00;00;08;18 - 00;00;32;05

THEME SONG

You're listening to Metal Game Update, the greatest Metal Gear podcast ever. I don't agree with you on all the links on Monday. Every day. How did you patch into my radio frequency? In here. Best.

00;00;32;08 - 00;01;03;02

Lilliana Wright

Ladies gear has been babies and gentle lambs. Welcome to Metal Gear Mondays, a podcast about Metal Gear, Death Stranding, Hideo Kojima and the things that surround his circle. It's a podcast where we cover all of these subjects in up to down, left or right, upside down, inside and out. Pseudo chronological order. Goddamn, I am Lili. Right? And I'm here with my friend Alicia Summerfield.

00;01;03;04 - 00;01;07;26

Alessio Summerfield

I am Lili, right? And I am clipping my mic like clipping.

00;01;07;27 - 00;01;08;17

Lilliana Wright

Oh, no no.

00;01;08;17 - 00;01;12;21

Alessio Summerfield

No no no, just that scream just then. But it's fine. It's fine.

00;01;12;24 - 00;01;18;05

Lilliana Wright

It'll. I'm just going to. I'm just going to I just for the for the $10 patrons. Just a little.

00;01;18;07 - 00;01;20;20

THEME SONG

Oh.

00;01;20;22 - 00;01;26;21

Lilliana Wright

And also and that's going to sound really great. No matter who you are.

00;01;26;23 - 00;01;28;09

Alessio Summerfield

Yeah, that's for the video podcast.

00;01;28;09 - 00;01;33;16

Lilliana Wright

I'm trying to be honest. Honestly? Honestly, the internet's going to go crazy for that.

00;01;33;18 - 00;01;41;27

Alessio Summerfield

Oh, yeah. Newly added tier for $10 patrons Asmr videos now. Except they're all really, really loud.

00;01;41;29 - 00;01;43;26

Lilliana Wright

Only fans.com/metal gear.

00;01;44;03 - 00;02;07;10

Alessio Summerfield

Oh, God. What a perfect time to plug this. We have a new Patreon. We tweaked it slightly. As of right now, you can still get access to all of the material that released for six years prior to right now. At a dollar plus a month. But at $5 plus a month, you get all the newest stuff.

00;02;07;13 - 00;02;30;21

Alessio Summerfield

Minus one important thing. And that's at $10. You get a video, podcast and a shout out at the top of the show, as well as, all the other shit that we mentioned. So that's the Patriot Club, which is an exclusive Patreon podcast. So if you subscribe at a Dollar Plus right now, you get 64 hours or sorry, 64 episodes.

00;02;30;23 - 00;02;31;25

Alessio Summerfield

Probably roughly.

00;02;32;02 - 00;02;33;22

Lilliana Wright

It's probably close to 200 hours.

00;02;33;29 - 00;02;34;11

THEME SONG

Yeah.

00;02;34;12 - 00;02;48;18

Alessio Summerfield

Of a show immediately. And then if you're $5 plus, you get access to, all the other stuff. As of right now, as of writing, we do have, $10 patron, two, $10 patrons.

00;02;48;21 - 00;02;49;15

THEME SONG

Oh, yeah.

00;02;49;15 - 00;02;54;05

Alessio Summerfield

We have two. And I want to we'll do a shout out to I'm going to pick a random one of these.

00;02;54;07 - 00;02;58;13

Lilliana Wright

Those $10 patrons are seeing my cat be a fuckhead in the background. Oh, yeah.

00;02;58;15 - 00;03;17;21

Alessio Summerfield

So, to the to $10 patrons that just popped into our page. I'm going to roll, digital dice very quickly, and I will pick one of you to. And the one that I'm going to pick is Tyler Washington. Tyler.

00;03;17;21 - 00;03;19;04

Lilliana Wright

Oh, good for your.

00;03;19;08 - 00;03;25;06

Alessio Summerfield

Yeah. Just for this episode. I'll let clip do the two where. So it's actually Johnny Flores Jr and Tyler Washington.

00;03;25;08 - 00;03;26;07

THEME SONG

Wow.

00;03;26;10 - 00;03;36;02

Alessio Summerfield

Thank you guys. But specifically this episode's brought to you by Tyler Washington. So, in specifically Tyler Washington's hair. So I love them. I love that man's haircut.

00;03;36;02 - 00;03;38;03

Lilliana Wright

Fro licious for a reason.

00;03;38;04 - 00;03;39;22

THEME SONG

Oh, yeah.

00;03;39;24 - 00;03;44;04

Alessio Summerfield

Always reminds me of the Yakuza six guy. His name, I can't or. Sorry.

00;03;44;04 - 00;03;47;03

Lilliana Wright

Seven, seven. Thank you. Ichi. Bond. Kasuga.

00;03;47;05 - 00;03;49;12

THEME SONG

Ichi. Bond. The number one. Itchy.

00;03;49;12 - 00;03;52;20

Lilliana Wright

Itchy bun. Itchy bun.

00;03;52;23 - 00;04;08;25

Alessio Summerfield

Oh, yeah. As, As, Why am I blanking on her name as my Shira Ngui from King of Fighters says? Nihon ichi bond. Japan is number one. Cool. Anyway,

00;04;08;27 - 00;04;28;00

Lilliana Wright

So really quick, before we get into what we're talking about today, it would be super helpful if you could go and review the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, anywhere that accepts reviews. Please go ahead and leave a five star review. Tell your friends peer pressure them into doing it, and that would be a great help to us to get visibility.

00;04;28;03 - 00;04;29;00

Lilliana Wright

Extremely helpful.

00;04;29;02 - 00;04;31;16

Alessio Summerfield

Especially with, dsta. Right around the corner. Yeah.

00;04;31;19 - 00;04;32;13

Lilliana Wright

Around the corner.

00;04;32;16 - 00;04;39;29

Alessio Summerfield

The more we can be at the top of people's feeds, the better. So it would be much appreciated. Cool. Anyway,

00;04;40;05 - 00;04;44;18

Lilliana Wright

But what are we talking about today? What's happening? What's going on? What is that noise?

00;04;44;19 - 00;05;01;03

Alessio Summerfield

We talked to a wonderful, wonderful human being, which you hear from is a sap. For all of you who've played Death Stranding, we are speaking with the face. Face, not movements mode. The the pcap.

00;05;01;06 - 00;05;02;02

THEME SONG

The he go.

00;05;02;03 - 00;05;08;18

Lilliana Wright

He goes into his history as the pcap actor for for Hartman in the in the podcast. It's kind of an interesting thing.

00;05;08;18 - 00;05;09;21

Alessio Summerfield

So our manga.

00;05;09;24 - 00;05;10;03

THEME SONG

Yeah.

00;05;10;10 - 00;05;11;09

Lilliana Wright

It's the Hartman guy. Yeah.

00;05;11;09 - 00;05;17;08

Alessio Summerfield

So Hartman and the facial muscle movements of Hartman, but not the mocap.

00;05;17;13 - 00;05;21;01

Lilliana Wright

Not nothing much. Well, yes, the mocap and the DDS too. He'll go in the second one.

00;05;21;01 - 00;05;21;12

Alessio Summerfield

Not in there.

00;05;21;13 - 00;05;37;09

Lilliana Wright

His name is Darren Jacobs. He's a lovely, a lovely actor from the UK. Who we had a wonderful, wonderful time talking to. Went into his history in theater and acting. Getting into voice acting. His time on Death Stranding.

00;05;37;12 - 00;05;39;15

Alessio Summerfield

This time he set up with Norman Reedus, and this.

00;05;39;16 - 00;06;00;09

Lilliana Wright

Time coming up in the studio. Yeah. Just be in trouble makers in the studio. And some very little. Not not a lot. He didn't give away too much, but a little, little teaser for what you could expect from DS2 because that is coming out as you're listening to. That's coming out next week. DS2 is, which feels crazy.

00;06;00;12 - 00;06;02;22

Alessio Summerfield

Is it? But hold on, let me check the yeah.

00;06;02;23 - 00;06;04;29

Lilliana Wright

It comes out on the 26th.

00;06;05;02 - 00;06;05;21

Alessio Summerfield

Of June and we're.

00;06;05;21 - 00;06;06;17

Lilliana Wright

Releasing this is.

00;06;06;17 - 00;06;08;12

Alessio Summerfield

Coming out May 20th.

00;06;08;14 - 00;06;12;17

Lilliana Wright

Yeah. So May 20th. So it's coming out next.

00;06;12;19 - 00;06;13;21

Alessio Summerfield

It's a month after.

00;06;13;27 - 00;06;15;07

Lilliana Wright

Not a oh my God, I've been.

00;06;15;14 - 00;06;22;06

THEME SONG

And it's I've been thinking of you this entire time. Yeah, yeah.

00;06;22;08 - 00;06;24;05

Lilliana Wright

Nevermind. It's coming out a month from now.

00;06;24;07 - 00;06;25;05

THEME SONG

You're you're.

00;06;25;05 - 00;06;45;17

Alessio Summerfield

Totally cool. I'm sorry to put you on blast. What the heck? And heck was I about to say? Oh, yeah, I will say, I don't want to spoil too much because we do talk about it, but I will say, huge bombshell moment on this, interview about the recording process for this game.

00;06;45;18 - 00;06;46;15

THEME SONG

Yeah.

00;06;46;17 - 00;07;06;11

Alessio Summerfield

They unlike all the Metal Gear games, it's like the whole cast was present and just, like, vibing out and hanging. And I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact that they're, like, big Triple-A film and TV actors, and they want to be around each other for performance reasons. But that was huge.

00;07;06;12 - 00;07;12;20

Alessio Summerfield

So and Darren goes into into discussing that. So that's why he was cutting up with Norman because they were in the same room.

00;07;12;22 - 00;07;13;19

THEME SONG

Yeah.

00;07;13;22 - 00;07;38;09

Alessio Summerfield

Anyway, before we jump into it, two quick caveats. It's really difficult for us to ask interview subjects to do more than just be present with their voice. It actually helps kind of smooth the ask with a lot of these people. So due to that, unfortunately, huge bummer for $10 patrons, but we do not have video for this for the for the interviews.

00;07;38;12 - 00;07;43;08

Alessio Summerfield

Maybe in the future we might be able to cajole 1 or 2 people and.

00;07;43;09 - 00;07;45;04

Lilliana Wright

Joel and listen to him.

00;07;45;07 - 00;07;46;07

THEME SONG

Listen to him.

00;07;46;09 - 00;08;10;23

Alessio Summerfield

I'll see if we can. I don't want to give away too much, but at PRG this year, we will more than likely be interviewing some some more people. And I'll see if we can't video those at least. So I think anything in person, we could probably slap a camera on a tripod. But for any of these over the web, especially, some of the more management agency heavy people.

00;08;10;26 - 00;08;12;01

Alessio Summerfield

It's just too much of an ask.

00;08;12;01 - 00;08;31;15

Lilliana Wright

So apologies if we can do it. Like, we'll do it if we can. Like, it's not like we're just never going to. We're not going to like, try sometimes, but more often than not it's going to be you see our faces for the intro and then we'll have like a nice little graphic to listen to on there. So it'll be more like the audio experience that you get on YouTube for the actual interview.

00;08;31;16 - 00;08;46;13

Alessio Summerfield

So yeah. And again, sorry about that. Maybe I'll be fancy and cut in some images or something or whatever gameplay footage, but we will see. Don't want to overcommit. Overcommitting is the enemy of production schedule.

00;08;46;16 - 00;08;51;06

Lilliana Wright

Overcommitting is to step outside. The bit is why we stopped between the.

00;08;51;12 - 00;08;52;19

Alessio Summerfield

Yeah, yeah.

00;08;52;22 - 00;08;54;02

Lilliana Wright

Well, three and a half years.

00;08;54;02 - 00;09;15;22

Alessio Summerfield

So don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. Is something I'm trying to teach myself. Second quick caveat. Just for sake of surprise and fun. We're not going to spoil the rest of the interviews. So between now and to the rest of the interviews, if and when they happen, will be surprises. So.

00;09;15;22 - 00;09;36;28

Alessio Summerfield

And I will divulge this. We do have somebody who we are going to talk to who is actually, unable to do an interview before June 25th just due to an NDA with that one specific actor. For some reason. So that one, unfortunately, due to the NDA, is going to have to come out, once we start covering the S2.

00;09;37;01 - 00;09;47;24

Alessio Summerfield

But we're not going to use it to take the slot of a proper episode. We're just going to drop it is like a two episode week. Yeah. So just adult so it doesn't mess up our schedule. Yeah.

00;09;47;24 - 00;10;07;22

Lilliana Wright

So we've we've time we've legitimately time this out like the schedule for to get us from DZ to, to delta on time without any, like, overlap of games. We've time this out very specifically. So yes, interviews will be extra drops during the week as opposed to replacements.

00;10;07;24 - 00;10;25;28

Alessio Summerfield

So and I'm really stoked. We do have a couple people that are sort of like warm right now that we haven't locked in that. Like, if we do get them, I'm going to be like the happiest, the happiest I've ever been for making the show. We're just saying a lot because of the very happy making the show.

00;10;26;00 - 00;10;26;21

Alessio Summerfield

So, anyway, we've been.

00;10;26;21 - 00;10;31;04

Lilliana Wright

Very lucky with the people we've been able to talk to, but if we can get some of these other folks, it'll be like, damn.

00;10;31;06 - 00;10;52;28

Alessio Summerfield

Yeah, what a life. So, anyway, so we have at least, one other person completely on the line, for post release. But we'll let you guys know as that develops. People maybe with a hint, but we're not going to tell you who. Anyway. Cool, I will stop. I'll shut the fuck up now and we'll get into the interview.

00;10;53;00 - 00;11;02;09

Lilliana Wright

Don't forget Patreon.com slash millionaire Mondays. Leave a review. And, for all of the links to our stuff, go to Linktree, slash Metal Gear Mondays.

00;11;02;13 - 00;11;05;15

Alessio Summerfield

And promote us on social. If that's what you do. If you like this, share.

00;11;05;16 - 00;11;07;02

Lilliana Wright

Share.

00;11;07;05 - 00;11;30;29

Alessio Summerfield

Yeah. I think other than that, we we go into detail with everything with Darren. I think he was doing I think he's in a production that may or may not have actually timed out with the release of the episode. So, that plug may be out of date. Apologies. But, yeah, you know where to find us.

00;11;31;01 - 00;11;34;00

Alessio Summerfield

Liliana, where can people find you? On social.

00;11;34;03 - 00;11;40;03

Lilliana Wright

I'm on Linktree just to find all of my stuff. Linktree slash. Liliana. Don. That'll be where you find me.

00;11;40;05 - 00;12;10;10

Alessio Summerfield

Cool. And you can find all my stuff. And I've been saying it for years. I actually did finally do a rehab, but I'm going to do another one. Alessio summerfield.com, that is Alessio. And that has links to everything. And we'll have a lot more cool stuff in the future. Yeah. Cool. Oh, one quick thing we're not going to be doing, listener response specific episodes, but we are going to be peppering them throughout our seasons.

00;12;10;13 - 00;12;26;14

Alessio Summerfield

So as it happens, if you have anything you want to say about the show or if you have any thoughts on Death Stranding two once it releases, or even before it releases, feel free to send an email that is contact Metal Gear mondays.com.

00;12;26;19 - 00;12;29;28

Lilliana Wright

Yeah, no more due dates. We're just going to read them as we get them.

00;12;30;00 - 00;12;51;01

Alessio Summerfield

Yeah, exactly. So even if you're like you sent one six months after the S2, if it's pertinent, we like the content. We will slip it in in the future. Awesome sauce. All right. Cool. Well, love you all. And we're here with Darren Jacobs. Darren, thank you so much for joining us today. How are you?

00;12;51;06 - 00;12;53;24

Darren Jacobs

I'm good. Thanks. And thanks for having me today.

00;12;53;26 - 00;12;54;21

Lilliana Wright

Course.

00;12;54;23 - 00;12;56;10

Darren Jacobs

Yeah, it's a pleasure to be here.

00;12;56;13 - 00;13;09;23

Alessio Summerfield

Yeah, yeah, we're, obviously the show covers, a lot of Death Stranding material. We're all big fans of Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions and I'm a big fan of the man Whose Body You Voice.

00;13;09;28 - 00;13;12;14

THEME SONG

And which I'm.

00;13;12;14 - 00;13;32;17

Alessio Summerfield

Sure we'll get into the weirdness of that, but, But yeah, no, thank you so much for for for joining us. And, I would just love to hear more about you and your career and how you've come to, speaking with us today. So. Yeah, if you don't mind, could you tell us a little bit about your, trajectory?

00;13;32;19 - 00;13;33;15

Alessio Summerfield

Professionally?

00;13;33;17 - 00;13;39;00

Darren Jacobs

Absolutely. Yeah, it's. I'll try and do bullet points because it's crazy.

00;13;39;00 - 00;13;40;27

THEME SONG

I start started.

00;13;40;27 - 00;13;56;07

Darren Jacobs

When I was a kid. I started acting when, did local, drama school, and, by accident, I ended up doing, an audition. I was only supposed to be doing a couple of lines, and I ended up doing, the national tour and.

00;13;56;07 - 00;13;57;00

THEME SONG

Wow. Yeah.

00;13;57;00 - 00;14;22;03

Darren Jacobs

And then because of that, I realized that I could do everything that was like, a triple threat, so I am I started to learn to dance, and that was at like 14, 15, which was it was a real Billy Elliot story. And and then I just got scholarships and went to London. I did three years in London, then graduated from drama school in London, and within weeks I started working in the West End.

00;14;22;06 - 00;14;39;15

Darren Jacobs

So I did a lot of theater, which is how I will talk about it later, but I how I met Tommy Jenkins, as well. So I did a lot of West End and did the Royal Shakespeare Company, a lot of, original casts in theater and did basically. And, I don't know if you know Matthew.

00;14;39;23 - 00;14;54;26

Darren Jacobs

Matthew. Well, this one like, I seen Billy Elliot, I did, yeah, the Swan Lake and, worked with his company for about 4 or 5 years. Told the world and, told around America. Without.

00;14;54;29 - 00;15;04;28

Alessio Summerfield

That's crazy. Yeah. I don't think we've ever had somebody who, I don't think we've ever interviewed anybody who's done voices for video games, who can point to this much of a prestigious career.

00;15;04;28 - 00;15;06;20

THEME SONG

As a lead, like the Swan.

00;15;06;20 - 00;15;11;00

Lilliana Wright

Lake and like, it's it's very it's very it's very specific start to get to where you are.

00;15;11;00 - 00;15;11;10

THEME SONG

Now.

00;15;11;16 - 00;15;31;21

Darren Jacobs

It's but that's, it's crazy because that was my that's what I, I was so lucky. The place where I went to was like a fame school where I, and I went to that specific one because I did get into other very prestigious acting skills and, like the Royal Ballet School and the English National Ballet School all accepted me to go there.

00;15;31;24 - 00;15;48;05

Darren Jacobs

And I wanted to just be able to do anything. So yeah, I went to this one and that's why I have very, that's why like, Mo cap is very easy for me because telling a story with my body is, is what I was trained to do, especially with when I work with Matthew Bourne and things like that.

00;15;48;07 - 00;16;19;15

Darren Jacobs

So, but voiceover for me was all an absolute accident. I've done so much theater and, and doing all the shows, I've had to learn so many different accents. And it wasn't, it wasn't until I studied in New York that, we did all that we did. I did, some training in, in New York. All the things that we actually don't do in the UK because we do theater for three years, and that's what you do, theater, and we don't do voiceover, we don't do it on camera, we don't do commercial, we don't do anything like that.

00;16;19;15 - 00;16;43;00

Darren Jacobs

We don't, you know, like the more weird kind of stuff we're starting to do Meisner, but like Chekhov and what have you. Not that Chekhov technique as an actor. We. So I did all these things, and I realized that I actually was really good at voiceover, and it was my, while I was studying in America that, my teacher got me a voiceover agent.

00;16;43;03 - 00;16;47;29

Darren Jacobs

Oh, wow. Yeah. Because I would never have done that. I would never have even thought.

00;16;48;01 - 00;16;50;17

THEME SONG

I honestly thought I would never have thought of that.

00;16;50;17 - 00;17;17;12

Darren Jacobs

That's the one thing I didn't. And then it was just it was just a thing that went, oh, yeah, I'll do it on the side. But then I continually kept on working, which is it's been amazing. You know, I, I love, I love voiceover, I really I do the one thing about voiceover that I miss is that, on stage or in a TV show or something, you have all the people around you and in voiceover you have an amazing team.

00;17;17;12 - 00;17;41;09

Darren Jacobs

You know, all that voice director in the, the, the producers and everybody. But you don't have the other actors, really. It's very rare that you work with another actor. So I do miss that, but, yeah. So, yeah, I came to America, about, with just about ten years ago to pursue more, on camera stuff.

00;17;41;10 - 00;17;46;07

Darren Jacobs

And it was just by accident that.

00;17;46;09 - 00;17;53;10

THEME SONG

I started working more in voiceover. I just, I run with it. I'm like, okay, this is great.

00;17;53;10 - 00;17;54;01

Darren Jacobs

You know?

00;17;54;03 - 00;17;56;15

Lilliana Wright

Well, we love we love a happy accident, you know?

00;17;56;16 - 00;17;58;14

THEME SONG

Yeah, exactly. I was it.

00;17;58;14 - 00;18;04;14

Alessio Summerfield

During like the the global pandemic I'm sure. Yeah. But to work from don't even, you know, be great.

00;18;04;14 - 00;18;27;17

Darren Jacobs

Oh my god. When, when I did when the pandemic started and I had and this is, this is, this is the truth. The pandemic started and I'd been leasing my car and the lease was coming up, at the end. And I was like, oh my God, what am I going to do? It was literally about two months after everything had gone into lockdown, and I was like, I have to either buy the car to send it back, get a new one, I have no money.

00;18;27;17 - 00;18;28;14

Darren Jacobs

And I was like, what.

00;18;28;14 - 00;18;29;19

THEME SONG

Am I doing?

00;18;29;21 - 00;18;51;01

Darren Jacobs

And then I got a phone call and from my voiceover agent and they said, hey, Darren, Meredith Lane, who's a wonderful, prolific, voiceover, director and casting director, I just got in touch and they want you to start on something on Monday. It's a new series. You auditioned for it about a year ago.

00;18;51;03 - 00;18;51;18

THEME SONG

Can you do.

00;18;51;25 - 00;18;53;18

Darren Jacobs

You want to do it? And I'm like.

00;18;53;21 - 00;18;56;27

THEME SONG

Yeah. You know, and.

00;18;56;27 - 00;19;02;18

Darren Jacobs

What's crazy is the check that I got from that paid off my car to.

00;19;02;20 - 00;19;05;14

THEME SONG

Dollar to the dollar. Whoa.

00;19;05;14 - 00;19;06;19

Darren Jacobs

It was insane.

00;19;06;25 - 00;19;07;19

Alessio Summerfield

It was meant to be.

00;19;07;19 - 00;19;12;20

Darren Jacobs

Yeah, it was crazy. So, you know, yeah. So thank you. VoiceOver.

00;19;12;23 - 00;19;31;26

Alessio Summerfield

Yeah, absolutely. It's funny, that coincides a lot with my career in post-production for television. Because straight up, I think it was like six months before Covid hit. I started working in post-production. Yeah. And then everything moved to remote and I was like, I'm so glad I'm not on set. And again, like, I'm able to keep working.

00;19;31;29 - 00;19;32;25

THEME SONG

Yeah.

00;19;32;28 - 00;19;57;16

Darren Jacobs

I did that though, as well. As soon as the pandemic started, I would I was like, right, I need to convert my closet into a studio. So literally within two days, I, I'd got all this stuff because luckily, about two weeks after the pandemic, all the microphones, the price of them went through the roof and all that material that you get for it went through the roof.

00;19;57;16 - 00;20;02;21

Darren Jacobs

And I'd bought it just before. So yeah, I was like, that's awesome. Yeah.

00;20;02;23 - 00;20;05;26

THEME SONG

That's crazy.

00;20;05;28 - 00;20;06;26

Alessio Summerfield

Sorry. Go ahead. Sorry.

00;20;07;02 - 00;20;31;15

Lilliana Wright

Well, I was going to I was going to ask you a question about sort of like your earlier career. Yeah. Because for some context, I spent, a several years of my youth in England. Oh, cool. And one of the things that I got very obsessed with while I was in England was the, the, the soaps on BBC and ITV, and you were in a handful of episodes of Hollyoaks.

00;20;31;17 - 00;20;32;08

THEME SONG

I was.

00;20;32;08 - 00;20;32;18

Darren Jacobs

Yes.

00;20;32;18 - 00;20;49;26

Lilliana Wright

I'm back in back in the day and I was really curious about like the production of those shows because there's that pressure to do these really high quality, interlinked stories. Yeah, that you have to release almost daily. Yeah. So what was do you remember what production was like on a show like Hollyoaks?

00;20;49;26 - 00;21;11;28

Darren Jacobs

It was it was great. We actually had it's funny enough we had three units working at once, so it was really choreographed like a soon as you were done on this one unit, there'd be a driver who take you over to another unit for a different episode. And it was, it was just a, it turned into it when I went into it.

00;21;11;28 - 00;21;28;01

Darren Jacobs

It's when they just upped it to, I think it was four days a week and it was a beast then, you know, you just they had to get that much machine oiled and running and you had to go with it. There was no messing around. You have to turn up on set and you had to know those lines, you know.

00;21;28;03 - 00;21;45;05

Darren Jacobs

So they were the that that casting process was really thorough. Yeah. The casting director for it, was a lady called Dorothy Andrews. Who was this little old lady who was like a battleaxe and.

00;21;45;07 - 00;21;45;22

THEME SONG

Oh.

00;21;45;22 - 00;22;12;27

Darren Jacobs

My God, she was amazing. I absolutely loved I, you know, get in Hollyoaks. I'll tell you this quick story. I actually didn't audition for Hollyoaks. I auditioned for another soap for a series regular and and I had to go from London to Liverpool, which American people will realize is about, about 3.5 hour train journey and then, like a 45 minute car journey just to get to the place to audition.

00;22;12;29 - 00;22;34;26

Darren Jacobs

And, on my callback, my final, there was three of us, and, I was the third one called in and the first person went in and he was like, 20 minutes. And the second person went in, he was like 50 minutes in there. And I was like, oh, he's definitely got this part. So I went in and they literally gave me two minutes to to do it.

00;22;34;27 - 00;23;04;21

Darren Jacobs

They'd made up their mind and I did. And she, she sped through my audition and I said to her and my last line was, thank you very much. And she went, thank you, Darren, you can go now. And I said, I could go now, but I've got another 45 minutes in the car and another 3.5 hours on the train, and I will hate myself unless I say to you, I would love to spend another two more minutes in here and show you I can really do, because then I can go home and, you know, be happy with myself.

00;23;04;23 - 00;23;23;22

Darren Jacobs

And so, yeah, this battleaxe looked at me because the producers were there and the director and everybody was there, and she looked at me, and she's like an old lady who you don't mess around with her. And she gave me this smirk and she went, of course I can. And we did it. And I thought, come on, Darren B, you have to be amazing now.

00;23;23;24 - 00;23;24;09

THEME SONG

That did it.

00;23;24;09 - 00;23;33;10

Darren Jacobs

And she smiled. She went, thank you so much. And I was like, oh, you know, like I knew what I was doing, I didn't care, and walked out the room. And then I got out the room and I phoned up my agent. I was like, oh my.

00;23;33;10 - 00;23;41;21

THEME SONG

God, I'm so sorry I did this. My agent was like, Darren, what have you done? Well.

00;23;41;23 - 00;23;51;03

Darren Jacobs

Two weeks later she phoned me up and said, hey, you don't need to audition. I'm going to give you, five episodes of Hollyoaks, will you take it? And I was like, absolutely.

00;23;51;06 - 00;23;51;28

Alessio Summerfield

That's awesome.

00;23;51;28 - 00;23;59;03

Darren Jacobs

Yeah. So sometimes you just have to be polite and charming, but you have to stick up for yourself in, you know, these auditions.

00;23;59;06 - 00;23;59;26

Lilliana Wright

Yeah.

00;23;59;28 - 00;24;20;08

Darren Jacobs

That's how I got it. But it was amazing. It. And going back to what you were saying, it's a it's a machine. There was so many people. It was, really you got you got one rehearsal through maybe. Unless it was like they what they like to do was one takes, so they'd they'd just pull on the dolly back, and you had to.

00;24;20;11 - 00;24;35;04

Darren Jacobs

You had to keep an air out for your lines, even though you were at the side of the room and the dolly would come to you and, you know, focus on you. And so they do those a lot. And so that would take the most with the rehearsals of that. But you would be in serious trouble if you weren't getting your lines.

00;24;35;04 - 00;24;38;22

Darren Jacobs

Right. You know, because you so. Yeah. Yeah.

00;24;38;25 - 00;24;46;18

Lilliana Wright

So are they like preparing an episode. So episode comes out on Thursday. Are they doing that on Wednesday or like how is that.

00;24;46;22 - 00;25;01;06

Darren Jacobs

Oh no, it's not as quick. It's not as quick as American TV. If I remember rightly, it was about, oh, about 2 or 3 weeks before, okay. Yeah. Before it came out, I'm pretty certain it was 2 or 3 weeks.

00;25;01;08 - 00;25;08;11

Alessio Summerfield

For for all of us unsophisticated swine. Is this effectively the, channel four equivalent? Two days of our lives?

00;25;08;19 - 00;25;10;06

THEME SONG

Yeah, but it is.

00;25;10;06 - 00;25;11;29

Darren Jacobs

It's a younger audience as well.

00;25;12;04 - 00;25;13;08

THEME SONG

Yeah, yeah.

00;25;13;10 - 00;25;14;06

Darren Jacobs

So, you know.

00;25;14;09 - 00;25;16;19

Lilliana Wright

Like, I so like Hollyoaks East, EastEnders is. And.

00;25;16;20 - 00;25;18;17

THEME SONG

Yeah, I just.

00;25;18;17 - 00;25;22;04

Darren Jacobs

I just actually auditioned for, funnily enough for Coronation Street for.

00;25;22;04 - 00;25;22;11

THEME SONG

00;25;22;12 - 00;25;46;26

Darren Jacobs

Oh yeah. For a huge part in that. And I did not expect, I, I didn't expect that. And yeah, I didn't get the role, but I got close to it, which was really nice because, because if you're English, everybody knows that show Coronation Street is crazy. You know, it's it's so famous. It's one of the original soaps in the UK.

00;25;46;29 - 00;25;50;19

Alessio Summerfield

Yeah. That's crazy. I didn't realize that the UK had such like a deep history with.

00;25;50;25 - 00;25;58;23

Lilliana Wright

Oh yeah, there's like there's like I would say like EastEnders and Coronation Street are like the big, the bigger and then Hollyoaks kind of came later, but it also got pretty big as well.

00;25;58;24 - 00;26;05;28

Darren Jacobs

Yeah it's crazy. I still get it's so funny on Hollyoaks I got loads of fan mail but I also got hate mail.

00;26;06;01 - 00;26;11;21

THEME SONG

Oh it was so weird. I'm like why do you hate me? I'm literally just.

00;26;11;21 - 00;26;15;15

Darren Jacobs

A just a drama teacher.

00;26;15;17 - 00;26;16;29

THEME SONG

I there's some.

00;26;16;29 - 00;26;19;26

Darren Jacobs

People who have been scarred by their drama teachers in life. Let me tell.

00;26;19;26 - 00;26;22;24

THEME SONG

You.

00;26;22;27 - 00;26;39;07

Lilliana Wright

I do have one more quick question before we get into like, the video games of it all, which. Yeah, for and this might not even be anything but when, when I was kind of like looking at your credits on IMDb, at least, your list, your character is listed, and then in parentheses, it says as a different name.

00;26;39;07 - 00;26;44;19

Lilliana Wright

Is there like a story there? D is there or is there something that you can share about, like your pseudonym?

00;26;44;21 - 00;26;46;20

THEME SONG

Yeah. Well, yeah.

00;26;46;22 - 00;26;58;06

Darren Jacobs

My my real name isn't Jacob's. That's, my stage name, and I and I changed it because my real name is incredibly English. And when I first went.

00;26;58;09 - 00;26;58;17

THEME SONG

When I.

00;26;58;17 - 00;27;20;29

Darren Jacobs

First went to America, nobody could say it first of all. And. And you just knew I was English. I made one of my first auditions in America. It was for Irish. It was for, a character from Kildare, which is where my grandad was from. So I know that accent really well and I got to producers. If you get to producers, you get down to like last 3 or 5, 3 to 5 in the for the role.

00;27;20;29 - 00;27;37;09

Darren Jacobs

And it was a huge, I can't remember his name. It was a huge, new pilot. And I went to the producers. I went and going, I mean, hello, how are you doing? And I went, you're not Irish. And I went, no. Like you're not Irish. Oh, yeah. It's fine. You know, I can do that accent.

00;27;37;09 - 00;27;37;20

Darren Jacobs

And they were like.

00;27;37;20 - 00;27;38;23

THEME SONG

No, he's got to be Irish.

00;27;38;23 - 00;27;40;06

Darren Jacobs

He's got to be Irish. And I went crazy.

00;27;40;06 - 00;27;40;16

THEME SONG

Oh.

00;27;40;22 - 00;28;00;21

Darren Jacobs

So yeah. So having a my real name is fourth up which actually is Celtic. It's old Celtic. It's an, it's basically like a map of where it tells you that for means the forest of cedar trees and throb means the village. So it means the village near the forest of cedar trees. And it's. Oh, wow. Yeah. And that's what actually the.

00;28;00;26 - 00;28;12;13

Darren Jacobs

And to all of you for it. But that's, what it was, but nobody could ever say it. So my manager was like, we need another name. And I was like, okay, I don't know what my family's.

00;28;12;13 - 00;28;16;05

THEME SONG

Going to say about that. There's going to be trouble.

00;28;16;08 - 00;28;38;29

Darren Jacobs

So I actually, the thing is, my, my niece is like, she's almost like my daughters. We're so close. And she's a fourth up as well. So I said to her, okay, a name is Alicia. I was like, and she was she was young. She was younger then. And I said, can you help me? I need to have a new name because the Americans, the Americans don't understand the name.

00;28;39;04 - 00;28;57;20

Darren Jacobs

And she's like, right. I said, so it's going to be a secret between me and you. Can you can you think of a name that you will be able to tell me? And she was like, I don't know. I said, let's ask not you, my mum as well. So we went to my mum was like, man, what are you going to call me if you aren't going to call me Darren?

00;28;57;22 - 00;29;00;17

Darren Jacobs

And she went, Jacob and I went.

00;29;00;19 - 00;29;01;11

THEME SONG

And I said, what do you.

00;29;01;15 - 00;29;07;03

Darren Jacobs

What do you think, Alicia? And she was like, yes, I'll allow that.

00;29;07;05 - 00;29;11;03

THEME SONG

Yeah. The true boss is the boss of the family told me.

00;29;11;09 - 00;29;13;15

Darren Jacobs

Yeah. So that's how it came about? Yeah.

00;29;13;21 - 00;29;14;27

THEME SONG

That's amazing. Yeah.

00;29;14;27 - 00;29;19;16

Alessio Summerfield

I was going to ask if there are any other names on the cutting room floor, but I think. Yeah, tentatively.

00;29;19;18 - 00;29;24;13

THEME SONG

A Lisa had it had it a point there. Yes. Tracy.

00;29;24;15 - 00;29;52;19

Alessio Summerfield

Speaking of credits and IMDb and all this other stuff, typically whenever we're preparing for an interview, I think one of the things we do is we tend to like, listen to slash read all of the available interviews we can find. Yeah. Just to make sure we're not doing a lot of repeat work. Yeah. But it was interesting because, like, going through, some of your past credits and stuff like that, like, I stumbled across this, like, 2014 smite, listing for Baron.

00;29;52;21 - 00;29;59;04

Alessio Summerfield

Samedi. Yes. And immediately the first thought that popped into my head is isn't a black man.

00;29;59;06 - 00;30;01;04

THEME SONG

Yeah. And so I'm.

00;30;01;04 - 00;30;08;09

Alessio Summerfield

Curious. I mean, obviously, it's like I was thinking of the bond villain as well, and like, there's other things, but I, I need to know more about.

00;30;08;10 - 00;30;12;02

THEME SONG

Yeah. This casting. Yeah. That one.

00;30;12;05 - 00;30;31;21

Darren Jacobs

This I have a funny story about that as well. That one, I didn't really know much about it until afterwards because I, I only, basically really looked into it afterwards, but it was Count Baron Samedi, so it's a in a different ones. If it had been a black person, I would have said no, but it's.

00;30;31;24 - 00;30;33;18

Alessio Summerfield

Got I got it. Oh, I don't want to put you on the spot.

00;30;33;20 - 00;30;34;21

THEME SONG

I mean, it was funny.

00;30;34;21 - 00;30;44;08

Darren Jacobs

Even even then, though, I, you know, I wouldn't have done it, but because it's very Baron Samedi usually is, like voodoo and. Yeah.

00;30;44;08 - 00;30;44;26

THEME SONG

Yeah, yeah.

00;30;45;00 - 00;31;06;29

Darren Jacobs

And the guy who actually mainly does Baron Samedi was phenomenal. His voice was amazing. But, I did the vampire version of it, so it was, it was very different. And the guy, Baron Samedi in that one, his. I wouldn't have even known unless I looked back at the other ones and listen to him, because it's very his actual skin color is white.

00;31;07;01 - 00;31;10;27

Darren Jacobs

Or else I would have said, because I've said that. And before I'm like, I don't think I should be.

00;31;10;27 - 00;31;13;20

THEME SONG

Auditioning for this, but it was it.

00;31;13;20 - 00;31;27;23

Darren Jacobs

Was really funny when, when, they released all the, the voiceovers they did. They always do, like a presentation of it all. And, and I was watching it live and it was hilarious because they came to Baron Samedi and I'm like.

00;31;27;24 - 00;31;28;25

THEME SONG

Yeah, cool.

00;31;28;28 - 00;31;35;26

Darren Jacobs

You know, amazing. Let's have a let's have a listen. And they played the other Baron Samedi.

00;31;35;29 - 00;31;36;24

THEME SONG

And it was a different.

00;31;36;28 - 00;31;47;06

Darren Jacobs

It was that it was the one before. And I could see them all kind of like looking at one another and nobody knew what to say. And, and I was like some this masked,

00;31;47;09 - 00;31;49;24

THEME SONG

And, so they kind.

00;31;49;24 - 00;32;12;09

Darren Jacobs

Of quickly just, like, skirt over it and talk about the graphics and what have you. And I was like, what is going on? I've, I've been fired. I've, I've been replaced. What the hell is happening? But they'd made a huge mistake. But then when they released Baron Samedi, it was basically raw. Me just raw, the sound effects to it and everything.

00;32;12;09 - 00;32;19;00

Darren Jacobs

So like, you hear all the other ones, like they have all echo and all this lightning in the background and amazing stuff, but it's just me. I'm.

00;32;19;03 - 00;32;27;09

THEME SONG

I'm Baron Samedi. Oh, I feel excited. You know? Yeah. It's crazy. So I was like, you know, it always.

00;32;27;09 - 00;32;42;06

Darren Jacobs

Seems to happen to me, but it was funny, actually. I just I just remember looking that because nobody else would have known. Unless, like this. The actor who played Baron, somebody before that, the, skin it, seen it. Nobody would have really known. And then, they changed it quickly. It was.

00;32;42;06 - 00;32;42;16

THEME SONG

Very funny.

00;32;42;17 - 00;32;44;29

Alessio Summerfield

That's crazy. Well, I'm sorry to bring up,

00;32;45;01 - 00;32;47;15

THEME SONG

No, no, it it's just areas.

00;32;47;15 - 00;32;48;21

Darren Jacobs

It's hilarious, I find it.

00;32;48;21 - 00;32;50;05

THEME SONG

Oh.

00;32;50;08 - 00;33;01;18

Alessio Summerfield

Was that your first, role in a video game, or did you have others that kind of led into that? Like what? What's sort of been your experience when it comes to, like, breaking into, I guess, video game voice acting?

00;33;01;20 - 00;33;29;03

Darren Jacobs

You know, I think it was one of the first ones. I'm not, but it wasn't. I don't think it was the first. I've done so many. That's the thing about video games. They're all under project codenames and, what have you, and they don't even tell you what it is. Or the might give you the bare bones of a project, and you're under NDA and you're you sign your life away and you're not allowed to say anything.

00;33;29;05 - 00;34;09;15

Darren Jacobs

So, this there's been so many things I've never heard because I don't even know what they were. This was before the sag have changed it all, and now we have to. We have to be told what they are. So I have done, but I mostly done commercial work. Come on in voiceover industry, it's easier to get into commercial work, even though I think commercial work is much harder than, a video game because I've had I've had theater training, so video games and animation is so easy for me to tap into, whereas commercial is selling things when you're pretending that you're not selling things, but you really are selling things.

00;34;09;17 - 00;34;31;26

Darren Jacobs

So but, anybody can can do commercial work. If you have a good voice, you have it, you have a really sexy voice, then you can do it. You can do commercial work. But But obviously I'm being very basic about that. There's so much more to it than that. But you know that, that if you have a wonderful instrument you can work.

00;34;31;26 - 00;35;08;21

Darren Jacobs

Whereas with video games I say to people you will audition. And I mean, you could be auditioning every day and you could do it about a year and a half before a casting director will take you seriously and even let you think of you to to do a job because it's so difficult doing, animation and video games because you're in that room and you have so many lines to get through that, you know, sight reading most of the time, and you've got to be good enough for them to be able to redirect you and get through that entire session.

00;35;08;21 - 00;35;35;14

Darren Jacobs

Otherwise, the casting director is going to look bad. The director's going to look bad, the producer is going to look bad to, you know, and all this lot. So it's, video games is really I have I have respect for any voice actor. But, you know, I have respect for the commercial actors for being able to be so amazing and sell you something without them, without their audience knowing it.

00;35;35;17 - 00;35;45;19

Darren Jacobs

And for video game people for being able to just nail some of the hardest things, like, yeah, you Darren. So in this one you are going to be a three legged eagle.

00;35;45;23 - 00;35;47;08

THEME SONG

Who was Irish.

00;35;47;15 - 00;35;53;13

Darren Jacobs

With a limp, and you have a cough and your hundred year old go and.

00;35;53;13 - 00;35;53;23

Alessio Summerfield

You're on.

00;35;53;23 - 00;36;02;16

THEME SONG

Fire. Yeah, you're on fire. And go and you're just like, what?

00;36;02;18 - 00;36;03;26

Darren Jacobs

Welcome to video games.

00;36;03;27 - 00;36;04;20

THEME SONG

Yeah.

00;36;04;22 - 00;36;28;13

Alessio Summerfield

That's crazy. Well, so I guess to to bridge us into, the, the main topic, since you, you try, I think the best way to put this together, since you and Tommy go back. I'm curious, is Tommy what led you to Death Stranding, or was it coincidental? What? What's the story like? How did that. How did that come about?

00;36;28;16 - 00;36;29;10

THEME SONG

Oh, no.

00;36;29;11 - 00;36;32;17

Darren Jacobs

No no no no, that little shit. He kept that quiet from me. I had.

00;36;32;17 - 00;36;36;28

THEME SONG

No. Oh. So I, I'm, I know I, I.

00;36;36;28 - 00;36;54;06

Darren Jacobs

Tend to because when I went to me, Hideo, for the first time, I was chatting with, who was, I was, I was chatting with somebody and they were like, oh, there's a really cool guy who was here yesterday. He was working in England a lot. His name's Tommy.

00;36;54;08 - 00;36;54;15

THEME SONG

Come on.

00;36;54;15 - 00;36;57;25

Darren Jacobs

All right. And he went. Yes. His name's Tommy Earl Jenkins. I went.

00;36;57;27 - 00;37;02;25

THEME SONG

Oh, wow. I was like, what? Like that.

00;37;02;25 - 00;37;10;17

Darren Jacobs

I found him off. I was like, So, what is this about? You're in Death Stranding? And he was like, how do you know? I was like, because I was that day. I was like.

00;37;10;19 - 00;37;11;26

THEME SONG

Are you kidding me?

00;37;11;28 - 00;37;32;24

Darren Jacobs

Yeah. No, I've known him because he, Tommy Jenkins Tommy is like me. He trained in everything. He. Tommy was a ballet dancer as well. He trained. I know he did stuff with, Alvin Ailey, years and years ago. And, I have so much respect for that man. He is, And you know what? Well, I have so much respect for.

00;37;32;25 - 00;37;35;19

Darren Jacobs

I hate him because he's a nice guy as well.

00;37;35;22 - 00;37;37;00

THEME SONG

He's so talented.

00;37;37;05 - 00;37;39;24

Darren Jacobs

And he's nice. I can't bear.

00;37;39;24 - 00;37;41;16

THEME SONG

It. I hate it, but. Yeah.

00;37;41;18 - 00;38;02;25

Darren Jacobs

Yeah, the. He's he's one of the nicest guys and one of the people that absolutely, deservedly deserves everything that's coming into. He's coming into his power now. And you know hats off to him. He's worked hit that. That gentleman has worked. But yeah we we didn't we never actually worked together. But Tommy's husband was my roommate.

00;38;02;27 - 00;38;04;11

THEME SONG

For oh okay.

00;38;04;18 - 00;38;30;06

Darren Jacobs

Tommy's husband went went to my college. He was in the year below me at college, and, he, was my roommate for about six months. And, we all did theater shows. Like, I know Tommy did. Tommy. When I was still in my third year of college, Tommy was in, five guys named Moe in the West End, and I went to see him do it, and I saw him do.

00;38;30;08 - 00;38;50;13

Darren Jacobs

Oh, God, I saw him do. I've seen him do so many shows. I, my gosh, I can't even tell you. But we never worked together. But we always were. Always in parties. And we knew each other, you know, because we we we went from job to job. We I was very, very lucky. And I always went from job to job to job in the theater.

00;38;50;15 - 00;39;10;00

Darren Jacobs

And, and I knew Tommy because he was just like this legend and just a nice guy. Just a nice, nice person. So, Yeah. So when I found out that he was on it, I was like, what? So I text, I've been texting him, and I'm like, cause it was the first game was so hard because it was.

00;39;10;03 - 00;39;14;16

Darren Jacobs

We didn't know anything about it. And they're saying, okay, so there's this thing called the beat that's.

00;39;14;21 - 00;39;16;03

THEME SONG

Like a black.

00;39;16;05 - 00;39;17;14

Darren Jacobs

Eye floating in front of you.

00;39;17;14 - 00;39;21;28

Alessio Summerfield

And hey, you want us both? I don't think anyone knew anything about what the hell is going on.

00;39;22;00 - 00;39;27;03

Lilliana Wright

Everybody was very confused for a very long time and still are to a certain extent.

00;39;27;05 - 00;39;29;29

THEME SONG

But. So yeah, I was like.

00;39;29;29 - 00;39;47;22

Darren Jacobs

Hey, do you know what that is? And he was like, nope, just go with it. I was like, yeah, yeah, I so it was, it was so much fun. It was so much fun. Because we were comparing. We ended up going to the Video Game Awards as well. At the same time, when we got, we got drunk in the aftershow party, being him.

00;39;47;25 - 00;40;06;25

Darren Jacobs

So yeah, he's a good guy. I like, I like tell me a lot, but yeah, but working with him was amazing, and I, I, you know, it was, it was, it is it was crazy because, we were in we didn't do that for the first game. We didn't I well, I did, and he did do some mocap.

00;40;06;25 - 00;40;32;13

Darren Jacobs

He did. I think he did all of his mocap because he did his late. But when I'd by the time I joined the, they'd already done the mocap for it because we were on strike and, they added all the voices later because we weren't allowed to, we weren't allowed to do it. So, yeah, I came in, which was really it was good.

00;40;32;15 - 00;40;40;21

Darren Jacobs

But also really difficult because then I had to create, Hartman to somebody else's rhythms.

00;40;40;26 - 00;40;41;23

THEME SONG

Right.

00;40;41;26 - 00;41;03;26

Darren Jacobs

Which was, which was hard because, you know, there's, there's, there's anchor points within the, the motion capture that, that I had to stick to. So if they said, like, if you look here and that was on second, 30, seventh, second, I had to make sure that I said those lines at that in a certain the tempo.

00;41;04;02 - 00;41;25;04

Darren Jacobs

And then set, say the next line quicker or faster or, you know, because it would we do it all in one go. It wouldn't work by just doing bit by bit, piecing it together. You couldn't do that. It had to be more realistic and have the flow. So and with my with mine, Hartman bangs on forever. He just goes, does.

00;41;25;06 - 00;41;25;17

Alessio Summerfield

Until.

00;41;25;17 - 00;41;33;01

THEME SONG

He talks. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. And then you're like he's like, give me a break dude. You know. So he would he.

00;41;33;01 - 00;41;53;00

Darren Jacobs

Would bang on for ages and it was, it was really good. But it was very difficult. But it was good because it was perfect for me. Was Hartman. Because it really was the culmination of all the work that I'd done in the past and the training that I'd done to get to this point, to be able to put it all together.

00;41;53;02 - 00;42;16;00

Darren Jacobs

It was honestly, it was like it was crazy because they were they were nervous about Hartman because Hartman could have been just another guy who's giving you facts and I and one of my things I said to Sam was that, you know, let's not he's got to be quirky. He's got to be, you know, let's let's do something with him.

00;42;16;00 - 00;42;33;24

Darren Jacobs

You know, he's he's not being around people because when he's away, on the beach, time is different there. So he's away for a long time, and then he comes back for a couple of minutes. Then he's. So he's by himself all the time. So I made like a little bit of, like, quirkiness to him, like,

00;42;33;26 - 00;42;34;18

THEME SONG

00;42;34;25 - 00;42;39;28

Darren Jacobs

A little stammer and things, you know, just making it more awkward and,

00;42;40;00 - 00;42;42;04

Alessio Summerfield

Like me leaving my apartment post.

00;42;42;07 - 00;42;44;29

THEME SONG

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

00;42;44;29 - 00;43;05;01

Darren Jacobs

So, yeah. And they loved it. And, you know, they that it's so funny because I, had some really liked it when you come up with these ideas. Because I was chatting to him once, and, and I had, like, little things to, to it, and, and I said, you don't mind if I do that? It's like, no, absolutely.

00;43;05;01 - 00;43;26;01

Darren Jacobs

He said, I moved from doing animation to this, working with actors, because I want to work with other people's ideas. If I wanted to work with in animation and make people do exactly what I wanted them to do, I could. I want to work with actors who are going to bring something to me, because it'll spark ideas with me that I can bounce off of.

00;43;26;03 - 00;43;37;20

Darren Jacobs

And he said, so I love it when when people do that. And I was like, oh, wow, great, you know? And it was really a nice, insightful moment that I had with him.

00;43;37;22 - 00;43;47;11

Lilliana Wright

Yeah. So, so so you so you came in and you had to do the voice off of off of off of performance capture. That was already done. No.

00;43;47;11 - 00;43;47;22

Darren Jacobs

Okay.

00;43;47;22 - 00;43;48;26

THEME SONG

So or.

00;43;48;27 - 00;44;07;01

Darren Jacobs

Right. So there's mocap is the movement and it's that. So you'll have somebody in this full suit and they will do the movement and they'll get all the, the lot of ping pong balls on you and they'll get all that movement and have them down. And then what you, you'll have like a face that's just,

00;44;07;03 - 00;44;26;19

Darren Jacobs

And what I'm working with will be a face that's completely still. And then I will. Oh, he cap and I put the dots all over my face, and the pickup will get all my facial expressions and the way that I'm saying it, and then they'll add that to that, full pickup is that when you do the mocap and the pickup together got.

00;44;26;22 - 00;44;26;29

THEME SONG

Okay.

00;44;27;05 - 00;44;39;14

Darren Jacobs

Yeah. So this, this mocap pickup and full pickup and, yeah, so I did I did, the pickup for this, but using somebody else's skin and somebody else's mocap.

00;44;39;16 - 00;44;41;05

THEME SONG

So did the three humans.

00;44;41;05 - 00;44;41;11

Alessio Summerfield

Yeah.

00;44;41;11 - 00;44;43;17

THEME SONG

Three. Three of us. Yeah. Did that.

00;44;43;17 - 00;44;50;23

Lilliana Wright

Changed for. I do have a couple other questions about like the process for the first one, but did that change for two, like did you do the full picture?

00;44;50;24 - 00;45;10;14

Darren Jacobs

I did, I did full pickup for two. And they they're scanned. Nicolas Winding Refn and so just, the graphics from if you look at the graphics between the first and the second game, you just you aren't going to believe it. It's I've seen some of the stuff. It's, Yeah. Oh, my God, it's amazing.

00;45;10;15 - 00;45;27;24

Darren Jacobs

I like it because, before we do a scene, this story and Hideo San would go through the storyboard with us and we'd talk it through and where we have to be and why we're doing it, and and he'd show us, like, also visual stuff.

00;45;27;27 - 00;45;29;05

THEME SONG

00;45;30;04 - 00;45;40;17

Darren Jacobs

Yeah. And we do all that, but, yeah. So there was, there was three of us, in the first one, but in this one it was just me. Yeah. And it was, it was crazy.

00;45;40;17 - 00;46;06;10

Alessio Summerfield

That's very cool. I mean, just even just hearing about, I mean, candidly, it's like we've been doing this podcast on and off for ten years and talking to voice actors from, like, all of consumer's other games. And it's like just hearing you talk about this is like the most I think, hands on, face to face directly with Hideo Kojima, that of of any actor we've spoken to.

00;46;06;10 - 00;46;09;28

Alessio Summerfield

So it's crazy to hear some of this stuff. It's, very different. I think.

00;46;10;00 - 00;46;10;05

THEME SONG

It.

00;46;10;05 - 00;46;14;05

Darren Jacobs

Is. It's it's insane. I mean, listen, we were.

00;46;14;08 - 00;46;15;26

THEME SONG

Some days because.

00;46;15;26 - 00;46;29;08

Darren Jacobs

I in this on the studio, I'm sat next to Norman. 90% of the time I was sat next. Norman. Me? Because me and him are the naughty boys.

00;46;29;10 - 00;46;32;10

THEME SONG

I'm so on the side,

00;46;32;13 - 00;46;43;10

Darren Jacobs

Laughing and joking and being told off and, and layers really good. She's at the other side doing the lines and stuff. And that there are all the, all the good people on the other side of the room.

00;46;43;10 - 00;46;44;29

THEME SONG

And the moment in the.

00;46;44;29 - 00;46;49;16

Darren Jacobs

Corner, we were the naughty boys.

00;46;49;19 - 00;46;49;28

THEME SONG

But,

00;46;50;04 - 00;46;53;29

Darren Jacobs

Yeah, it was just, it was funny and, and with and.

00;46;54;01 - 00;46;55;22

THEME SONG

It was crazy because.

00;46;55;24 - 00;47;09;10

Darren Jacobs

Leo would catch my eyes and times layer would catch my eye sometimes. And, a normal would catch my eye and they're going, they're like, what? What's going on now? And I'm talking to him. And I explain later.

00;47;09;12 - 00;47;11;29

THEME SONG

I'll explain later.

00;47;12;02 - 00;47;17;12

Alessio Summerfield

That is very cool that you guys were like all able to sort of work in such an environment. I don't know it.

00;47;17;13 - 00;47;18;28

THEME SONG

Yeah, it was, it was.

00;47;19;00 - 00;47;31;29

Alessio Summerfield

Like, go back and yeah, I just want to go back with like an eye for, performance in particular and just like replay and see, like how it all feels again. I don't know, this is all really cool. I love here.

00;47;31;29 - 00;47;34;03

THEME SONG

Yeah. It's the there was such.

00;47;34;03 - 00;48;07;01

Darren Jacobs

A it was such a great cast and, you know, working with these super professionals as well because they, you know, they, they come from theater a real and a, a TV and film background, you know, and, see it, it's it's it's so amazing in on that soundstage because you've got people like me who is theater trained, you've got Norman, who's TV and Leo's movie, you know, and all these different ways of acting on the stage, all working together.

00;48;07;01 - 00;48;14;09

Darren Jacobs

And it works with with that, I could dream of stuff. It works. It's, you know, because his stuff's crazy, so, you know.

00;48;14;11 - 00;48;16;02

THEME SONG

Yeah. Yeah, it's like.

00;48;16;04 - 00;48;16;29

Alessio Summerfield

The easiest way to put it.

00;48;16;29 - 00;48;18;22

THEME SONG

Yeah. Yeah. So.

00;48;18;24 - 00;48;45;06

Darren Jacobs

And I honestly, honestly guys, I have so much respect for all of those actors. You know, the stand ins, they're all the named actors. There's so much back, you know, of people back there. I have my hat goes off to everyone on that soundstage because it really is. It's a for for for his games. I know that he's he's an auteur.

00;48;45;06 - 00;48;49;27

Darren Jacobs

He's the Diaghilev of video games. He's the main producer.

00;48;49;27 - 00;48;51;28

THEME SONG

You can tell these these people.

00;48;52;00 - 00;49;08;26

Darren Jacobs

But he but he has these amazing people underneath him who are just phenomenal. You know, it's unbelievable working with him. It really, really, really is. I was it was one of the best experiences. Like I didn't know what was going on a lot of the.

00;49;08;26 - 00;49;10;15

THEME SONG

Time, but.

00;49;10;15 - 00;49;19;18

Darren Jacobs

It was you just went with it and it was amazing. It's amazing, you know, really, really so much respect. And I'm not just saying that because I want more, more word.

00;49;19;21 - 00;49;22;25

THEME SONG

More, more work. Yeah, I do, I'm not.

00;49;22;27 - 00;49;25;01

Alessio Summerfield

Saying there's a Death Stranding three year trial.

00;49;25;03 - 00;49;26;02

THEME SONG

If if there.

00;49;26;02 - 00;49;28;18

Darren Jacobs

Is, I will not tell you. And if there is.

00;49;28;22 - 00;49;32;05

THEME SONG

I but

00;49;32;07 - 00;49;33;08

Darren Jacobs

But no, I.

00;49;33;14 - 00;49;54;29

Lilliana Wright

So it was, it was this amazing like obviously this huge production and it's and it's kind of crazy. You mentioned before we started talking about all of this that when you're in you're trying to get, you know, access and jobs in the video game industry, it's very difficult until you just kind of takes you seriously. Yeah. So you're auditioning for this really high profile.

00;49;54;29 - 00;50;06;00

Lilliana Wright

This is his first video game since he split away from Konami, where he'd been with for decades. What was the process like to get in the door on it and.

00;50;06;02 - 00;50;28;29

Darren Jacobs

It was an audition for me. There was there was no offer. There was no anything. It was a regular old audition. And what happened with it was I thought it was a regular old voiceover audition, so I was I banged it out and I was like, I'm really happy with this. The actual thing was it was for the project was called Chiral Project Chiral.

00;50;29;01 - 00;50;40;14

Darren Jacobs

So we didn't know anything about it. We didn't know it's Kojima, we didn't know anything. But the guy that I had had narcolepsy and would fall asleep and I was like, oh, okay, this is weird, you know?

00;50;40;14 - 00;50;41;26

THEME SONG

So I was like.

00;50;41;28 - 00;50;46;17

Darren Jacobs

He has narcolepsy. And he falls asleep every 20 minutes, like, right. So but you.

00;50;46;17 - 00;50;51;26

THEME SONG

Know, he's just like us. Yeah. So I did I did it and

00;50;51;29 - 00;51;13;24

Darren Jacobs

I did the voiceover and I was like, yes, brilliant. And then I looked again and I was like, oh shit, it's on camera. Oh my god. And and that wasted time. And I was like, I have to do it now. So I literally taped paper all around the camera.

00;51;13;26 - 00;51;17;04

THEME SONG

From my camera and literally.

00;51;17;04 - 00;51;23;03

Darren Jacobs

And it was like doing my looking off into space when I'm really reading, reading the lines, you.

00;51;23;03 - 00;51;27;06

THEME SONG

Know, making it, making myself like. And I was like, I did not.

00;51;27;06 - 00;51;36;21

Darren Jacobs

Know the lines at all. And I and I just had fun with it and I sent it off. I was like, this is the best. You get in. I didn't know anything. And.

00;51;36;23 - 00;51;37;01

THEME SONG

And.

00;51;37;01 - 00;51;48;28

Darren Jacobs

Then about two days later they said, hey, so, they've given us more details. It's, it's a Kojima, who does Metal Gear Solid. And I was like, what?

00;51;49;01 - 00;51;49;24

THEME SONG

And they were like.

00;51;49;24 - 00;52;02;03

Darren Jacobs

Yeah, and you've got a callback. They want you to do it. And he's given you some specific instructions on redirection and what to do. And, don't be as tired because I was playing tired because, you know.

00;52;02;06 - 00;52;03;29

THEME SONG

Narcolepsy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00;52;04;05 - 00;52;19;08

Darren Jacobs

So and I was like, he was like, don't be as tired. When you wake up, you wake up and then and then you're straight into it. And all this like it was, it was basically just prepping me for, to see whether I could take me direction. And I did it. And I was like, if this is Kojima, okay, it's not going to be this is the best that you get.

00;52;19;08 - 00;52;25;19

Darren Jacobs

And I spent time on it and was like, and I told my friend and he was like.

00;52;25;21 - 00;52;29;14

THEME SONG

Oh my God, you're going to get it. You're going to get it.

00;52;29;16 - 00;52;41;08

Darren Jacobs

I was like, so yeah, I did break that NDA, but it was because he was helping me on this one because I didn't, I didn't. I knew Metal Gear Solid, but I'd never played it. Yeah. And I was like, you know, what do I need to do? He's like, I don't know, it's a good Jima.

00;52;41;08 - 00;52;46;20

THEME SONG

Nobody knows. What it was like I said, oh yeah, yeah. So real.

00;52;46;20 - 00;52;47;03

Lilliana Wright

Honestly.

00;52;47;10 - 00;52;47;19

THEME SONG

Yeah.

00;52;47;20 - 00;53;04;06

Darren Jacobs

So, I, I sent it off and then literally within days they were like, hey, we want you to come down to, Sony Santa Monica and meet and Kojima and all the gang and everybody, and I was crazy. Yeah. I was so nervous.

00;53;04;09 - 00;53;07;06

Alessio Summerfield

So it was all West Coast, essentially. You didn't to go, okay.

00;53;07;12 - 00;53;09;15

THEME SONG

No, I didn't.

00;53;09;17 - 00;53;36;12

Darren Jacobs

For the first game, he did come to the West Coast every time I think, I, I think there was some that they had to do when Norman was filming somewhere. But the second game they did, I know that they had to go around because of Covid and stuff. Oh, they had to go. They had to pack up and go to France because Norman was filming in France, and I was doing some.

00;53;36;14 - 00;53;56;07

Darren Jacobs

She was doing, I think she's doing Dune. Dune two. And so they had to do some stuff around her and, yeah, it was kind of all I only ever worked in, in sunny Santa Monica, I would have, I would have happily packed my suit and hung. So I'll put that out there as well.

00;53;56;10 - 00;54;10;19

Darren Jacobs

Yeah. But, I didn't, I was just here, but it was. Do you know what? It's really crazy on on these two. I was looking forward to it. They were like, hey, Darren. So next month are you available for this? And I'm like, yes.

00;54;10;21 - 00;54;11;28

THEME SONG

00;54;12;00 - 00;54;16;13

Darren Jacobs

There's so much fun. I had so much fun. Mean everybody.

00;54;16;16 - 00;54;22;27

Lilliana Wright

So at what point did you find out that it was going to be your voice coming out of Nicholas's face?

00;54;22;29 - 00;54;24;02

THEME SONG

It wasn't.

00;54;24;04 - 00;54;35;05

Darren Jacobs

They said that I didn't quite understand, I did it. I'm not going to lie to you. I didn't quite understand the whole thing of it. And, And I was like this because it's it's amazing.

00;54;35;10 - 00;54;37;11

THEME SONG

But a lot of even in.

00;54;37;11 - 00;54;45;04

Darren Jacobs

The media now, they still say, oh, it's acted by Nicolas Winding Refn and I don't like.

00;54;45;06 - 00;54;47;21

THEME SONG

Because, like, the whole.

00;54;47;21 - 00;54;56;01

Darren Jacobs

You know, credit where it's due, you know, his, and I love his work. I've seen, I'd say 90% of his, his work and.

00;54;56;01 - 00;54;57;17

Alessio Summerfield

I obviously I was going to ask if you'd seen any of.

00;54;57;18 - 00;54;58;05

Darren Jacobs

Oh, my God.

00;54;58;06 - 00;55;00;19

THEME SONG

Yeah, I love I love.

00;55;00;19 - 00;55;22;07

Darren Jacobs

His work. I do, because, Yeah, I love like, that kind of. I love that kind of stuff. That's, it's it's so cerebral. I loved, like, David Lynch. I loved all that. Kind of loved all the, you know, the Italian and the French, delicatessen and all that kind of movies. I loved that hire. Ones. And so I love his, what did I watch?

00;55;22;07 - 00;55;27;00

Darren Jacobs

Not quite the one that was, what was it? Prime.

00;55;27;02 - 00;55;28;16

Alessio Summerfield

Oh, the, the series.

00;55;28;17 - 00;55;30;04

Darren Jacobs

Yeah. I was in.

00;55;30;04 - 00;55;31;22

Alessio Summerfield

It. Oh my God, yeah, he was.

00;55;31;24 - 00;55;32;21

Darren Jacobs

Miles teller was.

00;55;32;21 - 00;55;34;16

Alessio Summerfield

Like the old, older, young,

00;55;34;18 - 00;55;36;20

Darren Jacobs

To you. Too young to die young.

00;55;36;20 - 00;55;38;11

THEME SONG

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I loved it.

00;55;38;11 - 00;55;38;28

Darren Jacobs

I think I.

00;55;38;28 - 00;55;39;22

THEME SONG

Loved.

00;55;39;22 - 00;55;49;03

Darren Jacobs

That, I absolutely loved it. I do think, and this is me personally. And, you know, who am I to say? But I did think it needed a bit of an an editor to cut some content down a bit.

00;55;49;05 - 00;55;50;24

THEME SONG

Yeah. It was I don't know for sure. For sure.

00;55;50;25 - 00;56;10;09

Darren Jacobs

I loved it. And I bought the soundtrack to it as well because I thought it was so good. Nice. I know I love this stuff, but yeah, I just for me, I it's really difficult because, having such a well-known face, then people just assume that it's the, the face that's actually doing it.

00;56;10;11 - 00;56;13;05

THEME SONG

But Nicholas. Was it. Yeah. Nicholas. Yeah.

00;56;13;07 - 00;56;27;29

Darren Jacobs

So there's a there's a lot more now people knowing that it was actually me that's that's done it. Because I was in the UK, all the, the UK magazines were going, oh my God, Nicholas Wind in reference to such a great actor when we didn't know.

00;56;28;01 - 00;56;29;23

THEME SONG

And I was like,

00;56;29;25 - 00;56;32;11

Darren Jacobs

Come on guys. Yes, he's English as well.

00;56;32;14 - 00;56;33;09

THEME SONG

Yeah.

00;56;33;12 - 00;56;34;08

Darren Jacobs

His English come.

00;56;34;08 - 00;56;34;29

THEME SONG

On. Had.

00;56;34;29 - 00;56;38;14

Alessio Summerfield

So, have you spent any time with him or spoken with him at all? No.

00;56;38;16 - 00;57;00;22

Darren Jacobs

Only, via text. We were doing, a scene and, we were doing some stuff, and, Hideo, Sam was really happy and laughing at some of the stuff that was doing. So he filmed me and sent it to Nicholas and said, this is what you're doing. And he was. He was. Yeah. And he was laughing and saying, hey, hey, Darren and all this lot, but I've not I've not met up with him, but I would love to work at it.

00;57;00;24 - 00;57;01;10

Alessio Summerfield

It's very.

00;57;01;10 - 00;57;02;07

Lilliana Wright

Still the.

00;57;02;09 - 00;57;02;16

THEME SONG

So.

00;57;02;19 - 00;57;04;08

Lilliana Wright

No, no big deal. Just texting Nicholas.

00;57;04;09 - 00;57;07;13

THEME SONG

Yeah. It wasn't me. It was.

00;57;07;20 - 00;57;29;20

Alessio Summerfield

Love. I, it's just funny to me to think of people being like, oh, my God, who knew that that reason was such a great actor? Because, yeah, I think one of the things like, just sort of in like filmmaking circles and stuff, I think Refn is like legendary for having these very weird interviews where he just like, like a giddy little schoolboy.

00;57;29;22 - 00;57;30;28

THEME SONG

Just has.

00;57;30;28 - 00;57;37;23

Alessio Summerfield

Such a crazy personality that it's like, I never in a million years would have been like, oh, yeah, that's him. Right? Yeah it is, you know what I mean?

00;57;37;26 - 00;57;39;12

THEME SONG

Because he's got such a.

00;57;39;14 - 00;57;50;11

Darren Jacobs

He's got such a strong accent. Well, it's gone down now, but I remember seeing one interview with him in the bookstore. It was really funny. He was just. Yeah, he was bouncing off the walls. I was like, what?

00;57;50;11 - 00;57;53;25

THEME SONG

What the hell is going on here? Yeah.

00;57;53;28 - 00;57;56;04

Darren Jacobs

Respect.

00;57;56;07 - 00;57;56;28

THEME SONG

But it was.

00;57;56;28 - 00;58;04;02

Lilliana Wright

And they did the same thing too, with, German del Toro. And it's just like, wow, these directors are really great actors. I who ever knew. Yeah. Turns out.

00;58;04;04 - 00;58;05;04

THEME SONG

I know.

00;58;05;07 - 00;58;18;10

Darren Jacobs

And it's crazy because, I know a couple of, I know Doug Jones, a do you know, do Doug Jones's, Doug Doug Jones basically does all of guillermo's, movies. He was the,

00;58;18;12 - 00;58;20;14

Alessio Summerfield

Oh, he's, he was in Shape of Water. That's right.

00;58;20;14 - 00;58;29;26

Darren Jacobs

Yes. He was he was the it was the, the merman in the Shape of Water. He's the thorn in, Pan's Labyrinth. He was Silver Surfer. He was.

00;58;29;29 - 00;58;30;20

Alessio Summerfield

Of the sapiens.

00;58;30;23 - 00;58;32;27

THEME SONG

He he was h saber, wasn't he?

00;58;32;27 - 00;58;33;29

Darren Jacobs

Yeah, he was in.

00;58;33;29 - 00;58;39;27

Lilliana Wright

It was I just because I was just having a conversation with somebody about how, like, they should bring him back for, like, the multiverse stuff with.

00;58;39;27 - 00;58;40;21

Darren Jacobs

The new oh my.

00;58;40;21 - 00;58;41;25

Lilliana Wright

God, Marvel.

00;58;41;25 - 00;58;49;14

Darren Jacobs

Stuff. And you know, and Doug is one of the nicest people. And I've said to him, I've said to I've said to Doug, you need to tell them.

00;58;49;17 - 00;58;57;08

THEME SONG

That I will do anything. And, you know, in his movies I will do. You had this because I love I.

00;58;57;08 - 00;59;27;08

Darren Jacobs

Love his stuff. I am one of those actors. I love working anyway, but I love working with people who have crazy visions. And that's why it's in their own way. Nicholas and Hideo San and and, Gilmore. A perfect trio because they're so wacky in their own way. And, you know, it's like they're they're just out there. Think out of the box and they're pushing, forwards, you know?

00;59;27;12 - 00;59;28;28

Darren Jacobs

So, you know, I I'd love.

00;59;28;28 - 00;59;30;18

THEME SONG

To I, I.

00;59;30;23 - 00;59;38;03

Darren Jacobs

Would love to I'd love to. I'll tell you what I would love I would love to play Hartman in the new movie if they did the, you know, what did they have to write?

00;59;38;05 - 00;59;38;16

THEME SONG

I'll probably.

00;59;38;18 - 00;59;40;02

Alessio Summerfield

I keep forgetting that that's a thing.

00;59;40;04 - 00;59;40;19

THEME SONG

Yeah.

00;59;40;19 - 00;59;53;09

Lilliana Wright

There's a funny thing that I, that I did want to bring up, though, is that we, on your website, you have, like, things that you've done listed and you have a side by side shot of Hartman and you in glasses.

00;59;53;09 - 00;59;53;22

THEME SONG

Yes.

00;59;53;22 - 00;59;57;23

Lilliana Wright

And you do look remarkably similar to him in that photograph.

00;59;57;25 - 00;59;59;03

THEME SONG

That's the only reason.

00;59;59;03 - 01;00;10;10

Darren Jacobs

Is that that I never it was it was, a friend of mine that picked it out in headshots, and I was like, oh, my God, that is perfect.

01;00;10;12 - 01;00;13;29

THEME SONG

So, yeah, I.

01;00;14;01 - 01;00;33;27

Darren Jacobs

That was that was purely by chance and by accident. And it was, it was I think I did that on those photos before, prior to doing, to doing Hartman and, yeah, I would yeah. If, you know, I would love to on, on the big screen, I, you know.

01;00;33;28 - 01;00;42;04

Alessio Summerfield

Yeah. It's crazy. You get there. That headshot of you and your glasses has somehow magically made its way in into an envelope that I'm sending to my friend at A24 right now.

01;00;42;06 - 01;00;45;05

THEME SONG

Have I love it, I love it, I'll give you.

01;00;45;05 - 01;00;48;16

Darren Jacobs

The, the money for that later.

01;00;48;19 - 01;00;49;04

THEME SONG

01;00;49;24 - 01;01;08;04

Alessio Summerfield

Darren, thank you so much. I know we we're coming up close to time, I guess, I while while we have you, I know that there are probably, rifle laser sights pointed at all of our heads right now, but is there anything you can tell us about Death Stranding to to get people excited at all?

01;01;08;10 - 01;01;09;29

Alessio Summerfield

Anything legally that you.

01;01;10;01 - 01;01;12;29

THEME SONG

Yeah, I.

01;01;13;02 - 01;01;15;22

Darren Jacobs

I have to be very careful, like I said, but.

01;01;15;25 - 01;01;18;21

Alessio Summerfield

For sure, for sure.

01;01;18;24 - 01;01;20;09

Darren Jacobs

In Death Stranding.

01;01;20;09 - 01;01;21;08

THEME SONG

One.

01;01;21;10 - 01;01;50;20

Darren Jacobs

Hideo San, he wanted to do a game about connecting. So there's very few deaths in the first game because it's all about connecting. It's all about the rope rather than the stick. The second game is more about the stick, and he wanted to give them more of, his fans, more of what they were expecting. So there is.

01;01;50;23 - 01;01;52;07

THEME SONG

More.

01;01;52;10 - 01;01;59;26

Darren Jacobs

Fights and badassery going on. Like me, me turning to, Magellan Man is just.

01;01;59;26 - 01;02;03;05

THEME SONG

Like, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. When, when when.

01;02;03;05 - 01;02;19;20

Darren Jacobs

We had that, it was it was so nuts because, I didn't know until I got my script. A couple of days before. And then when I came in, I was like, what's, what's all this about? And they showed me the artwork and I was like.

01;02;19;23 - 01;02;25;22

THEME SONG

No, What? And they were like, yep. I was like.

01;02;25;22 - 01;02;29;03

Darren Jacobs

Oh my God, this is a major tick for me, you know? Yeah.

01;02;29;06 - 01;02;29;15

THEME SONG

You know.

01;02;29;20 - 01;02;32;21

Darren Jacobs

I want it to be, power like a Power Ranger or something.

01;02;32;25 - 01;02;35;11

THEME SONG

Yeah, yeah. So it was like.

01;02;35;15 - 01;02;44;05

Lilliana Wright

In a in a in a trailer filled with, like, incredibly hype moment after hype moment. You you. That was one of the highest.

01;02;44;05 - 01;02;47;14

THEME SONG

Moments, I know, but I was like, I was so shocked.

01;02;47;14 - 01;02;57;17

Darren Jacobs

When I saw it. I didn't think they'd. I didn't think that he'd like that one out, that little secret. And I was like, so I was so shocked. I was like, Holy shit!

01;02;57;19 - 01;03;00;03

THEME SONG

When it came out, I was like, oh my God.

01;03;00;06 - 01;03;05;26

Darren Jacobs

So yeah, it was, it was it's it's really

01;03;05;28 - 01;03;07;11

THEME SONG

It's it's a different.

01;03;07;11 - 01;03;32;07

Darren Jacobs

Beast is the second one. From from what I know, you know, from, from the scenes that I've done, but it's, But he's so smart. He's all, Well, he does. It's almost like he's telling the future. So it's tied in very much with now, but also with the future as well. I, I can't say because I'll be giving.

01;03;32;09 - 01;03;32;27

THEME SONG

You know.

01;03;32;29 - 01;03;59;14

Darren Jacobs

Secrets and stuff. I what I can say is that, it was amazing to work with all these great actors and, people like Elle, and, she really and everybody and and just seeing them working and and all the stuff that that's why I think he wants to have really good actors who people like, because he wants that realism of the actors to tone down the craziness of the world around.

01;03;59;17 - 01;04;02;11

Alessio Summerfield

Yeah, that's an yeah. Yeah. I never even thought about that.

01;04;02;11 - 01;04;05;24

Darren Jacobs

Yeah. So and and just to.

01;04;05;27 - 01;04;08;21

THEME SONG

To do that.

01;04;08;24 - 01;04;18;02

Darren Jacobs

There's going to be a lot of surprises. There's going to be. But I say that and then I watched it online and there's some people whose brains are just crazy like his actually.

01;04;18;04 - 01;04;19;06

THEME SONG

01;04;19;06 - 01;04;22;14

Darren Jacobs

Picking things out. And I'm like, oh my God, how the hell did they get.

01;04;22;14 - 01;04;25;14

THEME SONG

That from this thing?

01;04;25;16 - 01;04;27;05

Darren Jacobs

It's insane. So, so.

01;04;27;05 - 01;04;29;04

Lilliana Wright

What you're telling us is that we need to go on Reddit and.

01;04;29;04 - 01;04;33;13

THEME SONG

Then everything is true. Yeah. I'm like, oh.

01;04;33;16 - 01;04;34;01

Darren Jacobs

Yeah, no.

01;04;34;01 - 01;04;35;00

Alessio Summerfield

It's hard to hear, folks.

01;04;35;00 - 01;04;35;27

THEME SONG

Yeah.

01;04;35;29 - 01;04;37;24

Alessio Summerfield

Yeah. And Jacob's is a thing. Of all of your.

01;04;37;24 - 01;04;38;19

THEME SONG

Experience, I'm.

01;04;38;19 - 01;04;40;17

Darren Jacobs

Totally fired now. I'm totally fired.

01;04;40;17 - 01;04;42;09

THEME SONG

I'm blacklisted.

01;04;42;12 - 01;04;46;17

Darren Jacobs

No, I I'm trying to I'm trying to be good because I, I.

01;04;46;18 - 01;04;47;06

Alessio Summerfield

You're doing great.

01;04;47;06 - 01;04;50;12

THEME SONG

You're doing great. You know, because I was just like.

01;04;50;15 - 01;05;06;04

Darren Jacobs

In the run up to it, people kept on saying, hey, are you in it? And I'm like, because I when the first trailer came out, I was like, I can't say that. I mean it. And I was like, this is such an amazing look. To be a part of the Death Stranding world. It looks amazing. I'm so glad to see what comes out.

01;05;06;07 - 01;05;18;28

Darren Jacobs

And then all of a sudden it was in the all the computer magazines that I made the statement that I'm not in it, at which point I'm getting phone calls from Kojima Productions and Sony.

01;05;18;28 - 01;05;23;13

THEME SONG

And I'm like, oh my God, I didn't say that. But that's not what happened. Yeah. It's crazy.

01;05;23;15 - 01;05;26;22

Alessio Summerfield

I don't even think I remember seeing that quote. Yeah.

01;05;26;24 - 01;05;39;02

Darren Jacobs

So and it was, it was insane. But so and then I had to be like when they did drop, real drop my name, I was like, hey, only kidding.

01;05;39;04 - 01;05;40;02

THEME SONG

And I never said it.

01;05;40;02 - 01;05;51;17

Darren Jacobs

I was just messing with one of one of the, fans who I chat to. Well, I used to. I used to be on, X or Twitter, until I left it. So it became a horrendous place.

01;05;51;17 - 01;05;53;09

THEME SONG

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I.

01;05;53;11 - 01;05;55;05

Alessio Summerfield

Some somebody who's involved, it's some.

01;05;55;05 - 01;05;56;20

THEME SONG

Terrible. Yeah, exactly. I can't.

01;05;56;20 - 01;05;57;02

Alessio Summerfield

Remember the.

01;05;57;02 - 01;05;58;09

THEME SONG

Name, but. Yeah, exactly.

01;05;58;09 - 01;06;33;21

Darren Jacobs

So I left and but I used to have a with a lot of, people that I chat with because, you know, I like chatting with all the fans because at the end of the day, you know, we are doing it for the fans. We, you know, we only working because the fans are buying the game and, you know, so that's why I do the, podcast and stuff like that because I appreciate I loved working on it and I love the people like playing the game or, you know, or even just enjoy the concept of the game or whatever of the games that he does.

01;06;33;21 - 01;06;39;06

Darren Jacobs

So, you know, so that's, that's why I, I like doing all this kind of stuff.

01;06;39;09 - 01;06;43;27

Alessio Summerfield

But yeah. Well on that note, we yeah, we we loved having you. Thanks.

01;06;44;04 - 01;06;45;29

THEME SONG

So yeah. So little.

01;06;46;02 - 01;06;58;25

Alessio Summerfield

Is there, I mean, other than, this insane video game that's coming out in months, is there anything else that that you want to plug for our listeners? Anything that you want to promote, anything that we've got going on.

01;06;58;28 - 01;06;59;21

THEME SONG

I don't.

01;06;59;21 - 01;07;01;14

Lilliana Wright

I where can they find you as well?

01;07;01;16 - 01;07;03;13

THEME SONG

I am on.

01;07;03;15 - 01;07;09;25

Darren Jacobs

Instagram. It's Darren Jacobs, my fake last name without the vowels.

01;07;09;28 - 01;07;10;26

THEME SONG

And,

01;07;10;28 - 01;07;20;07

Darren Jacobs

And, I'm on, blue sky. I've gone off of, the other ones. I'm still on Facebook. Go. That's that's like just me messing around and.

01;07;20;09 - 01;07;21;13

Alessio Summerfield

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01;07;21;13 - 01;07;21;26

Darren Jacobs

But,

01;07;21;28 - 01;07;23;06

Alessio Summerfield

That's for all the fans out there.

01;07;23;13 - 01;07;31;29

THEME SONG

Yeah, it really is. I had to, you know, I had to blog my mum. My mum is. Oh no. Oh I was like mum. No because you.

01;07;31;29 - 01;07;37;12

Darren Jacobs

Me it should be embarrassing me on, on social media I'm like. And my friends were all laughing and taking the Mickey out of me.

01;07;37;12 - 01;07;43;13

THEME SONG

I'm like, oh, I'm like, you're officially blocked.

01;07;43;16 - 01;07;44;04

THEME SONG

Yeah.

01;07;44;07 - 01;07;48;07

Darren Jacobs

I am in some stuff I can't NDAs and yeah.

01;07;48;10 - 01;07;53;13

Alessio Summerfield

Right, right, right, right. Yeah. Well, we'll tell everybody to keep an eye. Your career's on our radar. Yeah.

01;07;53;19 - 01;08;07;09

Darren Jacobs

There is something that I'm really proud of at the moment. I did a lot of work. I actually just did some more work recently. It's called No Rest for the wicked. It's, Either people who did, or and or and the Blind Forest.

01;08;07;10 - 01;08;08;24

THEME SONG

And for the good of West.

01;08;08;24 - 01;08;10;13

Alessio Summerfield

I was just seeing something about this game. Yeah, yeah.

01;08;10;13 - 01;08;22;28

Darren Jacobs

It's it's, it's really, really good. I play, like, one of the villains. The. And I play, I play so many little characters in it now are. They're only supposed to be small, but the studio.

01;08;22;28 - 01;08;24;24

THEME SONG

Really liked what I did.

01;08;24;27 - 01;08;30;21

Darren Jacobs

So they kept on bringing me back, like, and then made them like, there's a character called the Shit Scraper.

01;08;30;24 - 01;08;33;16

THEME SONG

I'm sorry. And he goes. He goes around.

01;08;33;16 - 01;08;35;15

Darren Jacobs

After the horses and scrapes at the Horseman.

01;08;35;15 - 01;08;39;09

THEME SONG

Yeah, but he's like, he's this crazy old man.

01;08;39;12 - 01;08;40;23

Darren Jacobs

But they thought it was hilarious.

01;08;40;23 - 01;08;46;21

THEME SONG

So they made him like a big character, That's great. So yeah, it's.

01;08;46;21 - 01;08;59;15

Darren Jacobs

Funny and that's a great that's I can talk about that because that's out there. Oh, and, I keep forgetting when I did, I, I'm the, I'm the voice of, John Constantine in the new DC, Dark Legion.

01;08;59;18 - 01;09;00;25

THEME SONG

Oh. Oh, wow.

01;09;00;25 - 01;09;01;24

Alessio Summerfield

That's granulation. So that's.

01;09;01;24 - 01;09;02;11

THEME SONG

Great. That was good.

01;09;02;11 - 01;09;18;11

Darren Jacobs

Yeah, it was really a lot of. Again, that was amazing to, to to see these amazing actors, doing all these other roles. So that was a that was a really cool, that was a really, really nice to work with Warner Brothers. That I really enjoyed it. Yeah.

01;09;18;11 - 01;09;19;11

THEME SONG

That's awesome. Yeah.

01;09;19;11 - 01;09;25;08

Alessio Summerfield

So well, we will definitely check out all of those things. I myself will probably check out there's No rest for the wicked. So thank you for mine.

01;09;25;08 - 01;09;26;07

THEME SONG

It's good. No, no.

01;09;26;07 - 01;09;28;16

Darren Jacobs

No worries.

01;09;28;18 - 01;09;34;26

Alessio Summerfield

Nice. Well, yeah. Liliana, was there anything else you want to mention while we have Darren or we're going to wrap?

01;09;34;27 - 01;09;39;20

Lilliana Wright

No. Nothing specific. Just thank you so much for for taking the time. We've very much enjoyed having you on the show now.

01;09;39;20 - 01;09;40;26

THEME SONG

It's been great I love it.

01;09;40;27 - 01;09;43;09

Darren Jacobs

Great questions by the way as well.

01;09;43;12 - 01;09;44;03

THEME SONG

Thank you.

01;09;44;08 - 01;09;54;05

Darren Jacobs

Really good. You know, because I sometimes when you get interviewed it's kind of the same ones. And then I feel like a fraud, you know, because I'll say the same answer that I might have said.

01;09;54;07 - 01;09;57;15

THEME SONG

To somebody else. Yeah. And I'm like, yeah. You know, so.

01;09;57;15 - 01;09;58;09

Darren Jacobs

That's that's good.

01;09;58;09 - 01;10;02;26

THEME SONG

And you with the Hollyoaks, I was like, yeah.

01;10;02;29 - 01;10;08;24

Lilliana Wright

I mean people that got Hollyoaks, that was that, that hit me specifically in my head. So I needed that.

01;10;08;27 - 01;10;10;15

THEME SONG

I still, I still get people go.

01;10;10;15 - 01;10;16;05

Darren Jacobs

Crazy when they go, you go in Hollyoaks I'm like unfortunately yeah.

01;10;16;07 - 01;10;23;22

Alessio Summerfield

I don't know why, but as you guys keep saying the title, my brain keeps interpreting it as Holly Oates and it's a soap opera about the holidays.

01;10;23;24 - 01;10;28;01

THEME SONG

All it does nothing is yeah.

01;10;28;03 - 01;10;29;13

Lilliana Wright

There's enough drama there to drive it.

01;10;29;17 - 01;10;29;29

THEME SONG

Yeah.

01;10;29;29 - 01;10;33;26

Alessio Summerfield

That's true. That's very true.

01;10;33;28 - 01;10;41;17

THEME SONG

Just about.

01;10;41;19 - 01;10;43;22

THEME SONG