Jen Taylor, the talented voice actress behind Halo’s trusty AI partner Cortana, reflects on her role 20 years after the original Halo was released in 2001. Cortana was created by esteemed scientist Dr. Catherine Halsey to assist the UNSC in their war against the Covenant – particularly as a companion to Spartan John-117, aka the Master Chief. The two would face many trials and tribulations throughout the events of the first four Halo games, with Cortana using her skills as an artificial intelligence to aid the Chief as he battled foes like the Covenant, the zombie-like Flood, and the Didact – and formed a very close bond in the process.

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Cortana’s warm and quirky personality served as a contrast to the stoic and battle-hardened Master Chief during the Halo series, with the AI ironically showing more emotion and humanity than her human counterpart at times. However, Cortana’s story would take a tragic turn when she started to succumb to AI rampancy in 2012’s Halo 4, which ended in her seemingly sacrificing herself to defeat the Didact. However, Cortana would reemerge as an enemy in Halo 5 and Halo Infinite, causing Chief no shortage of conflict as he was forced to battle his former partner. Even after gaining a new AI companion in Halo Infinite’s The Weapon, the memory of Cortana’s fall still haunts the Chief as he takes on new threats like the Banished.

Jen Taylor, the actress who brought Cortana to life in the mainline Halo games, recently sat down for an interview with Retro Gamer (via GamesRadar) to discuss the role 20 years after players were first introduced to Cortana. Taylor described how it has been “a gift” to get to play such an important character for such a long period of time, especially in how she would get to know Cortana better in each game. “I adore this character, she surprises me. It was an interesting thing to play the genesis and the growth of her more human side, it was interesting to play someone discovering that.”

Jen Taylor also noted that she didn’t grasp how big the Halo series would become until she saw all of the excitement for 2004’s Halo 2, but it was always fun to voice Cortana from Bungie’s very first stage direction for her: “you’re this man’s lifeline, you’re sort of the girl next door, there’s no flirting, it’s not that kind of relationship.” She also expressed gratitude for Halo’s fanbase for their support over the years. “I have people come up to me and say, ‘This game saved my life, this game helped me to process stuff that I was not able to, this game made me feel strong, this game gave me a community when I didn’t have one,” she stated in the recent interview, describing how these interactions are what she remembers most fondly about her time as Cortana.

Jen Taylor is set to voice Cortana once more in the upcoming live-action Halo TV series and has lent her voice to Cortana’s creator Dr. Catherine Halsey (due to Cortana being copied from Halsey’s own mind) and her successor The Weapon (due to her being a copy of Cortana). However, it’s her role as Master Chief’s original AI partner that Halo fans remember Jen Taylor for, due to the humor, warmth, and personality Cortana brought to the otherwise somber journey of the Master Chief.

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Source: Retro Gamer (via GamesRadar)

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J. Brodie Shirey
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J. Brodie Shirey is just a simple man trying to make his way in the universe, but aren’t we all? He currently lives in York, Pennsylvania. He is a big comic book, video game, and science fiction fan, and likes writing articles for ScreenRant or scripts for some of his crazy TV show ideas.

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