STACK Issue 151 May 2017

54 / 92

If you’ve ever played a video game, chances are you’ve come across
Nolan North. A prolific voice and television actor, we had the chance to
chat with him ahead of his appearance at Supanova this year.
Words Alesha Kolbe
N olan North is
arguably best
known for
his award-winning
performance as
protagonist Nathan
Drake in developer
Naughty Dog’s Uncharted
series. Not surprisingly, that’s
also his favourite character to
portray.
“It’s very flattering that
so many people have loved
[Uncharted],” offers North.
“Because of the performance
capture, every time Nathan
runs, jumps, moves, swings,
whatever, it’s me. We shot it
very much like the Avatar film.
Drake has been my favourite
role, it’s been the most
rewarding, and I’ve learned so
much.
"But my favourite character
to actually voice, however,
is a different story. There are
probably two. I always really did
like doing The Penguin, because
The Penguin was something
very, very far away from my own
voice. The most fun would have
to be Deadpool. He could say
anything, and use profanity, but
he also had this more mature
voice that would talk to him like
‘you can’t say things like that.’”
If Deadpool’s three in-game
personas sound manic, it’s
because that’s how they
were recorded. North recalls
that the team originally
had different recording
sessions booked for
each of Deadpool’s
‘personalities’, but the
actor didn’t see the
point – he wanted it to
be as realistic as possible.
“The way we did it is that
I would talk to myself in the
booth. It was literally like
professional schizophrenia.
We just ran with it, laughed
our heads off, and had a blast.
Rather than have different
scripts, the team just highlighted
the bits that were in the different
voices; if it was red it was
regular Deadpool, blue was
‘mature' Deadpool, and yellow
was the other guy. I wanted that
frantic pace and that craziness
– I didn’t want them to have to
edit that in. I think it made a big
difference and I’m pretty proud
of that.”
North is also known for
replacing Game of Thrones’
Peter Dinklage as the voice of
the Ghost in Destiny – a role he
has reprised for the upcoming
sequel, Destiny 2. But of course,
he can’t tell us anything about it.
“I told the producers I don’t
want to know any more than
what is absolutely necessary
for my part. Not because of the
press, but because of a 13-year-
old boy that lives down the hall
from me," he explains. "My son
is a huge Destiny fan and I
didn’t want him pestering me.
We’ll sometimes sit down on
the couch and he’ll be playing,
and I’ll sit down and go ‘eyes
up Guardian! We should go
down to the left’, and he’ll
every time Nathan runs,
jumps, moves, swings,
whatever, it’s me
The
Man Of A
Thousand
Voices
be like ‘go away Dad’, and I’ll
have to say ‘I’m not Dad, I’m
your Ghost, and I love you.’ It’s
fantastic what Bungie are doing
with the sequel – they’ve been
very good to me. People always
ask ‘are you going to keep doing
the Ghost?’ and I always say the
same thing – they’ll have to drag
me kicking and screaming from
that franchise.”
54 MAY 2017
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Nathan
Drake
(Uncharted)
Deadpool
(Deadpool)
Ghost
(Destiny)
The Penguin
(Batman Arkham)