Right, right. You mentioned this idea of honor and stuff. One of the things the game is trying to do is really nail down a certain time period. The way the characters look, the setting, the music. What do you feel as an actor that you can bring to help meet that goal?
Bobby: Oh my God, it’s ingrained in me. And my man Jack Scalici there, who is, I call him an old soul, even though he is a couple decades younger. He has got a similar background. For me personally, this guy is a composite of a little of my uncle Pete, my uncle Carlo, a lot of guys I grew up with. Colorful. Likable. Lethal. All those qualities. So that was all around me. Even though I kind of started studying the method, I usually go outside, into people I know, and try to use them a lot. And I can actually hear their voices, the rhythms of how they speak in so much of what Joe does and says rather, and does.
And Jack, do you just step back and let Bobby do his thing? How much direction are you giving in a typical voice-over session?
Jack: Bobby, he’s kind of a natural for this character. Like the first time we met we went over his dialogue. He instantly got it. He knew who this guy was. Like he said, it was the guys he grew up with. Guys in his family. So the actual delivery of most of it, Bobby understood the dialogue, I really didn’t have to do anything there. What I really focused on with Bobby in particular, was getting him…with stuff like cartoons, with movies, you have a picture on the screen that you’re voicing. Or you leaf through your storyboard or something. We started so early in this process, we didn’t have any of that. So I was just trying to explain to them what we are going for with the game, what it’s going to look like. I showed him a picture of his character. I would explain each and every scene when we got to it. This was kind of like making a 10 hour movie for us.
Bobby: And it was nice because we all worked together. Particularly at the beginning when we got the thing on its feet. We all did it like a little play, almost like a radio play let’s say. So we were able to interact and bounce off each other not only…and bounce off ideas, right Jack? Everybody would come with somewhat of a different slant and it was also great working that way. It was like doing a play rather than isolated in a booth.
Jack: Yeah. That was something that we really tried to focus on. Tried to get the natural flow of the dialogue and just work together. These guys use a lot of slang, a lot of words that most people don’t use. So a lot of it was, Bobby would says something, and go, “Oh, can I say this here?” We tried looking it up, and say when did this word come into popular use?
Now, Bobby, I know you’ve been doing this for awhile in terms of animation or video games voice work. Were there adjustments you had to make when you first started doing it?
Bobby: I think I had a natural bent for it because, for the most part, a lot of the characters I’ve played are a little theatrical, a little over-the-top maybe. My voice has always been such a strong part. But I did a TV series with a film actor and he never quite got that the sitcom format is different. It’s just as it’s different to be to using only your voice. You have to instinctively maybe know that, learn it a little more, but be willing to do it. Not to just say, I’m going to be internal and do this like I’m doing Lear or Chekov or something. It’s not going to work in a sitcom. The only sense that the audience gets really, well they see the animation but they hear your voice. It’s not your own body. So you have to really incorporate. And you do want to be real. I remember when we did Batman, Andrea Romano does it the same way Jack works. They both like to get it to not to feel cartoony, but to feel real. And yet somewhat theatrical.