Kerri Ann Hoskins is a real wonder woman
A couple of weeks ago, I cold-called Kerri Ann Hoskins, famous for her roles in Mortal Kombat 3 and Aerosmith’s Revolution X, to see if she wanted to do an interview for one of my podcasts. A week or so later, she said “Sure.” She didn’t even ask what it was for! That “who gives a f*ck let’s just do it” attitude is a big part of who she is, and I am so grateful for it.
In just under 25 minutes, she gave an amazing overview of some of the highs and lows of her life and career. I had planned to chat with her for 5 minutes about whether she wanted to play Sonya again and a couple of other light topics, but then a half-hour later, she was still talking about growing up with a step-father with wartime PTSD, the mesh implanted in her bellybutton, being pregnant with twins while playing the pinup girl villain in the Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, and a lot of other parts of her life that make Sonya’s struggles in the games look lightweight in comparison. In fact, while we were talking, you may see her check her phone a few times to check to see if her twins had contracted COVID-19. I was amazed that she was willing to take the time to talk to me in the midst of this potential crisis, but as I soon discovered, pushing through difficult times has been her way of life for as long as she can remember.
So why haven’t we seen her for a while? From the sounds of it, taking care of her kids needed to be her top priority for the past decade or so, but at 51, she’s toying with getting back into the game. What with the new movie out, it couldn’t be a better time for her to jump back into the role of Sonya, who also became a mom over the years, but I was surprised to find out she’d rather play the character in a new game than a film. I can’t blame her! Games are more fun.
If you want to see more of Kerri Ann, she’s pretty active on Twitter and Instagram, as well as her online gallery. You can also hear an alternate version of our interview on the Talking to Women about Videogames podcast. Remember that show? It was on Youtube for a while, and the episode with Jessica Nigri actually did pretty good numbers. Now that they are on each other’s radars, maybe NetherRealm will cast Jessica in a new Mortal Kombat game as Cassie Cage and Kerri Ann as her ass-kicking mom? One can hope…
