“It's not about who it actually is, but more so who you want it to be. That's the question I was asking to the world. And their answer was Elle Fanning.”
Kojima explained the logic of the Who Am I teaser used to announce Elle Fanning: with movies, when they announce a production they reveal the title, the director or the cast, and that alone gets people talking, but no one does that with games — at least not before production. He therefore decided to create buzz by announcing only the cast. He said the poster’s question works on two levels: it asks the audience who the person on the poster is, and it also connects to who she is within the game. He added that the obvious answer is Elle Fanning, and that the teaser’s point was not who she actually is but who people want her to be. That was the question he asked the world, and their answer was Elle Fanning: everyone wanted it to be Elle, and that was the correct answer; gamers all over the world wanted Elle in the game, and the Who Am I phenomenon proved they were hopeful.
“with movies, when they announce that something's going to be made into a movie, they'll reveal the title, or who the director is, and also who the cast is. And just that piece of information is enough to get people talking. No one is doing that with games. […] So I first came up with this idea that I wanted to create a buzz once by just announcing the cast. […] Everyone wanted it to be Elle, and that was the correct answer. […] gamers all over the world wanted Elle to be in the game. And I think the phenomenon of the Who Am I teaser proved that. They were hopeful.”