D.C. Douglas: Interview with a Wesker

We peek behind the scenes of Resident Evil 5 to talk to the voice of the man who never dies -- or takes off his sunglasses.

April 16, 2009 by: Eric Frederiksen

Albert Wesker might just be the villain of the PlayStation generation. Making his debut in the first Resident Evil game, the slicked-back megalomaniac has been threatening world domination for almost fifteen years through just about every RE title.

But when screen and voice actor D.C. Douglas auditioned for the role, he had no idea what he was in for. "I don't have any hobbies or relaxation things I do. I have been obsessed with being an actor since I was 7. Since I moved to LA, I spent my spare time writing or rehearsing some free waiver play in Hollywood. Later on, it was producing my own film projects. The last video game I played a lot was Pong, when I was a kid!"

D.C. didn't waste time getting up to speed, though. "After UC, I was quickly educated about Wesker by friends who obsessed over the game. It was through them and the directors I worked with that I got the backstory, etc."
Douglas got into acting at age 19, and has been in the game for a while. He's appeared in everything from daytime TV and prime time drama to being cast as the voice of Geico Car Insurance (no, not the gecko!). Unlike many actors who start out in front of the camera, D.C. was ready to work at the mic as well. "I ended up auditioning for a voice over coach name Barbara Gill, and she encouraged me to go into voice overs." His more recent work in video games and anime happened "when engineers/directors I had worked with in ADR/dubbing and other types of work called me in when they landed a game."

Voice acting, Douglas explains, "requires more technique and less preparation for any particular audition." Instead of having a script ahead of time, you go in cold. "Many times you don't know what the hell is going on with a character in VG because you are only given your lines or maybe a preceding line, then yours. With on-camera, you have the whole scene, or script in some cases."

Douglas first took on the role of Albert Wesker in the Wii shooter Umbrella Chronicles. "Each time, they had me listen to a sample of a different actor to sound similar to!" Following Richard Waugh and Peter Jessop's renditions of the red-eyed villain wasn't always easy. "My main thrust, though, was to try and merge what other actors had done with Wesker into my own style and sensibilities. It's been an on-going struggle because there are several versions of him. But the Capcom and Just Cause folks have been awesome, as well as Liam O'Brien - who directed me in RE5."

Even after acting in too many games to list and even more TV shows, D.C. found himself in new territory with Resident Evil 5: Motion Capture. "It was FREAKIN' WEIRD! See, [voice over] people move their arms and body in odd ways to fully emote through their voices. In on-camera acting, we start from inside -— it's in the eyes. In facial mo-cap, your face has to emote a little larger than real-life, but your arms and body have to be STILL! Oh, and they prefer you don't turn your head! It was a challenge, indeed, but fun!"

When asked about some of the cheesy dialogue Resident Evil is so famous for ("You were almost a Jill sandwich!"), Douglas told us that the nature of voice-acting keep him from worrying too much about the lines themselves, and more interested in doing the job. Many of the parts a voice actor does, even those that leave an impression on fans, go by so quickly that it's hard to remember. Asked about one anime he voiced, Douglas said, "I barely remember those sessions. They were over the course of a few days and it was so fast."

One part of working on both anime and video games is working with the original Japanese directors during the recording sessions. Japanese directors work through an interpreter, Douglas explains, so the direction is more concise. "They are more focused on the sound/music of the dialogue as opposed to the words," he says. "Those sessions move pretty quickly, but occasionally we'll get stuck in an interpretation breakdown, which can be mystifying and funny, but that doesn't happen often. Also, because of the language barrier, I can't joke with them much, but there is a very warm and respectful feeling to the whole proceeding."

Douglas lists Wesker as a favorite voice role right away. "Please, I'm 43 and finally cool. I'll be playing RE5 for the first time next week… Uh oh, did I just kill my cool factor?" He leaves us, however, with a tidbit that suggests otherwise: "I'm recording something for Mass Effect 2 that's quite fun, but I have to remain mum on that one."