Baldur's Gate 3 Interview: Tim Downie on the Craft of Video Game Acting

[Music] good morning afternoon or night and welcome to collider dailies I'm John aljets and joining me this time is Maggie love it how are you doing this morning Maggie I am doing wonderful I am so excited for today's episode well I mean I would expect you to be super excited because today we are talking to Tim Downey Gale of Water Deep himself uh he's joining us to talk about obviously balder's gate but we are going to touch upon the craft of acting as well as a few small things here there about uh some other stuff that he's done so you know sit back relax enjoy this extra long interview I think we got him for about 40 minutes which is pretty awesome uh and uh we'll we'll talk a little bit after that so stick around hey so how are you doing today very well very good it's very drizzly little storm me uh over here but all is well apart from that we're good how are you guys very good you know here as well so very similar there you go you see it's all happening yes so you have a pretty large role in a game that some people might have heard of uh you know maybe if they were you know paying attention or if they're in that Circle they might have heard of balers Gate 3 uh kind of kind of a big deal uh definitely super popular with a lot of folks and uh I just I just want to know being a part of something that has exploded and has become such a big deal for so many people what is how is that for you like what is the experience been like um it's it's just extraordinary like I don't think any of us had any idea it would be it would become what it's become we assumed it would be big we assumed it would not big but just popular and you know well received and things like that but you never expect the the the the level the scale to which it has been received and taken to people's hearts and just kind of enjoyed and poured over like people have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours playing this which is just mindboggling you know my background is film and TV you know unless it's some epic where it's like 3 hours in a cinema you know that's kind of that's kind of tops that's kind of it or like a Lord of the Rings kind of you know evening that's kind of it so for someone to come up to you and say oh I've spent 500 hours with Gail you go wow that's I can't I can't even begin can't even begin to comprehend that it's it's an extraordinary extraord thing to be a part of and you know to continue to be a part of as it kind of unravels itself I am one of those people who has spent 500 hours with Gail um I am really curious to know like going back before any of us really knew about balers Gate 3 what was the audition process like for getting into balers gate um well it was it was really simple it was like a wet Tuesday in October you know it was a real just sort of your agent Rings you up and says oh there's a casting for this video game we don't know much about it we don't know what it's called we don't really know what it's about but you want to see the briefing oh okay yeah that sounds fun haven't done a game before yeah okay I'll be out for that and then they send the briefing through and they film it a very specific way so it's not just like um uh a TV casting or a film casting where you just set your camera up and then do it they want you to stand a certain way which will be in as I now know which is in the base position for when they animate for when you're doing the map so you kind of have to stand kind of like all right so I do I do this okay and now I deliver the line okay this is all bit all a bit strange I've never really done this before um and then we had a slight a small character breakdown apparently um my the thing to recognize was Henry Carville from the tuders so okay I can I can do that I can do that um and yeah and then literally I sent it off I did it two or three times I kind of played around with it kind of you know you just kind of make very you know stuff that interests you you make decisions that interest you you think well I like I would like that something like this and you because I have no idea if it was a good or a right thing you just think okay I'm going to throw it into the ether and just see what happens you know I think this will be fun like like the way I'm doing it they may have other ideas who knows as is the great Eternal mystery of self tapes and throwing them into the ether you have no idea who's watching them or what they want so yeah and so I just did it and then they rang up and they said oh you know that you know that game yeah oh you got you got the part you're the part you're you're a wizard like oh that's fun that'll be fun uh any any other details no that's just that's about it okay wizard great and then off you go and that was four years ago so quite a lot of quite a lot has changed pandemic for one thing in in the middle of it as well so and with with working in a game like this that is so like there there's there's a basic story that follows but it branches in so many different possibilities so many different ways that it's it's largely a nonlinear experience how has that how does that affect your process for uh creating and kind of crafting the character of Gail as opposed to some of your like television or film roles um well in the beginning because in the beginning you literally start at the beginning then it it gave us a chance or it gave me a chance to sort of just play around with with bits and pieces kind of think okay well it might be a bit like this might be a bit like that okay that's quite interesting having not having any idea what a wizard in a game does I think it kind of gave me maybe an edge of a freedom to kind of think okay well I'll just do this as if it is an acting exercise I will make it as real as I possibly can because I don't know any other way I'll just try and do it that way and see if that sticks see if that's a good thing and yes there's certain technicalities you have to remember and and know and that's the craft of map and game acting which I was like oh okay yep noted yep that's an interesting gotcha okay I'll do that um but yes and then it yeah so then it was those very very early days you begin to kind of craft and feel and get a sense of the writing and kind of okay maybe I could do this maybe I could do that but then when it start when you really get into it and it starts to kind of Splinter off that becomes a m that's a whole other Beast because I mean you do find your head just exploding by saying right you're going to do some sort of romantic scene now and now there's um oh it's oh it's horrible it's a blood bath there's bits of bodies everywhere uh you know most of them so we're going to do that bit now and you think I don't how do I get from how do I get my head from that to that that's quite bizarre um so that was that was quite a learning curve I don't know if you ever get used to that but that was definitely something but then I retreated so sort of like being a 5-year-old in a wood with a stick as a sword and sort of you know your your friends are hiding in their Ro you know you Retreat into your own head to picture these things because you are just in a blank room with a suit of dots and lights and sometimes you hear the lines sometimes you don't hear the lines so you have to find it somewhere within you to pick out how do I play this how do I okay you're in this you know there's a big monster in front of you with tentacles and it's trying to attack this thing and you're battle weary and you're from this and this is happening and all around is like destruction destruction and go and the only way I could really do that is think right well as a kid I would do that so I have to r Treat back and find cuz I believed it you know when you're five you believe it you completely believe it it's as simple as that you're on the Death Star yes I completely believe I'm on the Death Star even though I'm in my living room or a bath yes I'm on the death so you have to yeah find that which was great fun you know it gave you that enormous sense of a sense of play and then it gave you an you know opportunity to sort of throw some curve balls in so how you would say a line or how you would approach something no i' probably like that just see if you like it great you know I'm curious for you as an actor what was your like prep for Gail like like I know in my own experience I'm somebody who likes making playlists creating journals as the character that I'm playing but how did you kind of keep Gail fresh and new every time you played him and you know created him across those four years I I would I would just try to well a broad stroke is I would try to approach approach everything as if it were as if it were real and not Supernatural or bigger than anything else like that so hopefully I would try and get the minui right of how he would react in small circumstance and or greet someone in a certain way what's the back story between this person and if you didn't know the back story you go okay well I I feel it probably be a bit like this and that's quite fun to play with so it's finding the fun within it basically it's approaching it because it was so long like you would in real life like I could walk up to you I don't know you but we then have a a sort of game where we work out okay this is where we are and this is where we are and I thought well if I kind of in in if I kind of integrate those kind of Stylistics into this it's going to keep it fresh and interesting and create different ways of saying lines um other than the usual way of saying you know a greeting or a goodbye or a reaction to something that's horrendous you know those kinds of things just keep it interesting and because I come from a comedy background I firmly firmly believe that not everything is melodramatic you can't you cannot live your life 24 hours a day no matter who you are no matter where you are constantly being in a state of anxiety and Str you will just explode so you have to find the light moments in things in everything and in terrible moments that's what we do as people we will find lightness in the dark and that's what gives us hope for and I think within this there are so many moments of Darkness but hopefully there's a great deal of hope you kind of hope for something better and that's what takes you on um so yeah we try I I basically it's like acting exercises that just try of you kind of layer them discard them bring in new ones play around with them and just try and keep it on its toes as much as possible because it is a marathon it's not it ain't no Sprint doing doing something like this now I know that it was you know obviously you were working on this for quite a while so might be a little bit hard for you to pick out one particular moment or day but was there was there a particular scene or a particular day while you were working that stands out to you as something where you were like either particularly proud of what you were doing or maybe it was just like a moment that you had a lot of fun uh with your performance anything like sticking out in your mind yeah I mean there there are both there are moments there are moments when uh Gail uh becomes a hologram or a version of himself and I had I just loved doing that because it was I could kind of be quite subversive about how I react to people and I had a whole thing there was a lot of things of saying you know uh the Tav is your friend the player is your friend and I was thinking okay well for this moment I dislike you you're an idiot I don't care who you are or what you think you've done you are an idiot and you are you are you're not worth my time so I thought that's quite fun to then having traveled all this way the Gil has re pre-recorded this thing where he just assumes you're an idiot and not quite up to the match and then you will then sort of like hello I'm Gale of water de it's that sort of well that's fascinating anyway if we could just it's and I just found that just brilliant and the fact that they kind of gave me that rign and enjoyed it and kind of thought okay this is this is going to add to it rather than this is just ridiculous please stop doing that um was just a joy so whenever those bits came up it was like oh fabulous let's let's do that that sounds amazing um and there were some very difficult days dramatically as well there was like you know a death of a child and things like that within the game and that was unbearably difficult like so difficult like how do you where do you go to get into that that kind of mindset was very very difficult so they really stick out out as well so yeah both the ying and the Yang of um of the experience and there's yeah there's a host of other things where you just think some of my favorite moments were the incidental moments where the bits that probably you will never ever ever see in your life unless you played this for like four years are almost like the bits where you're waiting where like Gail is just waiting and then you'll have a line like hurry up or something like that and you and you'll think well the chances of anybody here ever ever seeing this are very remote so I enjoy playing around with waiting bits I think one of your pieces of dialogue that has probably become like the most popular is the stop licking the damn thing with the spider were there different line readings for that or was it always just that like I can not believe I am traveling with somebody who is licking spider goo right now I that was the first that was the first take was that tape that they that they used because I went for it because I just thought to myself well well if you're traveling with someone again it goes back to those kind of trying to play it for a reality if you're playing with someone you're slightly they've annoyed you anyway they've probably done stuff that is just going to wind you up like I'm a wizard right whatever you are I'm I'm slightly better than I I've got more I know more things I can speak more languages so I'll I'll I'll take you on here so if someone starts licking a spider you think what your your h exha like what are you doing what are you doing you know you would really kind of rather than say rather than just say stop licking the down you like stop licking the D what's wrong with you and I just well I'll do it I'll do it like that was my first instinct was to do it like that rather than sort of softer and more sort of measured and more weighty of a of a wizard no I think he would just be really but I like those little those little Peaks which make them human rather than than just being I'm magical I'm like a you know an entity a completely different being this is something that hopefully you go yeah yeah I get that yeah yeah yeah so I know someone that would do that and I know I would react like that and I think that's what hopefully draws you into into a character and and makes you want to then travel with that person hopefully yes so when the game first uh got its full release it came out of Early Access and everybody was able to play it and everyone was having a good time with it people noted that Gail seemed to be particularly easy to romance almost to the point I was ill I was Ill all right almost to the point of people accidentally Romancing him uh but it kind of makes me curious of the actual romance moments how how were how was that experience doing the romance scenes with you know a character who can't who doesn't speak back it's well that would that would be that would be interesting in and of itself and then if you then put into you the equation that you're on your own and you're doing these that throws in a whole whole other thing with just like a wall a wall of people adults looking at you saying I'm really sorry we're going to have to do this now and you're okay all right okay let's let's do this and I didn't really know there was this kind of romance aspect to the game I didn't Le some probably somebody said it and I went n I'm sure that's fine and just didn't really pay attention and then suddenly you know you're you're in a boat in the weave and all of that kind of you're go oh right okay this is quite something and that particular scene we have to do four times for some unknown reason I don't know if it was a dialogue change I don't know if it was just could you do it better Tim or a whole host of other things I do not know but but yeah that was quite it was quite something but again you go in you go into your head and you find those those moments those teenage moments you find all those little those little bits and try and give them the reality give them the awkwardness give them the those difficult Beautiful Moments where you're trying to say something but you can't but you want to and they you know you you you you just you bring them all up again which is kind of in some respects a very pledgeable experience in another aspect you I don't want to go there again I've done that no need to go there again something you brought up earlier you talked about your um background in comedy and how you brought a lot of that into Gale um I've noticed that a lot of the different um actors behind the characters have brought little things that are like uniquely them would you say it's the comedy aspect that is uniquely Tim that you brought to Gail or were there other little aspects little nuances that you brought that were very like unique to you um it's it's you know what it's very difficult to say apart from apart from the comedy which I do think is something that I I think they then after a while the the writers must have seen oh okay he's he's he's going like this and therefore they up it and therefore you know they begin to write for you and your your Rhythm how you say a line how you approach a character how you and all those aspects but that's you know that's fabulous writing that's working as a team that's exactly what you want um but I think it is definitely the comedy there are other aspects of the whole thing where you go wow that's terrifying like the first time I ever saw at where you go oh okay this will be quite good and in my head cuz I'm not a gamer in my head it was like watching like paper boy you know still very pixelated kind of like hello kind of characters rather than you watch it and go oh my God that you got my eye thing or or he'll go up and it will appear and you go oh my God that's that's unbelievable so it was actually more than the comedy aspect it was the little ticks and nuances you do with with a hand or or that which I found amazing just what it picks up and then what it yeah that was extraordinary but I yeah I think the comedy was was the thing I also realiz there's a lot of similarities between me and girl anyway just by absolute chance just fluke of the whole thing but um yeah I think being a slightly humorous wizard is quite is quite fun yes I was going to say like did you do your audition in front of your bookshelves because your books are so very Gale like so funny no I did it uh because it was the only place we could get um reception I did it in my daughter's bedroom upstairs which is like by a wardrobe with dolls in front of it I mean it was like the least Gale thing you've ever seen in your life and probably like a pile of clothes behind me that needs to do laundry you know it was very sort of all right I'll try and I'll try and but there's only so much there's only because they want it wide you then go well you're going to have to see the room unlike other things where we go okay well we can frame this as soon as they say as we all know can we get a full body shot you think no you can't because if you do you're going to see you're going to see absolutely everything and I not I don't know if I'm prepared for that you know exact you know exactly that how do I do this do I pan out what do I do um so yeah so that didn't even didn't even feature and I didn't really kind of make the connections uh to two Gil really it was only to be honest with you it's only quite recently and I thought oh actually actually I am quite similar to Gail that's quite that's quite interesting I hadn't even thought about that but yeah you're right I do have a lot of I do have a lot of books but so you you mentioned uh Lan's writers and them kind of like shifting a little bit what they were doing because of what you were doing and I know when we spoke to uh Neil nuban he specifically talked about working with them on some stuff for aarian but uh what sort of experience did you have working with their writers and was it uh a collaborative relationship with you two or you know was it more them kind of giving you pages and you making tweaks or what was it like uh there were there were no from my point of view anyway there were no there were no tweaks it was kind of everything everything there is as written so there was no impro there was there was nothing nothing like that um and it it wasn't as collaborative as Neil's like I didn't have a conversation with the writers it was just I I assumed probably quite a sympatico thing that you know once someone kind of gets a tone and a rhythm of what you're doing than they write for that um which was which was great which was great I actually only met my uh my writer the other day who came up and introduced herself to me I was like oh my oh my god well well thank thank you fanboying myself oh wow you're amazing thank you so that was uh yeah that was a lot I didn't I didn't even know I could have a conversation I'm so I'm so used to sort of like as an act your given Pages can I change this no okay that's that's fine we'll keep the we'll keep the um in that's fine I was going to move it it doesn't matter you know it doesn't matter um that you just kind of take it and you think okay this is you know the especially in the beginning you know the character I don't and then as it kind of drifts on you can make broader things going Gail Gail wouldn't say like that he may say the line but he wouldn't say it like that he would probably say it like this and that's probably the only thing the input into the how it would be done from my point of view and then that collaboration so I mean the writing was brilliant so you just think okay well I'll just put the character on top and it will just find its way through like there's no need really to change anything or you know it was good I know at the top of the episode we talked a little bit about like just how big balers Gate 3 has been with fans uh and you recently joined Tik Tok and you're you're seeing the full breath of the good the bad the really extreme they like really passionate reactions from fans but for you like what has it been like to just see the reaction like the fan reaction the passion behind playing this game and like their love for Gail because there is a very large swath of people who very much love Gail there is and it absolutely takes me by surprise it really really does I I suppose it's also that there's a thing obviously when you make a TV program or a film you go you go somewhere you work with other characters but it's finished it's done it's kind of complete and then you can forget about it for about three or three or four months and then suddenly it'll come up and go oh there it is on TV or there it is there gaming is very different because there's a lot more of a of a relationship between Gamers and makers and designers so during that whole Early Access thing they were learning things and we were learning things and and suddenly things begin to kind of shift and move so it's a very organic piece of art which this was all completely new to me so then if you take that idea and then you put it into where we are now it's quite like wow okay but it's immersive it's not like P it's not like watching a film where you'll sit and you'll watch dairo for two or three hours and go God that's that's extraord you know that's amazing or whoever or any actor this is you spend time with the character you can drift off that character can tell you stories can let you into little parts of their life that if you're passively watching something you don't have so the relationship with the people that have played this game is is very different but I'm learning it as well because it's like oh wow okay that's really touched you I didn't I didn't know that that's amazing you've got XY Z from it and you know and it's a constantly evolving process people get different things from Gail they get you know the kind of things that are kind of upfront but they get nuance and subtleties and they get all kinds of little bits and pieces some bits you go I didn't realize I did that and other bits you you go I'm really pleased you got that that's great um that's that's that's really nice that that that came across so one thing that I'm a little bit curious about to sort of build upon that is that obviously there's there's a lot of people out there who really really love Gail and then there's also people out there who are uh annoyed at the whole Enchanted item eating aspect of his character they should just grow up and get over it exact that's it ex that's it next next question John next question right there you know what you did you did actually fully fully get what I was going to ask so oh my gosh it's funny no it's funny I found that whole thing about him eating shoes just hilarious just very funny I just think you know there's there's so many things in this in this kind of business the worst thing that I think any actor could ever hear is it was all right no it was okay quite nice go what you didn't I didn't provoke any reaction at all that was that was as beige as it could possibly be so if it provokes that was the worst thing I've ever seen I'm literally I threw my TV and a child out of a window because it was so bad that's a reaction you go okay that's good I've done something there as well as it being oh thank you so much it means means everything blah blah blah but um yeah I just F find it very funny I would never have picked out that you know a Lust For Shoes would have created such such upset but you live in your love say yeah I guess I got to ask like how do you like your shoes to be prepared when you eat them like is do you want them sauteed maybe broiled in my mind it's always like a Charlie Chaplain sketch you know like that knife like little napkin cutting it like that trying to fold it around you know like a buster Keon kind of things you know like spaghetti with shoelaces that kind of thing that would thrill me that would thrill I loved how quickly the fandom took on that was it girl dinner Meme and it was Gail dinner and it's just like a beautiful Buffet of uh of shoes the reactions too much um but you know something something I'm curious you know we've talked quite a bit about like the lore the little aspects of of balers gate but how familiar with Dungeons and Dragons were you when you got into this and if you weren't like what kind of research did you do just so that you had that like background understanding of the world that your character was in I growing up there was there was the cartoon of Dungeons and Dragons that was on in the UK so IED so as a like a six seveny old it was on like every lunchtime you go up from school and it would be on and you would just kind of watch it and um that was really interesting and You' go okay this is quite fun quite like the fantasy of things I've always been kind of into that thing horror fantasy very lightly not kind of full-on and then in the UK there was a whole kind of like satanic panic and during that satanic Panic dungeon and Dragons was so instantly I was like what's Dungeons and Dragons cuz it seems it seems like like not allowed it but maybe I should look at it more I don't know that kind of that kind of thing so that brought it up so but then that kind of drifts and then kind of dies away and then obviously stranger things brought it all back to kind of go oh Dungeons and Dragons okay that's interesting and then this arrives now I mean I didn't know what the game was for two years no one told me what it was so I had no idea it was Dungeons and Dragons may have heard in a break room oh this was kind of based on dungeons go oh okay and that was kind of about it but I think to be honest not knowing was really refreshing because it's it's a monster it's so big it's so layered and so detailed that I almost think you would just get a migraine just trying to kind of fit yourself into that so actually kind of not knowing and kind of presenting well actually this is a wizard I think this is a w it's it's like that thing of going you know that doesn't Define you it's not like it's it's not what defines me being a wizard I I am a human and I'm also a wizard and I thought that was quite an interesting take to have on it rather than being all kind of powerful gandal you're just kind of an everyday guy you just happen to be a wizard that's that's it and I thought that was just a nice a nice kind of place that's a good place has every problem you know has problems as everybody else does just happens to be a wizard so obviously this being set in like a fantasy setting like Dungeons and Dragons there's a lot of peculiar names that things have or odd words that need to be pronounced how uh how was having to deal with so many like weird names and odd words that aren't normal uh for most people to have to say on a daily basis that was yeah that absolutely had its moments and obviously being a wizard you're then saying things in Latin which then kind of brings up a whole whole other thing I think I did a load of recordings of Latin spells and but then there's a there's a difference because they they didn't do you do it with a slightly Italian accent no because that sounds wrong but then if you don't put certain inflections on certain things like as a Brit you're taught if you're taught Latin you're taught that you do it in an English accent anyway and you just kind of you hit certain letters harder than others well obviously that's how Brits do it but not necessarily how someone from water de who's a wizard would do it so that yeah it really threw up a lot of problems they would say we're going to have a spell day and You' go oh really okay right and really have to concentrate because you also have to do the Motions with whatever spell you know when it's Fireball it's easy Fireball fine we'll do a hand motion lovely anything else gets a little bit more little bit more complicated but then yeah you just want for please just say it's an necromancy of f great I know that one we can move on the mikids are attacking great move on we can do these it's yeah I think I've blocked out most most of the others this is a question that might get too much into like how the pudding is made but I am curious like we keep getting hot fixes we keep getting new patches that sometimes add dialogue into it so is this all stuff that was all like already recorded over the four years or are you all still being like brought into like fix audio fix dialogue do little new things or is this just all stuff that was already recorded I think a lot of this is stuff that's already recorded I think if they came up against something that was like ah this is this is pretty bad we need to really do then yeah we will come back in and re-record as it had as it happens we haven't done that yet so I'm assuming this is all stuff they had and then they're going to yeah fit fit it all in I don't know how that works at all I just again that's a whole new thing it's a whole new thing where you think oh I just thought that's it you know like you watch a ray harh Housen where the dinosaur kind of scratches its nose and then carries on you think I just thought that was it then not you go back and make it that the dinosaur doesn't scratch his nose you that kind of thing so I guess like the the big hypothetical question uh here would be if in some future uh they were doing a balers gate 4 if they asked you to come back as Gale would that be something that you would be interested in possibly doing more of goes without saying Absolutely I'll start tomorrow what are you offering that I mean yeah of course it was been enormous fun enormous fun to do and something completely different to what you would usually usually do and on a scale that I wasn't prepared for and on a scale that you just been it's been a really extraordinary journey and also as an acting kind of exercise it's been extraordinary because it's very like much like mask work in how to tell a story where they don't necessarily see your face because your face will be animated however the animator wants it to go or be so that was a very interesting process and it was yeah it was been an enormous amount of fun as well you know you get to kind of conquer worlds and get to you know fly off nautiloids and do all kind of ridiculous brilliant fun things so yeah I'd I'd absolutely I mean if it carries on as the whole series has gone this will be in about 25 years so I'll still do it don't get me wrong you could wheel me in and prop me up I've seen I've seen what technology can do so uh I'm very happy with that I'm not I feel like in that case Gail will have a lot of extra dialogue about creaky knees uh like when he fails his stealth checks I would demand it absolutely demand it you've got to make that yeah front front and center I do kind of want to see old man Gail like I think that would be of all the main casts I think that Gail would probably be the most fun to visit as like an old yeah I like to think of him like sitting on a porch shouting at youth just being just annoyed at youth their Vigor and that kind of thing I'm a magician that kind of thing I'm a wizard no no you take that back I know your father that kind of thing I'd love that oh I love that yeah I was going to ask like I know we've talked a little bit about like the branching um you know storytelling style so there's a lot of different paths people can take with Gail and specifically with him you have these kind of three definitive Paths of he either kills himself at one of two points in the game or if they just decide to blow him up at some point um then you have the like happy ending where like he doesn't go after the crown and then you have godhood which also is not a great ending but for you as an actor like getting to play a character that has three different paths completely was it like really cathartic to get to play out like three completely different story lines for the character because that's not something you get in movies or TV unless you're playing some sort of like time traveler that has multiple endings to his fate um but for you like what was that like oh it was it was it was great I mean there's certainly endings where you think oh yeah if I was if I was doing this I'll do that even if it's completely and utterly non-beneficial to you whatsoever you go yeah yeah I'm obiously doing that that looks like fun um and then there's also the ending you think no I'm pleased for him he gets that ending I think that's a really good ending for him he'd be happy with that having traveled so far I think yeah that would be the best ending that would be the ending I would choose this will just be entertaining to see what happens you know it's all of those scenarios but it's again it's all kind of part and parcel of you get to a Crossroads it's like a Robert Frost poem you know you kind of get to that crossroads and you think wouldn't it be interesting if I if I went this way this might happen if it went that way that might happen if it went this and that's really nice to then play out all those all those scenarios but then we' been doing that throughout the entire game is how the branches of dialogue I mean I have absolutely no idea how anyone writes these things like I genuinely I could barely keep a shopping list in my head let alone a dialogue tree that stretches out and then interlocks with other characters it's like mindboggling it's like Coral it's like trying to kind of unravel Coral you would just be it would just infuriate I don't understand that how their minds were that did that I mean it's it that's black magic it's as simple as that so something that I'm curious about and I'm I'm always curious when speaking to actors uh sort of their own history and how they got into acting and why they they decided to pursue acting uh how old they were things of that nature what is what is sort of your story for getting into this line of work can't do anything else John can't can't do anything else useless at pretty much everything this was all that was left uh no I mean I think it's just I just have a I love telling stories and I think there's nothing finer in this world when someone says oh my God let me tell you a story or oh my God you'll never guess what happened here it is and if can do it well if they can really tell that story well that's one of the greatest Joys I think in life because it's so inclusive it's so you know you can't interject in a song If You interject in a song that person's annoyed like no this is my song man I wrote my song you listen to my song and again it's quite passive but again with a story you could be telling a story and someone could come on and going how big was it ah well it was like this and it was like this and you can embellish and it changes and it's very very organic and just the art of being able to hold an audience and tell them and fill them with Wonder and magic and something that's other the other world the thing behind the veil I find infinitely fascinating so why it's why I'm still doing it it's why you still go on it's because the stories keep changing the stories e and flow and they drift around and they are ephemeral and they are solid and they are all sorts of things so that's why I love it I think the reason I wanted to get into it is is is pretty much that it's pretty much that and I just thought I don't really I I cannot and I've done it I've done so many other real life jobs and I just thought I cannot I cannot do it I can't do it it would just destroy me it would just eat me up if I didn't do something creative even if nobody listens it kind of doesn't matter it's just the process of doing something that is creative was one of the things in Co is even though nothing was happening you just you suddenly felt this kind of like like emptiness like you were being like filled with Darkness or something but you were being hollowed out at the same time so you have to kind of push that into something and so at one point you just go okay I'm just going to have to see how this works and and also like a pathological desire to just ignore the absolute obvious so so many people tell you please stop doing this now you don't have any money you have nowhere to live you all the classic actor tropes but there's still that part of you that either is going to become you know a cult leader or a serial killer that just keeps you just keeps you going just keeps you going no no no no no I'm just gonna no no I'm I'm sure I'm right I'm sure I'm right it's just around it's just around that corner I'm just going to keep going I'm just going to keep going and uh yeah I think those two when those two storm fronts meet then um yeah then it's pretty there is only one outcome really well there's a lot of other outcomes but you hope that the outcome is you know you pursue uh an artistic career in ways I was so glad the strike ended this week so that we could actually ask you about I like I for many reasons I'm happy not not just because of the interview but it's so exciting to be able to talk about things again you got being good Omens this year what was that like that show was just like incredible amazing amazing I am a massive Neil gaming fan I happy for Years love love love there's a certain sort of English britishness to his writing which I just adore Terry pratchet is is very very similar that idea of you're facing the worst thing you could be facing but you know there's a there's a traffic Warden that's about to give your car a ticket it's that level of britishness we go no just wait there when I sort this out who the hell you think you you know it's I love love I love all that so being able to work on something like good Omens was was a dream and with an extraordinary cast as well just kind of look around and go wow I've really got to got to out my game here because this is quite a this is this is these are great people these are people that I grew up with these are people that I I've admired for years as well you know there are all everyone is there everyone is in the room and you're there as well and okay right I better better make sure I'm I'm all right today but yeah that was great fun incredible fun so yeah so we are actually coming up on our time so this is where we're going to have to uh leave it so I guess the last thing that I have to ask you Tim is where can people find you on the internet and do you have anything that you've got going on that you want to plug you want to throw out there uh well I'm all I'm on Tik Tok why I have no idea but there I am uh discussing you know books and stuff and all kinds of things but yes Tik Tok and on Instagram Twitter still calling it Twitter Twitter uh as well uh I do a podcast as well called folklands um which you can delve into we've got a couple more episodes coming up quite soon one at the end of this month there's one out already um and then a few more before the end of the year but yes fol Clans podcast downloaded like all those things well thank you so much for speaking to us thank you so much this was great pleasure thank you very much man talking to him was so much fun Maggie how did you feel about that interview how did it go to I thought it was awesome I'm so excited for all of the Gil girlies to get to watch it as well uh it was just really good to hear him talk about the character you know the the process and all of the fun acting stuff that led him to this as a as a Gail Gurley yourself do you feel like you got that do you feel satisfied oh yeah with his answers and hearing about all that behind the scen stuff yes yes and you know once again uh 500 hours of playing uh Baler skate three and it has been a real pleasure to talk to both Neil and him about the game um over these last few weeks so it's been fun to bring that to DA's you know I thought that I've played the game a lot but I'm not anywhere near 500 hours I'm I'm like at the like 160 I think you know I have to admit it's multiple different game plays it's not just like one gameplay and I'm taking my sweet time with it it's like 10 different game plays so very different options either way uh so yes that was our show today I hope that you enjoyed it uh tomorrow will be a a different pair of hosts I assume we don't know the schedule as of the recording of this we don't know who's up but someone's gonna be up so you can tune in tomorrow at 10 a.m. as usual 10 a.m. Pacific as usual and check out another episode of collider dailies but until then see you around and

Channel: Collider Extras

Views: 11,335

Keywords: collider, collider dailies, movies, film, movie news, hollywood, live show, perri nemiroff, steve weintraub, john aljets, maggie lovitt, podcast, baldur's gate, bg3, tim downie, gale, gale of waterdeep, magical items, mr brown, good omens, tryon, outlander, performance capture, motion capture, voice acting, actor, larian studios, game of the year, goty, interview

Id: 9Yli7Y_KHNo

Length: 43min 56sec (2636 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 13 2023