While Henry Cavill may be the most well-known actor to have portrayed Geralt of Rivia, he's not the first name that springs to mind for many, especially within the gaming community. For gamers, Doug Cockle, the voice behind Geralt in CD Projekt Red’s critically acclaimed RPG series, is often seen as the definitive White Wolf. Recently, the worlds of Cavill's and Cockle's Geralts have intersected, with Cockle lending his iconic voice to the character in Netflix's new animated film, *The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep*.
In this new role, Cockle isn't reprising his video game Geralt but instead voicing a different iteration of the character. Importantly, he was not directed to mimic Henry Cavill or Liam Hemsworth, who will take over the role in the next season of the live-action series. This allowed Cockle to maintain the same approach and method that have defined his portrayal of Geralt over nearly two decades, ensuring fans will still hear the familiar, gravelly tones they've grown to love.
Cockle first crafted Geralt's distinctive voice back in 2005 while recording for the initial Witcher video game. He recalls the challenge of finding the right vocal register: "The thing I found most challenging about recording *Witcher 1* was actually the voice itself. When I first started, Geralt's voice was very deep in my register. It was something I had to push towards."
During those early days, there were no established guidelines on how long voice actors should record in one session, leading Cockle to spend eight or nine hours a day voicing Geralt. "I was going back to my hotel just going, 'Wow, my throat is ripped'," he remembers. This struggle persisted into the recording of *The Witcher 2*, but over time, his vocal cords adapted and strengthened, much like an athlete conditioning their muscles.
A significant shift occurred during *The Witcher 2*'s development when the English translations of Andrzej Sapkowski's books became available. "The books started to come out in English while I was recording *Witcher 2*," Cockle explains. "Before that, it was the developers from CD Projekt Red who taught me everything I needed to know about Geralt. As soon as *The Last Wish* came out in English, I was down at the bookstore buying it, and I tore through it. And I understood things about Geralt from reading just that one book that I didn't understand at all before."
Cockle reflects on the developers' guidance: "The developers kept saying, 'He's emotionless'. And I was like, 'Okay, I get it, I get it, but I'm an actor. I want to play with emotions.' But I better understood the book's push for as flat an emotional life for him as possible."
Doug Cockle's Geralt appears alongside Joey Batey's Jaskier and other members of the Netflix cast. | Image credit: Netflix
Cockle quickly fell in love with Sapkowski's works, appreciating the author's skill. A fan of Tolkien's *The Lord of the Rings*, he found a new connection with this fantasy universe. Among Sapkowski's novels, *Season of Storms* stands out to him as a story he'd love to voice in future adaptations.
"It's one of those stories that when I read it, I was like, 'Oh, this is horrible. This is awful.' [But] it's thrilling at the same time," he says. "There are some really graphic fight scenes that Sapkowski gives us, and I think that would be a really fun story to turn into an anime or a TV episode."
Currently, fans can experience Cockle's Geralt in *The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep*, Netflix's latest animated adventure based on the short story *A Little Sacrifice* from the *Sword of Destiny* collection. This dark and twisted take on Hans Christian Andersen’s *The Little Mermaid* sees Geralt embroiled in a conflict between two kingdoms after a mermaid and a human prince fall in love. While the film features intense action and political drama, Cockle finds the lighter moments, like a humorous conversation between Geralt and Jaskier by a campfire, most compelling. These scenes showcase Geralt's softer side, often overlooked but integral to his character.
"Part of liking acting is liking all those different aspects of a character's personality and the different choices that could be made and how they might approach those choices," Cockle explains. "I enjoy the gravitas of Geralt when he's all serious and mopey and whatever, but I do also like those moments when he's trying to be light. When he's trying to crack a joke and it just doesn't go very well for him most of the time because he's just not funny."
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep Geeked Week 2024 Teaser Stills
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While much of Cockle’s work on Sirens of the Deep was familiar, the project presented a unique challenge: speaking in a fictional language, mermaid. "I found doing this really difficult," he confesses. "I got phonetic spellings of the words and things so I could get familiar with it and hopefully be okay on the day. And then I got in front of the mic and… it wasn't like performance anxiety or anything like that, it's just that it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be."
Cockle's return to the video game world with *The Witcher 4* should be a smoother transition. Announced with an exciting trailer at The Game Awards, *The Witcher 4* will see Geralt as a supporting character, with Ciri taking the lead. Returning to his original portrayal of Geralt should feel like slipping into a comfortable pair of old slippers, especially since he won't need to record as much dialogue as in the previous games.
Cockle remains tight-lipped about *The Witcher 4*, claiming to know as much as the public. However, he's enthusiastic about the shift in perspective to Ciri, seeing it as a promising direction for the series. "I think it's a really good move," he says. "I mean, I always thought that continuing the saga but shifting to Ciri would be a really, really interesting move for all kinds of reasons, but mostly because of things that happen in the books, which I don't want to give away because people, I want people to go read. So yeah, I think it's really exciting. I can't wait to see what they've done."
For more insights into CD Projekt Red's plans, check out our in-depth interview with the creators of *The Witcher 4*. And to see more of Doug Cockle, be sure to watch *The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep* on Netflix, or follow him on Instagram, Cameo, and X.
