I was rewatching Andor last night, because that’s just who I am as a person. I’ve been really enjoying it! I think it’s excellent Star Wars, a show that rejects the wink-wink, nudge-nudge, Remember This nostalgia of the Disney era in favour of telling a difficult, tense and thrilling story. But there’s one part of the show that I’ve struggled with. It’s something you may not have even noticed but has been caving my head in. And last night, it finally crystallised for me.
The whole time I’ve been watching the show, I’ve been trying to figure something out. The Imperial officer, Dedra Meero, the character who is slowly but surely piecing the nascent Rebellion’s strategy together, sounded familiar. Her voice, I mean. I’ve always had an ear for voices — my family will tell you when I was a kid that I became obsessed with the voice actors who appeared in my favourite cartoons. I could pick them out anywhere. That’s still true today. I can recognise the voices of certain actors, even when they’re doing their best to hide their presence.
Or when they appear in live action and I’ve never seen their faces before.
Denise Gough, the actor playing Dedra Meero, was frustrating me. In a rare lapse, I realised I recognised her voice but couldn’t place it. And I wasn’t just going to Google it because that’s cheating. I had to figure this out myself because I am an insane person that does everything the hard way.
And then, out of nowhere, my friend Keagan ruined that plan by messaging me and saying “Isn’t it wild that Yennefer of Vengeberg is hunting the Rebel Alliance on Andor?” The wave of frustration I felt for not getting to the answer myself, mixed with instant recognition and relief, was palpable.
But yes. It’s true. Denise Gough, who plays Dedra Meero in Andor, also played Yennefer in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
So if, like me, you’ve been beating your head against the wall trying to figure out she sounds like, now you know. She sounds like your prickly, headstrong sorceress wife from another life.
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