ICTB Exclusive: Interview with Mark Meer, part 2

This is the second part of a three-part interview with Mark Meer. He is best known for voicing the male Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect trilogy. Click here to read the first part of the interview.

ICTB: You recently met the voice actress for FemShep, Jennifer Hale, for the first time. What was it like meeting your counterpart? Have you met or hung out with any other members of the cast?

Mark Meer: Yes, Jennifer and I met for the first time at EXPCon in Florida last October. I’d been a fan of hers (from her voicework on cartoons like Justice League Unlimited) even before we were cast opposite each other, so it was great to meet her. Plus, she’s a very nice lady! I met Lance Henriksen a few years back when my friend Nathan Fillion was a guest at Dragon*Con in Atlanta, and Nathan’s also responsible for introducing me to Seth Green. In both cases, it was nice to be able to meet them and then say “Actually, we’ve worked together before…” More recently, I got to meet Martin Sheen in Los Angeles during his final recording session for ME3. He was great – very friendly and funny in person. And just last weekend, I did a panel on voice acting with Quinton Flynn, who plays Thane’s son Kolyat Krios. Of course, there are many Canadian actors in the game whom I’d already met. For example, my wife Belinda Cornish plays the Alliance Computer in ME1 and the Asari scientist Rana Thanoptis, and my friends April Banigan and Jeff Page play Khalisa al Jilani (the nosy reporter) and Conrad Verner (the obsessed Shepard-fan).

ICTB: I’ve read from various sources that you’re an avid gamer. What are your all-time favorite games?

Meer: For the sake of modestly, I’ll disqualify any I’ve worked on, which removes a good chunk of Bioware’s library from contention… the Mass Effect, Baldur’s Gate, and Dragon Age games, Jade Empire, the original Knights of the Old Republic, etc…

I once owned a Gamecube solely to play Resident Evil games… I quite enjoy the Fallout series – I still remember the original, and Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas were recent favorites. Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City were definitely some of the best superhero games ever made. I really liked the Undead Nightmare version of Red Dead Redemption, and I’ve spent a LOT of hours on Skyrim…

ICTB: Are you a console gamer or a computer gamer?

Meer: Console. I have a Mac.

Mark Meer as Dr. Doom. Image courtesy of Marvel.com

ICTB: You do a lot of improv, acting, and writing. How does all of that compare with voice acting?

Meer: In voice acting you don’t have to shave or wear pants. In all seriousness though, I do find that the lessons of improv can be applied to all forms of acting, including voice acting. Being spontaneous and in-the-moment comes in handy, even if you’re working from a script.

ICTB: You’re also involved in the cosplay community. What has been your favorite costume to work on?

Meer: I think I’m most proud of a Green Goblin costume I made for Rapid Fire Theatre’s annual Halloween show a few years back. I usually get help for my more talented friends when making costumes, but I managed to put the Goblin together myself from a few lucky thrift store finds and a couple of masks I cut up, glued together, and painted. More recently, I’ve had fun working with some of the aforementioned talented friends (Laban Boldero and Brian Parsley) to build a modular Super-Adaptoid costume. If you don’t know who that is, don’t worry. He’s insanely obscure.

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Read part 1 of our interview with Mark Meer – http://insertcointobegin.com/?p=1156

Read part 3 of our interview – http://insertcointobegin.com/?p=1197