Metal Gear Solid 5′s Quiet Actress Talks About Her Character’s Controversial Costume 8 Years Later

Almost a decade has passed since the release of the controversial Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, a game that was so controversial in many ways that it marked the beginning of the end of Hideo Kojima’s very long tenure at Konami. Another aspect that caused much controversy was the suggestive appearance of the game’s female protagonist, Quiet, which left little to the imagination and did not seem very practical in a context such as that of the game.

8 years later, Stefanie Joosten, the Dutch actress who played Quiet, recalled the controversy. “It’s been interesting to see the discussions about the character. Of course, I’ve seen them, and read a lot of different perspectives on the character at the time,” Joosten first explains in an interview with IGN. “And still, I respect the choices Kojima made and his team in designing the character. And also, of course, there’s also just a choice of creating a character that’s visually appealing. I think video games are, in a way, still a sort of fantasy world you enter, so I definitely respect the choices regarding the Quiet appearance, for instance, being quite revealing.”

“But I also understand the perspective of the people that are not as happy with how she was portrayed,” the Dutchwoman continues. “This game came out in 2015, and I think the video game landscape has changed quite a lot since then. People are looking for more representation, and I really get it..”

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Joosten thinks there were alternatives

As we recall, this outfit had a plot explanation, according to Kojima. In fact, the Japanese creative asked Yoji Shinkawa, his reference artist, to create a female character with an erotic character, and Shinkawa designed her to be completely naked at first.

“Quiet’s outfit is not practical at all,” Joosten recalls. “Even with the explanation that was given of her breathing through her skin, of course there were so many other options you could have gone with. I do agree on that. I got to see the character artwork when we were starting motion capture, and of course my first reaction was, ‘that’s a very revealing costume’, but I respected it and accepted it. So that’s basically my stance. It’s fantasy, and I find that acceptable as well.”

Meanwhile, the franchise continues to move forward, at least in the form of revisions, as the recent Metal Gear Solid Master Collection will be joined next year by Metal Gear Solid Delta, a remake of the fantastic Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the first gameplay of which we enjoyed recently.