During the Irrational Games Voice Actor panel at PAX Prime 2011, there were a lot of great questions from those in attendance, questions we sadly couldn’t answer due to a lack of time. Fortunately, we heard many of them from the Irrational Games community, so we decided to pay tribute to our fans in this latest installment of Irrational Interviews by going straight to the source for the answers.
In this episode, Creative Director Ken Levine is joined by BioShock Infinite voice actors Troy Baker (Booker DeWitt) and Courtnee Draper (Elizabeth), as they tackle questions taken directly from our audience. Things kick off with Ken, Troy and Courtnee discussing the process of voice acting, how they approach their characters in BioShock Infinite, the emotions involved in a memorable performance, and even the collaborative process between the actors and director.
The podcast closes out as our trio explores how their characters evolve over the project, and how they identify with them as they become more familiar with the roles. Each person has a different perspective on how they learn about the characters, but the actors are able to shape the Booker and Elizabeth relationship as they build the connection between each other.
Share your thoughts about this podcast in the comments below, or head over to the forums for a more in-depth discussion.
- Produced by James Bonney, Eduardo Vasconcellos, and Julian Murdoch
- Editing by Ant Bear Audio
- Music courtesy of The Happy Hollows
vsharres | January 25, 2012 12:06 pm
Hell yeah!!! nothing better than to arrive at home with a new Irrational Interview to watch!
lasselund | January 25, 2012 1:19 pm
Interesting interview. Thanks for posting it.
edeslash | January 25, 2012 2:04 pm
And extremely interesting clip for someone interested in Bioshock: Infinite or game design in general.
Thank you!
jayakers | January 26, 2012 3:38 am
Very awesome stuff! Thoroughly enjoy all IG Behaviors/Interviews. I think the “innocent” thing that Troy was getting at was… Courtnee is relatively new to voice acting… inexperienced, if you will, in the venture… (such as Elizabeth re: escape/adventure)… while clearly this isn’t Troy’s/Booker’s ‘first rodeo’ (so to speak). I could be wrong … also… not sure why… but loved the fact that everyone was dropping f-bombs…
lobo | January 26, 2012 12:02 pm
I know this is almost certainly not the case, but listening to Courtnee talk about how everything is new to Elizabeth, made me think of an interesting idea: What if Elizabeth was an automaton.
It would make sense that in that period, in a World’s Fair type setting, that someone might exhibit a realistic pinnochio style automaton. It would explain why she has powers and why the songbird feels so connected to her. It would also make for a great twist, and I can imagine a great reveal where Elizabeth is injured and you see that beneath that she is just an armature and cogs.
Like I say, I doubt this is the case, but it’s a neat idea.
icegrove | January 26, 2012 12:38 pm
That shameless text we can use to blackmail Ken Levine XD So funny.
borrego | January 27, 2012 12:36 am
Most definitely stoked to check this out at work tomorrow! Really interested in hearing about the evolution of the characters as the project went on. Can’t wait!