Leon Kennedy Voice Actor Says Nirvana, Metallica Inspired Performance for Resident Evil Remakes

“I actually take a lot of deep inspiration in my acting through music to get into the right mindset,” he explained. And for Leon, that apparently means banging his head to the Seattle Sound.

While he didn’t “think too much about it” while recording for Resident Evil 2, Apostolides says he listened to a lot of Nirvana at the time, saying their “grunge, rock energy was good for younger Leon.”

He described Alice in Chains as a “huge” inspiration for how he handled Leon in Resident Evil 4, specifically naming songs like Them Bones and Would, as well as music from the group’s later albums like The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here. (Yes, that’s the album’s real name, and it’s fantastic. You’ll thank me for putting you on.)

🎵Nick Apostolides shared the music that helped shape Leon’s different eras, from Resident Evil 2 to Resident Evil Requiem.

In a Cameo video, the actor revealed that Nirvana inspired his performance as the young Leon in RE:2, Alice in Chains became the biggest influence for… pic.twitter.com/mF110KhRP1

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Resident Evil Requiem, the series’ latest installment, is the oldest Leon has ever been — and so, he has old man tastes, with Apostolides saying he listened to “classic, 1980s Metallica” to get into character.

“That super heavy, fast, lockstep rhythms and stuff like that. I was using a lot in that song ‘Orion.’ That is my favorite song of all time. …I had that in my head. It’s just such a heavy riff, and there’s so much behind that song about why they wrote it, how they wrote it. I just love it.”

Fans are, predictably, going gaga over this information, which is just the latest tidbit from Apostolides about his time playing Leon. Earlier this month, the actor said Capcom unfortunately decided to cut what would have been his “favorite” line in Requiem — and yes, it’s a corny one-liner.