Today, Remedy released a new interview which explores the actors behind our favourite Alan Wake 2 characters. In the past, they revealed pieces from Peter Franzén (Ilmo and Jaakko Koskela), as well as a joint interview with Melanie Liburd (Saga Anderson) and Ilkka Villi (Alan Wake, Mr Scratch and Thomas Zane). Today we hear from the wonderful Janina Gavankar and Sam Lake as they talk about the slightly world-weary but ruthlessly driven FBC agent, Keiran Esetvez.
The interview was recorded back in December 2022, a year before Alan Wake 2 came out. In the piece, they don't discuss The Lake House, which featured Gavankar as the lead, so it's a little unclear how far they were along with the plans for the expansion. But it is a great exploration into how she approached Estevez and how it feels to be a fan stepping into the Remedy Connected Universe.
You can watch the full interview below or on the Remedy YouTube channel, HERE.
The actors behind Alan Wake 2 - Janina Gavankar [Transcript]
[Teaser] Janina Gavankar: And I get to play a character that just exists in your Remedy Extended universe.
[Teaser] Sam Lake: Yes.
[Teaser] Janina Gavankar: This is wild.
[Teaser] Sam Lake: Yeah, it's awesome.
On screen question: What were your first impressions of Agent Estevez?
Janina Gavankar: Kiran has worked for the Federal Bureau of Control and sacrificed a lot of her life to be able to do it. And that's exhausting for her, but there's very few people who can do the job. And, you know... somebody's got to save the world from AWEs. So when you first meet her, I mean, I feel like you get a sense that she knows more than Saga and that she's trying to save Saga from becoming her almost, right? Like knowing too much and not being able to go back and have normalcy in her life.
On screen title: Janina Gavankar & Sam Lake / Kiran Estevez & Alex Casey
Janina Gavankar: Hi, I'm Janina Gavankar, and I play Agent Kiran Estevez in Alan Wake 2.
Sam Lake: Hello, I'm Sam Lake from Remedy. I am playing Alex Casey in Alan Wake 2. As you can tell, I'm totally losing my voice right now. But it doesn't matter because Alex Casey's voice is done by the wonderful actor James McCaffrey.
Janina Gavankar: When Kiran meets Saga for the first time... it was interesting to have this feeling of, like, being protective.
Sam Lake: Yep.
Janina Gavankar: Seeing things of herself in Saga and being like, “trust me, you don't want to cross this line because there's no coming back from this. When you see all the things that we've seen at FBC, you could lose your life to this. Trust me, I have.” So I think that she's impressed by her, but also has a lot of protective feelings about distancing her.
Sam Lake: Yeah.
Janina Gavankar: Hmm-mm
Sam Lake: Yeah, it's interesting because at that point in the story, Saga has already been pulled into this craziness. And you as the player playing Saga want to proceed, but then we meet Estevez, and she kind of stops us.
Janina Gavankar: Hmm-mm
Sam Lake: Like, don't go forward.
On screen question: What do you like about Agent Estevez?
Janina Gavankar: One thing I like about playing Kiran is that she's not the “stereotypical” strong female lead. Nobody's doing that in Remedy. Nobody's doing that “Well, I'm not like the other girls.” There's no competition between women. These are just people trying their best with what they have in front of them. And that's it.
On screen question: What got you interested in working on Alan Wake 2?
Janina Gavankar: I've been a fan of Remedy for a while now. I 100%ed Quantum Break and Control, and I found a little Easter Egg in Quantum Break called Time Knife. And I did a little table reading with the writer of that screenplay as well as some of the cast members, and it was ridiculous. But that's also how I like somehow became friends with you.
Sam Lake: Yeah.
Janina Gavankar: And I would have just done it even if you didn't notice. I just thought it was funny, but it started a nice, long friendship.
[As Estevez] Janina Gavankar: Bad news: It's highly classified.
On screen question: What is your favourite part of working in the games industry?
Janina Gavankar: I've been working in the games industry for a while now, and I do a few different things. I obviously perform, but I also consult on the narrative side, on the casting side. So that is really where you get to have the most fun, I think, because you're there when you're blue-sky-ing, when you're thinking, “What could this be?” and “What do we love?” and “What do we want to try?” and go down as a rabbit hole, and who's right to put this on their shoulders and lead us up the mountain? And then I kind of leave for a long time, and then I come back in the end. You know, that's kind of what I find myself doing a lot now, and the smartest artists on the planet are working in the games industry. Every person who works in the games industry has to be a multidisciplinary artist. You have to understand so many technical things, as well as being a creative, vulnerable heart. You have to have so many disciplines to be able to work here. It's enthralling.
On screen question: What are you most excited about in Alan Wake 2?
Janina Gavankar: I love horror games. I love horror movies. I also write and direct horror pieces. I like it because the genre of horror has the guts to look at the things that you are too scared to look at yourself. So, it's a Trojan horse to allow you to open yourself up to vulnerabilities that you just can't in real life. There's also the thematic rabbit hole of duality. In this game, that I think is going to be really scary because everybody has many sides of themselves. But I mean, everybody walks the line between good and evil and making their choices from moment to moment and, you know, almost nobody wants to admit to their dark side that it exists. So, because I'm the collector of all the things, because I'm the reader of all the manuscripts, I can't wait to connect everything. I can't wait to find it all and go on the Reddit and talk to all of the people about what's connected to what. Like, I just can't wait to find all of the red strings that connect all of the games in this universe. Ah, I can't wait.
