Gone Gold with Simon Hill
Welcome to Gone Gold with Simon Hill, a show that features fun, insightful interviews with some of the biggest names in video games. From developers, to actors - this show delves in to what makes your favourite video games tick.
Gone Gold with Simon Hill
Jack Ayres
Black Myth: Wukong to Baldurs Gate 3, Karma: The Dark World to Diablo: Immortal and more. Jack Ayres has been a part of some of the biggest video games in modern history. Bringing multiple characters to life whilst capturing the imagination of many around the world. Join us for this fun, insightful interview with one of gaming's most sought after voice actors.
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Hello and welcome to another episode of Gone Gold with me, Simon Hill, esports host, industry presenter and TV personality. Yes, we're back after a bank holiday weekend here in the UK. They always seem to throw off a good routine, don't they? I did take some time to have some fun and leave my responsibilities at home, though. I visited the Harry Potter Warner Bros. studios and spent the day living my best wizard life. I had some great fun. Thank you to everyone who's tuned into this episode. I will say before we get into the chat with voice actor Jack Ayres, it's one of my favourite interviews to date. Such an insight conversation with some wonderful stories from his time performing as various characters. We'll get into that in just a short while. Before all of that though, let me say a big thank you to everyone who tuned into last week's episode with Murkia Games, whose debut titles Echoes of the End has been praised by players and critics after its recent release. That episode also saw us chart in the UK, America, Canada, Philippines, Chile and India. Some of you may have seen on my social media at Simon H Official for the cheap plug that we have now been heard in over 70 countries worldwide and over 500 cities absolutely crazy Nicaragua being the latest addition to that list mind blowing never in a million years never in my wildest dreams did I expect the show to reach the numbers and global scale that it has and I I couldn't be more grateful to every single one of you. Whether you've been here from episode one or you're a newcomer to the show, thank you. I believe we're creating something very, very special here. Let's keep that momentum going with all of you hitting subscribe on your chosen platform, and you'll also be the first to get notified when a new episode drops every single week. And finally, if you want to see video footage released from these interviews, you can by simply heading to Gone. on X or Twitter, whatever you're calling it, Instagram and TikTok. So that's X, Instagram and TikTok at Gone Gold Show. Right, you've waited long enough and so has our next guest. I'm joined by talented and versatile voice actor Jack Ayres, who has a decorated CV packed with award-winning games that he has lent his voice to, from Baldur's Gate to the multi-award winning blockbuster Black Myth Wooka. Jack has helped bring some iconic characters to life. We discussed so much in this interview, including the intricacies and the prep that it takes for some of these big roles. It's all here. It's Gone Gold with Jack Ayres. does a regular guy from Cardiff, Wales become one of the most sought-after voice actors around? Well, by the end of this episode, we'll have the answer to those questions. Today, I'm joined by Jack Ayres, who has featured in over 40 video games, including two of the biggest selling IPs of the last few years. Jack can be heard in the likes of Dragon Age Veilguard, Baldur's Gate 3, and his impressive performance as Zhu Bajie in Black Myth Wukong. He joins us on this episode of Gone Gold. Jack, welcome
Jack:to the show. Wow, what an intro. I mean, that's definitely, I wasn't expecting quite such a glowing opening gambit. Thank you very much, Simon. Only the best for you, Jack.
Simon:Welcome to the show. I'm glad we finally got to make this work. You've been a busy guy, so let's just start there with TV series. You've appeared in several video games recently, including your lead role in Karma, The Dark World. How's
Jack:Yeah, I mean, as you mentioned, I did used to work in theatre and TV and stuff, but the last sort of five years I've kind of moved exclusively into video games, which I'm really pleased about because I spent a lot of time growing up exclusively playing video games. So it's kind of my area of enjoyment as well as what I'm doing professionally. It's been a great couple of years. It's always funny when you get into a position where you can work in the medium because I'm getting to do stuff now that when I started out for years ago I would have you know I'd have ripped your arm off to work on so yeah it's it's been great fun and also very busy because I've recently moved back to South Wales to my hometown of Cardiff was in London for 10 or 11 years also I'm a firm advocate for you can be in Wales you can be anywhere other than London and still work in games you might have to do a bit of commuting like I do but it's doable
Simon:well you seem to be doing a great job of it and let's start with one of the latest projects you mentioned karma the dark world is a first-person cinematic psychological thriller set in east germany you portrayed the lead character in that game daniel mcgovern you got to experiment with several different emotions during your performance in this game how did you find the process of being a lead character in this
Jack:creepy new title it was really satisfying um it was a funny kind of process getting involved with karma because um i actually only saw the audition for karma after it had already elapsed so the casting call had technically closed I saw the breakdown and I thought oh man this sounds so cool so I reached out to the casting director who's a lovely woman called Emily Jardine and I begged her to let me submit anyway and she thankfully allowed me to do so got it in super quickly as soon as I could and then yeah booked onto the project I've always kind of loved vibes based games like that you know it's very kind of inspired by the work of David Lynch kind of all sorts of things really Twin Peaks Twilight Zone at times it's a lot yeah a lot of the work of George Orwell very 1984 those influences are very obvious when you've played the game and yeah it was really cool to be able to voice the lead character he's very interesting often I mean I don't want to say too much in case anyone's going to play the game after this but he's very complex and complicated has a complicated relationship with the truth about himself and the world that he lives in often that can be quite challenging to play too when you're a character that shall we say might not necessarily have all the information about the situation that he's in yeah
Simon:it was an interesting journey you've literally just took the words off my page here as well bringing that complexity and those different dynamics to your voice range Is that a tricky process? Because it's not all about facial animation in video games,
Jack:as we know. don't have any of those tools when you're working voice only in video games so yeah it's uh you have to be kind of bigger in some regards um in the way that you use volume that you use your kind of vocally conveyed emotions also you do have kind of more tools like breathing that you can use to convey because you're close up to a mic you can capture a lot of those very kind of small things that the human body does when it goes through fear or anxiety etc and that was certainly a big part of karma i spent a lot of time in the booth just breathing which i feel i feel like you kind of don't really think of in video games i never really would have considered that's something that you had to do before i got into this but yeah we'd spend hours just um watching through the cut scenes etc and just going okay what's happening how would and breathe through that as if you were experiencing that set of scenarios and it kind of really helps with the immersion of um being in that moment and It's actually probably some of the hardest stuff that I've had to do on a game is just the breathing because you're putting yourself in these quite traumatic situations and then, okay, how would I breathe during this? And you kind of trick your body into feeling pretty uncomfortable and, you know, you can really force yourself into, I mean, it's, you know, close to sort of anxiety attacks almost, you know, when you're going through the, you're putting yourself in these traumatic situations and you obviously know it's not real, but your body when you breathe a certain way. You can quite effectively trick it into feeling some pretty intense things. So yeah, that was definitely something I noticed on karma, which I hadn't experienced before.
Simon:It's a very unusual thing to hear that a normal human reaction that keeps you alive is actually quite problematic at times during a job. Yeah,
Jack:I mean, it can be. It can be. Yeah, there were certainly moments during that where I was like, can we take a couple of minutes? Because I feel like I'm genuinely just going to go flat out here
Simon:what's it like as an actor to watch or now even for yourself play yourself in a video game especially stuff like horror that genre carries so many emotions so many complexities and the atmospheric worlds that you'll get lost in are often very bleak but your performance will shine through more because of that
Jack:yeah i mean it's always gonna be a little bit weird you know like it's i'm sure you probably had this with um you know running these shows and you know when you're doing emceeing for various live events and stuff that when you hear the first couple of times that you hear your voice back recorded or whatever it's often quite a traumatic experience when you're like oh god because the way you hear your voice you know from inside your own head is very different to when you hear it recorded a lot of the times is deeper or higher or not quite what you expect um that's definitely the case with video games too what i will say helps with that is a lot of the time you're playing a character so it not you yeah it's not exactly how you would say things so that's that can be a useful wall or distance between um that those kind of anxieties and feelings about your own how you sound karma was definitely the character that i played that the normal speaking voice was as close to mine as i'd ever used oh right okay so that was yeah a bit strange to begin with um hearing it back in the trailers and stuff but you do i would say you do get used to it quite quickly and used to getting to be objective about your own kind of work and, you know, kind of go, you know, I can take myself out of this and go, I did that well, or maybe I would do this differently now. Yeah, I think you kind of have to get a bit objective about things. Otherwise, you just go crazy.
Simon:100%. And you've been in so many great IPs. One of your more prominent and recent performances came as Zu Bajie in Black Black Myth Wukong. Very clumsy, grumpy and expressive character in the world. He also has a softer side. He's very loyal to his friends, a particular Sun Wukong. How was it to play such a memorable character in one of the highest rated games of last year?
Jack:Yeah, I mean, I was absolutely delighted to be able to get to work on Black Myth Wukong. I mean, talk about complex characters. Zubaji is, to me, kind of one of the most complex characters that I think that I've worked on. which is strange to say, because on the face of it, he can kind of appear quite easy to understand in that, you know, he kind of comes across, as you say, very arrogant at times, very kind of abrasive and almost kind of borderline intoxicated. But a lot of those things are happening with him because of a very complex relationship that he's got with the kind of this world of Chinese mythology that he lives in he's had a very and people who have played the game through will understand this more or anyone who's you know familiar with the source material of Journey to the West that he is a comedic character he's very funny he's often kind of takes on the role of comic relief within the party so to speak but a lot of that stuff kind of originates as with a lot of funny characters and people comes from a place of sadness or moral greyness Because he has, throughout his harkening back to, there's some specific animations within Black Myth Wukong, stunning animations that kind of go into a bit of his backstory. But he's a very complicated, complicated character. And he's projecting a lot of kind of insecurity and trauma into the silly persona that you see on screen. I absolutely loved getting to play him. And it was an absolute privilege because he's such an iconic character with within Chinese literature. So it's definitely one of my absolute all-time favourite kind of characters to work on. I had so much fun doing it with the director, Beth Park, and yeah, the amazing guys over at the team.
Simon:It was such a big project and came out a lot bigger than most imagined at the time. You've expressed that there were some tough moments during the process of performing for Zoo Bajie. What were some of the more demanding scenes for you as an actor as you had to explore black myth wukong
Jack:uh-huh well i mean to start with um i i kind of auditioned for the part and then once i got in the booth and realized what this was i'd heard about um black myth wukong being in development ahead of time and i'd kind of been following it with an interest um so that was really exciting and that was the kind of the cool thing about being on sort of slightly the inside of these things is i saw some of the um the artwork and then the kind of early versions of cut scenes etc and i immediately knew this was going to be a big thing because um i just you know i saw it and i went this is just some of the most stunning stunning work i've seen on a game ever um really kind of beautiful world design and beautiful music especially you know i I kind of... Some of the tracks from Black Myth have very much made their way into my regular rotation. I absolutely love it. But yeah, challenging... It took a lot of stamina. There's a lot of... You know, Yu Baji is quite a kind of demanding voice to use at times, especially when you're kind of doing big combat scenes and things like that, because he's quite abrasive. He's quite... We were doing, you know, kind of long sessions of... Well, I mean, halfway through the game, he becomes more present with you as a character. You know, he kind of joins and fights alongside you quite a lot. So we had to have lots of different variations of various fights and kind of emotes for different... The way he fights is very intense. So yeah, there was a lot of kind of vocal stamina involved. It taught me a lot about pacing myself vocally. and how to kind of best produce certain sounds without wearing myself out. Yeah, I'd say that was probably, if I had to pick one kind of most challenging thing, But to be honest, 99% of it was just a pleasure rather than I wanted to be in that booth for every single minute and I could do the whole thing again and more. I just absolutely loved it. It was a pleasure from start to finish.
Simon:I haven't managed to get through much of it, but the game is visually incredible. You're right. The score, I think, is one of the most important aspects in any video game and is right up there with top five. of the last 10 years for me is so, so good. To be involved in these kind of projects must be such a privilege as an actor.
Jack:Yeah, I mean, it totally is. You know, I kind of went through periods of time after I graduated drama school where, you know, I was dying to be involved in kind of projects of a certain kind of scope or scale. And I felt like, you know, as many, most actors at some point or another, if not for most of their career, will feel the exact same way where you're kind of butting up against a sort of an invisible wall that you don't know how to kind of traverse or get around to get involved with these kind of projects that are having a big impact on people and being recognised and that's been one of the great pleasures about working in video games is that I have had the kind of opportunity over the past five years to work on things that are appreciated by lots of different people from different countries and different cultures around the world Black Myth was was great like that you know kind of a lot of people were really enthusiastic and I think it introduced a whole kind of new demographic of people that weren't familiar with the source material and kind of Journey to the West etc to those stories and those characters and it's such a rich kind of like whole world of I mean mythology and folklore that you could dive into from China and I hope kind of that people can continue to to do that you know this there's an increasing kind of presence of those stories and stuff reaching a wider audience and I think that can only be a good thing
Simon:yeah I couldn't agree more and from a dialogue perspective this was one of those scripts that almost becomes a dream for performers Zubaji is very expressive to say the least swears a lot he's quite offensive and likes a joke or five how much fun did you have in the studio with this and were there some of your favorite lines from the game and which
Jack:ones
Simon:would they be?
Jack:Oh, I mean, so much fun. Like, it was constant. I don't think I, you know, I can't recall doing a single session where there wasn't some kind of creative insult or swear word involved in there somewhere. Yeah, I mean, in terms of favourite lines, I just, one word that I always kind of enjoyed chewing on as Baji was, he quite often would use the word boy and kind of just absolutely chew the hell out of it. And, you know, sort of always referring to things as the destined one. Boy, boy. I feel like I should get cut together, like, you know, a sort of just an entire, you know, you just cut together like black myth in the word boy, where it's just boy, boy, boy, boy, like throughout the entire game. Yeah, I'd have to, I'll have a think about it. quotes and we come back to that at the end because i feel like there's going to be some there's there'll be a funny one somewhere that i've uh that i've overlooked
Simon:i think you're right i think boy is certainly the most symbolic word uh when it comes to hearing the dialogue of zubagi incredible performance that you gave in that jack very versatile being able to kind of tap into that world like you said chinese mythology it's something that we're still learning a lot about and you got to be a part of a process where the biggest form of entertainment at the moment has produced something so special within that medium. It's pretty awesome to say, isn't it? What was it like being working with Game Science and how was the collaboration being as a whole? It's also worth mentioning the iconic Pitstop Productions here as well, who do some fantastic work. They've been doing some of the biggest video games around within the voice world. So this was a multi-award winning game and you were a part of it. So how was that whole collaboration process?
Jack:Yeah, I mean, I've been fortunate enough to work with Pitstop on quite a few games now I think, I mean, fair to say they've got quite a reputation for themselves now, producing, you know, kind of incredibly rich and detailed audio worlds in games. And I, you know, have no doubt they're going to continue to do that long into the future. I love the guys there. I would work there every day if I could. So, yeah, I mean, I can't glow highly enough about Pit's um all of my interactions on black myth working with game science were incredibly positive i was working with um with one of the team shiu there quite a lot who oversaw most of my sessions alongside beth park who was directing and uh jake mccormack who uh was also kind of you know at the helm for a lot of my sessions um working with them over those months was just it was just an absolute delight um and yeah everyone really Everyone involved with that game clearly had such a kind of deep love for the material and then kind of reinventing and creating something new for it. So I kind of was able to completely feel in safe hands and go, I could ask questions, you know, really kind of... dig into things and ask really specific questions, you know, like, oh, how would he feel about this character in relation to this or whatever? And they always had those answers ready to hand, but also kind of allowed me the trust and the freedom to be able to go, okay, this is how I think this character is. And maybe this doesn't quite... make sense on the face of it but bear with me I feel like you know this is kind of digging into something and yeah they were really really kind of trusting and allowed me to to play around with the material in a way that is just an absolute joy
Simon:it's incredible when you get to have that collaboration process where everyone's wanting to sing off the same sheet and everyone has their own perspective when it comes to awards Jack and what they represent for you personally when you're seeing the game awards unfold for example winning two out of the five nominations or the Golden Joysticks, where the game picked up the ultimate game of the year. What does it mean to you when you're seeing projects you've been a part of win those awards?
Jack:It's obviously incredibly gratifying to see things that... I mean, it's important to say as well, you know, us as voice actors, we see and, you know, kind of make up such a small percentage of the overall kind of development process of these games, you know. And... hearkening back to yeah awards you know like games like boulders gate three that just cleared up across their year you know that's five six seven years of work for a lot of those a lot of those teams um voice actors on that game you know kind of it's years of work for the principal cast there as well some some people you know only come in towards the last couple of months and things um a lot of the time as a voice actor you come in towards the end of a project so like I mean, it's great to be involved with games that pick up awards and things. But most of all, I think it's, you know, it's heartening to see developers and teams that have worked on, you know, kind of building, marketing, producing games for years and years and years finally kind of get their flowers in an industry which often can kind of feel thankless at times. And once, you know, kind of audiences get their hands on things and they do really well, win awards and stuff, that's amazing. But awards, you know, also aren't the be all and end all. Lots of games that, you know, kind of miss out narrowly or don't kind of get the critical plaudits, find audiences of gamers that, you know, kind of absolutely love and adore them. And, you know, it's... players finding and enjoying a game is always going to be the highest benchmark of success.
Simon:Yeah, absolutely. There's a fascinating article where even the former PlayStation president mentioned that the making of the game increased tourism in real world locations and even made PS5 sell out in China. Have you been able to go out and visit these real world locations yet that have inspired the game?
Jack:Oh, I wish I wish I would I'd love to go out there because I mean as if I'm recalling correctly a lot of the locations in in Black Myth they actually scan went out and scanned real life kind of rock formations kind of tree formations etc which I think you know when you you play the game you can see it really does kind of have a an authenticity to its geography and its and its landscapes in a way that you know feels real and lived in and like that rock face has been weathered over thousands of years and it hasn't just kind of been slapped on there you know um yeah it's it's incredible i would love i would love to visit uh i'd love to visit to be honest more places than i could name in china um and kind of to be honest i've spent very little time in uh you know asia generally and it's it's a big kind of it's a big kind of desire of mine to go and spend time over there I'd love to go I mean unfortunately I wasn't able to do it but they were hosting Black Myth orchestral concerts over in China and I'd have loved to have gone and seen that in person maybe one day if they bring it bring it back sometime I'd love to I'd love to go and be there in person
Simon:yeah that would be very special very special and you're an avid gamer we mentioned at the top of the hour you've been an avid gamer for quite a few years now I did prep you for something before the show began but I didn't prep you for this one so I'm going to put you on the spot now Jack and I apologise in advance but what are your top three games of all time and secondly what's loaded up on your consoles at the moment top three
Jack:I mean I've got one I've got my number one in the chamber already my favourite game of all time is Mass Effect 2 great game and as like many other people who are fans of Mass Effect I could talk all day about this so you'll have to cut me off but yeah I think Mass Effect 2 is like the kind of perfect narrative game experience I love the kind of mechanic of building up a party and building up trust with those people I think it's incredibly well acted and written which are some of my kind of top priorities for games so Yeah, Mass Effect 2. And it kind of all culminating in the kind of the suicide mission and, you know, your kind of choices having a degree of kind of importance and affecting how things plan out. That was the first game that I played as a teenager where I was like, wow, this really does have the cinematic power that movies or TV shows can have. So, yes, Mass Effect 2 will always have a very special place in my heart. Rough to a great start. It gets... gets tougher for me when I get to two or three because I've you know I've done these you know I've kind of had these conversations before and I don't think I've ever given the same same answers Mass Effect 2 is always there but I don't think I've ever maybe something like I love What Remains of Edith Finch wow again a narrative adventure well narrative based game where you play as someone returning to their childhood house and kind of visiting through all the different generations of this family and seeing how all of them met their end. And I think it's just a really beautifully kind of crafted and emotive game. If I had to pick a third, that's really tough. I mean, right now I'm obsessed with Balotro. like many other people. I don't know whether it would make my top three. I loved, when I was a kid, I was obsessed with the Ratchet and Clank games.
Simon:Yeah.
Jack:Maybe that would be in there. Or actually, I loved, I was obsessed with the Fallout games, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, that I had spent hours just kind of wandering the wastes. I, yeah, I put so many hours into Fallout 3. So I'm going to say, yeah, That was a big landmark game for me growing up about what games could be and what they could do. So I'm going to say Fallout 3.
Simon:I think Fallout 3, between that and New Vegas, changed the whole landscape of RPGs for the future. Yeah, totally. Incredible games. I was a bit late to the party with Fallout and I had to go backwards. So I played the more recent one when that came out. Loved it. I was like, why have I not played these before? So I went back and played some of the others. We need New Vegas too. That's what we need.
Jack:well I mean you're getting that in the show in a way season 2 is set in New Vegas by the looks on it so very excited for that oh and you asked what have I got on the moment loaded up yeah what have I got loaded up at the moment apart
Simon:from Balatro
Jack:I mean I've got I've recently got a Steam Deck so I've got a lot of kind of great remote games like Balatro Vampire Survivors on my Steam Deck right now I'm about to... Oh, yeah, I've got... I recently had, I've got, I've not got very far in it because I found it very stressful and I needed non-stressful games at the moment. I've got on my PlayStation, I've currently got Silent Hill 2. Oh, okay. Yeah. Installed. I, on my Xbox, I've got, I've been, I'm about halfway through Expedition 33. Nice. You can see there's a lot. Yeah. You can see, I mean, kind of the theme here is a lot of narrative kind of based things. me and my pals quite often will still boot up Fortnite because I think it's just it's a good it's just it's just funny and also one of the few multiplayer games where I'm not going to get absolutely eviscerated within seconds because I'm not I'm not particularly my reaction times are not good enough for the likes of what is it Battlefield 6 right now I mean I'm I'm going to get chewed up and spat out in that immediately.
Simon:I have been playing that beta, and do you know what? I spent more hours playing Bad Company 2 way back when than any other game ever. Still says that on my PlayStation to date. However, playing Battlefield 6, I'm like, I am old. LAUGHTER
Jack:I can't do this anymore. I think I'd have to go to medic role or something and just kind of hide and sort of try and bring people back into the fight. Oh, and Alan Wake 2. Alan Wake 2 I've been playing at the moment. Oh, great game. Fantastic
Simon:game. The theme's clear there. It's all story-driven, narrative-heavy games and that's kind of where I'm at with my gaming taste at the moment as well. Really enjoying Hellblade 2. Not sure if you've played that yet. I haven't, no. I would recommend it. It's gripping and fantastic. Great performance as well from the actors.
Jack:Yeah, I mean, again, I think they cleared up on a few kind of performance related awards and stuff last year, I think. Was it Melissa Juergens?
Simon:That's it, yeah. Yeah, fantastic performance and it's weird that that was her first major role too and she absolutely smashed it out of the park.
Jack:Yeah, I mean, yeah, it looks like a really interesting game.
Simon:You've explored a lot in your career and other great stories, how you got cast in Baldur's Gate 3 we had Samantha Bale on the one of the first episodes of the show and Sam and I go way back how was your experience working with Larian Studios and this multi award-winning game
Jack:yeah so I mean I I always find it a bit funny talking about Baldur's Gate 3 because full disclosure I you know you had Sam she can she can they can talk about this for for hours and hours but But I played a couple of small characters on BG3. Some funny ones, like Benji the ghoul at the circus. But I came in right at the very, very end of that process. And I was fortunate enough to kind of nip in at the finish line there, thanks to, again, Beth Park, who was the lead voice director and cast. on Baldur's Gate 3 who you know I kind of repeatedly uh kept in contact with in the run-up uh but yeah it was it was really really fun it was uh my first time ever working in performance capture um and getting to going straight out the bat and playing a kind of a ghoul with arms longer than their body was quite an interesting experience for performance capture because um you kind of have a screen in front of you which shows you you know kind of the frame of the model that you're working with So it would be kind of a tough balancing act of like producing the voice, which was quite... intensive while also remembering the shape of your body in situ and not like clipping your arm through another part of your body because it's longer than your actual limbs are etc yeah and it was I mean it's honestly a real testament and impress impressive feat to all of the the kind of regular performers on that and all of the directors on Baldur's Gate 3 you know every single character was being being voice and performance captured to some degree, often at the same time, which is not, you know, not particularly common in this industry. You know, you had a voice director, a movement director, like audio engineers, all kind of pulling together at the same time. It's a lot, you know, it's a lot to juggle. And I think that, you know, the results really do speak to, you know, how impressive all of those people pulling together to create this thing was because it feels you know the performances in that game feel so real it's one of my favourite games of all time and you know it was really satisfying to see lots of people lots of colleagues that I work alongside do such incredible work in that game and yeah I'm looking forward to my replay of the game.
Simon:Yeah I really need to get stuck into that game properly as well phenomenal game and what was it like for you to step into the mocap during the filming of Baldur's Gate 3 a lot of actors I've spoken to really enjoy the process of bringing their imagination into the volume whilst recording these scenes what was it like for you? Yeah I mean
Jack:it's working in the booth like that is a very different kind of well, maybe that's not the right way to put it, but it's different and also kind of inherently the same as, you know, as acting anywhere in that it's always got to be powered by imagination and kind of, you know, being able to sort of create a world in your head. I think that's often why you kind of, I did a voiceover workshop recently with some kids at my old school, which I've never actually, I've never done before, never done any kind of, of workshops like that. And I was absolutely stunned by how quickly and how easily the kids took to it. And I think part of that is that kids have got very active imaginations and they don't have the same blockers that a lot of adults have of kind of, you know... getting in your own way about like oh i won't try that because that's silly or that make me sound stupid or like i might get it wrong kids don't worry the same way about getting it wrong um and i i think that's something really is a really useful ability to have in the booth is kind of throw something at the wall it might just be completely not what they're looking for at all but it's more useful to to offer something that they can go interesting no but like than to kind of put everything in the middle of the road of where you think the right answer is because you miss out on a lot of interesting ideas through doing that um And yeah, like a lot of the time, you know, it might not be what a director or kind of client is looking for, but they might go, huh, that's not what I was thinking at all. But that's actually kind of funny or I really like that. Or maybe that kind of reveals something about a character that we can build on growing forward, especially when it's, you know, some games you work on when you brought on earlier, they haven't actually, you know, fully written everything yet. So there is a chance to kind of develop writing or a character based on funny things that happen in the booth. So yeah, definitely imagination is a big part of it all.
Simon:Is that something you'd pursue in the future? More workshop teachings? I know a lot of the guys in the States are doing it now. Craig Lee, Thomas, Ariana Ratner are all doing their own kind of workshops. Is that something you'd
Jack:look to do towards the future? Yeah, I mean, I'd certainly be interested in doing it. I think, you know, it's always worth bearing in mind in mind that being good at something yourself doesn't always equate to being good at teaching something yeah um i think you know teaching requires a kind of a specific set of skills and kind of um communication and you know ability to kind of identify um students kind of best way of working, you know, like for some students kind of really pushing them and kind of, you know, almost kind of like challenging them to kind of push to something or, you know, find an answer really works for other people that, you know, you can really demoralize people that way. And, you know, it takes kind of more of a building up and more of a kind of, you know, like encouraging, like, yeah, I do think I've got a easy to do but i certainly yeah would be interested in kind of kind of exploring that in future
Simon:absolutely and we've only managed to talk about three of the 40 plus games you've worked on so far jack and i'm sure behind those ndas there's plenty more you're currently adding to the list as we speak are there any projects we can expect to see you in in the future that you can talk about
Jack:yes well so one that's coming out at the moment is um i've been working on transformers cyber world which is um the new animated series oh wow uh which is airing on YouTube. We're five episodes in at the moment. And yeah, there's four or five of us in the cast that we can talk about at the moment. And yeah, that's been really, really fun. I'm loving getting to work on some more kind of animated projects as well, especially, you know, Transformers. You know, if you told me I get to work on a Transformers series, I wouldn't have believed you. but yeah I'm getting to voice Scorponok Mirage and Skybite in the latest five episodes maybe some more to come in future which is hence my hesitation I was trying to remember who I can say but yeah that's a really fun series and it's been received really well so yeah I mean yeah some games coming out in future as well but Yeah, and unfortunately I've got to be strung on that until the time. Well, we
Simon:look forward to finding out what those are. Now, before I get into the last part of the show, we still have your favourite lines to tap into here. I wasn't going to forget, Jack, because they're so iconic in this game.
Jack:There's the obvious ones, like his first line when he comes out and he kind of falls, which was one of the first lines I recorded as well. What took you so long? Constipation? What an intro. You must have seen that on the scripts and thought, this is gold. Also, there's some more kind of emotive moments that I really love as well. Like when he kind of returns to the place where Wukong has left his staff. Spoilers. This is kind of towards the end of the game. But he has a whole kind of section where he's reminiscing on the last... where he left kind of... Soon Wukong. Yeah, where he's kind of impersonating Wukong and he says, Where did you come from? This has suddenly triggered what my actual favourite line in the game is. It's actually the last line that you hear Baji say. Hear me, son! You can always run! You don't have to bear Wukong's name! And I was just like, that's such a cool place to leave it I absolutely loved it
Simon:that is brilliant absolutely incredible what a pro what a pro
Jack:well not a pro to remember my lines but I mean it has been it has been a year now so I'm going to give myself you get a pass yeah it's coming on to yeah coming on to a year of release actually in a week or two
Simon:Jack this has been incredible firstly thank you so much for giving up your time to be here when I went into the research of your career and really going through the ins and outs of what you've achieved in such a short space of time it's nothing short of impressive and I'm looking forward to seeing where that goes now for the future for you what I like to do at the end of each episode is to give my guest the final word you could choose to do with that what you will but I'd like to say once again Jack thank you so much for coming on Gone Gold today
Jack:the only word that I can choose is bye so bye no but yeah thank you so much for having me along it's been great to chat I've really enjoyed the previous episodes as well I'm listening to Charlotte and Sam and you know so many great people on the show Ariana yeah I'm looking forward to seeing who you speak to next and yeah absolutely keep in touch man that interview
Simon:was just so much fun there was just so much passion there with Jack just a really fun insightful interview with a very very talented individual who's got such a bright future he's already brought so many great characters to life some big characters memorable characters and I think there's going to be a lot more around the corner ones that we know we can't talk about just yet but no doubt that sets us up for a part two in the future great chat Jack Ayres go and check him out across social media thank you to everyone who has tuned in to this episode don't forget to hit that subscribe hit a like hit the rating drop a comment all that engagement helps for shows like these we're growing at a rapid speed and I love that you've all being a part of this journey so far we'll be back next week with another killer interview I can't wait to bring this one to you it's a fantastic bubbly lively episode with another incredibly talented voice actor who's just broken through into her first lead role Morgan Taylor she's one hell of a talented individual and this interview has a bit of everything in it let me tell you it's coming next week to Gone Gold but until then you know what to do keep it Gone Gold gold.
