It was interesting, because I never got to meet the client or developers. I was taken into a studio with no windows. The engineer and client watched me on a video camera and gave direction over the headphones from another part of the building. To this day, I don’t know who they were. Q: We’ve seen many established Hollywood actors like Sam Worthington, Gary Oldman and James Woods getting involved in video games. Can we expect bigger Hollywood involvement in gaming? A: Getting big names to voice games can be useful in marketing, but I don’t think many gamers buy a game for the voice talent. They never promoted Gary Oldman or Kiefer Sutherland for Call of Duty. These games are bigger than the celebs sometimes. I think the gaming studio likes the idea of having Gary or Kiefer in the booth and the kudos that come with booking that talent, but beyond that, it’s not like they’re gonna do a better soldier voice than any other of the 10,000 professional voice actors in LA. That’s why I voiced John Connor in Terminator Salvation the game. I worked on The Elderscrolls V: Skyrim and they’re playing me the trailer and I can hear they’ve got Max Von Sydow! Now that’s a voice. He’s instantly recognizable, but in a wise storytelling kind of way. Sometimes I think they make it a Hollywood production and, like with a good movie, sometimes the star is bigger than the story or pulls you out of the moment. But I do see it continuing. It’s a billion dollar industry. I was the lead in Battlefield 3 and it made $450 million within the first week. With those kinds of figures, they can hire anyone. In fact, I recently did motion capture on a game working with a big name. I can’t say which one, but I was surprised. As a no-name actor, I’m happy I’m still getting work! Q: Uncharted 3’s creative team describes the process to being very similar to a Hollywood movie. As a screen actor and voice artist, how do you feel the two processes are different? A: When you’re on-camera, you have your script ahead of time, you usually have a little rehearsal, you feed off the other actors and you have the luxury of time. You do a few takes, then you wait while they turn the camera around or move locations or whatever. Not so with voice. You go in, you’re on
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your own, they hand you your script there and then and you start acting. After 70 games, I’ve only once had the luxury of working with the other actors in the scene. So you’re trying to imagine their delivery and relying on good direction to help guide you. Here and there you might have a prerecorded line to play off, so that helps. Motion capture is a different animal altogether. The approach is more like theatre. You’re up on your feet, moving around in an empty space, imagining the scenery. If you’re still, which might be fine for film, you are dead in animation. So you have to be constantly moving, but keeping that organic. The same thing goes for faces - if you’re relaxed, as you want to be for on-camera, then nothing is happening. You need to exaggerate facial reactions so there’s data to capture. The trick is, they still want your vocal delivery to be filmic. So you’re running round, pulling faces but trying to sound normal. It’s a bit of a brain fart. Add to that the fact you’re in a tight, sweaty bodysuit, covered in shiny balls, you’ve got a moonbag stuffed with radio transmitters and you’re wearing a helmet with a camera attached to it pointing at your face. Also, because there’s no need for set changes or camera setups (they’re capturing every angle simultaneously - it’s all just data in the space), you do a lot in one day. And you need to have learned all that dialog. We did up to 17 pages a day on my last gig and if your character has a lot to say, that’s a lot to learn each day. Also, there’s no cutting between takes, so you need to deliver a perfect take start to finish for it to be useable. Q: You’ve been featured on some of the top games in the past couple of years, like God of War 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. What has been your favorite game to work on? A: It’s hard to pick just one. I will always have a soft spot for Final Fantasy 12. Balthier was the first big role I landed and he was a lot of fun to voice - suave, cocky, flirtatious. And Fenris from Dragon Age 2 was a favorite, too, because of his dry delivery and cutting sarcasm. Funnily enough, they’re the 2 roles most like my own accent. Most of the time I’m doing American or other European voices. Q: Being involved with Battlefield 3, and voicing the gamecca feature • issue 31 • January 2012