Iconic Resident Evil 2 ending would have been very different without voice actor’s request
Resident Evil 2 voice actor Stephanie Panisello revealed that an iconic scene in would have been very different if she hadn’t pushed for a change to one of Claire’s endings.
The remake, released in 2019, didn’t just earn its age rating as a result of gore, Capcom’s acclaimed reimagining of the survival horror classic is littered with filth at every turn.
Corpses pile high in the streets of Raccoon City, domestic waste litters sidewalks, and the game’s iconic police station would take an army of janitors a lifetime to pass health inspections.
But even overrun by the undead, Raccoon City’s biggest offenders are its still-living inhabitants and their affection for the F-bomb.
Both Leon and Claire drop their fair share of expletives during Resident Evil 2’s runtime, but the latter gets the last hurrah. In the remake’s closing moments, Claire impales big-bad William Birkin’s hideous final form with a metal pipe, bidding the G-Virus Petri dish farewell.
“Goodbye, f**ker!”, she yells with genuine conviction, sending Birkin to his explosive doom.
It’s a celebrated scene in Resident Evil 2 that may never have passed Claire’s lips if voice actor Stephanie Panisello hadn’t pushed for it.
Potty-mouthed
During an interview with Dexerto’s Fall Damage, we spoke to Panisello, who revealed how she specifically requested free rein to close Claire’s campaign with one last curse word.
“That’s one [scene] where I was like, can we please try something also, because I think we had a much cleaner version,” she explained. “The team was like, ‘listen, we want you to make her yours’, so I really was just like, let’s go at it all the way. If there’s cuss words coming out, it’s realistic.”
“Thankfully, between Capcom’s directors and writer, they allowed for it,” she continued, adding, “because yeah, there was a little bit of concern to end this note on ‘goodbye f**ker’.”
Considering how well-received Resident Evil 2 ultimately ended up being on release in 2019, Panisello considers it the right call. “But it felt right, right? We needed all the different versions of the f-bomb in this game, and this was the biggest f**ker of them all.”
Resident Evil 2 was followed by remakes of RE3 and RE4 in 2020 and 2023, respectively. Following leaks, the next entry in the series is expected to be Resident Evil 9.
