype from Sony and Guerillawhich features Aloy being asked random questions and then responding to them in a facsimile of Burch’s voice, which was intended as an internal demo to test the technology rather than being released to the public. Putting its purpose aside, however, it prophecies a worrying future for actors and creatives.
“We’ve been on strike for a while now fighting for AI protections,” Burch says. “It’s been an interesting and tumultuous time for everyone, I think, because with AI, game performers are sort of the canary in the coalmine, but people are trying to implement AI in all sorts of other creative fields.
“I know a lot of game developers who are worried about it too, so it really is a situation where SAG-AFTRA has been very clear about not wanting to put a moratorium on AI. We know this is a tool that people want to use. So how can we use it responsibly? How can we protect our human workers from exploitation and make sure that people get to continue making a living at this job that they love while still being open to and exploring new technologies? No one is against that. So, I’m really hoping we can reach a deal that benefits everyone, and I think that it is completely achievable. “We’re not asking for the moon, we’re just asking to be protected.”
Burch isone of many actors and creatives in recent yearswho have talked about both the potential and risks of this new technology, and it’s important to realise that once big corporations realise they can cast aside human workers and achieve profits without any true consequence, there will be no going back. Burch wants to find a middle ground, and with any luck, that will be possible.
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