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Interview by: Amanda Mack

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots marks the third game and 10^th year that actor Christopher Randolph has lent his voice to Dr. Hal “Otacon” Emmerich, the sensitive, tech savvy, but a little emotionally bruised partner of Solid Snake.

Though his role in the Metal Gear Solid series is perhaps his most widely known one, Christopher has been invading your television and stage for years with appearances in Will & Grace, Newsradio, and the 2004 Broadway production of King Lear.

I recently was lucky enough to talk with Christopher via phone and seize a rare opportunity to pick his brain about the challenges of writing, almost “losing” Otacon, the dreaded process of the audition, and bringing the Metal Gear Solid series to a close…or not.

Amanda Mack: You’re an actor, you’re a teacher, and you also write a bit, but, acting is your main job.

Christopher Randolph: That’s right. When I started out as a kid, I always wanted to be an actor. I kind of knew that from about eight years old on when I started doing school plays, it was like “Wow, you can actually get paid and do this? Fantastic!”. That was the main focus for a long, long time but as you go on, you start to branch out and do other things, so I have directed and taught, I write a little bit. You begin to do other stuff that interest you in the field as well.

AM: You’ve also done a lot of stage, both Broadway and off Broadway. Do you find the transition from stage to television or even from stage to voice acting a difficult one?

CR: I wouldn’t say it’s difficult. You do kind of have to switch gears. It’s ultimately the same thing, it’s just the process of getting there is different. The great thing about doing theatre is that you get a rehearsal period where you really get to work things out and think things through and in the process of that, the character and the play tend to sink in really deeply. And that can be really interesting. Television is completely different. You have almost no time to rehearse at all. You just…kind of gotta do it! Film, you have a little more time, but not that much and voice acting is almost instantaneous. You don’t even have to memorize it. You just have to do it in the moment.

AM: Right. And I remember you saying recording for Metal Gear Solid, the script changes a lot and you really can’t become committed to anything.

CR: Yeah, no kidding! It totally changes a lot. You’ll do it once and they’ll be some discussion in the control room and they’ll say “We need to change this” and you’ll change it right then and there. You can’t lock into the words too much. You do need to lock into the character and once you do that, you can be fluid with it and pretty much whatever they want you to say, you can say.

AM: This is a little off subject, I guess. I know being an actor and writing, it definitely changes the way you watch TV. But, do you have any guilty pleasure movies or TV shows that you watch?

CR: [Laughs] Sure! Of course. It does change the way you watch stuff. You tend to be a little bit more critical but there are things on television particularly that I enjoy. I think, by in large, the quality of acting work on television is really remarkably high–at least in America. Not everywhere, but certainly on a lot of shows. I tend to gravitate more towards stuff that’s on cable. I was a huge fan of this thing that just ran on HBO called In Treatment with Gabriel Byrne. I thought the acting in that was fantastic. I’m a big fan of the show Dexter which is on Showtime. On network, I was totally hooked into Grey’s Anatomy for a while.

This is sort of a guilty pleasure of mine. There’s a show called Medium with Patrica Arquette. It’s kind of silly but, there’s something about it that I really do like a lot.

AM: Being a writer, you probably tend to be a little picky about how it has to be when you actually write. So, do you require a certain atmosphere…do you have to go in a room…

CR: I know exactly what you’re asking. I get easily distracted. If I’m really writing, I almost can’t have any music playing and I really need to be alone to do it. The modern computer makes it even more difficult because the Internet is always there to pull you away and suck your time away. But, I try not to do that when I’m writing. I really try to have a quiet space where I can really sink into what I’m writing.

I don’t know how other people do it, but when I’m writing, particularly if I’m writing a dramatic script of some kind, I’m really acting. I’m acting it out in my head and the characters are talking to me and I’m trying to imagine what’s going on. For me, that takes a great deal of concentration so, I really have to have quiet.

AM: I kind of do the same thing and the Internet problem is fixed. I actually have two laptops. One of them is hooked up to Internet and the other isn’t and the one that isn’t is the one I usually do my writing on.

CR: That’s very, very smart of you and I might have to do that. I was in the Apple Store recently looking at the Mac[book] Air thinking “Wow, that would be a great computer to have that you just don’t hook up to the Internet and you just write with it.” You can take it wherever you go so…maybe I’ll steal what you’re doing.

AM: I don’t mind!

CR: [Laughs]

AM: I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not but, the Metal Gear Solid series…it’s kinda big.

CR: Yeah, it’s pretty big. I’ve noticed that!

AM: Especially with [Metal Gear Solid 4] Guns of the Patriots coming out, it’s a monster thing.

CR: It’s been really interesting to me because it took us over a year to record it. I’m based in New York and they flew me out to Los Angeles about nine times to do various things. As we got deeper and deeper into it, it more and more dawned on me what a huge thing that this is. I’m very excited for the game to come out. I can’t wait to see what the reaction to it is.

AM: And you kind of know how big it is now but, going back to 1998, when you guys were recording the voices for Metal Gear Solid, you guys really didn’t know the impact it would have.

CR: We really had no idea at all. The budget for that was much smaller, we weren’t as comfortable, we weren’t in as good a studio. It was a real revelation when that game came out and it got such great reviews and it was so successful.

The other thing is that was sort of the very beginning of the modern game era. The big companies didn’t realize what a huge phenomenon this would be. It’s as big as feature film is now.

AM: Do you remember the moment you realized or something that happened that made you realize that it was a really big phenomenon?

CR: When it was coming out, I started looking at some of the gamer magazines. To be honest, I’m not really a gamer. I appreciate it and I enjoy it, I’m just very bad at it. I’m not particularly skilled at playing these games. I’ve played the Metal Gear games but the first Metal Gear game took me just weeks and weeks and weeks to play.

When I started looking at the gamer magazines and started seeing reviews talking about this game and how amazing it was and I sort of heard how well it was selling and I realized it was really an enormous phenomenon.

AM: I try and keep away from the spoilers and whatnot because I want to be surprised with everyone else but I have come across a few conspiracy theories that people have been dreaming up and that’s always very interesting. I actually came across one the other day that was predicting that Otacon was evil.

CR: Really?

AM: They kinda compared [2001: A Space Odyssey]…that’s how they were doing it. I still thought it was really interesting. Sweet little Otacon being evil…I personally can’t see it.

CR: That would be hard to manifest. We’ll have to see. There are really some fascinating twists and turns in this game that, in addition to the graphics and things that you can do, are just extraordinary. Beyond anything that I’ve ever seen. I think that this game is going to keep people very occupied for a long time [laughs].

AM: Guns of the Patriots marks the 3^rd game you’ve done Otacon in and I imagine you’ve become quite attached to him in the 10 years you’ve been voicing him.

CR: Yeah. No question. It’s funny because the third game [Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater] was a prequel and of course, Otacon didn’t exist. So, it had been 5 years at least since I had done Otacon when they called me for MGS4 and I was actually nervous because I wasn’t sure that he was still there. But, I got into the studio and Kris Zimmerman, our voice director, I talked through a line or two with her and suddenly–boom–there he was. He just sorta lives somewhere inside me. I don’t know how to explain that [laughs].

AM: Have ever become kind of curious about Otacon’s interests and whatnot, most notably his love of anime? (Question from: Bernardo)

CR: Not really. I’m not a big anime fan; I certainly appreciate it. Some of it’s just astounding artwork. It’s really remarkable. I do understand the notion of obsessions. When people get really locked into something and it becomes a big deal and a major influence on their life, I think that’s sort of human nature in a way. So I do understand that element of it. And that was one of things that enabled me to lock into Otacon’s love of that kind of thing.

AM: You said a little bit earlier that Otacon has kind of become a part of you. Do you ever find yourself doing or saying something that you think Otacon might actually do or say?

CR: That’s a good question. I’ve never thought about that. There are times where he gets a little bit snippy with Snake and every now and then, that’ll pop out of me. Other than that, not really. It’s funny, that’s one of the reasons why after 5 years, I didn’t know if he was still there because it’s not an aspect of me that really comes out all that much. But, he’s there!

AM: Some of your fellow voice actors have mentioned having Metal Gear Solid related items in their home. Do you have any things like that? Maybe figures or something? (Question from: Bazja)

CR: I do. My brother-in-law is a huge Metal Gear Solid fan and a big time gamer. And he tracked down the Otacon action figures that were out at the time. And he gave me a couple of them and I very proudly have them on a mantle piece. One of the games came out with a poster and I have that although it’s not up on the wall at the moment. And then, when MGS2 came out, Konami actually sent me the deluxe Japanese version of the game. It came with another action figure, a booklet, and other stuff like that. I think David Hayter [the voice of Solid Snake] has the most paraphernalia as I recall.

AM: Are there any weapons from the series that you wish you could kind of own?

CR: Well, not that I can think of [laughs]. It’d be kind of cool to own a Rex [from Metal Gear Solid] but I don’t know where you’d put it. You’d need to build your own garage for it.

AM: I know I’ve had a few moments where I wish I would have had Stinger missiles or something.

CR: There’s always that moment and certainly they come up with some pretty cool technology. What I like about it though is that it’s not overly far-fetched. It’s entirely believable. Everything in the series is grounded in a certain type of reality which makes it all the easier to get absorbed in.

AM: When Super Smash Brothers Brawl was being recorded, you actually went in and recorded Otacon for that as well. I guess that was a little bit more out of character for Snake than it was for Otacon and the moment I’m kind of drawing from right now is the “Falcon punch/Falcon kick” little dork out moment that Snake and Otacon have together.

CR: Yeah! It was great that Smash Brothers wanted to include those characters. I was really excited about that and we had a lot of fun recording it. We managed to get kind of dorked out in a couple of things that was really fun. Actually, that’s a really good point. I think it was a little more out of character for Snake than it was for Otacon.

AM: I remember listening to the Codec conversations and that one came up and I died. I died of laughter. It was classic.

CR: It’s one of the great things, certainly about Otacon, and all the Metal Gear games is that there is so much humor in it. It’s not all dead serious. And that’s certainly been a lot of fun to do.

AM: I’ve actually been forgetting to give credit to a lot of people who asked questions but this is from Bazja. She wants to know if you’d ever consider penning a video game script yourself if given the chance?

CR: I’d certainly think about it. It’s a lot of work. The script for Metal Gear is thousands of pages long. I don’t know if any one person could ever do it. But, sure! That’s interesting. I’ve never thought about that. Yeah, I might.

AM: This question is from Angel. With Guns of the Patriots officially bringing a close to the series, what will you miss the most about working on it?

CR: Oh, boy. There’s a lot that I’ll miss. And I’ll say that with my fingers crossed-”Never say never”. I really like the people involved with Metal Gear and the process is a really exciting one for me as an actor because you’re in the studio, sort of in a booth and you spontaneously have to just go with what’s in front of you. It’s very demanding in the moment, but it’s really very exciting. And it’s even more fun when you’re in there working with someone else like David Hayter or Jennifer Hale [who voices Naomi Hunter and Emma Emmerich in Sons of Liberty] or any of the really terrific actors that they get for this.

In general, the thing I like the most about being an actor is working with the other artists. That kind of interaction between creative people is just a very exciting feeling.

AM: What’s coming up for you projects wise?

CR: That’s a good question. A lot of what you do as an actor is audition. I’ve been doing a lot of that. I’d really like to do a play. It’s been a while since I’ve done one and I’m hoping to try and do that. I have an ongoing, small roll on one of the soap operas so, I pop on and off that. I haven’t been teaching lately. I need to look into that and see if I can do some more of that. You just keep trying to work. That’s what you do as an actor.

AM: Auditioning, is that something that gets easier the more you do it or not?

CR: [Laughs] No. It doesn’t, sadly. Actually, that’s not true. You get a little more comfortable with the process. But it’s still nerve-wracking and I think any actor at any level will tell you that. It’s a very special, specific skill that, if you’re going to be an actor, you absolutely have to learn how to do. If you’re lucky and keep working at it, you find some way to sort of enjoy the process but it’s still nerve-wracking and I don’t know if you ever get really comfortable with it.

AM: Well, I wish you luck on all your future endeavors and I think I speak for every Metal Gear Solid fan when I say June 12^th can not come here fast enough!

CR: Well, thank you and I agree. I’m really looking forward to it coming out, too.

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