GQ: Is there a stigma attached when you do voice work for video games versus film or TV work?
Steven Ogg (Trevor): I want to take “voice acting” and send it up to space.…this was a motion capture performance. This was not me sitting in my underwear in a booth watching some character that was like Trevor and saying my lines. No. That was me up there in my motion capture suit with the camera directly in my face and the light in my eyes. It’s a huge thing. It’s not just voice acting. You put three years of your life into something like this and you certainly, if nothing else, want the recognition of what you’ve done—it is an entire performance that has been “captured”—your body, your face, and your voice. It wasn’t just three years of talking into a microphone. It was three years of shooting a movie that was motion captured.
Shawn Fonteno (Franklin): It was totally different. Acting in front of the camera for film is totally different from acting in a big studio where you don’t where something is at and you have to imagine that it’s right there. You have to figure it out while they’re building stuff that looks like stuff, so it’s a totally different thing. You have to feel and visualize everything that you’re acting. It’s night and day.
Ned Luke (Michael): Yeah, we’re actors. We’re not just “voice actors”. Steven Ogg is one of the most brilliant actors I’ve ever seen in my life.…For me, acting is acting. I don’t care if you’re just doing voice or live action or motion capture or what. Acting is acting.