Silent Hill: The Short Message Anita Interview

February 20, 2024 at 6:37pm
By Jason Stettner

Interview with Fadile Waked, Actress for (Anita) in Silent Hill: The Short Message

For call based interviews we try to present the conversation replies as close to verbatim as possible, for context.

A staple I do in all interviews in order to start things off is to ask that you elaborate a bit about your work, and this particular role for those not familiar with it?

Fadile: Hi everyone, my name is Fadile and I play Anita in Silent Hill The Short Message.

You provide the performance for Anita could you tell us a bit about the character and the situation she finds herself in?

Fadile: When I did Anita they only scanned my face and my moves so I did not go through the story. They did not even use my voice for it so for a long time I had no idea about the story, for two or three years.

You didn't do the voice work in the game?

Fadile: They only scanned my face. I didn't even know I was going to be in Silent Hill. So I only got to know I was going to be in Silent Hill once they leaked my information online. So I was like yeah, that's my face cause that was the original face and they changed a little bit then.

I couldn't even recognize my face after they changed it. The first picture that got leaked it looked more like me and I knew it was me as I had shorter hair at the time and yes they added the glasses and it was my information. Everything like very personal information and people start contacting me asking me are you in Silent Hill and I was like I'm not sure if I'm in Silent Hill but that's my face and that's my information and later on my agency contacted me asking me not to say anything.

That I was going to be in Silent Hill but the first time I got approached I knew I was going to be in a video game. I didn't know I was a main character. I didn't know it would be for Silent Hill, I just knew it would be for Konami.

Let's talk a little bit about what it was like behind the scenes. Kind of doing the capture and everything like that. How did they kind of approach you to come and do this and then what was it like going in for the scanning and what not?

Fadile: So I've done scanning work before. A while ago and I think it's really cool you know. So they put the dots and there's like many mini cameras and it's just like flashes and you have to do many different types of face expressions and they make sure you don't have any Botox because people with Botox.

They cannot even move properly so you have to be able to bring that, all kinds of expressions you know, move just one side and the other side and it's a lot of expressions that you have to be able to do and they scanned my whole body as well. Some moves; it was interesting. yeah it was like a scanning pro but it doesn't take time you're able to finish in a day.

Did you have to do any sort of movements or was it just kind of body and scan cause some of the other voice actors and what not that I've talked to when they do the performance capture sometimes they have to walk around with like weights?

Fadile: Oh wow. This time for Anita they only scanned my body so I didn't have to do any specific moves but it's been like three years ago so I don't really recall that well.

Maybe I had to do different types of moves but I don’t remember. It didn't take too long so I believe that I didn't have to do specific moves for the scanner, just like few. Yeah when it did eventually come out and the trailer was released and everything like that.

Have you seen footage of the game, have you seen how you're in the game? What are your thoughts on that?

Fadile: I didn't know it was Silent Hill so it's been three years and the second year I first figured out that it would be for Silent Hill. The new Silent Hill and I realized how big it was because I never played Silent Hill before I've only watched the movie. I was a big movie fan but I never played the video game and when I realized, especially in Brazil because I'm Brazilian and Brazilian fans were crazy and many people are asking me.

Is it really happening and who's behind it and I had no information. I had zero information, I didn't even know I was going to be Anita. I didn't even know I was the face of The Short Message and everything caught me by surprise. Finally Konami talked to my agency and they asked me to give the interview and I remember going to the interview and they did not give me any information of the game.

They wanted me to talk about it without any information and that's when my Brazilian side came out and I said how can I give any information or like a message for the ones that are going to play if I don't know what the game is about. I knew it would be like a deep, like a different Silent Hill that nobody played before but like the talks about suicide and a girl in school but I did not have many details.

I haven't seen myself in the video game and after talking to them and because I remember that the Japanese girl, the Japanese character she knew everything the whole story. She's seen it before and me and my other friend. Brazilian friend, there's another Brazilian girl she's half Japanese and we three give the interview and she also didn't know about any of the concept or any of the images.

So on the day of the interview they showed me Anita so I saw the trailer so it was like a year ago or something like that and I couldn't recognize myself. I was like wow you know, and it was like I had goosebumps you know. It was like me and Silent Hill and for me it looked like something very big that I had no idea about and it was interesting.

Yeah it was interesting so I saw the trailer for the first time and I was able to talk a little bit more and understand a little bit more but I also didn't know when it would come out and I had people for over a year asking me when is Silent Hill being released and some people told me that it might have got cancelled or something and I didn't know anything and finally 2020.

Are we 2024 right now? Yeah 2024 It caught us by surprise and they released it and yes here we are. So yeah people are telling me like they finished everything in two hours or something like that.

Yeah it's very short. It's a free game and it has over two million downloads so that's impressive. It's a free exclusive to PlayStation gamers so it's more of like a PSA.

More of like I guess you would say attention to certain social issues and stuff like that and mental health is the idea of it and it's a lead into the next Silent Hill game apparently. Do you know if you are going to be in the next Silent Hill game as well or do you have no ideas on that?

Fadile: I have no idea.

So you've just been confused for a couple years about this whole experience?

Fadile: I'm very confused because I do work in industry but I feel like it's because it's Japan. I don't know like maybe people, like we work differently in Japan but they are very, like they do everything without much information you know.

So sometimes you're doing something and you don't know what it's for as a talent, as an actor like especially for video games they don't they don't want to like any information being leaked so they don't say much.

The game does have live action segments so I'm assuming you're not in that or they imposed you in those?

Fadile: I'm not part of it. So when I met the other girls that were in the game they told me that they actually did it like a video. Yeah so there's like live action segments in there too and me I was not part of it. They just scanned my face so it's funny when you see it. Like the two girls they look like they're live but me I'm the game version. I'm the scan version.


What is it like to see yourself as a game character but also in the sense of a game character that you didn't necessarily perform?

Fadile: It is pretty interesting because this is a first time experience for me. I've done voiceover, I did a character where it was not for a video game but I did perform and I did do my moves.

So this time is just basically my face and perhaps my body as well. I think they used the whole thing but it's not my voice and yeah I feel happy because The Short Message is like about Anita figuring out everything and people when they play the character they're playing me and it's pretty interesting.

It's like amazing, it's like I feel very grateful but yes it's different than maybe other game characters for sure. Yeah they made it in a very interesting way people are not expecting it for sure right. People are surprised.

I'm assuming you have a interest in more gaming roles down the road, would you like to do the full performance next time around if possible?

Fadile: Yes, I would love to do that because I know I'm able to. Yes I want to, I would love to if they give me a chance.

So a lot of fans online have believed that you've been teasing and or showcasing even more Silent Hill stuff for the future. What do you think of that and are you generally just confused about the whole scenario?

Fadile: No, I was not trying to tease or anything or say. I don't know anything, I actually didn't know anything. I have no idea, I feel like so many fans were actually giving me information about it because I didn't have any.

I would receive oh maybe there are rumors that it got postponed or even that it got cancelled and my agency neither could confirm to me. Wouldn't say anything, they would just say like wait. Yeah so I didn't know and even if I knew something I couldn't share so yes so there's a contract behind it as well where you cannot say anything but when my pictures got released and apparently I posted on my Instagram.

I was like wow it's out or something, I forgot what I said but people made a lot of like news about it. They were like saying that I confirmed it but I thought it was out. I was like oh this is the work I’ve done before. I was like cool it's out nice and yes I think they understood that I didn't mean to confirm anything but yeah if you search my name you see that an actress confirms that she's in Silent Hill but I didn't mean to.

I just said oh, it's out cool but this was a year ago and this time I made sure it was 100% out and it was and people were sharing and I was like yes that's me. I know it doesn't look like me but it's my face yes so it was nice to finally confirm it talk about it.




What was the fan response like?

Fadile: I think there are many people saying that they were happy to play it and they waited and it was amazing and I also see comments that people are expecting more. I don't know exactly what they mean by more but they were expecting more. That's because I'm in a group.

It's a Brazilian group like Silent Hill group on Facebook. I don't know if they know I'm there but I'm there and I see everything and there's a lot of memes and I just love the memes and people just half, like the majority are positive comments but the others they are like wow we waited for this or something or wow I finish it so quickly.

Like I wish there was more and some people even talking about me, oh the actress like she deserved the whole full game or something. I don't know what meant by that but basically what I understood was that it was a short game or something like that.

Yeah, so a lot of fans for Silent Hill are very like rabid about it because there hasn't been a Silent Hill game in a very long time and they've been waiting for Konami to bring the franchise back is kind of the thing and they were kind of like.

They kind of got like a bit of a short tease so they're hungry for more is really the big thing that you should take out of it. So is Silent Hill franchise you like to you know become bigger part of should you get the opportunity?

Fadile: Yes I think I think that would be so cool. I feel like if people like some of people if they like the Anita story it should definitely have a something longer and that people would like to play for more time and is it only a PlayStation? Yeah it's exclusive

Hopefully they make it for everyone to play and make a whole video game about it. Make the story or make it more interesting with different characters or different stories or yeah I would like to be part of it.

Lastly I would like to leave a spot for you to say something or go over anything I might have missed during the interview?

Fadile: Follow me on Instagram and you can see everything that is going on in my life and for 2024 and hopefully you guys won't be disappointed check it out!

View our Interviews Hub
View our Game Hubs
Read our Cyberpunk 2077 Review