Westworld actress Shannon Woodward is playing Dina in The Last of Us: Part II, but you may have noticed that the star doesn’t really look like her in-game counterpart. That’s because Naughty Dog actually face-scanned Cascina Caradonna for the character model, as revealed in the YouTube vlog embedded below.
Get beyond Caradonna’s infectious enthusiasm and there’s actually quite a lot of meat in this video, as she talks about the process behind her inclusion and even shares some side-by-side comparisons. She also touches upon the darker side of the gaming community, as she reels off online comments criticising the character and subsequently her appearance.
You can learn more about the performers in the game courtesy of our The Last of Us 2: Full Cast List summary, and you can also see more of Cascina as she's playing through the original game on YouTube right now. Oh, and for much more on Naughty Dog's latest, check out our The Last of Us 2 guide.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 69
Too many who casually commit hate crime on social media and think they can get away with it due to anonymity.
There have been a fair few that have been sent to prison for their frequent nastiness on platforms such as Twitter. Sometimes their face is shown on the national news for all to see, their worst nightmare. Regardless it's very sad to see that behaviour, no one should have to suffer that.
@LieutenantFatman
What?
@LieutenantFatman The Internet turns people into idiots unfortunately. I’m convinced that almost all of the vile stuff people post online wouldn’t get said in real life.
Nope, they both look like Ellen Page, I sense an upcoming Twitter comment from her
@Xaessya
??
@get2sammyb Doubt that. They do it on facebook in front of all of their friends and family. Anonymity is not the reason.
Cool?
But is it set in space, Naughty Dog? If not, set something in space.
So did she and Ashley Johnson have to mo-cap that scene together? Giggity.
@kyleforrester87
I would be really interested to see ND do some sort of space themed game. Maybe one day.
@ApostateMage There are actually some good videos explaining how they did it.
I remember someone here actually saying ND screwed up in the character’s nose lol.
Also, Ashley Johnson has come a long way from being the Annie remake from Growing Pains. She’s gorgeous!
@LieutenantFatman
You’re going the opposite direction of me. I’d love to see them do fantasy a la The Witcher 3 and Elder Scrolls. For some reason I can’t get into space-themed games but absolutely adore fantasy worlds.
@LieutenantFatman yeah I'd like to see them do something like Prometheus, but good.
@AhmadSumadi
That could be good too. Would be very difficult to top The Witcher 3 though. Easily one of the best games ever made. I suppose if anyone can come close to that, it's ND.
@kyleforrester87
Fingers crossed, it's possible! I reckon they'll have a new ip being developed right now for PS5.
Vive la france.word up son
@LieutenantFatman You're forgetting they did, during the PS1 era with Crash Bandicoot .
Pretty sure several of the levels had our fave marsupial in outer space.
@ToddlerNaruto
Yes, I do seem to recall him wearing a jet pack in CB2, good times!
My france is the champions.
Word up son. France is the champions Hahaha
@kyleforrester87 2018 champions.le blue.word up son
@LieutenantFatman they have the story telling and tech to pull off surpassing the witcher only thing they don't have is the open world rpg experience but iam sure that if guerrilla games can do it off naughty dog can to
@get2sammyb vive la france.sammy.my france is the 2018 champions.Hahaha word up son
@playstation1995 😂 One edit for your post is enough to say that France won but yea vive la France
The actual actress is way more attractive than the character model based on her, that's for sure.
@GKO900 hahaha.im so excited.france is the best.finally.hahaha 2018 champions.word up son
@get2sammyb Hearing how they did it makes you appreciate the animation even more. They are quality those Naughty Dog folks.
@playstation1995 Word uppppppppp!
Shannon, Ashley and this girl are gorgeous, let them kiss!
What a great video! (Well, except the part where the internet trolls start criticizing her appearance). She has such an energetic and fun personality! I hope this opens some future doors for her.
On a related note, I actually prefer my game models to be randoms like this. Seeing Norman Reedus in Death Stranding or Ellen Page in Beyond Two Souls or Rami Malek in Until Dawn is cool and all, but I find no less enjoyment when I play a game that models characters after unknowns. In fact, I think it has the potential to detract if a famous actor appears as a character in the game. Can you see Norman Reedus and not think of Daryl from the TV show The Walking Dead? Heck, I have a hard enough time being pulled out of the immersion when I hear a familiar voice actor. It took me a while to get it out my head while playing Horizon Zero Dawn that I wasn’t playing as Chloe Price. Kept waiting for Aloy to say, “That’s one hella big robot dinosaur!”
@playstation1995 well done. Glad you beat the Croatia as we England should have done so and met you in the final. Not sure how Croatia made it so far?
@3MonthBeef Disgusting behaviour.
If she lent her likeness, can she get it back? Never understood that phrase. That said, the trailer was gosh darned it amazing.
@PS_Nation vive la france.2018 world champion.word up son
Se ci bon world champion.merci.word up son
@Jriibz She's not even the actress; they're just using her likeness. The part is being played by Shannon Woodward.
She's very good looking and I don't think Naughty Dog's artists did her justice from what we've seen. But I'm not surprised, very few Western studios these days have the balls to put a beautiful woman in their game because they're afraid of getting criticized by idiots who don't buy their games anyway. Which is why I give credit to a studio like CD Projekt Red for just making games and telling everybody 'hey, if you don't like it, f**k off.' The way it should be. ND's artists are much more capable than this but 90% of Western studios have gone down the 'realism' rabbit hole. And sadly I'm also seeing this garbage creep into Japanese games that have a Western appeal. Capcom is the main culprit. I can't wait for Devil May Cry 5, and Resident Evil 2 remake is my most anticipated game by far, but the character models, male and female, are absolutely horrendous and I blame it on going for 'realism.' Get that trash out of games.
@playstation1995 mot jusqu'à son fils!!! It’s word up son in French.
🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷
Is Shannon Woodard the photo on top right? My wife and I just stared at that photo and a dozen pics of her and Google and can't find a match. We watch WW and I thought it might be Clementine but my wife said no, so we Googled Shannon Woodward. Never in a million years would gave guessed Elsie looking at that pic.
@rjejr I think in reading a lot of these comments, there is a general misunderstanding. The character Dina’s voice actress is professional actress Shannon Woodward from WW. The character Dina’s facial appearance is based on the girl in the photo (Cascina Caradonna) and video (the photo actually doesn’t look like her that much, compared to her in the video) who is a relative unknown apparently, the way she talks about it on the video it makes it sound like she’s a high school student or something who kinda got lucky to work with ND to be the face for Dina. In the video she even addresses how weird it was to see the game with her face but someone else’s (Woodward’s) voice coming out of it.
@Th3solution Thanks for that, makes sense now. I couldn't watch more than 1 minute of the video though, her voice was killing me. Well maybe not so much her voice, that was fine, but the way she talked, she did everything but say "fer sure, totally, awesome, whatever." I just can't stand youthful talking to close into the camera exuberance.
@rjejr Lol, she gives a very American teenager vibe, but you gotta admire her enthusiasm. Especially at the end when she reads some of the comments of people being quite unkind about her appearance, calling her “ugly” and that they “hate her already” and she seems to just laugh it off. Doesn’t dampen her spirits at all, which is really impressive as most girls worry about how they look too much.
I love when americans have names that sound italian but are impossible to find in Italy.
If you translate Cascina Caradonna you get Farmhouse Dearwoman...
@mkonji you got a problem with bigger noses?
@Th3solution "but you gotta admire her enthusiasm"
Well, can I admire her enthusiasm w/o actually having to watc hher talk? Like, just let me read the crib notes or something, for sure. I'm an old cranky guy, there's only so much enthusiasm I can bare.
@naruball they do it because there is no repercussion to them doing it even if it's not anonymous they can just block or ignore any responses they don't like and they don't actually have to face anyone they are attacking
social media is one of the best and worse aspects of the internet
@3MonthBeef
Doesn't change my mind, but hey, if you like the character model that's fine. I think Naughty Dog is capable of better.
@get2sammyb I wish that were true. I've been on the real-life receiving end of spewed hatred. I've had friends beaten walking home from the bar. The hate is real, unfortunately.
@Gamer83 I dunno, I think she looks great in the game. They've obviously made some very minor adjustments, but it's clearly still the same person.
@Gamer83 Yea, it's a taboo to make video game female characters look more attractive these days. ME3, Spiderman, Injustice, etc etc..
@kyleforrester87 mine is bigger...
The most boring character in the game so far! I have no idea what Ellie sees in her lol
@whywai88 I believe what you're experiencing is the uncanny valley as the examples you provided are real faces being used in an increasingly realistic medium.
Awww, she’s such a cutie. <3
@LieutenantFatman no one should ever go to jail for nasty comments...
Just realised this article is years old lol
She so cheesy i love it. 😆
@get2sammyb completely agree! I used to think it was the anonymity of it, but clearly everyone is themselves online these days, so it isn't that. It's knowing that there are no consequences for what they say. I don't mean legal consequences, more like knowing they won't get punched in the face like they would if they said some of this vile stuff to someone on the street.
@kyleforrester87 With all of the Savage Starlight references in both TLOU games and in Uncharted 4, I fully expect a sci-fi ND game is on the way.
I would argue they used the "Likeness" of a person and change other parts if that character to brake gender stereotype's, basically intersectionality.
@AhmadSumadi a lot of people dont know her very first role was in LionHeart with Jean Claude Van Damme lol. She plays his niece. Im a big jcvd fan and rewatch most all his films. Saw the s
Name in the credits one day and was like...wait is that the same...lol
@Richnj perfect response! Actresses are being rendered now and they’re using real people. Some gamers want sculpted women who look flawless and that’s cool. But when they use an actress’s real face then I don’t see what the fuss is about.
She’s much better looking in real life that’s for sure! Congrats to her though, it’s certainly a claim to fame and a very rare opportunity.
@Elex Using a really cliche story idea for Ellie to be so angry -1000.
Amazing what this old PS4 Tech can still do when the right people are using it correctly.
I remembered on my PS1 where we had FMV cutscenes then it jumped back into the crappy graphics
I honestly expected to be a bit more impressed by the character models in the sequel, specifically the faces. They're by no means bad, but just not as impressive as I was expecting. And some are definitely better than others. Spoiled by Death Stranding, MK11, and Red Dead Redemption 2 I think...
@Shepherd_Tallon
I hope so, always wanted to see ND do a science fiction game in space. Would be interesting to see.
@oldschool1987
I suspect you might feel differently if you were continually the victim of hate crime, threats to family, etc. Words can cause significant harm.
Oh god don't let the incel army find her Twitter handle...
(Didn't think this would be my first comment haha).
@LieutenantFatman hate crime on social media hahahaha. You're insane, man
@LieutenantFatman oh come on, man. Would it be nice if everybody was kind online? Sure it would. Id love that tbh, but "hate crime online". That's just silly. You cant stop people being jerks and attempting to do so is a step too close to fascism for my taste
@Kafkaesque
Ok. People are arrested for hate crimes online frequently, plenty of high profile cases are reported on in the media. It's easy to check that information if you're not aware but it happens all the time, that's just fact. I'm not interested in disputing well documented facts, waste of time quite honestly. But you believe whatever makes you happy, have a nice day.
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