Jump to content
Sonic

Interview With the Original EVA - Kia Huntzinger

Recommended Posts

Chinese C&C fan site, MYCNC, have posted an interview with Kia Huntzinger. There is probably a lot of fans who have know idea who she is. Kia Huntzinger was EVA before Lt. Eva, she was the friendly voice letting you know your Ion Cannon was ready. Her voice was heard in the original C&C as well as C&C Renegade. And even Sole Survivor. Here's a sample from the interview.

 

Muyang Li: When did you join Westwood Studios? And how did you get the role of EVA? the Electronic Video Agent, probably one of the most iconic roles in C&C series, well, maybe not as iconic as Kane and Mammoth Tank... but still iconic enough to be remembered.

 

Kia Huntzinger: I joined Westwood in February 1993, shortly after the company was purchased by Virgin Interactive Entertainment. During my 10 years at Westwood, I worked my way up from receptionist to Director of Finance, which was my job title when the studio closed in 2003.

 

My first foray into voice-over work occurred in 1993, when Paul Mudra, the head of Westwood’s audio department, asked me to record some sounds for the disk (non CD) version of Lands of Lore. He had me stand in a small closet that had been converted into a recording booth; the ceiling and walls were covered with sound-proofing insulation and there was barely room for me and the microphone. Paul asked me to make various sounds for the female warrior: groans for swinging her weapon, grunts for being hit and a moaning sound for her death. What fun!

 

For C&C, I was initially asked to record some placeholder sounds. The C&C team liked them so much that they asked me to be the official voice of EVA. I was thrilled! For the final game recordings, we used a professional studio. Joe Kucan was at the control board giving me directions through my headphones while I was standing inside the recording booth. A thin glass window was the only thing separating me from Kane...

 

During the subsequent years at Westwood, I did additional voice-over work, both credited and not. Titles included C&C: Sole Survivor, Covert Ops and Renegade. I recorded vocals for a song in Blade Runner (kudos to anyone who knows which one). And as a sort of easter egg, I was the background voice for the starbases in Earth & Beyond. My favorite role, of course, was EVA.

Planet CNC have the full interview in English, the original Chinese version can be found here.

Share this post


Link to post

Excellent. I have always wanted to know more about her. :)

I also want to know more about Brett Sperry, but as mentioned in the interview, he seems to be an extremely private person. :(

It was unfortunate that she did not provide the voice for Eva in Tiberian Sun.

I wonder if EA tried to get her to do the voice in C&C3, but I doubt it...

Share this post


Link to post

well, I guess she was having a baby at that time...

but I also doubt if EA ever asked her to do EVA's voice.

 

Kia is a kind person, I really enjoyed talking to her...

Edited by Webboy

Share this post


Link to post

This is nice :) I hope they will do more interviews with old C&C actors or voice actors(CABAL??)

 

Share this post


Link to post

Yeah - I'd like to know more about Erik Yeo.

 

This is a nice blast from the past interview about all the little things that made the game magic.

Share this post


Link to post
Yeah - I'd like to know more about Erik Yeo.

 

This is a nice blast from the past interview about all the little things that made the game magic.

 

 

well, interesting...

I didn't know that he was the lead designer of Tiberian Dawn...

hopefully I can find him...

Share this post


Link to post
I also want to know more about Brett Sperry, but as mentioned in the interview, he seems to be an extremely private person. :(

Most recently Brett Sperry became co-founder of Jet Set Games along with Adam Isgreen and Rade Stojsavljevic who also worked at Westwood.

 

well, I guess she was having a baby at that time...

but I also doubt if EA ever asked her to do EVA's voice.

 

Kia is a kind person, I really enjoyed talking to her...

How did you track her down?

 

Yeah - I'd like to know more about Erik Yeo.

Erik Yeo was lead designer for C&C (based on the concept created by Joseph Bostic, Eydie Laramore, Brett Sperry). He was co lead designer on Red Alert. Erik Yeo was also lead designer for Tiberian Sun, but mid way through development he left Westwood and Adam Isgreen took over as lead designer. Erik Yeo went on to found 7-Studios.

Share this post


Link to post

I didn't know where he left, but I always thought it was interesting that he left mid-way through TibSun, because it promised so much and failed to live up to the hype, at least in my experience/opinion.

The SP component of the C&C1 and RA1 are the benchmark, and he was part of the team, so I am curious about his story in that time.

 

(I should look at the other games 7 studios have been involved in...)

Share this post


Link to post

Cool, I'm interested how you find these people.

Share this post


Link to post

well, Facebook is THE modern way finding a person. :P

 

BTW..breaking (*shocking*) news...

Mike Verdu left EALA on Thursday. He moved to San Francisco to join Zynga Inc.

 

Zynga claims themselves to be the biggest social network gaming company..

Mike will be the "VP of Game" at Zynga.

Share this post


Link to post

The Tiberian Dawn mod team should ask her if she could do the voice of EVA in their mod because their current EVA voice sucks to be honest.

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

×