Interview – Paul Amos

Supanova starts in Adelaide TOMORROW! There are a wealth of stars headed our way for the last leg of cons for Australia for 2019 and it would seem the best have been saved till last. Among them is actor Paul Amos of Lost Girl and Assassins Creed Sydnicate fame. Paul was kind enough to chat to me about his career and his upcoming second visit to Australia.

AL : Hi Paul! Thank you so much for taking time to chat to me. Is this going to be your first visit to Australia?

PA : Thanks, I am so excited to come to Supanova. It’s actually my second visit. The previous was for Lost Girl and it was a bit last minute my friend Cassaindra Solo had to cancel last minute so I happily stepped in and had a great time.

AL : You did the voice and motion capture on Assassin’s Creed : Syndicate main character Jacob Frye. How did that come about?

PA : I always wanted to do a video game. I grew up with systems like ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga, Mega Drive I always played games and got to a point where I was like video games were great and mo caps were great and getting really good. I got sent a script in November 2013 for Ubisoft and I didn’t hear anything back and then in March 2014. The process was very long and involved MANY auditions and many flights. One actually right in the middle of a family holiday which really showed how much I wanted it.

AL: What was the key to finding Jacob’s voice?

PA : It was very difficult because the promotional side a lot of decisions and series are made long before you get in. The game takes 3-4 years of development before the game actually comes to fruition. When you get into the suit and you are doing the motion capture -it is a lot of work, 6 days a week for 4 months, everything was filmed like it was a movie. 3 camera, wides, establishing shots. We spent a week Victoria and I working on the characters and establish who these two people were. It happens in the moment when you are riffing off each other. What we developed was different compared to what the marketers had come up with. Not a lot of humour in games especially when your spend 60 hours with it and bringing humour into it. With rendering and how great animation is now, can capture the nuances to make comedy happen. I really went for that and Victoria was keen on that too. I feel the one thing we did and brought was fun and banter and wit. People related to it.

AL : Did you enjoy the process? Would you do it again?

PA : I would do it again, I like to delve into a character that isn’t going to be replicated. As an actor you can continue to accept work and do characters, they can get lost in the mix. In my career I created 5-7 really strong characters that people remembered from whatever genre I would be very happy. I did that a bit with Lost Girl and then Jacob Frye then Murdoch Mysteries and now I have just done a core character superhero for Netflix that will fall into the same thing. I feel I created a fun and different character and assassin. Not a lot of games that go for humour and go natural so that was great.

AL : Any advice for upcoming actors wanting to get not the industry

PA : I was driving from LA to Salt Lake city for comic con and drove through the desert at night, it was 2am in the morning in a Mustang convertible with the roof top down just listening to Iggy classics, U2 underneath the desert sky, I got into Utah and I was itching for a coffee and pulled into this random village and there was a Starbucks there. I pulled in at 6am in the morning and this girl looks at me and says “You’re Max from Lost Girl right?” Next thing she know she called all of the staff and they all knew who I was and loved the show. It was surreal and the most unexpected place.

AL : Do you have any advice for upcoming actors wanting to get into the industry?

PA : Yeah it’s always go to a good drama school, try and get versed in as many things as possible, the world and industry is changing so much, anybody can do anything. Try and go to the best school, get educated in the field as much as possible. Long-jevity is to get exposed to as many things as possible.