With so many amazing cosplay pictures out there it’s become much harder to really blow me away and really make me sit up and pay attention. Today a cosplayer called Peyton Riley achieved exactly that with her unbelievable Elizabeth cosplay.
Regular visitors to this blog will know that Kat and I are HUGE Bioshock fans and she’s also going to be doing an Elizabeth cosplay for Thought Bubble in Leeds this year. I’ll get pictures of her at the convention in November and upload them after that weekend.
For now our focus is on Peyton, an Argentinian lady who, with the help of a few friends, has created a set of pictures any cosplayer would be incredibly happy with.
It’s not only myself that they’ve made an impression on either. Bioshock creative director and co-founder of Irrational Games Ken Levine tweeted a link to them to all of his followers. All of the opinions I’ve read so far have been positive and I add my own to that.
Last year I posted a Bioshock cosplay costumes showcase containing a mix of Little Sister, Big Daddy and Elizabeth cosplay pictures. This set of Elizabeth cosplay pictures are some the best I’ve ever seen and I’m sure you’ll thoroughly enjoy them too.
1. Firstly thank you so much for doing this interview. I found one of your Elizabeth cosplay pictures on Tumblr and was blown away with the set you did.
2. So, what’s it like to be famous? We noticed that Ken Levine tweeted about your fantastic Elizabeth cosplay. Has the response been good?
Haha, I don’t think I can be considered famous. Yes, Ken shared me on his Facebook and twitter, the official Facebook page for Bioshock also shared me. I was so surprised that my picture made such an impact because I didn’t think it was worth this much hassle hehe. It felt really good to have people actually like my work because there is a lot of love put into it.
3. Are you a fan of the Bioshock series? Have you played them all? Which is your favourite of the series and why?
I actually haven’t. I don’t have time! I’ve only played Bioshock Infinite and the Burial at Sea DLC’s. I wasn’t really into FPS’s before and now I rarely have time because I work. I will try my best to get it played soon, the list of games that I’m due to play is long! Infinite really changed my perspective about FPS’s and it appealed more to me than any of the other games in the Bioshock series. That’s probably why I tried it out in the first place.
4. Did you make the costume yourself?
Yes, all my costumes are made by me. I actually make costumes for a living, so I’m used to making costumes and patterns from scratch.
5. Tell us about the photoshoot and the people involved in it. Where was it shot?
The first photoshoot is based on episode I. We took the shoot in a historic building from the ’20s here that seemed to me to be perfect to recreate the ambiance of Rapture. All the structure you see is real, except for Rapture in the back hehe.
6. Did you study Elizabeth as the character at all? The poses that you do in the pictures are bang on!
I always try to embody the character as best as possible. It was kinda hard to know what to do really on the first shoot because the DLC hadn’t been released yet, so I thought about Elizabeth behaved when under fire in Columbia, but with that added sass she has in Rapture. And apparently I did a good job because the poses are quite similar, she’s even in an elevator! For the second shoot, I went to Paris and I wanted pictures that resembled the look of the city when episode II begins, those bright colors and happy vibe it has.
7. Are you going to do any other Elizabeth cosplay? Maybe the Bioshock Infinite version?
I have actually made both of those already! Just haven’t been able to take pictures with them. Here are a picture of each as proof.
8. How long have you been cosplaying for? Do you attend any conventions in costume?
9. Do you have a favourite cosplayer or people you take inspiration from?
I do actually! A cosplayer from Russia called ryoko-demon, she’s soooo talented I want to cry! Also, nebulaluben (on dA), she’s Spanish and I love how her photoshoots always reflect the costume setting so perfectly. And lastly, my friend Rose from ER collective. She is insanely talented and her costumes are perfect and she doesn’t get nearly as much recognition as she deserves, so go send her love from me!
10. Who else have you cosplayed as? Has Elizabeth been your favourite to date?
I don’t think I have a favorite because they’re all so different and I haven’t played that many characters, ask me again in a year and I’ll tell you!
11. Do you have any other cosplay costumes in the works?
More like 15+ hahaha. I recently finished an Effie Trinket costume from the movie Catching Fire, and I also plan to make at least one more. I have about 5 costumes in progress and more I wanna start but i’m very fluctuating in my mood so I always wanna work on a different one, that’s probably why I have so few finished!
12. If money was no object, which character would you cosplay as?
I’m starting a few costumes which will be quite expensive (one of those is Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby, the gemstone dress she wears to Gatsby’s party), but I guess maybe an armor would be ideal since I’ve wanted to work with worbla for the longest time but it would be very expensive if imported here haha!
If you like the Elizabeth cosplay you’ve seen here you’ll be interested in seeing more cosplay from Peyton. You can see more pictures of her in cosplay on her Deviant Art page.