God of War’s Danielle Bisutti Talks About Working Behind the Scenes, Single Shot Process

We’ve been talking for quite a while with Danielle Bisutti, the actress who appears in the epic PlayStation 4 game God of War as Freya, about a number of topics over the past week. Today, we’re continuing our conversation as we dig in deep about the behind-the-scenes process with making the game.

First up, we brought up the revolutionary single-shot process that director Cory Barlog and company implemented into the game, and what it was like working with said process on the set. “Cory’s brilliant single-shot no cut camera concept and flawless execution by our D.P. Dori Arazi definitely kept us all on our toes,” she said. “It’s always a scary thing, being an actor and hoping that your best moments were actually captured on camera without any technical issues during the take.

“It’s also a bit nerve-racking to over-rehearse a scene especially the emotional scenes because you don’t want to wear it out. By the time Chris, Jeremy, Sunny and I got to set, the team had already choreographed the hell out of the scenes so the technical aspect was completely dialed in. We had the luxury of knowing exactly where we needed to go and what to say which allowed us to simply live and breathe moment to moment in the magical world of these characters.

“The stars must have been aligned on our set, or perhaps it’s just the fact that everyone was a seasoned consummate professional, but somehow everything seemed to fall right into place more times than not.”

Then we started talking about working on the game as a whole. “I adored working on God of War. In particular this evolutionary reimagining of the story. I feel like I won the golden ticket to have arrived at the pivotal moment in the game where Kratos is actually taking some responsibility for his actions and challenging himself to come to terms with who he is instead of running from it thereby initiating a catalyst for change to make better choices for his son’s sake.

“I’ve always been a seeker of truth and so I deeply resonate with the flawed hero who like a prodigal son or daughter must reject their origins, go out into the world stumble and fall, pick themselves back up with more awareness, realize they must embrace all that they are rather than resisting it to invoke true change, and then return to the place they began understanding it now from a holistic standpoint. This concept of personal synthesis is captured beautifully in my favorite T.S. Elliot quote: ‘We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.’”

“I am so honored to have been chosen to embody a strong female character within a franchise that prior only represented more one-dimensional depictions of women. Freya is a self-possessed, self-sufficient warrior Goddess, a mother, a magic-wielding witch, a speaker of truth, a friend, a support system to both Kratos and Atreus and there is nothing sexualized about her whatsoever. That’s not to say that feminine sexuality can’t be seen or expressed as an emblem of strength, it absolutely can, but when that is the only attribute showcased for these female characters it’s a disservice to the full capacity of their integrity. She and Kratos are bonded by the commonality and complexities of being Gods and also parents. I am curious where the kinship of their relationship might lead in future tellings of the story.”

But it wasn’t always easy, especially with the motion capture gear. “The only aspect that made the medium of being an avatar in a video game challenging was the machinery strapped to your body to capture the motion and voice performance,” she noted. “Because the application of creating a video game is intrinsically technical almost every moment was already predestined and ‘blocked’ for our characters. That did somewhat rob us as actors to organically ‘discover’ where the scene lived in the rehearsal process which is the standard in some TV and film experiences.

“The theatre is probably the most organic of all the mediums because the rehearsal process is all about finding where the scene lives in the space and between the characters. Other than those two components everything else felt quite freeing and lusciously imaginative as we collectively brought this imaginary world and circumstances to life.”

We’ll be concluding our interview with Danielle in one final part that will be published over the weekend. We thank her for taking the time to chat with us and hope to see her at E3. (That’s all you, Cory.)

God of War is available now for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro.