Leon Kennedy's voice actor used Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Metallica to nail each era of the character

Nick Apostolides, the voice actor behind Leon Kennedy in the Resident Evil remake trilogy, revealed in a Cameo video to a fan in July 2026 that he used specific bands to shape his performance across each game — Nirvana for RE2, Alice in Chains for RE4, and classic 1980s Metallica for Resident Evil Requiem.

Apostolides explained that music is a core part of how he gets into character. For RE2's younger, more impulsive Leon, Nirvana's grunge energy felt right, even if he wasn't consciously thinking about it during recording. Alice in Chains became a "huge" influence for RE4 Leon — he specifically called out Them Bones and Would, and also drew from the band's later album The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here. For Requiem, where Leon is the oldest he's ever been in the series, Apostolides leaned into classic Metallica, singling out Orion as his all-time favorite song. "That super heavy, fast, lockstep rhythms and stuff like that. I was using a lot in that song 'Orion,'" he said, adding that the track's history and emotional weight made it a perfect anchor for the performance.

Apostolides has been the voice of Leon since Resident Evil 2 Remake in 2019, carrying the role through RE4 Remake and now Resident Evil Requiem — the latest mainline entry from Capcom. The character has evolved significantly across those three games, from a rookie cop thrown into Raccoon City to a battle-hardened veteran, and Apostolides clearly put serious thought into matching that arc sonically as well as dramatically.

Fans have been enthusiastically sharing the clip, and it's not the only behind-the-scenes detail Apostolides has dropped recently. Earlier in July 2026, he revealed that Capcom cut what he called his "favorite" line from Requiem — a corny one-liner that apparently didn't make the final cut. Between that and the band playlist, the community is eating up every scrap of insight into how Leon came together.