Interview with Jason Ellis.
     The Voice of Nick Bounty


You've played Nick Bounty in the Otter films, how was portraying the character for the game different?

I think the main difference was that this time around I have much more hair on parts of my body that shouldnt really have hair on them. I also felt more confident in the character, and wasnt worried about doing the original Bounty justice, like i was when we did aerosol nights. While he still retained a lot of stuff that Roman originally gave him, I felt much more of a sense of ownership of the role.

So, do you like crabs or what?

Y'know, after being away from the crabopolis of our youth for so long, crabs actually do have a special place in my heart. I feel like crabs are a part of my extended family. Thats one reason I made the choice to have Bounty be so strangely furious about the fake crabs in the game. His disgust was in the script, but I thought i should play up how much he hated the crab corruption.

What were the hardest things about the job? And what were the best?

The hardest thing was that I always have to wrestle with my computer to make any vocal recording sound good. For some reason my mic records things at a barely audible level, so I have to tweak the heck out of each line in soundforge to make it sound ok. I also wish i had compressed the first 127 lines when i recorded them, rather than having to go back and run filters on each one after the fact. The best thing about the job was the feeling of working with Mark Darin again on a project. It was a privlege, and a challenge, and i loved it.

Have you ever done any voiceover acting before and if so, for what?

I did one professional voiceover job, about 3 years ago. It was for a japanese anime hente import, called 'Koji'. I played a monster, a cop, and a soon-to-be-slaughtered dad. I learned a lot. I learned why dubbed animation is so fucking ass-poor. The sleazy producer kept making me imitate line readings that he gave me for each line. And the line readings SUCKED! The whole time i kept thinking 'but...but...this could be GOOD, why is he making me do it like ass?" By the end, i kind of felt like i had been raped by a tentacle monster.

What other acting jobs have you been involved with lately?

Except for roleplaying games (which i consider to be good exercises in writing and improv acting) I do acting stuff really rarely nowadays. Not by choice, just by circumstance. The last thing i did was about a year ago, when i played the romantic lead in a short film a friend of mine was making for project greenlight. The short got to the finals, but didnt win. It was a good time, and as always, made me wish i was doing more acting.

Do you have a process for developing a character like Nick Bounty?

Well, i do have a process for it, but i didnt really apply it properly. If i was doing more than a voice, there would be a process for developing the physicality of the character. The other part of the process involves going through the script, and marking it up- assigning specific intentions to each line or group of lines, to give the performance a direction and to enhance the meaning of the script. Instead of doing the proper prepwork, i just made the intentions up in my head when reading the script.

What was your favorite part of the game?

The final confrontation is my favorite scene, but theres something thats just intrinsically funny about the Barnacle Bill scene too. My favorite part, really, was hearing the awesome voice work by erik, adam, and the boss (AAlgar) also, theres something about [Steve Fedasz's] voice, it's utterly perfect for the security machine.

What was the weirdest part of working on this game?

thats easy, it was when i realized i'd be having a 'conversation' with CFJ (Jen Stapanon) in the game, when we hadnt actually spoken in like 6 years.

What are some of your other favorite video games?

Im a video-game expert, theres no doubt about it. Ive played (to death) every important PC game that has come out since 1987. I actually spend an average of about 40 hours a week playing em. My top 10 are star control 2, zak mckraken, starcraft, birth of the federation, diablo ii, x-com ufo defense, interstate 76, planescape: torment, pirates, and rollercoaster tycoon. Honorable mention goes to the sims (online and off), theme hospital, railroad tycoon 2, heroes of might and magic 2, baldurs gate 1, pool of radiance (original), all the old MUSE engine games, warcraft iii, aesheron's call, dungeon keeper, syndicate, civilization 2, masters of orion 2, chaos overlords, spaceward ho, dark reign, Jedi Knight, privateer, monopoly tycoon, master of magic, hidden agenda, lords of the realm 2, syndicate, sim city, and, of course that one old game on the commodore where you stimulate a vagina to orgasm.

How much of a pain in the ass was Mark (the project director) during production?

Mark was remarkably organized and efficient in all his direction. I was pretty damn impressed.

You designed most of the puzzles for the game, what was that process like?

Well, i think maybe i INSPIRED most of the puzzles, as the ones i came up with were all elaborated on and turned into much more detailed and cool puzzles for the final version. Its a lot easier to come up with something creative if youve got a springboard for inspiration. Looking at the script and all the implied background objects from the screenshots made it easy to apply puzzles to the already-created world.

Coke or Pepsi?

Mr. Pibb!

Finally, If you could have had any role in existence, which one would you want and why?

I'd have to say Captain Spaulding in 'Animal Crackers', so I could have learned to do the twisty-leg groucho dance. Barring that, i wish i could have played the lead monkey-person in '2001' that discovers how to beat up things with a stick. Or the orangutan in 'any which way but loose'. Or even the caveman in 'encino man', but that would be mainly for the opportunity to 'accidentally' injure pauly shore on the set. Actually, I take it back, i wish i could have played the romantic male lead in the classic film 'its my body', for obvious reasons.