- I love you. You have to believe me.
- Stop! - No!
- You're under arrest! - Hey!
- What character do you play in "12 Minutes"?
And what your kind of vision for the character?
Like, your idea of the motivations behind the person.
- He was such a different person depending on what routes
the player decides to take.
He really is unfolding to me as much as he is to the player.
If I read every single iteration,
I'd have been there for three weeks.
There are massive offshoots, like, huge tangential offshoots
that make him a very different person.
I mean, I think his prime motivation is to figure out
what the hell is going on,
which is kind of existentially appropriate
for everyone I think at every moment in their life,
but especially for this guy at this moment
because he's walking in his door,
and the most incredible things are happening,
the most most mundane things are happening.
But somehow fate, God, eternity, or serendipity is telling him,
"No, that's not right, go back and do it again."
- Are you kidding me? - You've got to go an comply
with the player/audience, and they're going to go,
"Well, I think they're going to react like this
and do something completely widely different."
And while, me, as an actor, that might not be my instinct
or that might not be what I think
is the most compelling or interesting or righteous move,
I've got to surrender to the player.
If you just play this game as you are as a person
and you carry this game out just as you would in real life,
maybe that's a rewarding experience,
but I think there are going to be a lot of people
making decisions,
testing boundaries, testing their own moral boundaries.
And at what point in games do we start to care?
You can just go, "I'm gonna behead that pig,"
in this particular game, whatever it is.
And maybe that's whatever.
But when does that game that lets you behead that pig
or do terrible things or you can run around
and do horrendous things, actually,
at what point can a game make you care?
Actually make you care
about the consequences of those choices, as well?
And I think that's something that maybe you've got
an opportunity to do in this game.
The scenes with Daisy, some of them
were really quite heartfelt, and also,
she was in the room with me for a lot of this, as well.
And she's such a brilliant actor to work with.
There was a real connection there,
and hopefully that comes across in the game when you're playing.
And then got to work with Willem.
He was in Rome, I think.
He's just an amazing --
you know, you don't even need to say it.
His experience, his back catalogue, all that.
But also his voice.
His voice is so particular.
It's so iconic, almost.
When I first heard that come in the cans in my ears,
I was like, "Ohhh!
Working with some proper actors here."
- What other games do you typically play?
Or what are some examples that you can think of?
- I used to play a lot of role playing games,
so I'd play a lot of Oblivion, Skyrim,
all those kind of things.
On the console, it was like the Marios
and all that kind of stuff, which were brilliant.
Secret of Mana.
Secret of Mana I loved.
Wing Commander, which was kind of,
sort of like a role playing game,
but also space flight simulator I loved when I was a kid.
But then I kind of gave it all up.
I just didn't have the time, I didn't have the patience,
all that stuff, when I was in my mid-20s.
And then during the pandemic,
me and four of my other 40-something buddies said,
"Guys, should we go get consoles and get a game
that we can play online, seeing as we can't be together?
And so for the last year and half,
me and my 40-something buddies
have been hitting War Zone and all sorts of things.
- Would you star in more video games in the future?
- Yeah, definitely,
if they're as interesting and compelling as this.
It's just such a good form of entertainment,
and I think it's opening itself
up much more to what I do anyway.
And if you can meld them together in a cool way
that isn't just cut scenes
in between great game play, then awesome.