Harassment towards voice actors is sadly not new in various industries, and unfortunately, Ada Wong’s VA, Lily Gao, has suffered the same treatment. Numerous ‘fans’ have been insulting her on social media due to their dissatisfaction with her performance in Resident Evil 4 Remake.
Initially, Gao only locked down the comment sections, but the bullying has gotten so bad that she has since deleted all of her posts on her Instagram account, leaving only one screenshot that speaks about the Role of Privilege. She took it from a document titled “Understanding Race and Privilege,” which was published by the National Association of School Psychologists.
This round of backlash may also be motivated by Capcom’s decision not to hire Jolene Anderson, who was the original voice actress of Ada in the remake. Some fans believe that the company does not want to deal with Anderson after she decided to join a union, but others say it was due to them wanting to hire a voice actress with the correct background to play a Chinese-American character.
However, Capcom’s motivation is not the point here. It is simply not correct to harass someone simply because you are dissatisfied with something. It seems that some people can’t understand that their hurtful words are directed toward fellow human beings with feelings. Even if Gao’s performance is unsatisfactory, that is no excuse to hurl derogatory remarks and insults toward her.
Hopefully, this horrible event will not discourage Gao from continuing her work as a voice actress. Perhaps there is a chance that we will still be seeing her in the upcoming Mercenary mode and possibly even in the rumored Separate Ways DLC.
Resident Evil 4 Remake is now available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
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