Screeching like a clicker with The Last of Us voice actor Misty Lee

polygon.com:

Misty Lee is an improv comedian who studied at Second City in Los Angeles. She’s a magician at Hollywood’s Magic Castle who’s also trained in dentistry, and she’s the voice of Princess Leia in Star Wars Battlefront. But she’s also the voice of one of TV and games’ creepiest monsters — The Last of Us’ clickers.

Lee is credited with the creation of the clicker’s click, a mixture of screeching and echolocation, alongside clicker voice actor and PlayStation Studios sound designers Phil Kovats and Derrick Espino. She and Kovats — sometimes with their clicking mixed together — provided the eerie sound for The Last of Us when it was released in 2013; Kovats returned for The Last of Us Part 2, but Lee wasn’t involved. HBO’s The Last of Us provided an opportunity for her to reprise the voice she helped create, bringing her croaking echolocation sounds to the small screen. In an interview with Polygon, Lee spoke to the original direction of the clicker voice, how things varied for the show, and even gave us a lesson in clicking ourselves.

[Ed. note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.]

Polygon: Your work is important to The Last of Us and the game.

Misty Lee: Yeah, I helped them create the sound. But the sound director for The Last of Us Part 2 was a different team. They wanted to go in a different direction. One thing I’ve learned in this industry is that you own nothing — I taught Phil [Kovats] how to make that sound. And they taught other people how to make that sound. Anybody can make the sound. I’ll teach you how to make the sound.

I would love that. I actually tried to do it before this call and it didn’t sound right at all.

You can’t print it, but I’ll teach you. [Ed. note: Sorry folks, industry