Henry Cavill may be the most recognizable face associated with Geralt of Rivia, yet within the gaming community, Doug Cockle, the voice behind Geralt in CD Projekt Red's acclaimed RPG series, is revered as the quintessential White Wolf. Now, the worlds of Cavill and Cockle's Geralts have intertwined with Cockle lending his iconic voice to the character in Netflix's animated film, The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep.
In this new project, Cockle doesn't reprise his role as the same Geralt from the games but rather brings the same vocal technique that fans have cherished for nearly two decades. He was not directed to mimic Cavill's or Liam Hemsworth's portrayals, allowing him to maintain the distinct, gravelly voice that has become synonymous with his version of Geralt.
Cockle first crafted this voice back in 2005 during the recording of the original Witcher game. He found the voice challenging, noting, “The thing I found most challenging about recording Witcher 1 was actually the voice itself. When I first started recording the game, (Geralt’s) voice was very, very far down in my register. It was something I had to push towards.” The initial sessions were grueling, lasting eight or nine hours a day, leaving him with a sore throat. By the time he worked on The Witcher 2, his vocal cords had adapted, much like an athlete's muscles conditioning to the demands of their sport.
The development of The Witcher 2 also coincided with the English translations of Andrzej Sapkowski's books. Cockle recalls, “The books started to come out in English while I was recording Witcher 2. Before that, it was the developers from CD Projekt Red who taught me everything I needed to know about Geralt. So 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 just from reading just that one book that I didn't understand at all before.” The books helped him better understand the character's emotional flatness, which the developers emphasized, despite his instincts as an actor to explore more emotional depth.
Cockle's admiration for Sapkowski's work grew, especially with Season of Storms, a story he hopes to voice in future Netflix projects. He describes it as both horrifying and thrilling, with graphic fight scenes that he believes would translate well into an anime or TV episode.
In The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, based on the short story "A Little Sacrifice" from the Sword of Destiny collection, Cockle's Geralt navigates a conflict between two kingdoms following a romance between a mermaid and a human prince. While the film offers intense action and political drama, Cockle appreciates the lighter moments, such as a humorous campfire conversation with Jaskier, showcasing Geralt's often overlooked lighter side.
He explains, “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. 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.”
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A unique challenge in Sirens of the Deep was Cockle's need to speak a fictional language, "mermaid." He found this task particularly difficult, despite having phonetic guides. “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 will return to the video game world in The Witcher 4, where Geralt will play a supporting role to Ciri, the protagonist. He anticipates this transition to be smooth, likening it to slipping into comfortable old slippers, especially since he won't have to record as much dialogue as before. Though he knows little more about the game than the public, he is enthusiastic about the direction CD Projekt Red is taking with Ciri's story.
He comments, “I think it's a really good move. 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. I can't wait to see what they've done.”
For more insights into CD Projekt Red's plans, check out our detailed interview with the creators of The Witcher 4. To see more of Doug Cockle's work, watch The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep on Netflix, and follow him on Instagram, Cameo, and X.
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