Leon Kennedy Voice Actor Says Metallica, Nirvana Helped Shape His Performance for the Resident Evil Character

Nick Apostolides revealed the bands helium listened to that helped signifier his portrayal of Leon Kennedy successful each of the Resident Evil Remake games, sharing immoderate astonishing picks from his playlist.

Apostolides shared the info successful a Cameo video to a instrumentality successful July 2026, saying helium listened to a batch of metallic and grunge portion filming for each game.

More specifically, helium associated RE2 Leon with Nirvana, RE4 Leon with Alice successful Chains, and RE9 Leon with classical Metallica.

“I really instrumentality a batch of heavy inspiration successful my acting done euphony to get into the close mindset,” helium explained. And for Leon, that seemingly means banging his caput to the Seattle Sound.

While helium didn’t “think excessively overmuch astir it” portion signaling for Resident Evil 2, Apostolides says helium listened to a batch of Nirvana astatine the time, saying their “grunge, stone vigor was bully for younger Leon.”

He described Alice successful Chains arsenic a “huge” inspiration for however helium handled Leon successful Resident Evil 4, specifically naming songs similar Them Bones and Would, arsenic good arsenic euphony from the group’s aboriginal albums similar The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here. (Yes, that’s the album’s existent name, and it’s fantastic. You’ll convey maine for putting you on.)

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

“That ace heavy, fast, lockstep rhythms and worldly similar that. I was utilizing a batch successful that opus ‘Orion.’ That is my favourite opus of each time. …I had that successful my head. It’s conscionable specified a dense riff, and there’s truthful overmuch down that opus astir wherefore they wrote it, however they wrote it. I conscionable emotion it.”

Fans are, predictably, going gaga implicit this information, which is conscionable the latest tidbit from Apostolides astir his clip playing Leon. Earlier this month, the histrion said Capcom unluckily decided to chopped what would person been his “favorite” enactment successful Requiem — and yes, it’s a corny one-liner.

Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With 10 years of acquisition reporting connected games and entertainment, she’s got a storied inheritance successful the warring crippled community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her connected Twitter astatine @TheeMissGlaze.