One of the most controversial characters in Overwatch is probably the Jetpack Cat. The actress who lends her voice to the character has been particularly excited about the role.
Who are we talking about? Jennifer Hale is a Canadian-American actress and is considered one of the most well-known voice actors in the video game industry. In film and television, she is known as a voice actor for many characters, such as Avatar Kyoshi in Avatar, Sam in Totally Spies!, or Aayla Secura from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
While she has voiced characters like Commander Shepard in Mass Effect or Bastila Shan in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in video games, her new role is controversial. She voices the Jetpack Cat from Overwatch in the English voiceover.
Although she is already heard as Ashe in the game, the actress specifically auditioned for the role of Jetpack Cat, as she explains in an interview with Gamesradar.
I love it, I swear. I am so grateful that we had only a pretty short lead time between recording and release because it was very hard for me to keep quiet about it. I have put in a lot of work, but for this project, I thought to myself, “Guys, I’m a cat – meow!”
Jennifer Hale in an interview with Gamesradar on Tiktok
Here you can watch the trailer for Overwatch:
A Controversy That’s Fun
Why is the character controversial? The Jetpack Cat divides the Overwatch community. The character is one of the most banned characters in the game and has split the community like hardly any other hero (Source: Blizzard).
A major issue with the cat is probably the physics. “Fika,” as the cat is called, has a small hitbox and is therefore harder to hit than other characters. Even professionals have a hard time with her.
Furthermore, many players have recognized the troll potential of the cat and use her abilities to pull enemies, but also friends, into the depths of the maps or just to annoy.
How does the actress see it? In the interview on Tiktok, the voice actress expresses her joy about the role. When asked how it feels to play such a controversial role, she says, “Oh, it’s perfect, it’s absolutely poetic.”
The actress sees the whole controversy calmly and simply enjoys being able to voice a cute cat. In the interview, she joyfully reflects on her role.
Hardly any character has divided the community as much as the Jetpack Cat “Fika”. For some players, however, the cat was also a reason to check back into the game. So also with MeinMMO editor Caroline Fuller: After 2,500 hours in Overwatch, I never wanted to play a hero shooter again, then they showed me a cat … with jetpacks
