When Adriyan Rae auditioned for Compulsion’s South of Midnight, she didn’t know what the project was about. She had no inkling about the cultural traditions or message behind it. And she certainly didn’t know it would speak to her on a deep personal level. Even so, the game’s message is one Rae says is essential for modern audiences to not just hear, but live as well.
The character Rae read for during her initial audition didn’t even exist in the game, and she had no context about the project beyond the lines in front of her. After some callbacks and the chemistry read, Rae gradually started learning more about Hazel — and felt an instant connection.
“I just kept falling in love more and more with her journey, her dynamic with her mother, all the parallels that I have in my own life,” Rae tells Polygon.
As time went on, Hazel’s story mirrored the way Rae started learning about her character during the audition process. Hazel masks most of her issues, even from her own mother. Her friends don’t know that she’s missing a father figure. Her mother isn’t fully aware just how badly the schism with her in-laws affects Hazel. On the surface, Hazel is smart and capable, but a somewhat abrasive young woman with a “know-it-all” attitude, as Rae puts it. It’s only when you learn more about why Hazel is that you can start to understand her. It’s the same process Hazel goes through in South of Midnight, as Hazel faces her past and comes to terms with trauma while helping others do the same.
“I wanted people to see how she grows from judgmental, learning from the people and creatures she meets, and learning to lead with compassion and empathy first,” Rae says. “She gives people the benefit of the doubt and knows that everybody is trying the best they can with where they are and what they have.”
So Rae threw herself into making Hazel feel as authentic and relatable as possible. She studied the Gullah Geechie culture that much of South of Midnight‘s folklore is based on and drew from every part of her own life — from the way her aunt Rita talks when she leaves a voicemail to the stories her mother and grandmother used to tell — to give Hazel a sense of depth and empathy that she hoped would resonate with anyone who played.
Rae sees South of Midnight as an essential story for everyone, with a message that transcends race, gender, and our divisive moment in time.
“The current state of where we are as a society is indicative to a lack of empathy,” Rae says. “A lack of community, unity, compassion. Everyone is in their own minds. They’re a bit judgmental. The message that we get through Hazel is to lead with compassion, to get out of your own way, to not be judgmental of others, and give the grace and understanding that you want to receive.”
Such messages are gradually becoming more common in video games, though big-budget games under major publishing labels still tend to rely on action over empathy. Rae says she gets that. Sometimes, people just want to tune the world out, and it’s good that games “where you can chop people’s heads off and shoot them and do all that” exist for those moments.
“I think a game that helps you tap into your emotional health and your mental health, helps you tap into understanding who you are, your ancestry and how it affects you to this day — those things are so necessary in the big picture,” she says.
The other reason is just how rare it is for video games to tell Black stories in authentic and respectful ways, if they even bother to tell those stories at all.
“The wold is full of diversity, and when we make art, it should be inclusive of all of those stories,” Rae says. “The point of storytelling isn’t to tell the same story or same type of story about the same kind of person over and over again. South of Midnight is something that can resonate with anyone, but it’s powerful because it also speaks authentically to a Black experience. And by doing that, it allows others to have insight and compassion towards the Black experience, which is very often misconstrued. This specific story is one of family, love, unity, compassion, community, and that’s not always depicted.”
“Everybody should be able to have their stories and their voices heard. Everybody’s voice is important, not just one voice.”
