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Bretman Rock Is the New Face(s) Of Sims: 'It's a Full Circle Moment'
From creating fake email accounts for free trials to becoming the main character, Rock talks representation and the legacy of The Sims.
Social media star Bretman Rock is the new face of The Sims 4 in their new campaign that features not one, but five different Bretmans. Talk about multiple personalities.
"I was honestly living my Parent Trap fantasy with four other me's," Rock tells PRIDE. "It was really weird and fun."
Announced today, the iconic video game franchise teamed up with the beauty guru for the “Find Yourselves” campaign, celebrating the 20+ year legacy of the game as well as nodding to its impact on LGBTQ+ gamers.
"The commercial was kind of a love letter to my broke six-grade self who had to make five different emails just to try – I'm so embarrassed admitting this – the free trials they would have all the time," Rock laughs. "It was kind of like me just being reminded that girl, you used to hack the system to play this game and now you're an actual talent for Sims. It's such a full-circle moment."
Rock is not only the star of some new adverts, but the download pages for The Sims 4 have been updated to his Sims faces.
The campaign means a lot to Rock, who has been playing The Sims since they were "a gay kid," where he found a world where he could explore and experiment with his own identity through his simulated avatar.
"I joked around about being a female all the time on Sims. If I was ever a guy on SIMS, I'd make the guy dress up with fairy wings and dresses. It's kind of just like your own utopia. You are whatever you want to be. You can be a goth girl, you can be a spaceman, you can be literally your wildest imagination. In a way, you could speak your own languages. I always tell people, 'girl I'm trilingual, I speak SIMS as well as English and Tagalog, what are you talking about?'"
For many LGBTQ+ folks, The Sims games gave them the space to "live a fantasy" in a way they might not be able to in real life.
"It's really cool that in The Sims world, nobody is really running it. There's no president, there's no rules. Sims has always been so progressive in a way," because you can do whatever you want, Rock points out.
"In real life, we could learn so much from The Sims game. Maybe not marrying people after three days of meeting, that's not the lesson I'm trying to say. But The Sims world is just so progressive and diverse. America could take some notes from Sims' world, that'd be really cute."
These days, Rock's Sims house is "filled with plants," she laughs, truly creating the world exactly how she wants it to be.
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
