After focusing on TV and film at the start of his acting career, NEIL NEWBON decided to take on the voice acting/performance capture side of it over the last decade, and at this point, he has well over 100 titles in that field. Fans of the games will remember his work as Nemesis and Nikolai in the RESIDENT EVIL 3 remake, and in VILLAGE he returns as one of Mother Miranda’s subjects, Heisenberg. Although this character may initially come across as well, a bit crazy, players will go on to discover that there’s much more to Heisenberg than meets the eye. STARBURST catches up with Neil to discuss his character’s evolution in the game, the full story to how that awesome voice with a little bit of Nicolas Cage influence within it came together, and why RESIDENT EVIL BIOHAZARD and RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE work so well together!
STARBURST: How did you first get involved with acting?
Neil Newbon: I was always a storyteller, I was always a role player, storyteller as a kid, I was obsessed with stories, and I used to read ferociously. As I got older my mother introduced me to theatre, and plays. She used to take me to Stratford Upon Avon to see Shakespeare, she was always encouraging me to look at the arts. I did a bit of ballet when I was a kid, I was always artistically lead in terms of my taste, I was always quite intrigued by stories and performance. I was lucky enough to be accepted into the National Youth Theatre in London, with the now sadly passed Edward Wilson who was an extraordinary human being. I also joined the Central Television Workshop, which was run by Colin Edwards in Birmingham – it’s now run by Tim Smith – and started doing some plays, and early dramas with them. Through those two institutions as a kid, I realised that I had a passion for acting. I understood and loved performance. That was my introduction to it. I was then very lucky that through the National Youth Theatre I got spotted by an agent when I was about 19, I turned professional, technically when I was about 20. I did two gigs before in my teenage years. However, I’m also quite academic, so I promised my parents that I’d finish my A-Levels, even though all I wanted to do was run away to London. I stayed in Birmingham where I’m from, and finished school. I realised that acting was my vocation, that I knew that’s what I was going to be doing for the rest of my life if I was lucky enough to get work. It just meant that suddenly I had a lot of pressure off. Academia became a fun sort of interest for me, as opposed to I absolutely need these grades, to go to university, to get this job, have this house, etc. For me, at around the age of 16, it was like “Great, I’m on my way already” because I knew what I really wanted to do.
You then, in maybe more recent years, decided to jump further into voice acting, how did this happen, and what do you love so much about this type of acting?
I trained for about ten years whilst I was working with Giles Foreman Centre for Acting. I also developed my voice at RADA. I was very lucky that I have, what people have told me, quite a mailable voice. It’s got a good quality to it. In 2010, like with most actors I was struggling, not with work, I was getting work regularly. I was struggling with the financial side of it, because there just wasn’t that much money in what I was doing, it was a lot of indie films, great, really interesting projects, but you’ve got to eat. So I suddenly realised that I’m a gamer, I’ve been a gamer all of my life, I love games, actors do voiceovers in games, why am I not doing that? So I started to explore this possibility in about 2008, and through that I found information about Motion Capture/Performance Capture. I found an article in, I think, PC Gamer, about voice-over. Right at the bottom corner was a picture of someone in a Motion Capture suit, I looked at it and went, “Wow, that’s like theatre and film. That’s amazing!” It made instant sense to me. So the voice-over, and Motion Capture side for me, both happened around the same time. I was lucky enough to get on a few gigs, I did Lego Minifigures World, playing Swashbuckler, and Caveman – the only time I managed to get a Birmingham accent into a game, I’m still trying to do that!. I also worked on Funcom’s The Secret World, the original version of it, and then we revamped it for The Secret World Legends, which is out at the moment. And I also did my first MoCap gig. So yeah, that’s how I started off getting into voice over for games, and then I was lucky enough to get a voice-over agent as well, who are amazing, called Lip Service, whom I adore, and I’ve been with them since I started doing voice over, or just thereafter.
For my first Motion Capture game I got an audition, and I think I even sent in a DVD of my showreel, because I’m pretty sure the online stuff didn’t really work that well at that point, back in 2009. Brian Mitchell and Stacey Boisselle saw my acting reel, and also my ridiculous list of physical skills that I picked up along the way, because I’m just a geek and I thought that archery was cool. I found myself in an audition room with them, for Ghost Recon Future Soldier with Ubisoft, and I got it! I got to play 30K in that game, as well as a whole bunch of multi-role stuff. That was it, I was suddenly doing voice work and Motion Capture in games. My whole career took this really interesting diversion. I was still doing TV and film at the same time, but suddenly I was allowed to do character work, constant character work in this side of the industry where there aren’t that many actors, especially Motion Capture. I now do short workshops in Motion Capture, nothing too crazy, but a couple of days workshop to help people get a leg up in Motion Capture, to understand it. To demystify it as a strange experience, because it’s a technical skill, and it’s a new craft of acting. It’s been a trip, and I think at this point I have over 100 titles in voice-over, and performance capture, MoCap so far. In ten-eleven years, that’s pretty interesting. With voice-over work, performance capture and MoCap, it allowed me to do everything, but it allowed me to become the actor that I always knew that I was, the one who I was struggling to show, which is a character actor. When you have a certain look, you get typecast very strongly, which is not a bad thing, but for somebody like me, it was frustrating because I’m a character actor. So to not be able to do that, was creatively frustrating. So all of that said “We can take your face off, you don’t need that anymore” I can play anyone.
Going back to before your involvement with Resident Evil 3. How much did you know about the franchise already, and do you maybe have any memories from playing the games?
It’s quite widely known that I am a terrible Resident Evil player. I am shockingly bad at those games. Me and Resident Evil quit on amicable terms back in the ’90s after Resident Evil 3, where I failed to get past even halfway through the game. I was like “You know what, we’re done!” I remember sitting on the floor on the flat I used to have with a PS1, I was just like “This is not my game, but it’s OK! Why don’t we just be friends?” The first game I ever completed in the series – with a lot of guidance – was the Resident Evil 3 remake last year. I love them, and I think the games are amazing. The world is really cool. It’s like the ultimate action, horror, genre. It’s zombies, excitement, strong characters. I really like it.
How did you end up becoming involved with Resident Evil Village?
I was lucky enough to of worked with Steve Kniebihly a few times now, we met on Planet of The Apes Last Frontier, which by the way, is not a game, it’s a TV Miniseries, and I wish that they’d publicize it as that, because it’s not a game. If you haven’t checked it out, it’s on the PS4. It’s really worth your time. The acting is amazing, the story/writing is brilliant. It’s just not a game, so don’t go in with that mentality. It’s just an interactive TV series. Anyway, I met Steve on that, and it was incredible, since then we’ve become great friends. He is one of my best friends. So when he went out to Japan on this project that he was doing, he invited me to audition for that, we’d already done two games before this point, but I always audition, nothing is for free. So he invited me to LA to audition for RE 3, which I got, which was amazing, and then when he knew that he was doing Village, he again asked me to audition for it. He knows that I’m a multi-role character actor. So there is no danger of me repeating my performance in that way, as I can stretch to a very different kind of character, and be pretty much hidden in that character. So yeah, he asked me to audition for Resident Evil Village. I didn’t know what it was at the time, none of us knew, but I had my suspicions a little bit. I did a self-tape casting in a very dingy hotel, somewhere in the South of England, which I thought was really fitting, because it was like this horrible hotel, the walls were peeling, the doors were creaking, I thought “This is brilliant, it’s like a set!” So I did one tape, and I don’t think I did more than that. Because Capcom and I also have a relationship with past work, I think once they saw the tape, obviously they understood my work anyway, and Steve and I had worked together so much, I think that was kind of it. It was more like “Yeah we can see him doing this, so let’s make the offer to him” Which I was very grateful, and humbled by. That they had that confidence in me.
Karl Heisenberg
When did you find out that you were playing Heisenberg, and what was the audition process like?
They told me I was playing Heisenberg when they had cast everybody for their particular roles. That’s when I knew that I was going to be playing Heisenberg. I think that I auditioned for four or five different roles. I did suspect that one of them was Chris Redfield, and I remember doing the audition thinking “I’m pretty sure that this is Chris Redfield, there is no way on God’s green earth that they are going to give me that role!” It’s just not happening. I’m the antagonist. The audition process is important to me. I have very rarely been offered roles without an audition. I think that’s important, regardless of your relationship with a team or director, or your standing in the industry, whichever part you are from. I think auditioning is really important. You might have an idea that somebody works in a role, but until you have that experience with them, you might get it wrong. It’s good for actors not to have hubris about that. That’s your work, to audition, and show your work. If you get the gig, then it’s kind of a bonus really. I play for free, but my time is very valuable.
What attracted you to playing the character Heisenberg, and how did you approach playing him and creating his voice?
Initially, I had a very different idea about what Heisenberg would look like, so for me, the only accent was Trans Atlantic, I had in my head, this image of Cary Grant, using references like Jimmy Stewart, I don’t know how Nicolas Cage got in there, but he did. Deep down it’s the sort of mania of him. You can’t play emotions as an actor, you play actions. You should never play archetypes. You should always try and colour your characters with all kinds of different interesting aspects that are suitable to the character. Like a lot of actors, I often look at real people. To see what their rhythms are like. Anything to break up my own rhythm. Anything to stop my own habits from coming through, can only help me to serve the character better. So I had this very strong idea that he was going to be smoking jacket, looking a little bit like Hugh Hefner, Cary Grant, weird connections like that, with Nicolas Cage in that. Obviously Capcom like the take. They thought it was a little loose, very distracted, but very intense as well. When I came to actually shoot it, they were like “This is what Heisenberg looks like” I was like “Wow, that is completely the polar opposite to what I had in my head” That was really interesting for me as an actor. To do the opposite, and the less obvious thing. So I love the fact that Capcom went with my take, and he looks like that. It was genius. It also made sense. With immortality, your ambitions get bigger and bigger, you’re going to get bored because you’re going to live forever. So I dig the fact that they are all going to get bored at some point. These eccentricities and the mad things that they do is a way for them not to kill themselves.
How would you say that Heisenberg compares to Mother Miranda’s other subjects? What makes him different/stand out?
The word villain is an interesting one, because it’s a way of putting the boss guys, and the good guys into sections. For me I never feel like I play a villain, I just play a character who is doing what they’re doing. I don’t judge them with morality, because that’s the audience’s job. Heisenberg is interesting, because he is like the only one who doesn’t want to be in the family any more. For him, it was like “This is a terrible mistake”. It’s like the genie in the bottle scenario, he’s got all of this power, but he is trapped, in this Village. At the behest of Mother Miranda. So I think for him he has got this interesting motivation, in that, he genuinely wants out. **Spoiler** he tries to make a deal with Ethan, and that’s interesting because it feels like he genuinely means it. For that moment in time, he is not thinking about betraying him, I could have seen a scenario where they would of done it together, and he would of literally just kicked Ethan out, and gone “Awh, thanks very much! Are you still here?” So he is then no longer a villain so to speak, he is more of an anti-hero, while still being villainous, which I really like! So yeah, Heisenberg’s motivation is very different, he has a real need for freedom, to get out. So in that way, he is very similar to Ethan, they are both sort of trapped in the circumstance. I also like the fact that Steve let me do a very counter opposite delivery. Fundamentally it’s Steve and Capcom’s choice at the end of day, with the vision. They allowed me to bring some of my approach to it with the character. All of the characters are so different to each other, which is really important for the player.
Can you tell us a bit about the Motion Capture process for this game? What was it like to work with, and what particular memories do you have from being on set, putting Resident Evil Village together?
It was great, I travel extensively, I spend a lot of time in America, as well as the rest of the world. So it was great to be out in Sony Studios Santa Monica with everybody. I was filming a whole bunch of games simultaneously. I was doing work in Hungary, Los Angeles, Japan, it was like crisscrossing the world, which was incredible. It was great, we have challenging days, because we always do. It was very effective in terms of the planning, and the execution of it. All of the actors were prepped on time, and it was really fun. I’ve been doing this a long time now, so to step into a Motion Capture volume, regardless of where it is in the world, it is all familiar to me. It’s great to work with new actors, and actors that I have worked with before. Jeff Schine and Nicole Tompkins. I did a lot of days on that shoot. I got to play multiple characters like Lycans, I was part of the wolf pack. So I got to play with lots of different actors, and be in lots of different types of scenarios. Which is exciting. So for me, it was a wonderful experience. The Sony Santa Monica technical crew specialists there are amazing. It’s like an airport lounge, it’s a beautiful Motion Capture studio. It even has a sister studio, because there are two of them in one building. The people there are amazing, they are a really good crew. This is the interesting thing about MoCap and performance capture, you don’t get so many heavy egos, with TV and film sometimes you can get little situations that are a little out of hand, and it can be quite heavy. It can be very very stressful. You do have your challenges with Motion Capture, but I do find it a lot more relaxed. Everybody mucked in together. The suit itself is a leveller, it levels everybody, you can be like an A-List actor, but you still ain’t going to look good in that MoCap suit. You are still going to be a little bit exposed. We are still going to be able to see most of the contours of your body. So everybody just reverts back to the crafts first, like, “Why did they become an actor in the first place?” to tell stories. That’s what that suit does, it brings everybody to the same place. Everybody is equal in that sense. For me, this is my point of view. Actually, if you do multi-role stuff, you may have more time on set, and do more work, than maybe the A-List actor who is carrying the show. So for me, multi-role work in the performance capture volume is amazing. Just being around talented people, and a creative environment. It makes you just feel so happy. I love working in the volume, it’s my home.
It’s a real ensemble experience. The cast and crew are all together, the crew are just as important as the cast, and you are working together to make a performance. The specialist crew will often help the actors with understanding the volume if they’ve never been there before, or they might tweak things. Sometimes actually you can allow space to help the specialists with what they need, in terms of the animation. Sometimes you have to, because there is no way around it. For instance, when we are using the HMC (Head Mounted Cameras) and the hats, I can touch the hat but I can’t put anything in front of the camera. All these different limitations, and freedoms, the relationship between the actors and the specialist is super important, you have to be respectful, and you have to be collaborative. You have to work together to make this performance work, because it is so technical. That’s sort of what we teach at my Motion Capture class, it’s what I try to promote, it’s a new acting technique, and it requires a lot of technical knowledge in regards to how these things should work. You can be very free in these things, but there are a lot of constraints, that come with it. That you don’t get with TV and film. Likewise in MoCap/Performance capture you can spend more time acting in one day, than you will ever do in any other medium. You can be shooting for ten hours a day, and working for nine of those, as an actor in the volume, with a set change of five minutes. A whole new set change, epic level set change. It’s great.
Nikolai Zinoviev
Tough question time. In both Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil 3 you got to play a “villain”. However, for you, and if you can, how would you say Heisenberg compares to Nikolai? What are their key differences?
I think the two characters are quite different. Obviously, their roles are as antagonists, or the villains of the piece. Along with Nemesis, who I also played. They are very different characters. Nikolai is a mercenary through and through, he is highly skilled, highly motivated, but singularly motivated on money. He is born to battle. He feels most comfortable in a war-zone. Whereas shopping at a local 7/11 makes him feel excruciatingly painful. Normal life freaks him out, he thinks money doesn’t buy you happiness, but it does buy you a plane, which will take you to an island that you own. That’s what happiness is to him. He wants money, means, a comfortable life, because most of his own life has been a shit show. He is a tenacious survivor, he is almost amoral, he thinks “This team has to die for me to get this” cool I’ll do that. It’s very cut and thrust, but it doesn’t mean that he can’t have fun along the way. That’s the interesting thing about Nikolai. Heisenberg shares that, and that’s the similarity between them, of owning their fun in what they do. I imagine Heisenberg saying “If you can’t have a little fun, then what’s the point in immortality” That’s probably one trait that they do share with each other. Heisenberg isn’t really interested in accusation of money, it’s not about that, it’s about the creation, pushing reality in a way that nobody would dare do. He is kind of a Frankenstein character in that way, he is quite happy to put a propeller on somebody’s head to see what happens! He is a natural tinkerer, so he is more of a creator, whereas Nikolai is a destructor, Nikolai takes money, life, data, just rips it all out for himself. Whereas Heisenberg isn’t motivated like that. He is very much “I want to make this!”, he wants to create, and see what happens. Ultimately, he wants to be left alone in that. He doesn’t want to have to deal with people, he just wants to create in his factory. I think they both want world domination, but I have a feeling that Heisenberg would never conquer the world, because he would keep procrastinating over designs, he’d be like “This is amazing! Now what, I’ll do something else!” He will constantly be making new stuff, and he will just never get round to world domination. Ethan & Chris Redfield had nothing to worry about, because we all know that in 100 years’ time, Heisenberg is still going to be there, tinkering away. On his to-do list “Must conquer world! One day!” So for me, they were quite different characters, but they did have a thread of similarity. It’s interesting being an actor, because I like to change accent, physicality, to break myself up so you can’t see so much of myself in there. Ultimately it is my instrument, my soul, whatever you want to call it. My ability, my talent, my craft work all goes into these characters. So there’s always going to be a thread through all of them.
The main thing for the actor is to give the audience something they don’t expect, or that they haven’t seen before maybe. It’s important to try and hide yourself, because the more you know about me, and my personal life, then the less you may think about the character. So if someone is a supporter of my work, and it’s very flattering if they are, and who I am and where I am from. They may have a moment where the character does something, but they would think that the actor wouldn’t do that, or doesn’t like that. For me that’s like damaging the immersion of that character. So, I’m pretty private, and I think that that’s the best way to be as an actor. The character takes foreground, I want the character to be at the front of the work, and the actor should be like “Yes, this is me, but you don’t know too much about my life, because this character is way more important”
For those gamers that haven’t done so just yet, why should they play Resident Evil Village?
You should play every Resident Evil! It’s a brilliant franchise. You should play Resident Evil 7 first, because it’s a really scary game, and that obviously leads into Resident Evil Village. You can get them as a duo pack on most formats, so do that! You should play them because it’s an action-horror, it’s adrenaline-filled, heart racing, and (In the voice of Heisenberg) “It has some pretty good actors in it as well I’d say!” The whole cast is a delight and is just amazing to watch. It’s just a really wild ride. If you play 7 and 8 together, they are very different, 7 is terrifying! It’s like Alien and Aliens, I think that’s a great comparison. Village is a great experience, especially if you’ve played 7. Village for me, felt like it was payback time. You destroyed my life, so this is kind of like, Ethan gearing up. Which is very empowering for players. The games work together well for the evolution of the story.
What else can we expect to see from you as an actor in 2021?
I’m currently still working on Baldur’s Gate 3, I play Astarion in that, one of the companions who is just such a good character to play, I’m having a hoot. That’s a continuing project. There is an animated film that I can’t talk about, it’s either coming out at the end of this year, or probably next year because of the pandemic pushing everything back. I’ve done some action directing, on an animated film. I also did a historical docu-drama, which is I think, also coming out this year. There’s lots of stuff like that! None of which I can mention. There’s lots of stuff bubbling away, but I am always open for work. I’m a workaholic. If anybody wants to contact me, then you are most welcome to do so!
For more from NEIL NEWBON, check out his Twitter, Instagram, Streamily, official website, and visit www.performancecapturedproductions.com. RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, and PC.
Read our other RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE interviews here:
- Andi Norris / Donna Beneviento
- Maggie Robertson / Lady Dimitrescu
- Jesse Pimentel / Salvatore Moreau
- Katie O’Hagan / Mia Winters
