Leon S. Kennedy has always had a bit of sass about him, but in 2003’s Resident Evil 4 remake, the wisecracking federal agent took his one-liners to the next level.
These quips add levity to the Resident Evil story and help cement Leon as one of the most iconic, if not a little goofy, characters of all time.
As it transpires, while Capcom writers penned the overall script, many of Leon’s iconic one-liners, including “Tell someone who gives a sh*t” and “You want to get ugly? Let’s get ugly,” came courtesy of the character’s actor, Nick Apostolides.
Nick Apostolides stepped into the shoes of Leon Kennedy in 2017’s Resident Evil 2 remake. It was a role he reprized in the Resident Evil 4 remake, and then into Resident Evil Requiem, which released last week and enjoyed a stellar start.
It turns out, though, that much of this iteration of Leon was concocted by Apostolides himself, with strong collaboration and trust from the Capcom team, ensuring we got the quppiest version of the character possible.
In a new interview with us at TheGamer, Apostolides shared how the collaboration between Capcom and himself really flourished during the development of Resident Evil 4’s 2021 Remake.
“In 4, they would ask me a lot of line recommendations. If I said, ‘Hey, I really think Leon would do this in this scene,’ they would incorporate changes in cinematics because of ideas of mine,” he told us. “There were some brilliant lines written by the team and also influenced by the localization director as well. But some of them were generic. A lot of Leon’s one-liners and zingers, they were generic. And I say, ‘We can make these really cook.’ And so I probably spit out about 50 of them in different scenarios in the game.”
If I said, ‘Hey, I really think Leon would do this in this scene,’ they would incorporate changes in cinematics because of ideas of mine,
Of the 50 lines he helped create, Apostolides could recall a handful, each as iconic as the last. “I came up with: ‘You want to get ugly? Let’s get ugly,’ when he fights Mendez, ‘Tell someone who gives a sh*t’, when he shoots Saddler in the face, and ‘You talk too much’ to Salazar before shooting him in the face,” he said.
It’s a fun little insight into the creative process between one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time, and it shows how trust between developers, creatives, and actors can really help to shape iconic characters.
If you’ve not had a chance yet, it’s worth checking out the full interview with Apostolides as we discuss the changes in the character in Resident Evil Requiem, how Capcom corrected course, and how the internet’s thirst for the older version of the character was “funny as hell.”
- Released
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February 27, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Strong Language, In-Game Purchases
