Lily Gao, the actor who voiced heroine Ada Wong in the Resident Evil 4 remake, has recently shared a statement about the harassment she received in the wake of the game’s release. Like Claire Redfield and Jill Valentine, Ada Wong is one of the primary female characters in the Resident Evil franchise, with her distinctive red and black clothing and no-nonsense attitude. As such, she has quite a loyal fan base, some of which can be very vocal or harsh if they don’t like the way she’s portrayed.
The controversy around the choice of Ada Wong’s voice actor in the Resident Evil 4 remake began as far back as late 2022, when fans learned that Lily Gao would be replacing Jolene Anderson, who filled the role in 2019’s Resident Evil 2. Choosing a Chinese-American actor to play the likewise Chinese-American Ada Wong seemed obvious for some, but others were outraged by the change. Things only got worse when Resident Evil 4 released on March 24 and some people took exception to Gao’s performance.
Fans began harassing Resident Evil 4's Ada Wong voice actor and criticizing her harshly, so much so that Lily Gao deleted all her posts from Instagram, save one. A little over a week later, the actor has made a new post on Instagram to directly address the harsh judgment she received from some Resident Evil 4 players. “While criticism is expected,” said Gao, “it’s not the first time an actor of colour faces racist and sexist harassment for simply participating.”
In the Instagram post, Gao reiterates her support for authentic casting, or hiring actors who accurately reflect the culture and roles they are playing. Doing otherwise, the actor says, “further dehumanizes the community they seek to reflect.” The Ada Wong depicted by Gao in the Resident Evil 4 remake, she continues, is more than a “sexualized, eroticized, and mysterious Asian woman.” She has more nuance to her and is “absolutely not a stereotype.”
While this strong statement addresses some of the criticism aimed at Gao, most of the negative feedback was focused on the quality of her performance. However, that is a subjective matter that an actor can’t necessarily speak out against. And either way, nobody should be harassed to such a degree that they feel a need to disappear from social media. Luckily, many fans have spoken out in support of Lily Gao, condemning the unsavory behavior she's had to deal with, and even the voice actor who played Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil 4 had words of encouragement for her. “If people aren’t happy, those will be the loudest voices,” actor Nick Apostolides told Gao. “It’s not that you don’t have support. It’s just the ones who really need to make their voices heard online are the Twitter trolls.”
Resident Evil's Ada Wong has always been a mysterious figure in the series, and a seductive one. She was introduced in the original Resident Evil 2 and subsequently appeared in Resident Evil 4, RE: The Darkside Chronicles, RE: The Umbrella Chronicles, and Resident Evil 6, as well as some of the films in the franchise. If Capcom continues its trend of revamping mainline entries in the classic series, Resident Evil 5 and 6 remakes may be on the horizon. It will be interesting to see if Lily Gao is recast as Ada Wong in RE6 or if she decides to pass the baton to another actor.
Resident Evil 4 is currently available on PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.