The English actors behind FF14's beloved twins acted in silos for 9 whole years before meeting in the real world, but became fast friends: 'it's become easier to bounce off each other'

An image of Alphinaud and Alisaie sitting together at a table. Alphinaud, a studious young elezen, takes a sip of his tea while Alisaie sulks into her chair.
(Image credit: Square Enix)

If you've played Final Fantasy 14, you'll be familiar with the Leveilleur twins: Two young prodigies in their respective fields. Alphinaud is intelligent, cautious, and a magnificent diplomat, while Alisaie is a headstrong go-getter who—spoilers for Endwalker—eventually makes good on her promises to cure the world. 

They're exceptionally well-written characters, to the point where a single dialogue prompt in Endwalker's finale Ultima Thule had me blubbering (I'd made a promise, damnit). In the game's stellar English localisation they're played by Colin Ryan and Bethan Walker, respectively, sharing heaps of voiced lines with each other over the game's hundreds-hours long story.

The two actors recently spoke with Fanbyte's Jessica Scharnagle in an extended interview—in it, they talk about how (despite their character's close bond), neither actor had actually met each other until 2022. That's seven years after they first appeared in Heavensward (there was a change in localisation company), and almost nine years when you take development time into account, according to Walker. 

"All of a sudden," Walker says, "we're getting to know each other. And because we've been working together loads in the last couple of years in terms of conventions … it means when we go back into the studio, it's like having a friend with you."

She adds that, even though their further recording sessions have still been long-distance, "it's become easier to bounce off each other in the studio, even with [Ryan] not acting there. Because we have this kind of experience of what we're like in real life now, so it's been great."

Ryan, meanwhile, recounts the surreal experience of feeling like you already know a person you've never actually met: "It was strange, wasn't it? Because for those seven/eight years leading up to that, we've obviously heard each other's voices," he explains how—if Walker had already been recording for Alisaie, then Square Enix would "feed her lines in so that I could play off them.

"There was a familiarity, I guess, when we first met." Ryan says that he and Walker have "become really good friends," and that the experience "has really changed the way that I do my scenes with Alisaie, because we have a real relationship to base [our work] off of. It's definitely helped."

Even outside of the booth, however, Walker says their new friend status has them workshopping their performances: "We're talking more now, together, about the plot and about where it's been and where it's going. I think we can push each other a little harder in-studio now that we feel safe … I think it can only benefit the game, now that we're friends."

Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

Read more
Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale, who played femshep, 'saw no line' before she recorded them for Bioware's flagship trilogy: 'It was all cold reading on the spot'
An image of Alphinaud and Alisaie sitting together at a table. Alphinaud, a studious young elezen, takes a sip of his tea while Alisaie sulks into her chair.
Final Fantasy 14 data sleuth gathers more info on the game's script, finds Alphinaud is the king of yappers—though Wuk Lamat's in the top 3 after just 1 expansion
Astarion, a beautiful vampire spawn in Baldur's Gate 3, looks dubiously at the player character.
'What do you mean real actors?': Astarion's VO, who shared an awards category with Idris Elba after Baldur's Gate 3, remembers the dark ages of mocap
FF14 Dawntrail
Not only did FF14's controversial chatter Wuk Lamat rank 1st for words spoken in Dawntrail, 'Wuk Lamat' was the most-used phrase by the characters in 2nd and 3rd place, too
Baldur's Gate 3 - Lae'Zel looks disaproving
Lae'zel's voice actor Devora Wilde also auditioned for Shadowheart, Karlach, 'And probably Astarion?'
The boss of Dawntrail's 4th raid, Wicked Thunder, holds an Electrope cube to the air and floods it with levin.
'It's simply impossible to make a difficulty level that's just right for all players': How Final Fantasy 14's lead battle designer has been playing a precarious balancing game for Dawntrail's dungeons and raids
Latest in Final Fantasy
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Sphene applauds in Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story.
I'm not yelling 'we're so back!' yet, but Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story could be the first sign the MMO is returning to what made it so critically-acclaimed
Koana, a main character in Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, stares thoughtfully at a book in his hands.
After a controversial coding slip-up fed stalkers info on their victim's alts, FF14 wipes the slate clean to try and fix its mistakes
A lolporrit squeals in excitement while being driven in a moon buggie in Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, patch 7.2.
Final Fantasy 14 patch 7.2's trailer has me finally hyped to get stuck back in—and to go to the moon and pilot some mechs, because why not
In a world of WoW Classics and Old School RuneScapes… could Final Fantasy 14 ever do the same?
Honey B Lovely
The state of Final Fantasy 14 in 2025: It's in a weird spot, huh?
Latest in News
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'