Un-Wired's D.C Douglas Interview

[aris13]

so Ken Lally only does the voice then?

Ken Lally did the motion capture, Douglas did the voice.

[Guest]

Posting transcript, just in case it will be down someday.

D.C.: "Greetings! I'm Albert Wesker. If you're getting this message, it is because I'm sure you know about Uroboros. By the time you hear this, I will be on my journey to take over the world and only a few will be chosen to rule by my side. It seems that you may need more information about my plans, so I decided to conduct an interview with UN WIRED TV. So, prepare yourself: I'm going to take over the whole universe... Hey, this is D.C. Douglas and this is an exclusive with UN WIRED TV."

UN WIRED TV: "Tell us about yourself. How did you get the role for 'Resident Evil 5'?"

D.C.: "I am an actor, first and foremost, started in theater when I was a kid and, when I was 19, moved to LA and pursued film and television. And, along the way, I did a lot of theater here, and then also got into producing and directing and writing of little arty stuff that doesn't make money but makes my soul happy. And then, to put bread on...bread the table...actually, more than bread...but anyway, to put food on the table, I did voice-over, a lot of promos and commercials and whatnot. I'm also known for doing the GEICO celebrity spots. And then, occasionally, I do video games, anime and also US stuff and I was cast for, I think it was some other random roles for 'Umbrella Chronicles', and then I was brought back and auditioned for Wesker as a voice replacement, and that's how I started working with CAPCOM, did Wesker on 'Umbrella Chronicles' and then for 'Resident Evil 5', having no idea how huge the whole thing was, so that has been a fun ride."

UN WIRED TV: "How was the experience with this big project? What were some steps doing this?"

D.C.: "The experience with 'Resident Evil 5' was unique compared to any other video game that I've done in that it was facial mo-cap which I had never done before. Actually, if I backtrack a little, they wanted an audition to do the physical mo-cap for the character Wesker because I think they had liked it if it was all-in-one. The irony was that they called me in for this audition a week after I had thrown my back back out and it was the worst I had ever thrown my back out. I went in and I said as long as I'm not doing, like, kind of stunts stuff, I probably could, you know, walk around and be him. And I went there and of course the audition is 'You tumble this way! You roll that way! You flip back that way!' and it's like 'Yeah, I won't be doing that'. But then I was very excited to find out that there was also going to be facial mo-cap and so that was very unusual. There were several sessions over a period of, I think it was a year. You'd go in they'd put the dots on the face and make sure that you're surrounded by cameras and lasers that were pointing on all these dots. And once they had all that set up properly, then we'd go and record the voice-over and actually, required to do the voice-over, we had to go through a series of steps so that the computers could get sunk up to the face, I guess, where you go through all the vowels and different facial movements, so it is really fascinating. And then, of course, vocal-quality-wise it's...of all the video games that I've done, Wesker is very difficult in that someone else has done it before, several people have done him before and usually, when I'm doing video games, I'm doing the character for the first time or there was one other person who had done it and then they brought me in to do it. So in this particular case, they had several really good actors who had done the voice before, who put their mark on the role, and I had to incorporate those into a new version of it because they want to push each game in one direction or another and in 'Resident Evil 5', they had a specific direction they wanted to go in."

UN WIRED TV: "Give us the scoop! Did Wesker really die? Will we see more of him?"

D.C.: "I can't tell you...to be honest with you, I have no idea. It seems to me like he died. I acted like he died because I blew my voice out doing the lava scene. So I really can't tell you. I don't even know if I'm allowed to say that I did a prequel thing for something else which I'm not going to say any names for, and it was a very short thing. But that's out there. But that was a prequel thing and I have no idea about the future. I hope he's not dead, I hope he's a clone and he gets to come back...another version of him. Actually, that would be wonderful if there were three Weskers in another one because then I could do all three. I believe there would be three times to pay...I don't know."

UN WIRED TV: "Any more upcoming voice-overs for Wesker?"

D.C.: "Always with the questions. Yes, I do play Wesker in 'Darkside Chronicles' for the Wii. I don't know how much I should tell you, but I'm there...if you look for me."

UN WIRED TV: "If you could change something from 'Resident Evil', what would it be?"

D.C.: "That it was called 'Resident Wesker'...no! I admire the other actors who have voiced Wesker before but there's nothing like being able to be the person to create the voice, to be able to do it from the ground floor up and to go from game to game to game, and so much freedom with that, creatively, and you set your stamp on it. So that was the biggest challenge of this Wesker, incorporating this voices. So if I could wish anything it would be that nobody had ever voiced him before and it was me. That being said, I do give props to Richard Waugh and Peter Jessop, and I believe there - I'm sorry, I don't know the names - there was another guy or two that had done it as well, then I give props to all of them because it's a freaking hard business to make a living in, and so I admire all of that."