The Witcher's Anya Chalotra talks exploring new horizons in Unknown 9 Awakening

Recently I sat down with Anya Chalotra, best-known for her role of Yennefer of Vengerberg in Netflix’s The Witcher to talk about Unknown 9 Awakening.

For those not aware, Unknown 9: Awakening is an upcoming narrative-adventure game, one I got to play during a preview event earlier this year. Unknown 9 Awakening follows the story of Haroona, who’s on a quest for vengeance but ends up entangled in the web of a secret society. As a Quaestor, Haroona can access a mysterious realm known as the Fold and use various powers and abilities to fight evil and interact with the environment.

Check out the trailer for Unknown 9 Awakening below

The interview covered the process of bringing Anya’s character, Haroona to life, their personality and motivations, and what the future could hold for the character and series going forward.

I started my interview with Anya with the one question I simply had to ask an actor starring in a video game, what games do they play?

Fortunately I wasn’t disappointed as Anya shared some absolute bangers that she plays in her free time, saying “I wasn't really much of a gamer until I began a job called The Witcher,” which was a book, and then a video game, a huge game so I immersed myself in the gaming world then fully.”

She continued that before her time on The Witcher she also played Mario Kart at home, and would describe herself as “a gamer at heart.”

When asked what it was about Unknown 9 that drew her to the role, Anya said when “the opportunity presented itself, and it was the perfect timing, because I was so eager to do something with my body, physical theatre of some sort. I've always been interested in motion capture, and what an amazing opportunity it was.”

Motion capture is obviously a huge part of video game development nowadays, though many actors have remarked on what a challenge it can be to imagine yourself as part of a video game world, when there isn’t actually anything around you.

Bandai Namco

When asked what that experience was like from her own perspective, Anya said: “Yeah, it's wild, you become a child again, and in the best sense you don't really feel an increased responsibility or anything like that. You still have to meet this incredibly complex character, but from a really authentic place, because you have nothing, you have no makeup on, you've got nothing to hide behind, you look like a fool because you've got dots all over you, and you're wearing a leotard, you're naked in a sense.”

Anya went on to describe the process as “liberating, the most liberating experience I've ever had on a job.”

When asked more about Haroona, her personal traits and her motivations, she was described as a character “on a mission to seek revenge” as a man called Vincent took the life of her mentor Rekha. “She is incredibly capable and possesses powers that she doesn't even know of at the beginning of the game, and learns along the way through the choices she makes and the people she meets and challenges , she's resilient and wise beyond her years, probably because there's something behind her, you know, there's this, I feel like this force field behind her, like she knows there's something bigger than her that's guiding her, she goes on a journey.”

Now as a Witcher fan myself I was dying to ask something related to Anya’s time as Yennefer in the TV series. The Witcher was already an established IP by the time the show came around, with books and games to learn the character of Yennefer while seeing opportunities to put a fresh spin on her narrative. Haroona on the other hand is a brand-new character in a new world, so I wondered whether that was easier or harder to work with as opposed to a character with such a deep history.

“There's a lot of freedom, there's a lot of freedom in playing Haroona, because it was a video game. It was new, this is the first video game of that world so it was new for everyone, and that made it easier.”

Bandai Namco

Anya went on to explain that there was “such experience and wisdom and guidance everywhere, I work with amazing actors who had done motion capture before and a wonderful director, Damien, and an amazing tech team. So you know, all I could do was trust the instinct that they trusted in me and go with the flow.

When asked if she’ll be playing the game on its release date, and if she’d be interested in returning to the world of Unknown 9 Awakening in the future, Anya humorously said “can you imagine if I didn't? Of course, I will 100% be playing it, it will be a big moment, and I'm sure I'll have, like a lot of my cousins around, and we'll have a go at playing as Haroona, I've loved it. It’s one of the best jobs I've ever done, so I'd love to keep doing it.”

Unknown 9 Awakening will launch later this month on 17 October, for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5.