“When I was five years old, I told my parents I wanted to be Jim Carrey,” Corina Boettger tells me about the genesis of their acting career, one that was born from an obsession with The Mask and wanting to imitate a man who would become one of their greatest idols. “I got over the fact that I couldn’t actually be Jim Carrey, which was a huge letdown for me, but my parents were like, ‘You can be an actor like Jim Carrey though,’ and so I said, ‘Okay, I guess that’s good enough.’ So I was like, I’m going to be an actor like Jim Carrey because that’s just who I wanted to be.”

Once their parents gave the okay, Boettger went through three years of training before taking on their first role at the age of eight. “My mom sat me down and was like, ‘If you really want to do this, I can help you, but I’m not gonna be one of those moms who is going to push their kids into something they don’t want to do, so the minute it becomes a chore for you, we’re not doing it anymore.’ Ever since then, I was like, ‘This is definitely what I want to do for the rest of my life.’” Boettger recalls early acting memories alongside their parents with a sense of warmth, remembering a family who were willing to foster their talent and craft it into something meaningful even if obstacles would emerge in the coming years.

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While Boettger dabbled with theatre and commercials at an early age, their first voiceover role was to promote a video game - one they can’t even recall the name of - which was an oddly prophetic sign of the road their career would eventually take. “I was there with like four other girls because they needed children to promote a video game,” Boettger tells me. “So I wasn’t in the video game, I was in a promotion for it that was shown at conventions. To this day, I don’t know what the game was called, but that was my start in professional voice acting. From there, I continued on in theatre and with on-camera [roles], but then it shifted gears into voice acting being my main job when there was a year where, all of a sudden, I started to get a lot of pain in my knees, only to discover I had early-onset arthritis, which is apparently a thing you can get with Crohn’s disease.”

Paimon

Boettger’s most notable roles are as Genshin Impact’s Paimon - the mascot character who accompanies you and cheers you on throughout the game - and AI: The Somnium Files’ Mizuki Okiura, a young girl whose mother is murdered and is left to fend for herself as the mystery surrounding her demise slowly begins to unfold. They’re both diverse, fiercely dramatic roles in substantially different genres, and do a wonderful job of showcasing Boettger’s range as a performer. While their career began in the realm of live action, the harsh reality of their disability caused things to change, but this isn’t something that holds them back - it’s a circumstance they embrace and move forward with.

“When I was younger, my mom didn’t want me being [a] public [figure because] I have Crohn’s disease, because what if people were to look at that and not hire you because you’re sick?” Boettger says. “I remember being on a commercial when I was younger, and I almost lost the job because I was so sick. I remember lying and saying I had the flu while violently throwing up into buckets in between takes, knowing that it wasn’t the flu and I needed to go to the hospital. To the point where the nurse on set took me aside, put me in a room and said ‘Okay, I know this isn’t the flu’ and so I finally broke down crying, being like, ‘I have Crohn’s disease, I’m clearly going through a flare-up, I can’t go to the hospital because they’ll replace me and I’ll lose this job.’”

Boettger didn’t lose that job in the end - they were fortunate enough that the production company gave them time to recover, and was arguably more impressed that they managed to perform so well given they were extremely ill. “I was extraordinarily sick and throwing up between takes while shooting that commercial, and the best part is most of my friends who saw that commercial were like, ‘Wait, didn’t you say you were throwing up? You don’t look sick at all!’ I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s because I’m a good actor!’”

Paimon

Boettger suffered similar health problems relating to their disability while recording for a recent Genshin Impact update, but Mihoyo was courteous enough to give them all the time they needed. Still, the omnipresent fear of being replaced remains. “I was very much ready for the conversation of, ‘Hey if you can’t get out of the hospital in time, who are we going to replace you with until you get out?’ But thankfully that didn’t happen,” Boettger explains. “It’s a real thing that people with disabilities do get discriminated against because they’re seen as not being able to perform as well as an able-bodied person. My mom constantly says it’s lucky I got into acting because it really does seem that acting is the only [career] that’s been accommodating to my situation like a day job just wouldn’t be. I know a lot of people out there with my condition where the only reason they have a job is because they work for a family member who understands their condition. So, they literally have to work for somebody who’s blood-related to them so they can understand what they’re going through to get a job, and that’s really depressing.”

Paimon is the most defining aspect of Genshin Impact’s English dub. She’s loud, brash, and adorable, which is why the character has received a relatively mixed response in the West so far. Funnily enough, Boettger tells me the character’s voice was originally very different. “When I originally did the audition, Paimon’s voice wasn’t that high pitched,” Boettger explains. “I remember they were like, ‘We want a fairy type [character] but we don’t want it to be super cartoony.’ [That’s] what was written in the audition specs, which is why I always tell my acting students never to trust those specs, because half of the time they’re wrong.”

Paimon

Characters change as performers grow familiar with how they can best depict them, and in Paimon’s case, Mihoyo and Boettger ended up leaning into the louder side of her personality. Without this change in direction, she likely wouldn’t have had the same impact. It’s fascinating to see Boettger break down the vocal creation of Paimon, whether it be through their own take on the character or how improvised lines provided a way for their personality to shine through in the finished product. With the exception of major cutscenes, Genshin Impact doesn’t abide by the barriers of lip-sync like many other JRPGs, allowing English actors to play around with dialogue and put their own spin on things. Mihoyo told Boettger they captured the “mischievous side to Paimon” in a way that nobody else did, adding a darker edge to certain moments.

“Paimon’s voice isn’t that much higher than my normal speaking voice - cool, that’s easy,” Boettger remarks. “But as I was recording, they were like, ‘Higher pitch, pitch higher, even higher, let’s get really high pitched and breathy.’ I was like, ‘This isn’t what I auditioned for.’ When a lot of people get into voice acting, they concentrate on the voice sounding a certain way and I’m like, ‘Nope, absolutely not! That’s not what you need to concentrate on, you need to concentrate on the acting part because it’s voice /acting/.’ A voice is easy to change. Everybody changes their voice, whether they realise it or not. I guarantee that if you tell anybody to imitate their mother or a family member, they won’t just change their voice, they’ll change everything about themselves.” Boettger stresses how voice actors aren’t seen, but this doesn’t discount the amount of movement and expression required for the best performances to become a reality. “I’m in front of a microphone so nobody’s gonna see me, but you need to be even more physical because the physicality now comes through your voice.”

Paimon

As for Paimon, Boettger went into the role expecting it to be a one-time gig, but the game’s popularity and its status as a free-to-play juggernaut means the fairy character isn’t going anywhere. “I had no idea how big it was going to be,” Boettger tells me. “I also had no idea it was going to be a continuous thing. We recorded the first part, which - spoiler alert - ends when you’re trying to figure out what’s going on with Dvalin, and that was basically the entire first part. They were like, ‘Okay, you’re wrapped.’ I was thinking that was a really odd ending! Did we find the sister? So Mihoyo calls me back a few months after that, and I was thinking it was just going to be pickups, and it’s the director telling me it’s time to start the second part. I’m like, ‘Second part? What? What are you talking about?’ They said, ‘Yeah it’s not done yet, you’re gonna be recording this for at least three to five years.’ No one told me that, and it changed my whole perception of everything.”

TikTok and Genshin Impact were both growing in mainstream popularity at the same point in time, and Boettger is incredibly active on the platform as not only an actor, but a voice for queer and disabled people seeking to make themselves heard. “I came out as non-binary before I was officially announced as Paimon, so I was already creating a following based on that and my previous work as an actor,” Boettger explains. “Then it all blew up when Genshin came out because it was huge. I don’t know how I did that. I’m a very awkward person, and I just post on TikTok what I feel would be interesting or funny, or maybe even educational sometimes, because there are things some people ask me about, like: ‘How did you find out you were non-binary?’ Also, earlier this year, even after I came out as non-binary, it turns out I’ve been intersex the entire time! I’m like a whole ass adult, and I didn’t know that until this year of my life. No wonder I felt super non-binary, because I was never really an actual man or woman to begin with.” Their TikTok account has also been a place they hang out with other actors - whether it be through chilling on the beach, having barbecues, or streaming games together, it all has an unmistakable sense of community.

Boettger knows how it feels to be an outsider, even if support networks around them are careful to ensure they never feel truly alone. When talking to me, it feels like their presence on TikTok is a way to share this sentiment with people who currently are, or have been a part of, similar situations. “I’m public about the fact I have Crohn’s disease, the fact I’m non-binary, the fact I’m intersex,” Boettger states. “I’m public about that so that other people know that they’re not alone. Because I felt alone when I was a kid, and the importance of that representation matters. It’s a big deal when Disney has a person of colour who is a Princess, because there aren’t that many of them. It’s a big deal when you have some form of minority playing a lead character, even if it isn’t the focal point of the story. So that way, people who are a part of that group can feel like they belong in something.”

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