“Let me tell you what irritates me about human progress. I’ve never been a human in question, have you? Humanity went to the Moon. I don’t even know where Grimsby is. Forget progress by proxy, land on your own.” Luna. It’s no longer about what they can get out there for you, but what we can experience here in our own time. And that’s called mental wealth.”
These words were pronounced in 1999 and some perfectly remember each of the syllables that sound in one of the most disturbing announcements in PlayStation history. The “alien girl” commercial went absolutely viral 25 years ago and many still think that her unusual appearance was real.
The truth is that, although it is never mentioned, the character’s name is Fi-Fi and that is what the protagonist of one of the shorts made by Chris Cunningham was called. The artist became one of the sensations at the end of the 20th century for his striking work directing the music videos for Come to Daddy and Windowlicker, singles orchestrated by Aphex Twin, not to mention his collaborations with Madonna and Björk. The British creative was popular thanks to his tendency to create very disturbing images, which is why the Japanese company selected him as the most appropriate for its advertising campaign.
A girl with really strange features, but without being so exaggerated as to make one think that it would be impossible for someone like that to exist, sitting in a chair in an empty room next to a table. The light, the walls and the setting along with the time marker created a false sensation of being in front of a home recording, without great fanfare. There is no reference to the first PlayStation, no direct sign talking about the benefits of Sony and everything closes with a laugh from Fi-Fi along with the message “All the power in your hands”
The translation that you can read at the beginning of the text corresponds to the English version of Mental Wealth, the name attributed to the advertisement, and which talks about how we must be masters of our own lives by creating experiences. However, who was this woman really? Evidently, It was about a real person, specifically the actress Fiona MacLainewhich showed a good Scottish accent in the English version and which He was still in acting classes..
“I was seventeen, still at school in Dumbarton, Scotland, and very into acting and theatre. I was signed to an extras agency at the time and they were the ones who got me the audition for the part. They were looking someone with a Scottish or Irish accent, so I went to the audition and met Trevor Beattie, who was the creative director of the ad, and to be honest, I didn’t know anything at the time: what the ad was for or anything. “They gave the script and I read it, and then a few weeks later I got a call asking if I could come to London for a second audition.”
He managed to sign a contract to be the only face of the campaign and the truth is that he received a large sum for just over 40 seconds on screen. “I think I received 10,000 poundswhich after the agency took its share was around £8,000,” says MacLaine. However, rumors about what that really looked like became very strong.
“I think if that ad aired today, it wouldn’t have caused as much of a stir because there’s a lot of noise and people aren’t glued to one channel watching ads. But at the time, I certainly hadn’t seen that kind of facial manipulation technology.” before. People actually thought that was what I looked like. It felt so new. In fact, they didn’t even tell me what they were going to do with my face. I just knew when I saw it!”
The recording was really calm, without much direction on what to do, and included his final laugh because Beattie said something that he found funny. “They just told me to read the script in front of the camera. They told me they were going to do something with my face in post-production, but I didn’t know to what extent. So it was a shock!” says the actress. Cunningham teamed up with camera operator Chris Wood to design her look and then effects artist Chris Knight worked for a week to get it all ready.
Such was the expectation to know her true face that the English newspaper The Sun got the exclusive to reveal her, but MacLaine had to deal with the paparazzi to avoid being photographed before the big reveal. Several photographers came to her house and she had to cover herself with a scarf to avoid the snapshot, which she managed to do. Furthermore, BBC News interviewed her and her public recognition was relatively notable. “Even now, twenty years later, people seem to find me on the internet and send me emails saying: ‘Hey, are you the girl from the old PlayStation ad?’
Later, his career in the world of acting led him to spend a few years in the profession, recording a series called Sky One llamada Is Harry on the Boat and the movie Minotaur “which was saved by the participation of Tom Hardy.” Finally, after meeting her husband and having children, she decided to jump into the field of photography, which is her current livelihood. However, her destiny brought her a truly impressive coincidence.
Minotaur scene (2006)
Remember how she mentions Grimbsy in the ad? It is a coastal town in Lincolnshire, towards the north of England, and its foundation is attributed to Grim, a Danish fisherman who was there during the 9th century. Its importance in the country is enormous, as it is home to one of the ports that supports the largest tonnage traffic. Even though the text required her to say that she had no idea where that place was, the truth is that her husband is from there.
“Yeah, I remember him telling me where he was from when we were on a date and I thought, ‘what are the chances of that!’ I’ll be completely honest with you, when I filmed the commercial, I really didn’t know where Grimsby was!“, confesses MacLaine, who already has an anecdote to tell for life.
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