Despite having a relatively short amount of screen time in the game, Resident Evil Village‘s Lady Dimitrescu is unequivocally the standout character of Capcom’s survival horror sequel.
Though never directly referred to as such in-universe, Dimitrescu, alongside her three adopted daughters, all share traits with vampires from pop culture. Unlike her children, however, which are women of normal size and stature, the family matriarch is quite literally larger than life. At almost 10 feet tall, Lady D towers over all but the most monstrous of Lycans bred by Salvatore Moreau, a distinctive physical quality matched only by her superb fashion sense.
Rather than have just one individual bring the overnight icon to life, though, it was via the combined efforts of Maggie Robertson (voice and motion capture) and Helena Mankowska (face model) that the castellan was created. The latter, a Polish-born model and charity worker, describes in a recent interview with Dexerto how her getting the role was largely coincidental and that, prior to her involvement, had no experience with the acclaimed video game franchise.
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“Of course I had heard of it [Resident Evil] before,” she recalls to the site, adding “but that was it. As a teenager I played some old-school games like Super Mario Bros., but also I am super afraid of horror. So I was always like ‘No'”.
That all changed earlier this month, however, as Mankowska, playing alongside her brother Jacek, came face to face with the character she helped create. During an early scene in which Dimitrescu and her cohorts are debating what to do with the newly-captured Ethan Winters, she becomes visibly emotional over the performance and thanks fans repeatedly for their support.
Now that she can officially say that she’s played Resident Evil Village, it’ll be interesting to see if Mankowska will follow through and play the entire adventure from start to finish, though given her aversion to scares, we wouldn’t be surprised if the horrors that await in House Beneviento prove too much.
