Dan Allen Gaming: Oh welcome everybody to the show. Great to have you here today for my live chat with D.C. Douglas, the voice of Albert Wesker in many many “Resident Evil” games as well as Legion in “Mass Effect“. He was in “NieR Automata”, he was in oh he’s in a lot. So we’re gonna chat to him. If you’re listening D.C., get you in just a second. Who we got in here? The hunter is back baby! Titan Yuki Damn! Why is Wayne Radio TV in the thumbnail? I have a few people comment that D.C. looks a bit like Wayne Radio apparently. I’m doing well the beast, how are you? What kind of accent is that? What do you mean D.C.? This is an Australian accent mate! Maxi, I’m doing well. It’s a new shirt guys, it’s a new shirt. “Resident Evil Village”.
Alright, without further ado, let’s get D.C. in. I hope you enjoy it. If you’ve got any questions guys, leave them in and we’ll try to get to as many as possible, but let’s do this. Here we go.
Interview Starts
D.C. Douglas: Oh [ __ ] yeah hang on, I gotta turn my… oh sorry about the swearing. My video’s not on, hang on. Boom!
Dan Allen Gaming: That’s alright, you’re allowed to swear because I have a problem with that. So how are you man, did you like that opening?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah that was very cool. I was confused because like all of a sudden you start video before you do pre-show, which is like that is brilliant thinking because you get people excited, you give them some energy. It’s like going to the movies and you get some trailers and things like that. Brilliant move. So I couldn’t stop watching it.
Dan Allen Gaming: Man, I love your setup. I love the vibe that you got going on there.
D.C. Douglas: Oh thank you. Yes, I’m a hippie I guess. I don’t know if it’s hippie or kind of artsy. I don’t know what the [ __ ] my style is but contemporary…
Dan Allen Gaming: Well yeah, it’s got that sound but also it’s got some hippie stuff and it’s cross-cultural. And then I got a fake tree behind it. It is fake, it’s fake.
D.C. Douglas: Oh I’m not watering that. Plants die around me. The only thing I can keep alive is a jade plant because they’re succulents. They… I can do succulents because you sleep them outside and they live.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah this one’s fake but I get slack from people all the time. Do you ever think…
D.C. Douglas: Well yeah you’ll see him in a dark corner there. That’s a sad place for a real plant, but a fake plant can handle it I think.
Dan Allen Gaming: So how you been mate, you’ve been alright?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah I’ve been uh, well you know, there was a pandemic.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah exactly. It’s been… it’s funny because you know, we all believe that like… social media, we don’t believe but social media has a tendency to make us think that what we see is the life that we’re looking at, because we just get little blips. And so for me, from my perspective during the pandemic, I was seeing all these voice actors doing really great, like they’re working, they work from home. I’m like “Good for you guys, why am I taking an 80 percent hit?” But then you start talking to people behind the scenes, behind Instagram, when you meet them personally, that sucked for me too. And like well they just share that make… make the other people who are being honest on Instagram feel better about it. So I love your approach. You’re very easygoing, you know, trying to make people laugh as well.
Social Media and how D.C. got banned from Twitter
D.C. Douglas: Oh yeah, well like yeah yeah I guess so. I mean I do like to make people laugh, but I also have a… I’m an oversharer and I wear my heart on my sleeve and it gets me into a lot of trouble because I do have political opinions and [ __ ].
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh really?
D.C. Douglas: And I also… I don’t like bullies. And when… so have you… I talk a lot so tell me to shut up when you want me to shut up. But like, so I’ve been banned from Twitter twice now. I’m not gonna go back for a third time.
Dan Allen Gaming: Really?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah. I didn’t know this. The first time I got banned… First off, some little [ __ ] in 2008, 2006, got the name D.C. Douglas on the handle and I’m like “You! I could have used that!” And he never uses it, never uses it. He’s tweeted like three times and that was it. But Twitter keeps it anyway. So I had this one handle that was not like… it worked but I was… and I was on there for 10 years. And then I got banned because of, you know, the Trump era arrived and I couldn’t really hold back with some of the hypocrisy of the followers. Sorry if you guys are into Trump. And I really… I really am sorry you’re in Trump. But I… somebody was going on about “You know he’s God’s chosen whatever” and I’m like “Going really? Even with all the rape convictions? Or all the rape accusations and stuff?” And the way that I… we… I went back and forth with, I don’t know if she was a bot or real. But I pointed out… I used Trump’s words. I quoted Trump as a response to her. But because it was about the word “rape” in it, so that’s a trigger word for the algorithm, and because it looked like I was saying it to her even though I was quoting Trump talking about one of his accusers, I got banned for that. And then I thought “Well you know what, I’ve always wanted all my social media to have the same handle.” So then I… I created a new account, I had that handle, and I’m like “There we go, this is much better.” Which is, by the way, @mrdcdouglas. @mrdc on Instagram and Facebook, not on Twitter. The Twitter one… I was doing fine and I watched myself. I didn’t swear, I was… I just promoted myself. I was being the good actor. And then January 1st came along and the whole L. Lin Wood, the lawyer to Trump, was talking about taking Pence out in front of a firing squad. QAnon was like crazy big on in January and they were all going on going “We really should… we need to take America back.” And I’m like… and instead of being angry about them, I decided I’ll be one of you, but I’ll show you how ridiculous you are and I’ll one-up you. And so I just started responding to everybody going “Yeah! And…” like an improv game.
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh right, crazier!
D.C. Douglas: So what I think I got banned for is I said “You’re right, we need to… we need to take Pence out and shoot him dead. Because isn’t that what democracy is all about? Thank God for…” So you really went in.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah right.
D.C. Douglas: I got banned. So and then at that point I’m like “[ __ ] it, I’m not going back.”
Dan Allen Gaming: So you… when was that? When was that, how long ago?
D.C. Douglas: This year.
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh this year, okay.
D.C. Douglas: [ __ ].
Dan Allen Gaming: So you would have lost a lot of followers off that and stuff as well, like just…
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, but first off, it’s like… I mean, I know that followers are good for, you know, audience, income, all that stuff. But I can’t… it’s like if you start… I can’t live by like followers. I figure I have… a relapse between Facebook and Instagram. And if people want to find me, they’ll find me. Eventually, you know, they won’t want to find me anymore. And so you got to be cool with that as well.
Dan Allen Gaming: Well you know what, why do you think like Hollywood actors don’t go on it at all?
D.C. Douglas: Because… because… So there’s some like “Oh they’re smart.”
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah pretty much, pretty much.
D.C. Douglas: If you go look at the… between the different platforms, I’d probably say that the most toxic of all of them is… Face… excuse me, is Twitter. Because of the way that it… it’s instant magnification of anything. So [ __ ], [ __ ] anger, whatever. People love to be in an outrage mob, all that stuff. But if you look at like… And if you’re a sensitive person, which most artists are sensitive, that allows them access to their emotions for their performances and all of that. It’s gonna… it’s gonna eat away at your mental health, you know. Let alone anybody who’s not in the… the performance life. You know, it’s gonna eat away. If there’s… if all of a sudden, you know, you get a flood of people saying “You’re [ __ ], you’re this”, it’s like… I mean, I’ve been… because like I said, I wear my heart on my sleeve. I’ve had so many controversies follow me. 2010, I got in trouble and I was on Fox News for a week because of a voicemail message I left. I’m going after the Tea Party which was the beginning of the Trumpster stuff. And so I dealt with people calling me on my cell phone and leaving, you know, all these… these messages for me. And so I went through that. And then I went through a thing… we had a voice actor in the industry, in the anime ADR world, the big… the high-paying world of that. And he was outed or whatever. And you know, there… he’d been a creep for, you know, over a decade according to people. I tried to stay completely neutral, but I said “Hey guys, let’s… you know, don’t condemn women coming forward, but you can also think he’s innocent in the meantime while more information…” I just did that. That’s all I did.
Dan Allen Gaming: Should have done it the minute you step into any controversy.
D.C. Douglas: Everybody else is gonna… it’s so black and white thinking in Twitter. It is… literally, it’s the Twitter is the borderline personality platform of all social media. And so it’s just gonna be one or the other. And then… and then that got hooked up with… there actually it’s from down under. Kiwi Farms.
Dan Allen Gaming: Should I said that? I don’t know.
D.C. Douglas: Anyway, those boys came after me. And they are boys. And so on all sorts of… so they magnify and distort anything. And at all… it’s just not… it’s just… it’s gross. It’s just gross. So if you’re an artist and you’re sensitive, why go on social media? If you want to, you can announce stuff that you’re in.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah so you can be really standoffish if you want and not reveal your true self.
D.C. Douglas: And maybe you’ll… you’ll get through it unscathed and just never look at the comments. And that’s cool. But if you really want to interact with your fans, it’s… it’s a double-edged sword.
Did D.C. lose work over being vocal online?
Dan Allen Gaming: Do you think that’s hurt or helped your career? Or like in terms of getting jobs, does it…
D.C. Douglas: Both.
Dan Allen Gaming: Both, really?
D.C. Douglas: This is a very good question. My dad was like, during that whole Tea Party thing way back when, he was like “You know, you’re probably gonna lose a lot of work because of this.” And I go “Well listen, if a producer is like… you know, if he’s offered no health care for people and you know then [ __ ] them. If they really… if they’re not going to hire me over that kind of thing, if I can’t be who I am…” I will say this, that was my first big lesson, was I… because say back then, remember how everybody used to blog? That was how you got followers to your… your website. So I had a blog and I would blog “Today was a great day. I worked with so-and-so producer on the… at the so-and-so studios. Lovely people to work with. And I feel this is another step in my journey as an actor.” Like I did all that kind of like… I wasn’t being me. I was trying to present the working actor in Los Angeles and how grateful I am for the business and… and these people. And maybe they’ll Google their names and see that I blogged about them and that’ll get me more work. And that is a pathetic way to live. And I was living that way. And then when I was outed essentially because of this… my private life voicemail message I left for this group. And then all of a sudden I’m like literally on Fox News’s breaking news, which is obviously a slow news week. And then I’m like… I like… well then now either I… the advice that I got was “Run hide, it’ll go away. And then go back to being fake.” And I’m like “No! [ __ ] this! Goddammit this isn’t right and I’m going to stand up and be who I am.” And ugly warts and all. And then I did. And I went out that way. And ever since then I’ve… and like if I do something wrong, I’ll apologize for it. If… if I’m in debate with somebody… but otherwise I’m not gonna apologize for having my opinion. I’m not gonna apologize for living my life as fully as I want to be and expressing myself. You know, but if I’m a dick then yeah, I should apologize. Unless I’m being a dick to a bully. And on Twitter, so many [ __ ] bullies that come after you. And so I was like… that’s part of why I… some people don’t like me, is… this… I… I bounce… I… I hit back at them, you know. And it’s like “But I’m a teenager!” It’s like “Well you shouldn’t be a [ __ ] dick as a teenager.” I hated that when I was in high school.
Dan Allen Gaming: So anyway, it’s like… you don’t know you’re… you… you don’t know they’re a teenager when it’s online. So it’s like having like a really like… I get so angry at this 12-year-old!
D.C. Douglas: What a waste of time. So anyway… I did lose some clients, but I gained way more than I lost in 2010.
Dan Allen Gaming: Really?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, I think the industry, you know, is… is getting more used to people being… being who they are. And so it’s…
Union vs. Non-Union Work
Dan Allen Gaming: Are you… are you… I don’t know if you’re allowed to say. Are you union or non-union?
D.C. Douglas: I… Interesting you went there. Wow. I am union. I’ve been… I’ve been in L.A. since 1985 because I’m old. And so I went union in the… in the 90s. I also… but I do some non-union work. There’s a thing called financial core. And there’s a lot of debate about it and very strong pro-union people will curse me because I am financial core. But I’m not the only one financial core.
Dan Allen Gaming: Can you say who else anyone else would know that’s in that? Or is that not…
D.C. Douglas: You can’t say… Well, I mean, I could say… well, the one… the only one that comes to mind right now, I don’t want to say because I don’t like him, is… Angelina Jolie’s dad.
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh really?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, you know what’s… the name. What’s his name? He was in “Midnight Cowboy”. Anyway, the reason I know him is because when you are a financial core, you essentially… you’re a dues-paying non-member, but you don’t get any of the fringe benefits of the… the side stuff like, you know, voting, going to SAG workshops, stuff like that. And also, you can’t get a SAG Award. And he was nominated for a SAG Award. And then they discovered that he was financial core and they’re like “Oh yeah” and they pulled the nomination. And then he went on this big tirade about how they shouldn’t do that. And it’s like “Dude, did you not re-… did you not read the thing when you signed it and you became financial core?”
Could D.C. be in “Resident Evil Village”?
Dan Allen Gaming: The reason I ask is “Village”, the like the latest “Resident Evil”, they’re all non-union from what I believe. So if… if even if they wanted you, could you do it or not?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, absolutely. Oh you could… not… and listen, roll of Albert Wesker. But I know eventually one day they’re going to replace me, because you know, you don’t want an 80-year-old doing Albert Wesker. Or maybe you do. Anyway, they’re going to replace me. And so you know, I’m cool with that. It’s… it got… got me a lot of, you know, wonderful fans and… and friends. And… and experiences flying around the world, kind of stuff. So I’m really appreciative of all that. And I’m appreciative of them. They’ve just been… they’ve been good to me. And so I’ve done union and non-union under that contra-… under that with them. Because I… I have an affinity for the role, a love of the role. And I actually know the other guys who voiced him, except for the first guy. I’d like to meet him.
D.C. loves all the Wesker Voice Actors
But Richard Waugh and I met many… goddess, it was about eight years ago now. And he and Adrian Hough and I, we all went and had drinks on Sunset Boulevard, several drinks, too many.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah yeah, we talked about the whole “Resident Evil” thing. And like, he was at the beginning of the convention scene when he was Wesker. So he didn’t know how to parlay it into anything as far as convention stuff. But he has an amazing on-camera career. For those of you who are fans, like… like, know all the Weskers, go look up Richard Waugh’s IMDb. And then… and he’s a Canadian actor, so all his film and TV stuff in Canada is… is just like great. He’s been in some really big stuff as well.
D.C. Douglas: So I’ve actually came across the original Wesker from “Resident Evil”, the first one, 1996. I found him on YouTube. It’s a controversy which one. Do you have… I think his name was Pablo.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yes.
D.C. Douglas: Okay, so you got the right one.
Dan Allen Gaming: I got the right one, okay.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, because there was another one…
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh I can’t remember his name now, but what… he was claiming to be, but he wasn’t.
D.C. Douglas: I don’t know if he claimed to be it, but he was credited everywhere with it. So people assumed it was it. But no, the Pablo guy, yeah. Because… there’s a place called Resident Evil Database out of Brazil. Lovely lady who… who runs that. And… she unearthed that. And also did an interview with him too. So yeah, that’s the one I have not met. But Peter Jessop and I had the same agent for many years. And he’s… he’s a sweetheart and super freaking talented. And the first one that I… I started in 2007 with “Umbrella Chronicles”. And the thing is, when I auditioned for it, they were playing his voice. He was unavailable for that gig. They were playing his… his stuff from the previous thing he had done. I guess he’s done like one or two things in “Resident Evil”. And so I listened to it, it’s really kind of unique. And I auditioned and booked it. And then I saw him in the lobby… back in the days we used to actually go to the agency to audition for things. And I said “Hey, I just wanna… you know, I hope you don’t mind that I took that role. And thank you so much because now I’m like… I’m in a really big role.” And he’s like… he’s like “No, have fun with it. Run with it.” You know, he was cool with it. And then with Richard, when I… when I ran into him, like… he… once he understood that production moved from Canada to L.A., then… then he was kind of cool with it. And then… then he and I talking and he was like “Yeah, run… have fun with it.” I tried to get like a panel… I think a great panel at a convention, all of you, all the Weskers together for a Wesker panel. I think that would be phenomenal.
Dan Allen Gaming: So has that never happened?
D.C. Douglas: No, it hasn’t. I tried to get it going one year and I just couldn’t get enough bites. You know, it’s expensive because that’s four voice actors.
Dan Allen Gaming: Maybe I can get you all on here at one time. That might be the next best thing.
D.C. Douglas: Hey, that’s probably the easier way to do it.
Dan Allen Gaming: Aussie here says “Mr. Douglas, how did it feel playing the crazed gym teacher Kamoshida in “Persona 5”?
D.C. Douglas: Absolutely love that character and your delivery was menacing. Did I get that right? Kamoshida?
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah you did.
D.C. Douglas: Okay, it’s… yeah, it’s… well first I gotta say, in the whole video game anime world, I am collecting a lot of like really creepy [ __ ]. And I’m cool with it, except for, you know, when… when some people get their little… I guess not… though if he plays all these creepy people, he must be creepy. And it’s like, you know, when you… I’m actually… I’ve got cats. I am… there’s a community… I forget his name, but the way he describes soft people, men, they’re c-section men. I’m like, I’m a c-section man.
But Kamoshida, you know what’s funny about that is that all I knew is that it was a video game, it was a, you know, Japanese thing. And… and he was a gym teacher, but he’s a little bit of a dick. That’s all they told me. And so I’m recording and we get to the scene where he’s accused of… of this… doing this horrible thing to this high school student. And… and then we finish the scene and I go “Uh, Valerie was directing” and… and I’m like “Did he do the thing?” And Valerie’s like…
Dan Allen Gaming: [Laughter]
D.C. Douglas: So great. I can add pedophile to my… my resume. So…
D.C. plays a lot of Villains
Dan Allen Gaming: You’ve played a lot of villains over the years, haven’t you? I mean, it’s been…
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, but even before… when I first… was getting video games, like my first video game wasn’t until 2000. I did… “The Master” in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. So my very first video game, I’m playing a villain who sounds very similar to Albert Wesker. And the only reason I got to do that role is because the actor from the TV show like pooh-poohed the video games. He’s like “I’m not coming in for a video game.”
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, that’s not worth my time. Yeah, exactly.
D.C. Douglas: And I’m like “Well cool, I’ll take it.” And yeah, such a weird session, thinking of where video games are now and what it was like then. It’s really funny because also then, we didn’t get the scene, you didn’t see what you were responding to, what the actuals… it was literally like an Excel sheet of just your lines. And we’re like “Do we know what’s happening here?” And like, usually the director’s like “No.” So let’s pretend… let’s be a loud one. Immediate one. Well…
Dan Allen Gaming: Like so that’s why some of the early video games are really bad.
D.C. Douglas: So how big was that roll? Sorry, sorry to cut you off.
Dan Allen Gaming: No, no worries. How’s the question – how big was that role for “Buffy”?
D.C. Douglas: The “Buffy” game… in the game, it’s really… I think it’s… it’s like the… I’ve not played the game, but I assume he’s the final boss.
Dan Allen Gaming: Okay, yeah yeah.
D.C. Douglas: It was just basically a lot of dialogue, a lot of fighting, and then some dialogue. Yeah, yeah, right.
Dan Allen Gaming: Someone here mentioned that you should play Batman. You’ve got a
similar sounding voice to Kevin Conroy, which I sort of actually… I reckon you’d knock that out of the park.
Batman and Kevin Conroy
D.C. Douglas: Batman? Wow. I… I didn’t like… well, I would love that. I would have to… I don’t… see here’s the thing. What… I don’t watch a lot of TV. I don’t play video games. When I was… that’s a lie. I’ve seen you
Dan Allen Gaming: play “Resident Evil”, come on.
D.C. Douglas: If you’ve seen how I’ve… how I’ve played it. [Laughter]
Dan Allen Gaming: Okay, okay, fair enough.
D.C. Douglas: But my thing is, I don’t really like… when I get a thing for like a super… like a Marvel superhero, I’m like “I don’t know who the [ __ ] this is.” So I gotta Google it, look it up and read about it, and then I auditioned for it. So I’m not sure… I know he’s famous… he’s famous for that role and from other stuff. And he’s a very accomplished voice actor. But I don’t know like what his voice sounds like. So… to have to go and listen so… but I don’t like taking over other people’s roles. I don’t like how to have to match their voice, whatever. I love it when it’s a fresh new thing that nobody’s ever heard before. So I’m doing… I can’t say this. I’m doing a game now and it is for redacted. And I’m playing redacted. But the thing is, this redacted has not really been represented in this redacted canon before. And so I’m very excited that I get to establish the voice of redacted.
Dan Allen Gaming: We all hear about it in like two years.
D.C. Douglas: Okay, and this is a franchise that we know, right?
Dan Allen Gaming: I’m not giving hints about anything else. [Laughter]
D.C. Douglas: I understand, I understand. But it’s a big role?
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah. Is it… is it… is it mocap? Have you done much mocap lately? Or is it voice?
Motion Capture
D.C. Douglas: It’s funny. It is… there’s more mo-cap lately. This is actually a mocap one as well. So yeah, it’s… I didn’t… usually get… I think that’s basically the wave of where everything is headed now. Mo-cap for… for these games, if they can. So unless it’s just like smaller roles or what have you. The… so yeah, so I’m actually in a couple different things where I’m doing mocap again. Which is not fun when you’ve got that dad bod going. So… but the… yeah, my first real big mocap gig, I went to San Francisco for a week and it was a buttload of dialogue. It was… we were doing like 30 pages a day. And it’s called… the funny thing is nobody played the story mode. It’s called
D.C. was in “NBA 2K14”
“NBA 2K14”.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah yeah, right.
D.C. Douglas: Okay, story mode. But I play the… the uber agent. So when he… if he… if he ditches his best friend as his agent, I become the agent. And that’s hilarious. Wow.
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh no, wait till you hear this. Actually, those of you who are… who are listening, if you can open up another browser window, search for “D.C. Douglas NBA 2K14”. You’ll see the video of it.
D.C. Douglas: So here’s the thing. I’m excited to… because I said “So how are you going to make them look? Is it going to be like a cigar-chomping guy?” They’re like “No no, it’s going to be you.” I’m like “You’re going to make it look like me?” So I went all dolled up and they did the pictures, 3D pictures and all of that. And I’m like “It’s going to look amazing. I’m going to see D.C. Douglas as an avatar.” And then I see the game and I look like a melting Bill Pullman. It’s like… like one reference and that was it. Because they do… they… all their money goes to making all the baseball… or the basketball players look like the actual…
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, my character, no one gives a [ __ ]. So like one render, that’s good enough. I’m like…
D.C. Douglas: He’s… he’s melting.
Dan Allen Gaming: What did you do?
D.C. Douglas: Was that the game with actual… the players had some voice lines or not?
Dan Allen Gaming: I wouldn’t know about the other players because myself and the guy who plays the player… it was just us two.
D.C. Douglas: So what was cool about it is they… they let us like improv a lot on what we… what the dialogue was, probably because it was just so much dialogue to remember word-for-word it would be impossible, the way they were shooting. But the other cool thing was, it was like doing theater. You know, there’s probably not a lot of actors watching, but it’s like doing theater in the round. So you… you…
Dan Allen Gaming: Right, you’re in a close-up the entire time.
D.C. Douglas: So there’s like… like the first… when I first started doing it, I like did the scene with him, I did like the ad-lib I was proud of. And then I turn away and I’m walking away from him and I’m like going “I’m just being angry and I’m so angry, angry, angry” and turned. I’m like “That’s pretty good.” And then I look up
Wesker Facial Capture and “Resident Evil 5”
and see… I feel a monitor thing. Sorry guys. So that was your first mocap?
Dan Allen Gaming: That game… first big mo-cap?
D.C. Douglas: Well, “Resident Evil 5”, playing Wesker… the face cap…
Dan Allen Gaming: Wait, yeah.
D.C. Douglas: Here’s the thing, is that I actually auditioned to do full mocap for him. But I had just bought a house and I was helping the… the construction guys who are renovating it. I’m like “I’ll go bring some cement up” and I could get the bag and I threw my back out. So I go to the audition, I’m like “All I can do guys is walk around and point a gun. Because if you make me do any other bending or stuff, I’m [ __ ].” And they’re like going “No no no no, don’t worry.” I was Reuben, he’s like “Don’t worry, no no, just come in and you point the gun and all that.” So go to the audition and they’ve got like a Japanese stunt coordinator and he’s like… and they’re translating. He’s like “Okay D.C., you’re going to roll onto your back, jump up, throw the gun and then whip this way.” And I’m like “No, I’m not.” So the audition was very quick. And so… but thank God they did… they still… they cut… they hired Ken Lally who did an amazing job of the mocap for Wesker in that game. And then when I did the voice over, it was face mocap. Back in the days when… so you got metal things glued all over you. So it’s like hours of getting ready. Then they have like 180 degree bar around you with all these camera lasers. And… and so you can’t gesture while you’re doing voice over, which is really frustrating because that’s where you get a lot of your emotion from. And you… and sometimes when you’re… even though you’re on mic, sometimes when you’re talking to two people, like move your head here, move your head here, just to get that feel. And you’re like… you couldn’t do that. You had to look straight ahead. Alright.
And then here’s the weirdest part. Albert Wesker is not emotive. He’s not like “I really… I’m shocked!” That’s not… to do that. And then so everything is like… everything is like this, Albert Wesker. But they want the face… they want the face.
Dan Allen Gaming: Really?
D.C. Douglas: Exactly. How do you do that? The technology… so it’s like the thing is like “I’m going to kill you.” It’s like “Really?” “Cool!” “Oh, it’s horrible!” It’s horrible. Also they also sprung the fact that I was going to be… they wanted me more sounding like Richard Waugh and Peter Jessup for that one. Said I’m like “Oh [ __ ], I got to change my whole way of thinking of it.” So yeah, and that’s… that story.
Dan Allen Gaming: Did you… did you meet Chris and Sheva, the cast at all during that? Or what?
D.C. Douglas: No, actually I still have never met… is it Sheva or Sheva?
Dan Allen Gaming: Sheva, I think.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah. I’ve not met her. I just met her virtually during the pandemic. We did some sort of con thing or whatever. And so that was the first time I’ve ever met her. I was… lovely lady. And then… but Roger Craig Smith, I’ve met a couple times. We’ve been on some shows together. But our sessions were at different times.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah.
D.C. Douglas: But we crossed paths a couple times in studios. So… this sweet… smart guy who does social media the right way. He does not interact. He goes off and he’s off on, you know, in the… the wilderness somewhere. He’s with nature. He’s gazing at the stars. He’s living a beautiful life. And he posts the stuff to share with you. He’s not interacting.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, I can’t get ahold of the guy. I’ve tried.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, he’s smart. I tried to get him cast in the film we… I mean, actually he would have been cast in the film. He couldn’t do it because he had a promo gig. And he’s like “I got golden handcuffs. I can’t do it.” But it was a film… I went to Asylum. I’ve done like many films with… and… and I know it’s Asylum, but it’s also Asylum, which is cool. It’s like a little bit of a playground. And I’ve… I’ve worked with them since like 2002. And I went to them and I… I worked with these other two… this director and writer who also co-wrote this comedy that we did called “Alpha House” with them. They turned out to be “Resident Evil” fans. And it was actually funny because they didn’t know at first when I was
Working on Indie Films
cast about “Resident Evil”. So I think it was one night, late night, we’re shooting in near USC in some God-awful place. And they’ve set up the shot up there and I’m sitting waiting for my stuff, which is later on to film that scene. So I’m just sitting out there talking to one of the grips. And he’s talking about video games, he’s like “Aren’t you…” and I’m like “Uh, yeah yeah, I am.” And then all of a sudden the boom guy, who’s there booming the scene, whether there’s rehearsing, he leans out of the doorway and he’s like “You’re Wesker!” [Laughter]
Dan Allen Gaming: It’s hilarious.
D.C. Douglas: The director and the writer guy, they’re like “We love…” you know, they’re “Resident Evil” fans. And they’re like 20 years younger than me. And they’re like “Can we…” you know. I said “Well why don’t we approach Asylum with a zombie film and I come up with an idea?” So I approached them, they were cool. And I’m so glad I did, because I approached them with the idea, they said they were open to it. And I’d have to go through their workshopping process, which is not fun. But it is what it is. It’s… it’s art by committee kind of thing. But what was great about it is in that moment they went “Well why aren’t you on “Z Nation” if you…” It’s a show they had going. And I’m like “Why am I not?” And no, they were really cool. And so they gave me a three-episode…
Dan Allen Gaming: You were in that?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah yeah. Did you meet Sarah Coates? Do you remember her? She was in “Village” as well. She was in “Resident Evil Village”.
Dan Allen Gaming: You know the name, but I don’t… usually think I’m bad… I’m bad with names and faces going together.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah. She apparently was like a pregnant lady in the… in the show.
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh oh, no, guess what? I didn’t meet her because she’d already given birth, I think.
D.C. Douglas: She died.
Dan Allen Gaming: Okay.
D.C. Douglas: I take her baby. My wife and I take her baby. My wife is played by the producer’s real wife, who I… the first movie ever did for Asylum was with her. I tortured her. But anyway…
D.C. was the last person to Voice Wesker
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, and that… we took… we took Sarah’s baby. So… so I’ve got… I’ve got a comment here from Nathaniel. He says “If they had any brains, they wouldn’t recast Wesker.”
D.C. Douglas: Now, but eventually, if this thing goes on for another 20 years, they’re going to want to recast. Well, if you’re the…
Dan Allen Gaming: last person to play the character…
D.C. Douglas: Yeah yeah. I’m… since 2007, I’ve done I think like nine games, which nobody knows because you only know like “Resident Evil 5” and that’s it. Maybe “Umbrella Chronicles”. But there’s been all these side games, little things where I show up here, there. I’ve done a couple of pachinko machines. Is that what they’re called?
Dan Allen Gaming: Yep.
D.C. Douglas: And little things they did, like a promo for them as well as Wesker. Then do you count “Marvel vs. Capcom” in that?
Dan Allen Gaming: Yep.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, “Marvel vs. Cap”. And also the latest ones were “Umbrella Corps”, which I know people have issues with. But if you play… apparently I say the game’s canon. And if you get to a certain point, you’ll hear me and I’m like commanding you. And I recorded a monologue, but no one is…
Albert Wesker is Alive!?
someone sent me sound files. They data mined it, but you don’t hear it in the game. And the monologue is “The rumors of my demise have been great…” – I’ve been greatly exaggerated, something like that. It’s like “I’m back” or whatever. I’m like “Holy [ __ ].”
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, that’s what’s gonna say. Do you consider him alive or dead?
D.C. Douglas: I don’t know. Canon stuff also… they rebooted the whole thing. So who the [ __ ] knows? He could be in this… he could be alive. He never fell into a volcano, we don’t know. Friends of mine who played “Revelations” told me that the concept that comes out in that game justifies Wesker being alive. Something about birds or something, I don’t know. But like, you guys run with it. That’s what I’m saying. I want you back, man, in 9.
Will Wesker return in RE9?
Dan Allen Gaming: That’d be epic. If they’re doing what they’re… if you…
D.C. Douglas: Because if you look at it, they’re not… it’s about Ethan’s story. So…
Dan Allen Gaming: Right. So I think that the third one is about… is to finish Ethan’s arc of it. So I don’t think you’ll see him in 9. I’d be surprised if he did. So… but I mean, you’d think they’re bringing back eventually. So… you… you… are you thinking…
D.C. Douglas: Do you think you’ll get that call? Or you… you just genuinely don’t know? Or what? Do I…
Dan Allen Gaming: I…
D.C. Douglas: I don’t know. [Laughter]
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah. Okay, right.
D.C. has playedthrough a few Resident Evil Games
Dan Allen Gaming: Have you played “Village” yet?
D.C. Douglas: No, I’ve watched… I watched someone else play through a big portion of it. And it’s… it’s gorgeous. And I mean, I just… I’ve been… because like I said, I’ve never played games. But recently, we have… there’s a… okay, where do we start? Some friends that are from… that I’ve met through over the years, the last decade, from the “Resident Evil” community, we kind of started a little group during the pandemic to stay in touch. And they kind of convinced me that I should go and stream. So the game… so I’m like “Well [ __ ], might as well.” And I went and got a PS4 and started to stream one of the games. And… oh, and then ProtonJon, you might have heard… he’s a gamer in on Twitch that people know. Anyway, he said… I played “Resident Evil 5” with him. And so from that, I started doing more of this. And…
Dan Allen Gaming: Did you find that fun?
D.C. Douglas: Yes and no, because yes ultimately it’s fun. Sometimes it depends on the game. So like, I played the first one remake. So it was interesting, but the doors [ __ ] got to me. Too many [ __ ] door transitions.
Dan Allen Gaming: The loading, yeah.
D.C. Douglas: Alright, and so that… so early on I was going “Resident Doors”. And then somebody made me read one of these… because I started to skip reading a lot of those little found documents. But they said “No, you have to read this document.” I’m like “Okay.” And I read it. And that’s… that one is like “Itchy. Itchy. Tasty.” Which is hysterical. And so then it became “Resident Doors: Itchy Tasty”. And then from that, a little Discord community has popped up. And that is called… if you go to resident… can ever say fast… residentdoors.com, that’s that Discord community. I’m not an admin or whatever, but it’s… I… I pop in there occasionally. And… and it’s… it’s kind of… it’s a fun little community. It’s cool. It’s small right now. You know, it grows on its own at its own pace. But so then I’m like “Well now I need to stream more because a Discord happens.” So yeah, but the games are like the… some of the… the remakes are just gorgeous. And then you switch to like… right now I’m in “Resident Evil 4”. I’ve been playing that for about three years.
Dan Allen Gaming: The game is [ __ ] long.
D.C. Douglas: And so that… it’s hanky, is the way the… the camera moves. And I get very kind of like nauseous. So I have to limit it to like two hours. Some of the other games I went on for like four-hour streams. But this one I have two hours and I gotta stop.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, I’m looking down. So you haven’t beaten 4 yet?
D.C. Douglas: [ __ ] you, dude. I’m trying.
Dan Allen Gaming: It’s long.
D.C. Douglas: And also it’s… it… there’s not a lot of story. And… and it’s kind of like… you start to get like the coders like “We go to this level now. We copy paste it and then we amped it up a little harder. Copy paste it, makes it a little harder.” That’s what it feels like. And I’m like “Just kept in the [ __ ] story. I’m really ready to move on.” I’d like to play “Code Veronica”, but I hear that’s really difficult.
RE4 Remake
Dan Allen Gaming: Hold on now, hold on. “Resident Evil 4”, have you heard the rumors of this remake, D.C.?
D.C. Douglas: Well, that’s… that… that thing… that… that hack thing that came out that said that they’re doing the…
Dan Allen Gaming: Lake, yeah yeah yeah.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, but he’s not important.
Dan Allen Gaming: Well you never know, you never know. I’m hopeful for everything, even if it isn’t a “Resident Evil” game. I’m hopeful they’ll throw a Wesker… why not?
What does D.C. think of the character of Wesker?
Here we go. We’ve got a question here. What… how did you feel about the actual character of Wesker? How did it feel like… what are your thoughts on him?
D.C. Douglas: Okay, well let’s be honest guys. It’s… he’s… he’s an archetype more than he is a person, right? There’s not a lot of… dimension… there hasn’t been a lot of dimension to him. But here’s… but I will say this. The way they’ve been doing the remakes, they’ve been… they’ve really… like the acting is really good on the remakes. Did I do… is 3 remade?
Dan Allen Gaming: 3 is remade, right?
D.C. Douglas: Did I play…
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, I played 2 and 3, but I played them out of order. I played 3 first I think, and then I played 2.
D.C. Douglas: But the acting in both 3 and 2… the acting is really good. The voice acting. And also the graphics are gorgeous as well. But there’s like… there’s more of a cinematic quality, which is also why I love doing “Mass Effect”, because they wanted it all to be very cinematic acting. So if they’re going in that… if they’re going in that direction, when they get to RE5, and if they still want 80-year-old D.C., I’m looking forward to doing that. Because I would love to go back. Because when we were recording it originally, I was going for… because I’m trained for… for theater and then film and TV. And the game… I just fell into. And so a lot of the… and the JRPGs that I would do, it would… it’s so like… by the numbers kind of acting. They want to kind of like more broad, operatic. When we got to RE5, I thought “Well this is… I mean I know it’s originally in Japan, but it’s for the American audience.” And I’m like “Well I’m gonna, you know, underplay him. I really wanted to make him more kind of like complex and underplayed.” And I like… I got like a lot… like one line read out of it. And it’s like… the producers talk and there’s producers in Japan that talk to them to whatever. And then the Liam comes back and he’s like “Much bigger.” Really? Like chew the scenery. And it was like “Really? Oh…” So that’s… so I mean, I’m acting in the style of the way that they wanted for that game. And ultimately it does work. There’s a lot of… I mean there’s some people that are like “That’s too much.” And then other people, they go “That was fun.” So… but when I get back to… when… when they go to remake that and if I still get to do Wesker, I do hope that I can give a more nuanced performance of him. And at that point, I’ll have more of an opinion on who he is as a person, because hopefully we’ll get more backstory. And why not? But obviously the guy has got some mental issues. He’s… I mean he’s… he’s a megalomaniac.
Dan Allen Gaming: He’s pretty bad, isn’t he?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, he’s pretty… able to see the arrogance to him. And… there’s a lot of things that are kind of… that messed up with…
Lance Reddick casted as Albert Wesker in Netflix Series
Dan Allen Gaming: Did you see the… was it the Netflix show or movie where they… where they announced the cast of the new Wes… Weskers? Did you see that?
D.C. Douglas: Fantastic.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah yeah.
D.C. Douglas: Is it Lance Reddick? Is that his name?
Dan Allen Gaming: I had an interesting exchange with somebody on Instagram. And they were upset with it. And I said “His… I said his ethnicity has nothing to do with his story. So why are you getting bent out of shape? It’s another version of this universe. And Lord knows Capcom is not… you know, they’re… they’re not… they don’t… they don’t have much fidelity to the canon, right? They change it up all the time.” So… and this is just one… another new way to look at… I mean, he’s got daughters for crying out loud. So… so I think… I look forward to see what he does with that. So…
Dan Allen Gaming: 100%. Uh, quits… it’s hard to take the ending of RE5 seriously when someone who had no history with Wesker was the one to deal the killing blow. I think it had been Chris, I think it had been Chris, I would have taken it more seriously.
D.C. Douglas: Hmm. Well that… I don’t… I would… I would disagree with that. I mean, you… you’re wanting… you’re wanting an ending to a… a storyline which actually wasn’t… I don’t know if they’re that well fleshed out. But I think it’s… if you also think about it, there’s… there’s other stuff going on with that game, politically, sociopolitically. And so I think it’s actually cool that she’s the one that does it. The… the other thing too is a… a real man doesn’t need to seek revenge.
What’s D.C.’s fav Resident Evil Game?
Dan Allen Gaming: “Resident Evil 2” is amazing. It’s my favorite out of the ones that you’ve played. D.C., what’s your favorite personally?
D.C. Douglas: It’s not 4.
Dan Allen Gaming: That’s so funny because everyone considers 4 the… the greatest, you know.
D.C. Douglas: Oh, ever. I’m sorry, listen… I mean, what… what is it about 4 compared to the others that does your head in? If I think… if the game was like… if I were done playing it… if it was… and I know I’m bad at playing it, I admit that guys. But like, I finished the other games in like 10, 12 hours. And this one I’m on hour like 28 and I’m only about a little more than halfway through. I mean, it’s sad. And I don’t… and I’m not filled with story, like there’s more… there’s a lot of action.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, it’s action.
D.C. Douglas: But it’s also repetitive action. It’s like here’s this… it’s the same kind of people that kill the same way. But now they put ten of them in there. And now you’ve got less time. And now there’s an additional puzzle, you know. And it’s like, after a while I’m like “You’re just being mean to me.”
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, right.
D.C. Douglas: So… but if the ones that I’ve played so far, I think I mean… I really enjoyed 3. I thought that was… it was scary. It moved along. Also, I mean, technically it’s gorgeous. The acting is really good. And I really enjoyed it. I will also say, I enjoy… you’re gonna have to help me out because it’s all sort of blur together. There’s one where you go in the back… is at Lisa… a traveling find where Lisa Trevor’s been living. And she’s… you know which one I’m talking about? Where’s the one with Lisa Trevor in it? Is that our… is that the first one? Or is that…
Dan Allen Gaming: Lisa Trevor? Yeah, I think the first one…
D.C. Douglas: I’m having a blank too. I got you on the spot.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, you got me on this board now. Thinking like a… like a… is that the remake?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, back shack or something. Anyway, that one… that had some spooky elements that I really enjoyed. And puzzles and stuff. They do blur together after a while though. It’s funny.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah yeah. That was… that was the remake in 2002. Yeah yeah.
D.C. Douglas: I really… I actually did enjoy that. The… I… I’m gonna be… it’s gonna be interesting cause I do wanna play 6, 7 and eventually 8. But it’ll be interesting to all of a sudden change over to a whole different cast of characters. And… and… and see how that goes.
Dan Allen Gaming: I’m looking forward to it. See, I played the original the other day, the 1996. And it’s just… it’s crazy how far it’s come since then.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, it’s insane.
Dan Allen Gaming: Original… but I guess you can’t get it on PS4. Oh, if you play it… the voice acting is horrendous. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen. But it’s…
D.C. Douglas: So… it’s charming. Like there’s something about it. No, and… but that is the reason it is is because it’s the Excel spreadsheet. It’s just the lines and without any context. It’s… because coders were writing it then. It’s like they’re like “Here’s the lines. What do you need anything else for?” And I think it also gets lost in translation a bit I think, because it’s a Japanese developer.
Dan Allen Gaming: I think that probably had something to play.
D.C. Douglas does not looks 55!
Dan Allen Gaming: D.C. is really 39 years of age.
D.C. Douglas: What?
Dan Allen Gaming: E4 says… you are not 55, come on. There’s no way you’re not 55, D.C. You are not. I refuse to believe it. Are you serious?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah yeah. What are you…
Dan Allen Gaming: What are you drinking there?
D.C. Douglas: Listen, on Zoom there’s a little button that says “Touch up my appearance.”
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh okay, you got that cranked up, right?
D.C. Douglas: Okay okay. But still, I mean, not bad. If I have a long locker hair like that at 50, I’ll be happy.
D.C. Live Streams on YouTube!
Dan Allen Gaming: Nathaniel didn’t know you stream the “Resident Evil” games. I definitely have to check that out. Why would I miss the opportunity to see Wesker play “Resident Evil”?
D.C. Douglas: Except Wesker plays really badly.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, that’s actually on my channel here on YouTube. Once you subscribe to this channel, go and check out… I… I was just typing “D.C. Douglas”. My channel should pop right up.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, playlist of all the… of all the games. Let’s… let’s get D.C. to 30,000 subs.
Covid is a sensitive issue with Capcom
Dan Allen Gaming: Wesker, be honest. Did you create the coronavirus?
D.C. Douglas: You do know guys, just so you know, that… that’s a very sensitive issue with Capcom. So they… it is, isn’t it?
Dan Allen Gaming: They had a bit of…
D.C. Douglas: So it’s like as though I don’t represent the company, because I’m not hired by them at the moment, I will… I do want to respect their wishes that I… I’d better… I think it’s better yet to say that no, not at all.
Dan Allen Gaming: But perhaps you could come up with a cure, who knows?
D.C. Douglas: Anyway, there is… them on my channel. You can find… or if you go to actually… this is a better way to do it. If you go to dcdouglas.com, go to… go into the voice over section. I think you can find either about… if you go to “About Me”, “About”, whatever, or on the playlist, you look for… there’s a “Resident Evil” playlist. And in there I’ve got a… there’s a video of Wesker telling you how to make a mask.
Dan Allen Gaming: I haven’t seen this. That’s cool.
D.C. Douglas: At the beginning, somewhere in the middle of last year during the pandemic. And I got Roger Craig Smith to pop in for it.
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh that’s great.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, actually, Nicole… I met Nicole Tompkins doing a gig in Japan and had no…
Nicole Tompkins and Neil Newbon
D.C. Douglas: That’s when I discovered that she was going to be in the… the “Resident Evil”.
Dan Allen Gaming: So Nicole Tompkins…
D.C. Douglas: Yeah yeah, Nicole, Neil Newbon. And… so he… it’s kind of funny, all of us had been in a “Resident Evil”. It was him, Nicole, Todd Haberkorn and myself. And another guy who wasn’t… Christian something. Anyway, lovely actor. But we all got this weird… weird gig where we went to Japan. It was mocap and they were all actors and voice actors. And they put us in mocap, recorded us speaking. And it wasn’t for a video game, it was for some other kind of CGI project. And obviously I can’t tell you what. But… but it won’t matter because you don’t know that we’re in it. We… we do the mocapping, but they already have actors cast in the voices. And they already recorded the voices. They had the animatics for it. But then they had us come in to do the bodies, but recorded us speaking so our mouths will match the things that we’re saying. And then they’re going to have those actors come back in the studio and then lip sync.
Dan Allen Gaming: That’s bizarre. Why is that? Why? I don’t understand.
D.C. Douglas: Fan… fan out of it. So I’m super happy. No, it’s not related at all. So yeah, that’s… that’s bizarre. I’ve never even heard of that ever happening before.
Dan Allen Gaming: There you go.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah. Of like the movies they do in… like the old Jackie Chan movies and things where they… because they’re so big on the action sequences, they don’t record any audio. They just like… they lip-sync the entire thing afterwards. It’s a little bit of that thinking, I think.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah yeah, wow. That’s very interesting inside.
Playing Wesker again
Dan Allen Gaming: MC John Barrowman says “7 seconds. 7 seconds is all the time you can spare to read this. Resident Evil without Wesker is Star Wars without Darth Vader. Love your work D.C. Bring him back Capcom.” Hopefully one day you can turn that voice on like that.
D.C. Douglas: Can I… I know you can.
Dan Allen Gaming: It gets requested enough then.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, it’s kind of weird because I like it… it’s also evolved because I’ve done so many fan service things with it. And then I’m… then I’m like “I wonder if…” It’ll definitely have my own stamp the next time I go in to record it, I think so.
Dan Allen Gaming: Would you change anything if you went back?
D.C. Douglas: Well like I said, if… if I mean, if I were allowed the… I would… try to switch out the… the backstory. Yeah, definitely have that. But even if they don’t, it’s the same script… I just would rather give a more… under… less on the nose evil and a little more playful… and nuanced performance with the voice. I would want to do that. I’d also probably strip out the British… little British Atlantic that pops in every now and then. That was… well, isn’t he from… Ohio or something?
Dan Allen Gaming: Exactly. It’s strong. But it was like Richard Wong…
D.C. Douglas: Because at that point, you know, they don’t give you much background. I think when Richard Waugh got it, he had no idea the background of the character. They only gave you so much info. And so I think he just looked at the character and he went “Ooh, David Bowie.” You know, and so he added in some David Bowie, for which made it really cool. But it’s… it’s, you know, knowing that he’s from Ohio, it’s like a… I think just having good elocution is all he needs. You don’t miss…
Lady Dimitrescu
Dan Allen Gaming: Some of the good British work. But I… I knew he was from Ohio, you know. Richard didn’t. So… what would be Albert Wesker’s reaction to Alcina Dimitrescu? Do you know who she is? The big tall…
D.C. Douglas: Bad boy! Yeah, like… yeah, it’s like apparently she’s not even like… she’s like the first boss or something in the game. But like everyone fetishized her immediately.
Legion in “Mass Effect” and Voice Work
Dan Allen Gaming: Kenner – hey D.C., loved your work, especially on “Mass Effect” as the one and only Legion. I would ask Garrus for you how he increased the Normandy’s weapons efficiency by 0.43%. He’s still too busy calibrating.
D.C. Douglas: That’s an inside joke if you haven’t played “Mass Effect”.
Dan Allen Gaming: Far out. We haven’t even talked about “Mass Effect”. I mean, how do you… how do you feel looking back on that? Because the Legendary Edition came out recently.
D.C. Douglas:[__ ] hate the game. Hated doing the role. No, I mean…
Dan Allen Gaming: Imagine that. You should have committed to that
D.C. Douglas: Then here’s this… here’s a little sweet backstory thing to kind of like… more… it’s more of an actor story. But it… I… that was when I first met Ginny McSwain, who’s been around forever in the business as a… as an animation director, voice director. And she was directing… she directed “Mass Effect 2”. So when I went… and she’s like fiery redhead woman who’s got like a fiery redhead personality. And she’s just… it’s a ball of energy. And she’s fun. And I went in there… it was the first time I’d ever gone to a voice session where she’s like “No, come back here.” So I went back to the engineering side, sat down. And she’s like “So tell me about yourself.” Never had that with… usually you go in and they’re like “Hey, mike’s over there.” They get the mic set up, like “Okay, so this project is blah blah blah blah blah” and you just go right into work. Never had somebody like say “I want to know who the hell you are first.” That’s cool. It’s very… it’s maybe something a little old school about it too, which is great. It’s about making it a people business. So… and then of course what was great is that Legion never spoke before the geth had never spoken before. So I’m like “Yay, big game. I get to do… I get to set the voice.” And… and he was obviously… it was… it’s not a difficult voice to do. It’s basically my voice in the morning after I’ve cleared my… my throat and flap had my coffee. And then you just… you just speak quietly like this. And they wanted like that balance between a computer like… how… and something just a little more emotion. So that was a fun… so that was a very nuanced kind of recording. The recording sessions were more nuanced that way. Always keeping it cinematic, never too on the nose. Plus it’s so well written. Plus they give you the sides… like you get the sides, meaning script for… of your scenes. And so you can see… you see what everyone else is saying. You under… you… and sometimes they even had them already recorded. So you could… they’ll play the line before you so you get a sense of their intonation so you know how to respond, which is why there’s a much more organic feeling to the acting in that game at that point in time in… in the gaming history. And so I was so… anyway, meeting Ginny was really cool. The session itself… the sessions themselves were really cool as an actor. And… and I had no idea how big the game was. It’s like I literally fell into two huge franchises and had no idea within a few years of each other. So it really changed… changed the trajectory of my voice career. So I’m grateful for both of them. And then he… and then on top of that, I auditioned for a kid’s cartoon called “Transformers: Rescue Bots”. And another robot… sent my audition in. And…
Dan Allen Gaming: And Ginny was the casting director on that.
D.C. Douglas: So the voice I did… Chase… it’s like a lot of actors could do that voice. But she… you know, she’s casting it, she goes “I know D.C. Douglas.” He goes in the… the short list. And then that short list is sent to the producers. And the producer, you know, chose me. And it’s like… and that was because at first. So I had four years on a cartoon that… which is great. And the thing is, on video games, I mean, we do… money is really nominal. But we don’t get residuals really. On cartoons, that’s where you make your money. Is you get your session fee plus you get residuals, the more it plays.
Making Money in Voice Acting
Dan Allen Gaming: Do you really?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah.
Dan Allen Gaming: So it’s most of your union… voice over gives you residuals. Video…
D.C. Douglas: games and ADR and ADR stuff does…
Dan Allen Gaming: Can you… can you give us… how does the residual work? You don’t have to go into money, but like… like an example of how… how would that work? Is it… is it…
D.C. Douglas: Well, it’s… it’s like diminishing returns kind of thing. So the way it works is… so for instance, what’s a good example? Radio is a little different than film and TV. But film and TV usually… and sometimes there’s different contracts depending on the level budget or what have you. Yeah, but… you get a session… a session fee. And then they decide to rerun it again… after that, you’ll get something that’s equal to your session fee. Then the next time they run it after that, it’s like half the session fee. And the next thing right after that, it’s half of that. And the next time, half of that. So it goes… it goes further down to where you’re getting like 20 dollars. Because of… for an airing. And then it gets down into change eventually. Over the years, I still get residual checks for “Under Siege 2: Dark Territory”. It was a Steven Seagal film. I… I… I worked a week on, had two lines. Supposed to have ten, but I got two at the end of it.
Dan Allen Gaming: Hey, those [ __ ]. Oh, and they said they’ll figure out what lines you say.
D.C. Douglas: Well, because I was tall, they put me on the… on this back… back row. And the shorter guy got the front row. And there were Steadicams. Wherever the Steadicam landed, the back person got the line. And that [ __ ] kept getting all the lines because the Steadicam guy did not want to walk up to the upper row where I was at. So… and then… and then I was going to go… they started working on the upper row and I’m like “Out of four lines now.” But then Steven Seagal shows up. And he brings some girl with him who I’m assuming they’re dating. And… and they have some lines in this. “Maybe we could have her as like working in this off…” – “You know…” and like… “You know, of course, Mr. Seagal.” Yeah.
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh my God, that’s funny. Hey, at least you get the residuals.
D.C. Douglas: I got… well, I got… I’ve got back into the story. I’ll… I’ll put her through this into a part. So… but just to finish the story. So I get… on the first day I have one line. And I had a cold that day. So it’s like I sound like a frog. So… and then I lose all these other lines. She gets the one line when it was around me. And then there’s one line left. And it’s a good line. It’s at the end of the movie. “Come on D.C., it’s supposed to be. I get a thing, sir. We have control of Grazer One,” which is the name of the satellite. And everybody in the room erupts, the music erupts. Big moment. I’m like “[would they… the camera be next to me. And he comes out, he’s like “D.C.,” and I’m like “Yes!” He’s like “You get the line.” And I’m like “Yes!” And he’s like “But it’s been rewritten.”
Dan Allen Gaming: And the light is…
D.C. Douglas: “Sure, we have a call coming in.” Steven Seagal says “We’ve got control of Chris…”
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh my gosh. Hold on, what’s this movie? I’m gonna have to watch it tonight.
D.C. Douglas: [ __ ] over twice on that movie.
Dan Allen Gaming: What’s this movie? “Under Siege”… “Under Siege 2”?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah. I’m gonna have to watch this tonight.
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh, I don’t know if you should.
D.C. Douglas: Oh really?
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah. Oh, it’s… it’s a Seagal movie. But I ended up getting… so like even now I got… I got to check the other day. I think it was for like 30 cents. So I still get… so it continually diminishes as it goes over time.
Dan Allen Gaming: Okay, that’s interesting to know. But that doesn’t happen with games very often. And finally, the whole…
D.C. Douglas: New media. You see… you know, it’s the… no offense to producers, but there’s always the… everybody wants to keep their slice of the pie. And there’s always a battle between the producers and talent. And they kept saying “We don’t know with this new media… you know, how it’s going to go. Like whether the stuff we put on the Internet and video games…” It kind of was all kind of cobbled together. Didn’t even know if it should go under SAG or AFTRA. They used to be separate reunions at one point for up until the last 10 years. And… so… they were going to whatever union gave them the better deal. And so it was without residuals. But then they’re like making, you know, millions of dollars on these games. You’re like “Uh, hello… can we get some residuals now, please?” And you can argue why do actors get residuals and the writers… you know, are of the… the… the CGI artists don’t and all that. And there’s… I have an answer, but I won’t go into bore you people. But essentially… they worked out in the last contract… and I’m not… I don’t follow the stuff closely because I can’t vote. But they worked out like… it’s a certain… after a certain amount of money, we get like a 0.002 percentage residual thing. I’ve never seen a check from a game so far. So the only thing I’ve seen is like a reuse fee when they’ve… “.hack”, they pulled us out of that game and put us in a different game. And then I gotta check for that, which was… yeah, but that’s… that’s a bit different, isn’t it?
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah yeah.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah. Interesting. People don’t realize is… there’s a great quote. I forget which actor it is. That some… I can’t remember. Is it Robert Downey Jr.? Somebody said this. And they said “You… people talk about how it’s like so quick, they’re going into voice over. And you get paid so much money.” And he’s like “I s-…” And the quote is something to be effective “I spent all this money and all these years, 10 years, so that I could go in and do what you wanted in 10 minutes.” And that’s essentially it. Because you get somebody who’s not had any of that experience, that training, and all those years of not making money… you know, but to go… they don’t have… they haven’t gone through any of that. They’re just like “Hey, you’re going to do it. It’s not going to be the same.” I mean, maybe get lucky, but it’s not going to be the same.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, Jennifer Hale… we… I had her on and she said… she made 1400 bucks on “Metal Gear”, which was like a huge game. Millions of copies sold. She came in, 1400 bucks, and that’s it. Like, when you hear that, it’s like…
D.C. Douglas: That’s… that’s crazy. But this is why also… especially for like those who are into anime, the so-… of all the different again… I don’t want to bore anybody. But the… of all the different levels of voice over… the anime ADR stuff, it pays the least amount of money. And that’s why… it’s hard… it was… it used to be hard to get talent to come in to do that stuff. But then these thing called conventions started happening. And then that became kind of a way of getting residuals for having done your
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
ADR work. Because then you had the benefit of going to cons, meeting fans. They were happy that you were there. You were happy because you were making some extra money. Plus you got to go to a separate town… you know, a new town or something. So that’s why it now can attract… more… more talent. And that’s why more LA people are doing it as well. Yeah, I’m also grateful because I knew nothing of anime. And after doing “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure”, I was like “Fine, this stuff is wild.” I just did a thing called… “How to Not Summon a Demon Lord” or “King” or something… that…
Dan Allen Gaming: That I don’t know if you watch that show. It’s like…
D.C. Douglas: Holy cow, it’s like one step short of porno.
Dan Allen Gaming: No, I’ve never watched it. I’ve never watched…
D.C. Douglas: Oh, there’s wild… there’s some wild anime out there. And then there’s a very tame anime. But there’s the wild anime is like… like the “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” is probably one of my… it’s my first favorite because it was the first really big character I had. I played Yoshikage Kira, which he’s… another lovely fellow. He… a serial killer who cuts off women’s hands… he loves his hands. Okay. And yeah, and… and he talks to them like he’s on a date with them. It’s really weird. And… but then I’m calling… “Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun”. And that I play a fun… that’s also fun wild comedy. And playing this teacher, Kalego… and we’re in their second season of that. And then there’s this new one I’m on. So I can’t tell yet what it is. But it’s now my… it’s now going to be one of my top three favorite animes that I’ve ever done. The character is hysterical. Wow. And it’s big, broad comedy. And… and so I’m like “That… that… this stuff’s fun.” I… I do appreciate the work when it comes. But it’s like the… you know, it’s really stupid in our business where I can go in and do a legal… I can work in for 10 minutes. I go in and I go “You know… Member FDIC, not available in all states.” And they go “Thanks D.C., thank you guys.” They tag it on to a whole bunch… like 15 different spots. And all of a sudden I get a check for 3,000 dollars.
Dan Allen Gaming: It’s stupid. It’s crazy. Wow. Yeah. Oh, it like…
D.C. is working on some Movies
D.C. Douglas: So for instance, I’m going to go do a film for three weeks now. And this… my film is my first love. Yeah, film and TV. And… so I’m gonna go do a film as an actor.
Dan Allen Gaming: What’s that? As an actor?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah yeah.
Dan Allen Gaming: No, because I know… I know you can produce and direct and all those… just checking, just checking.
D.C. Douglas: No, I’m at the point of my life where I’m like “No, I want all the easy things. I’m just going to go in and act and you guys…” Oh, good idea. Going on location for three weeks, it’s… and I’m playing the bad guy in the film. So I’m very excited about it. But it’s a lot of money that I’ll make in a week. I could make it an hour on a voice over session. That’s… but I’m going to enjoy… it’ll feed my soul to be on set every day for 10 hours doing this… doing this role. It’s… it’s such a strange business as to what is valued at… you know, where the money is, where it isn’t… Capitalism, man. It’s… it’s a [ __ ].
Dan Allen Gaming: Are we all right to give you a couple more questions, D.C.?
D.C. Douglas: Yeah.
Dan Allen Gaming: Ian, he says “Do you have a favorite
You will give me an Egg
Wesker line?”
D.C. Douglas: You know what’s funny is because… everybody else keeps bringing me their lines over the years that I no longer know any other lines but those. So… but of those lines that they give me, I’ll always love the… because I do remember this when I was given it, is the “You will give me an egg.” Only because it wasn’t in the script. It was… but Liam O’Brien directed it. If you feel the Critical Role fans out there… yeah. He… and so he’s like… we’re at the end of the session, he’s like “Oh, we got to do these.” I’m like “What’s that?” He’s like… and I thought he was [ __ ] with me. He’s like “Say ‘You will give me an egg.'” And I’m like [Laughter] “Seriously? Are we done?” He’s like “No, say the line.” I’m like “You will give me an egg.” He’s like “Now ‘I require an egg.'” And I’m like “Oh [ __ ] off, Liam. Or what are we doing with eggs? I don’t understand.” So… “I require an egg.” That went on for like about 10 minutes. It’s very funny.
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh, trust me, it’s a thing in the game that… it’ll make sense. Now that I’ve played it, it still doesn’t make sense. What the [ __ ] with the eggs? I don’t get it.
D.C. Douglas: It’s just… it’s “Resident Evil”, man. And it can’t be explained.
Dan Allen Gaming: Powwow I think that’s how you say your name. Question for D.C. – do you wear shades in real life? lol
Does D.C. wear shades?
D.C. Douglas: No. I forget… I do forget to wear my shades when I’m driving or… or what have you. Or if I’m out on vacation, no, I love to go to the tropics every year. So… and… but even then, I don’t… I forget to bring sunglasses. So…
Dan Allen Gaming: D.C., your favorite character you’ve ever
D.C. fav character he’s played
done. Do you have a favor? That’s tough.
D.C. Douglas: Because it’s like we’re talking voice over. If we’re talking film and TV, it’s like… I’ve done… I played a demon Uber driver on a show called “The Counter”.
Dan Allen Gaming: A demon Uber driver?
D.C. Douglas: Oh yeah, it’s… if you go to my website, you can see it in the TV playlist. And… that… that role was [ __ ] fun. One of those… I didn’t know it. They… yeah, this is what… you know, you know what my career has turned into? “This famous person dropped out. So we’re gonna pay… we can save money, but we want to hire you and put you in the role.” And I’m like “Well okay.” That’s what the last couple rolls I’ve gotten have been. So…
Dan Allen Gaming: How you’re working, you’re working.
D.C. Douglas: But I’m working. Wait, you know… I replaced and replaced Kevin Federline for that. For what?
Dan Allen Gaming: Wow. Maybe I used the word “famous” a little too loosely.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, I think… yeah, maybe 10 years ago. But the only way that you could see the show is you have to download the app… PureFlix. Because it’s a Christian… Christian answer to Netflix. So it’s all Christian-related materials. So essentially, I’m the demon Uber driver. And there’s a competing Uber driver who’s really Jesus. And a pregnant woman is about to give birth. And the Jesus Uber driver wants her to go into his… his car. But she chooses mine because it’s… I got the better car. And I know a faster way to get there. But then during the course of the show, I try to talk her into killing her…
Dan Allen Gaming: Big T.
D.C. Douglas: Oh my God, what is this show?
Dan Allen Gaming: Jesus…
D.C. Douglas: It was so fun though. I mean, you know, when he’s going to be a badass. And I get there like that when I get to the scenery at the end. So… but you… you don’t need to download the app. You can go to my website. And under my TV playlist for on-camera, you can see “The
What D.C. Movie should Dan watch?
Encounter”.
Dan Allen Gaming: What… what’s a film of yours that I should watch tonight that you’re in? What do you recommend? I…
D.C. Douglas: I would recommend… only because it’s my latest, even though I look fat in it. And… but it works for the character, is… “Aquarium of the Dead”.
Dan Allen Gaming: Okay, yes.
D.C. Douglas: That is on… it’s everywhere but Netflix I think. So you can find it on Prime, you can find it on YouTube and all those places. I had a fun time. It was fun. It’s an Asylum movie. It’s so stupid. But the fun thing…
Dan Allen Gaming: I love that. I love that stuff.
D.C. Douglas: Okay, then you’ll enjoy it. The other actor I was working with was really fun. And we got to play off each other. And we pretty much rewrote every scene we were in. And so it’s… what you’re so… our dialogue is really fun and crisp. We had to like work in like hot stuff. But other than plus stuff we created this whole relationship. Because here’s the… I’ll give you a little background on it. It’s really quick. But if you… when you watch the movie, just know that prior… so when I got cast… the… the script that I had, I was… it was a 21-year-old girl that I was taking on a tour. So… there were all these sexual innuendos. I was kind of like hitting on her. And then it was this thing… but then she becomes a badass woman and she starts protecting me later on in the film. That was what the original script was. Well, I guess they kept recasting about different things. They wanted like a different makeup of people. They decided we have too many women in the show. So they cast a guy instead. And… but they didn’t change his name. So the characters named Skyler. And so I decided… on our first single roommate, I’m like going “We gotta play with this.” So I made this whole thing about his name. Anyway, I won’t spoil anymore. But that’s where the beginning of our relationship starts is because… because he was supposed to be a woman in the original script. And so that’s…
Dan Allen Gaming: Okay, I’ll know that going in now. That’s cool. “Aquarium of the Dead”. Okay, everyone atching as well, that’s tonight’s viewing. Quick experience on “Transformers: Rescue”…
Working on “Transformers”
D.C. Douglas: “Transformers: Rescue Bots”?
Dan Allen Gaming: As Chase, just your quick thoughts on your experience on that. You touched on it before, D.C.
D.C. Douglas: Oh my God, it was my first cartoon where I was a regular. And so… and they wanted to film… again, old-fashioned wise, that’s Jaden explain again. And so they go trying to keep most of the cast together for most of our scenes until it turned out we got a little unruly. But so that’s where I met Steve Blum, I knew often before, I never met him. So Steve Blum and Maurice LaMarche, also met Amari Williams, that was one of Amari’s first gigs, he’s like big in promos these days. And Shannon McCann, super talented guy. And Jason Marsden, who is… I just think so [ __ ] talented. He can do… not talented… I mean yes, you can do lots of voices. But talented in that he can take a line and give you three completely different line readings. And you can keep going if you want. And it’s like… and they’re all like gold. You can use all of them. Who’s… hysterical. Who’s card… so is it really a… and Lacey Chabert. I was a little intimidated because it was Lacey Chabert. But she was turning out to be a sweetheart. She ended up doing a… she was so sweet. She did a voice… she and Liam are in a film short I did with my friend Rachel called… and we pull it out every Halloween, it’s called “Ginger and Snapper”, which you can find on my website as well. And so she does the voices… she and Liam are voices of that. So it was really… but I just really… I met really cool… oh, and I met Mark Hamill because of that. So… he… because he played the uncle. So he was there every now and then. And like, hanging out with Mark Hamill, that man has stories. Really, it’s like… yeah, it’s like a cat that keeps snowing and it doesn’t know why, but it smells. That’s Mark Hamill with his stories. He’s just like… it’s just a story keeps coming out for every little thing that happens. It was like “Damn, man. You’ve got a lot of experience.”
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, I can imagine. Yeah, I can imagine. And then also, my childhood idol was Tim Curry as an actor. I wanted to be… I wanted to have like Tim Curry’s career. I wanted to be Tim Curry. And he was cast as the villain in our show. I met him six months before I started the show at the arc line. And I got to like do like fanboy and all of that. He was super sweet about all that. And then on the show, we act together in scenes, but we didn’t record together. So I didn’t get to meet the… I didn’t get to say “Here I am working with Tim Curry. We’re gonna take that picture.” I would have loved to have taken that picture.
Dan Allen Gaming: So quickly also, you worked on…
The Last of Us
It’s… it says additional voices for “Last of Us” One and Two.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah.
Dan Allen Gaming: Do you remember… is that just the enemies or what?
D.C. Douglas: That’s Liam O’Brien throwing me some rep money. Is that… is that like a dis-… is that like enemies, screams and that sort of thing? Or what is that?
Dan Allen Gaming: I screamed… all I remember is screaming. There was a car on fire and I screamed a couple times. And then I was… I was a character and when you go to go shopping for something. But then I think they replaced me later because they changed the dialogue a lot of what happens, especially on a lot of the smaller stuff. Because I was in “Dragon Age”, both of them, and I got replaced in both of them. Because… what happens is they… as they’re developing, they all end up rewriting stuff. And instead of like trying to book the actor, get the time, and pay that fee, if you’re already in the studio, they can get up to… for union stuff, they can get like three voices. So they’ll just say “Well, you do this voice now in this character.”
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah yeah yeah.
D.C. Douglas: So I had a… so I was really bummed because I really wanted to be in that… in that… in that series. Because I just… I just… yeah, I just wanted to…
Dan Allen Gaming: Now like… is there… do you remember any differences from “Last of Us” One to Two in terms of the setup and the… because they’re a pretty tight unit over there.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, I would have no idea, really. Yeah, sorry about that.
Dan Allen Gaming: No no, I haven’t got continued on with it yet. It’s a pretty phenomenal game. Oh yeah yeah. It was a little bent out of shape about the… the death at the beginning. So…
D.C. Douglas: Yeah yeah.
Dan Allen Gaming: That’s… that is [ __ ] up. So…
What games has D.C. played?
D.C., have you ever played any games besides “Resident Evil”?
D.C. Douglas: Well like I said, there was a play a little bit of “The Last of Us”.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah.
D.C. Douglas: I’ve played… what’s the one that everybody plays, the… the big… the big one that they keep adding characters to? And it’s just basically fighting and you choose your machine and you go out and fight…
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh, it’s the big one. Everybody’s in. You must know that. Hold on, hold on. What… what did he do? What’s the… it’s the big… goddammit, what’s the game?
D.C. Douglas: “Smash Bros.”?
Dan Allen Gaming: No no no, before then, right? Big before that, before then.
D.C. Douglas: “Overwatch”.
Dan Allen Gaming: “Overwatch”, yes.
D.C. Douglas: So I played “Overwatch”. I’m horrible at it. Oh, I’m horrible at it. So play “Overwatch”. And… what else? Oh well, I… I had a friend… she got me into some Steam games and things that we played. “Stanley’s Parable”?
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah yeah yeah. I know… I don’t know that’s the exact name, but I know what you’re talking about. Yeah.
D.C. Douglas: I love that one. That… that was… that was just a fun line. Smart.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah.
D.C. Douglas: That actor and the writing was just phenomenal. And that’s when I said I wanted to do more… like Steam games, just because they’re so intriguing, the fact that you can really be already about it. And I finally did get to do one. It’s called “Adios”. It’s on Steam. And… and it really just plays more like a… it’s like a one-act play or something. But you get to do things in the farm as you listen to the story and the dialogue between these two characters. I’m trying to convince this man not to retire because I’m from the mob. And if he retires, then I have to kill him. And it’s a… it’s a really… it’s a very… so you learn about why he’s retiring and all of that. And it’s just really good subtle acting through… through that. And I know… you know, it’s… it’s not a bang-up shoot-up thing, but it’s a story that draws you in and it’s character stuff. So I thought that was… I like being part of like interesting stuff like that.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, we’ve got a lot of great questions here guys. Save them, we’re going to do this again, D.C., at some point. When those… I never shut up, I know. When those… when
Thanks to D.C.
those big… when those big games and stuff that you’re in, we’ll have to get you back on the show if you’re…
D.C. Douglas: Absolutely. If you loved it, did you have a good time, mate?
Dan Allen Gaming: Of course! [Laughter]
Upcoming Projects
Dan Allen Gaming: Was there any… is there any upcoming projects you can tell us about?
D.C. Douglas: Well like I said, so you’ve got “Aquarium of Dead” that you can watch now. That’s… out there. And… I’m in a Lifetime movie, but you know, don’t bother. There’s… there’s… but if any games are coming out, oh wait, cartoons! Oh well, the anime. So “Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun”, that is airing right now. So you can watch that. Also you can see me as the tutor in that. “How Not to Summon a Demon Lord”. And… and then there is… well there’s a… yeah, that one’s not coming out for a while. There’s a… there’s a movie called “Santa Man” that’ll be coming out. Yeah, it’s a Christmas movie. And I… I play Santa, but it’s Santa who becomes a badass. It’s really fun. And it’s… that film’s going to can right now. And… yeah, pretty much the other films… oh yeah, the other film is like not coming out for a while. So I can’t really announce anything about it.
Dan Allen Gaming: You’re working on a lot of films. Don’t forget about video games, please.
D.C. Douglas: I changed… no no, don’t worry. It’s a voice over is where I’ll be making my rent money for the most part. But the… now I changed… I changed the way that I approached my own camera career. I decided I wanted to just be… I… this is where I look right now. This is who I’ve always been. But I had this thing in my head that I needed to be the package that people would cast the most. So I… I was the clean-shaven, short-haired white lawyer, cop… doctor… and then later, Disney dad. And after a while, when I… you know, this about four… four years ago, whatever, I realized is like… this is it. Like you’re not… I’m not gonna get a big break. I’m never gonna be the main lead of anything. And do I wanna continue doing these roles? And I’m like “I’m kind of bored by them. I make more money doing voice over.” I don’t need to… but… and also as a… you know, when you’re 19, it’s like “I’m on TV, Mom! I’m on TV, Dad!” You know, I’m not… flash forward 35 years. My dad’s passed away. He was more than proud of me. My mom is like… she’s give a [ __ ] watching TV. And it’s like… so who am I doing it for, you know? It’s like… it’s for me. I don’t need to do these TV shows, these… especially these procedurals are so boring. But the most fun I’ve ever had are doing these whack-ass indie films that don’t pay as much, but I get these great characters. “Apocalypse Kiss”, you can find that online. I play a serial killer in the future. And I had a blast playing that role. I play a schlocky B-movie host on public access in this film called “Killer TV”. And you find that I think online somewhere. And I got a blast. And I filmed for a month in… in Houston doing that. So like all these little weird things, those I enjoyed. And so I… I got rid of my agent, manager, got another agent. I said “I want to do just these weird stuff.” And she’s like “Well if we’re gonna do that, why don’t you grow your hair a little bit? Because you look very actory.” And I’m like “I can grow my hair?” Yeah, and I said “I’m going to grow… but it’s going to be a little longer than you expect.” And… and I got new pictures. And at the end of last year, December, all of a sudden boom, I just started booking stuff with this new look. And I’m “Wow, this is it.” If I don’t work, I don’t work. And I don’t care because I’m still happy being finally being me. So…
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, it’s crazy. There’s something beautiful about getting into your 40s and 50s, I’ll tell you that much. When you finally shake up all the… you don’t care as much. Like you just want to be you and just enjoy life, right?
D.C. Douglas: It’s easier to get rid of like the worrying about… and this is a huge thing, it’s always recurring. But still obviously I still have to battle this [ __ ] in my own… stuff, my own self about worrying about what other people think of you.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah.
D.C. Douglas: But today, I mean, you’re born alone, you die alone. It’s… it’s a waste of time to worry about the people you’ll never meet. It’s… it’s like… what’s the point of that? And that’s why I think social media can be very unhealthy. But taking a step back and being more zen about it and just being in the moment, which is also something that happens as you get older, you’re like “Well I’m going to be dying in about 30 years if I’m lucky.” 30 or 40 years. So I might as well enjoy these moments a lot more… and stop worrying about this other [ __ ].
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, exactly man. Well, it’s been an absolute pleasure, man, to have you on for the last 80 minutes.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah yeah, we went a little long, didn’t we?
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh, I love it. I love it. I hope you do… I hope you didn’t mind.
D.C. Douglas: No, not at all. This is great. I appreciate it. It’s your favorite interview you’ve done.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, can we just get that on record?
D.C. Douglas: Yes, this was my favorite interview. [Laughter]
Dan Allen Gaming: You [ __ ] Australians, Jesus. So needy. [Laughter]
Thanks to D.C. and Wesker says Hi!
Dan Allen Gaming: Oh man. Alright, so make sure you follow D.C. guys on Instagram and YouTube. Any others you’re on?
D.C. Douglas: Cameo. I am on Cameo. But you can get it cheaper if you go to my website. Others… I have a store. Just click on the store button and there’s a whole bunch of autographs, audio, script stuff, and also video shout-outs, all of that stuff.
Dan Allen Gaming: Yeah, beautiful. Alright D.C., well I’ll let you go, but again, thanks so much for coming on. And I look forward to doing it again, mate.
D.C. Douglas: Yeah, well thank you so much. I appreciate it. And big hugs to everybody.
Dan Allen Gaming: Before I let you go, is there… can we get Wesker to say something to Dan quickly? What’s… what’s the name of your show again?
D.C. Douglas: Dan Allen Gaming.
Dan Allen Gaming: Dan Allen Gaming.
D.C. Douglas: You’re watching Dan Allen Gaming and you’re going to regret it.
Dan Allen Gaming: [Laughter] Thank you man. Take care, have a good night.
D.C. Douglas: Cool, you too. Thank you so much. Bye bye.
Dan Allen Gaming: There you have it guys, D.C. Douglas.
