The story of how I got the part of Seth Briars.
proof: https://twitter.com/heyjusttweetme/status/723241739872440325/photo/1
In Dec 2008 my agent tells me I have an audition at Kathy Knowles Casting. Now Kathy is a well known commercial casting director so when my agent tells it's at Kathy's I assume it's a commercial audition and don't read the full email because for commercial auditions you show up, say your name, show your profiles, say a line maybe and that’s it. You don't have to really prepare. Well, I show up and see that it's actually for a untitled video game for an unknown company and they’re looking for an actor to do the motion capture and the voice of a "grave robber" who is "insane, like a crack addict or gollum" and there's a monologue about a page long about how someone stole his map to the treasure. Well that sucks when there's a monologue that you didn't get to prepare for. So I'm about to NOT sign in and take the sides and head back to my car to work on them when Kathy the casting director comes out and says, "Are you ready?" Now I'm thinking, "No I'm not ready! I just got here lady and I’ve only read the sides like once. And I don’t even know who the fuck Gollum is (I hadn’t seen Lord of the Rings yet) I need some freaking time!" Now, female casting directors use to make me feel very nervous to the point where I would fake being over confident. Weird, I know. I hadn’t yet had the years of therapy under my belt. So I blurt out, “Yup!" And we head into the room. It’s only Kathy with the video camera and I’m freaking out reading over the sides as fast as I can. I get the gist of the monologue, decide to put the sides away, throw on a southern accent and go with the flow. Now you should know that I often get cast as what I like to call, “another version of crazy” so based on what they wanted I certainly can fit the bill. But I decide to take it to another planet of crazy. I’m screaming, crying in despair, laughing, and the best part was I’m remembering the lines and making some stuff up too. I’m not sure how it’s really going as I'm doing it but when I finish Kathy just simply says, “you’re crazy.” And I left. About three month later they told me I got the part. When I got to the rehearsal the director says to me, “We cast you because you were so over the top insane that I knew I could take you down a notch but I wasn’t sure I could go bigger with the other actors.” So what you see in the game is a toned down version of that audition day.
TLDR: Watch my new show on Nicktoons called Get Blake! And please pledge just $1 to my zany project techtopiashow.com
And before you ask, I can neither confirm nor deny RD2.
edit: if someone is actual interested in a signed copy of the script I used for the glass eye ball scene. Then please pledge whatever amount you like to my kickstarter techtopiashow.com and then message the project that you'd like the script sent to you if we get funded. edit 2: I just found my full script for the cut scenes that I used for The Dead Rise Again. so you can get that signed as well if you like.
Hi Kevin, since you are cool enough to share this on this sub, I will gladly donate 1 dollar to your project. The amount of soul you put into Seth really made him a special character that I loved since I did my first playthrough. Hope you do well and get better noticed, I think you really are underrated as an actor.
dude, that means a lot! thank you for the kind words and pledge!
I can still clearly remember Seth, 6 years later. He was insane that's for sure.
Hey man, just wanted to say your part kicked ass, and Seth was one of my favourite characters. Cheers!
This is fascinating! Thanks so much for sharing with us. Any interesting stories about the actual production as well?
it was fun, fast and furious. we wore these head cams that recorded our facial expressions like this https://www.norpix.com/applications/images/face-camera-helmet.jpg. and in one of the scenes, I had to move real close to Abraham to threaten to cut him. but our helmets kept colliding. so the director had to restage us. and the other thing I remember was Abraham who comes from the stage, who never had done mocap before, kept trying to understand where the camera was. and the director had to explain to him that he could move the camera anywhere he wanted so don't worry about "playing it" to anyone. mocap is a crazy wonderful mashup of cinema and stage acting.
Hey man, just wanna say I really appreciate you doing this. But anyways, did you ever actually play the game yourself? and if so, what did you think of it?
never played it. but would go over to my buddies to watch the cut scenes.
Well this is a very welcome surprise! Do you ever find yourself dipping into the character of Seth every now and then? I've pledged, all the best!
thank you! yes, when driving with the kids I'll suddenly shout to them "I needs the gps!"
Hello Kevin , what you did with Seth was awesome , he's one of the memorable characters , like most of RDR's cast , it was perfect . I hope we see/hear more of you .
Hey Kevin! Sorry if my questions too late, but I'd love to hear about your experience working on the Undead Nightmare DLC for Red Dead Redemption. Were the lines recorded back to back with the rest of the game? How far ahead did you know that Red Dead would be getting such an expansive/weird addition? Thanks!
we recorded that like a year later. And we werent told about that until a month before the shoot but I didn't get the lines until a couple days before and they flew us out and put us up in new York to shoot. The original game mocap I did was in Santa monica. The best part about new York trip (besides playing Seth again) was going up to the box office window of the Green Day American Idiot Musical 10 minutes before show time and getting a front row seat for like $20 bucks!
Has there been progress on the issue of pay disparities in video game acting vs. other media? Right before you did RDR there was this controversy and one issue was how there's no pay when your lines from the game get recut into voiceover for commercials. With RDR they went further and made a half-hour animated TV episode out of the first part of the game and aired it in late night on FOX, and you were a major character in it. Since major game franchises are just as big business as major movie franchises has the pay/royalties situation evolved at all?
It's still a major issue that actors are not getting residuals for these games. Rock star was pretty cool and negotiated with my agent for a new fee for the fox short.
outlaws on the run
gunslingers here now