One of the many features that makes BioWare games so engaging is the consistently solid vocal talent. Raphael Sbarge has played Carth Onasi in Knights of the Old Republic and Kaidan Alenko from the Mass Effect series. I caught up with Sbarge and nabbed a few questions. I tried to dig up some info on Mass Effect 3, but those queries were not answered.
Sbarge does have a new TV series called Once Upon a Time that premiered last Sunday. You can catch it each week at 8:00pm Eastern on ABC.
Destructoid: How did you get started in voice acting?
Raphael Sbarge: The first game I did was called Grim Fandango, I think. I think it was a Lucas game. And it was the beginning of me realizing how fun it was to work on videogames, where you could create a character and explore it vocally, with accents – I think the character I did was like, a New York union organizer-type of character. It was exciting to see what the possibilities were. And then I did the Star Wars games, etc. Obviously, as games have evolved, they’re looking for actors who can tell a story entirely with their voice, and do so without an animated cartoon sound. It’s useful to have actors who’ve worked a lot in the theater.
How do you deal with being largely solitary during your recordings for the Bioware games?
Usually they give you a whole series of drawings – images of what the guy looks like. Then, obviously, you’re cast based upon you having a vocal quality that resembles what they feel like resembles the character. At the end of the day, there’s a lot that you don’t know that you just sort of make up. And they don’t even know; they sometimes have mockups or general versions of the outline of what a set would look like, but they’re sometimes getting the vocal work done before the years of work that follow it. So, in this case when I’ve worked as an onscreen actor with green screen, or in “My Science Project,” back when I was fighting dinosaurs with M16s, we had M16s, but we were imagining the dinosaurs. So, at the end of the day, being an actor is an imaginative art; it happens full bloom in your imagination. Your ability to make it real for yourself through your imagination is the job at hand.
Did you have any difficulty in finding the voice for Carth and later Kaidan?
Through the combination of the writing and the situation through you, the actor, you find kind of a place where you’re speaking from. And that becomes the guy. Then if they hire you, they say, “We like that thing you did. We like that thing.” And then what happens is, oftentimes they play back for you what they like, and then you go and find it; you explore it and take it further.
Having been involved in both Star Trek and Star Wars — which universe do you like more?
They’re both fun. The Star Trek stuff was so fun because I was such a huge fan of the William Shatner series as a kid, so I was so excited to be a part of it when that happened. I was amazed, having done six episodes of that – it got more attention than anything I had ever done up to that point. The Star Trek fans were so incredibly vocal and excited, and engaged with the show they loved.
What can you tell us about your upcoming role in Once Upon a Time?
I can tell you that being a part of the show is sort of an actor’s dream, because of the variety — of going through time and being in a fantasy world and a reality world. It’s also a show that really changes the rules and is sort of being very daring in its storytelling. It is very much thrilling and surprising to just be a part of it. You never quite know what’s going to come down the pike, and that’s not necessarily like most of the rest of the television universe.
What three things should fans know going into Once Upon a Time?
1. It may not be what you expect.
2. It’s sure to keep you guessing.
3. It’s visually a delight.
