![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/4a0c\/live\/74885e90-8b0b-11ef-8936-1185f9e7d044.jpg.webp\")
Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nMore and more actors are starring in videogame adaptations, though not many go the other way.<\/p>\n But that’s what Anya Chalotra, who you might recognise from Netflix hit The Witcher, has done.<\/p>\n She’s swapped costumes for a mo-cap suit in her starring role in story-driven action-adventure Unknown 9: Awakening.<\/p>\n Anya plays Haroona, a character with supernatural, dimension-hopping powers on a quest to stop a secretive group from altering the course of history.<\/p>\n OK, you might have heard something similar before. But Anya says the role is rewriting the narrative in other ways.<\/p>\n The game is set in 20th-Century India and is one of only a few released by a large publisher to feature a South Asian protagonist.<\/p>\n “I’ve not explored that part of myself – that fierce part of myself – in a role yet,” Anya tells BBC Asian Network News.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Anya, who was born in Wolverhampton, is probably best-known to audiences for her breakout role as Yennefer of Vengerberg in The Witcher.<\/p>\n The Netflix hit is expected to return next year, with season four starring new lead Liam Hemsworth.<\/p>\n Anya says the move from live-action to recording motion-capture sequences for a video game was intimidating at first.<\/p>\n “You step into ‘the volume’, as they call it,” she says, referring to the space where recordings take place.<\/p>\n “You’ve got a camera on your head and I was like: ‘How am I gonna bring my process to this world?”<\/p>\n But, as she settled into the role, she says she was surprised by the similarities with more traditional acting work.<\/p>\n “We had a director who was directing us like any other scene.<\/p>\n “And we do take after take after take to try and get the best one.<\/p>\n “So it wasn’t as different as I thought it might be,” she says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Anya says another thing she tries to bring to all of her acting work is her dual heritage – her father is English, her mother is Indian.<\/p>\n Like her character in the game, she says she’s experienced “coming from two different worlds”.<\/p>\n “Two strong worlds.<\/p>\n “Taken to the mandir [Hindi place of worship] one day and then Sunday school the next.<\/p>\n “I think that’s why acting’s helped so much – but I’m still figuring it out and think I will be for a long time,” she says. <\/p>\n Anya says audiences can tend to see her characters in terms of just one side of her personality, but she doesn’t see it that way.<\/p>\n “I am both. I’m not just one,” she says.<\/p>\n “I come with both – every character has both. <\/p>\n “Even though you and I talk about Haroona being an Indian woman. She’s got so much of me, the other side of me.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Anya says throwing herself into complex female roles is all-consuming and it can be hard to leave her characters behind when she clocks off.<\/p>\n “I’m still in the process of doing that to be honest,” she says.<\/p>\n “I do struggle because every day you’re in the mindset for so long and although I’m not a method actor, it does alter you.<\/p>\n “And it weirdly forms new ideas of yourself because you’re practising a habit or thought constantly as this character.”<\/p>\n But she has come up with a few methods.<\/p>\n “I take my hair and have a shower and I literally cleanse myself of a character,” she says. <\/p>\n “I try and do as much exercise as possible around work, but that’s difficult.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Unknown 9: Awakening, is part of an attempt to launch a new franchise, with other tie-in works planned to build out the game’s universe.<\/p>\n As games companies look to find new audiences in a time when the industry is struggling, it’s likely the game’s publisher Bandai Namco will be hoping the game appeals to a wide range of people.<\/p>\n Having a South Asian character front and centre could be one way to do that.<\/p>\n “That’s so exciting for me because I know I’ll go home and see the girls in my family pick up this game and be excited by what they’re seeing and who they’re playing as,” Anya says.<\/p>\n “I’ll feel chuffed. I’ll feel honoured.”<\/p>\n But she also hopes people from other backgrounds will connect with the experience.<\/p>\n “To be part of something which is going to be seen and played by, hopefully, thousands of people, that’s all I want,” she says.<\/p>\n “For people to know how brilliant this world is – India and the culture.<\/p>\n “It’s a blessing to be a part of.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Listen to Ankur Desai’s show on BBC Asian Network live<\/a> from 15:00-18:00 Monday to Thursday – or listen back here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n‘Coming from two strong worlds’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Bandai](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/294a\/live\/68326910-8b0b-11ef-81f8-1f28bcc5be15.jpg.webp\")
Bandai Namco<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Bandai](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/9883\/live\/82aa3a70-8b0b-11ef-b6b0-c9af5f7f16e4.jpg.webp\")
Bandai Namco<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/aa31\/live\/afbd0390-8b96-11ef-b6b0-c9af5f7f16e4.jpg.webp\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n