[Musical interlude]
Segment 1: San Diego Comic-Con – Nerd HQ
MEAGAN MARIE: Hey, everyone, Meagan Marie here! If it’s a little bit noisy I apologize, but we are on the show floor at Nerd HQ at San Diego Comic-Con 2012. Now, because we’re at Comic-Con, it means we have access to a lot of awesome talent for this episode, which I think is episode 12 already. First off, we’re going to interview Zachary Levi, and we’re going to chat with him briefly about the Final Hours of Tomb Raider and his involvement on that project, about his work with Nerd HQ, and the awesome charity work that he does. We’re also going to do a Take Five with Karl, and answer a couple of pressing questions that popped up since of E3. We’re going to end with a really lengthy and awesome interview with Camilla Luddington, talking about her recent debut as the voice and performance artist of Lara Croft. So! Enjoy the Crystal Habit podcast, episode 12.
[Musical interlude]
MEAGAN MARIE: We are here at San Diego Comic-Con, and I’m super excited to have a special guest here, because as I’ve said on the podcast before, I think people get tired of just hearing Karl and my voices. So I have Zach Levi here with me!
ZACHARY LEVI: Hi!
MEAGAN MARIE: Hi, thank you so much for joining us.
ZACHARY LEVI: I like that I’m a special guest.
MEAGAN MARIE: Yeah…
ZACHARY LEVI: Is this special like little yellow bus special?
MEAGAN MARIE: You’re special as in anyone that’s not at Crystal. So where are we? We are here at Nerd HQ.
ZACHARY LEVI: You’re at Nerd HQ, my little brainchild.
MEAGAN MARIE: Yeah, it’s your baby at Comic-Con.
ZACHARY LEVI: We started the Nerd Machine…two Comic-Cons ago, so this is the third Comic-Con that the company has existed. But the first year was just kind of a soft launch. The first official Nerd Party. We had a lot of fun, and the next year around, we… You know, we were just trying to have a little presence, a little booth on the convention floor, and throw one more party. And that just kind of snowballed into our own event, our own mini-Comic-Con at Comic-Con. Last year we had a lot of fun, and it was really special, and so we’ve just tried to build on that. Basically, it’s just a giant free event for fans to come and play kick-ass video games that they can’t get their hands on anywhere else. You guys, Tomb Raider, are essentially premiering in a public stance. Critics, some people have been able to play it. But not the world. So this will be the first time anybody gets their hands on that. New Gears of War is here as well…
MEAGAN MARIE: I’m excited to see that one too.
ZACHARY LEVI: Gosh, what are some other ones that we have? Looking around the room…
MEAGAN MARIE: Everything’s being set up right now, so not everything’s put up…
ZACHARY LEVI: Yeah. It’s just… I mean, as a gamer myself, I love the idea of offering a big hands-on arcade for people. And then simultaneously there’s computers and charging stations everywhere. I wanted it to feel like a really cool nerdy clubhouse. I wanted it to feel like this place where people could go and if they needed to take a break from the hecticness of the convention floor, they could. It’s really right nearby…
MEAGAN MARIE: Yeah, just a couple of blocks away.
ZACHARY LEVI: And then the entire time, we have our own panels that we throw that are very small, very intimate, and they’re all for charity, called Conversations for a Cause. Last year we raised 40 grand, I think this year between the panels and some other branded things we’re doing for money… We’re hoping to raise about a hundred grand.
MEAGAN MARIE: That would be great. We talked about, on the blog, and in our different social media outlets… We have the Tomb Raider panel, but what are some of the other highlights in terms of panels, what are you excited about?
ZACHARY LEVI: Oh, gosh…
MEAGAN MARIE: Everything, I know.
ZACHARY LEVI: It’s funny how some things work out. Last year, we had a kind of rudimentary ticket-selling system. This year we really thought we had it figured out, and it blew up in our faces. We had people trying to buy so many tickets at the same time.
MEAGAN MARIE: Well, that’s a good thing… It’s good that people are excited.
ZACHARY LEVI: Well, yes. Absolutely. And it ended up kind of working out in our favor a little bit, or rather the charity’s favor, because a few of those panels oversold by double. The shopping cart couldn’t refresh fast enough, so we ended up selling twice as many tickets as we were supposed to. Actually more than double. But we were able to add extra panels in order to accommodate that, so… We’re doing a Chuck panel, obviously. It’s the first panel that this cast has done since the show was wrapped, the first time fans have been able to gather and talk to us or ask us any more questions, so I’m excited about that.
MEAGAN MARIE: A reunion.
ZACHARY LEVI: A reunion of sorts, yes. We’re doing two of those, we double-booked that one. We double-booked Nathan Fillion, he was ready to offer us a second one.
MEAGAN MARIE: Of course. Everybody loves him.
ZACHARY LEVI: Absolutely. Joss Whedon is doing a panel with us. Guillermo del Toro is doing a panel with us. You guys are doing a panel with us. And I’ll be a part of that one as well. Damon Lindelof. Gosh, who else?
MEAGAN MARIE: It sounds like you guys will hit that mark.
ZACHARY LEVI: We’re trying.
MEAGAN MARIE: And does everything go to Operation Smile?
ZACHARY LEVI: Every penny from the panels. The only money that the Nerd Machine makes on this event is merch that we may or may not sell. I believe in incentivizing people. Give them a cool place to come, they’ll dig what you do and who you are… Then they’ll support you. So I’m hoping that we get traffic through, that people appreciate this, that through that they’ll want to buy a shirt.
MEAGAN MARIE: Great!
ZACHARY LEVI: Yeah. But all the panel money, all that goes to charity.
MEAGAN MARIE: That’s fantastic, I know that’s a really cool angle. So you kind of have provided your incentive for Nerd HQ, but how did Nerd Machine in general evolve? Where did that come from, what was your inspiration or motivation for starting it up?
ZACHARY LEVI: I guess I just kind of… I consider myself to be a nerd. First of all, there’s a couple of things I wanted to accomplish with the Nerd Machine. One of them was offering kind of a life brand for nerd culture. I looked around the kind of landscape of brands, and clothing and stuff like that, and there wasn’t one, you know, solid brand for nerds. If you’re an athlete of any kind, if you’re a traditional athlete, Reebok and Adidas and Nike and all that stuff…
MEAGAN MARIE: You have your jerseys and stuff.
ZACHARY LEVI: Totally. If you’re into extreme sports, there’s Quiksilver and Volcom and Rip Curl and all that stuff. But if your sport is more in the range of gaming or comics or whatever… There was no real brand for you. You could go on Café Press and get some quirky ironic shirt. But there was no unified brand. There was no brand that nerds across the board could all buy a nerd shirt, a Nerd Machine shirt, and say, I’m with you, we’re on the same team. We’re into the same thing. So that was one thing I wanted to do. And that was… That’s just the tip of the iceberg, right? Ideally, if you want to continue to build a company and offer gadgets and gizmos and hardware and software and content… Apparel was just the easiest and smartest place for us to start with all that. But then another thing I wanted to accomplish with Nerd Machine is really kind of turning the tables on the way people perceive nerds. I think that being a nerd just means that you’re passionate about something.
MEAGAN MARIE: Yeah, exactly.
ZACHARY LEVI: That just gets applied to what Japanese call the otaku way… Like you’re into anime or comic books or video games. You live in your mom’s basement or whatever. Clearly you’re very passionate about those things. But there are people that are so passionate about basketball that if you were to ask them a question about their favorite team, their favorite player, they would rattle on for hours about it. I’d say they’re a nerd about that, you know? Jay Leno is a nerd about cars. The guy owns a thousand billion cars. That’s a number, I looked it up. He could tell you anything there is to know about a friggin’ carburetor. So it’s just… whatever you’re passionate about. So I really wanted to kind of tell everyone, look, you’re all a nerd, and then thereby break down the barriers and break down the ways that people get stereotyped. It’s not just the horn-rimmed glasses and the pocket protector. You can be passionate about anything, and therefore be a nerd about anything, and therefore anyone can wear the nerd shirt.
MEAGAN MARIE: So you can embrace the term, kind of shift the connotations of it. That’s great.
ZACHARY LEVI: We’re being honest. “Nerd” is a made-up word from Dr. Seuss, so… You know what I mean? “Geek” was a term from the carnivals. What they’ve all become now is kind of, in modern nomenclature… It is what it is. But it doesn’t mean we can’t embrace it.
MEAGAN MARIE: And we can at events like this, where the entire city right now… That’s one thing I love about Comic-Con, the entire city is just dripping in fandom, any type of fandom. That’s what I love about it. I’ll go on a Comic-Con tangent, because I love this show. So… Is Nerd Machine sort of your future? Is acting still where you’re staying, that’s going to be your vocation, or are you trying to expand into different venues? Is “nerd” kind of where it’s at?
ZACHARY LEVI: Well, I…
MEAGAN MARIE: Are you gonna stay a jack of all trades? Because you are!
ZACHARY LEVI: Well, I try to be. I don’t know. Look, I think that when you’re blessed enough to have opportunity, and that opportunity gives you a certain amount of voice or command over something, or a power of sorts, you know… You can either utilize that, or you can waste it. One of the things that I saw happening with Chuck and the audience that we built over that time, I really believed in the audience, I really believed in the fans. That is just on a philosophical level, it’s an entertainment thing, let’s not get ahead of ourselves… I don’t believe in glorifying actors to be anything other than entertainers. And that’s also, by the way, a very important goal. For a while, I kind of was always like… I downplayed it. And then I went on a USO tour. I was at some military bases in the Middle East and Africa. And it was amazing how many soldiers…and Navy men, Navy guys don’t like to be called “soldiers”…
MEAGAN MARIE: The things you learn on the road…
ZACHARY LEVI: Exactly, right? Just servicemen and women, that would come up and get a Chuck DVD signed and say, you have no idea how much your show means to me and my family. I would connect with these people. It’s how I can spend my time, 16 months or 15 months at a time. And so I realized that we actually do provide a pretty cool service to people, an escape, the chance to enjoy some time away from whatever their vocation may be. So I do think it’s cool to be an entertainer. But I think that you’re only as good as your audience, you’re only as good as your fans. I think you really need to take care of them and foster those relationships. So through all that time, I was like, look, I just want to do cool things, I want to do memorable things.
MEAGAN MARIE: Yeah…
ZACHARY LEVI: And I believe in being an entrepreneur and I believe in being a philanthropist, I believe in incentivizing people. So as ideas come into my mind and I think of cool things that I would like to do, I want to make them a reality. That doesn’t mean I have to stop acting or writing or directing or producing, hopefully, all that stuff can feed into the Nerd Machine and vice versa. I mean, I have so many ideas for shows that I want to produce and maybe they’ll all be on our own network. Turn on your smart TV in a couple of years and there’ll be a Nerd Machine channel or a sister company that has our content. You’ll go, oh, cool, it’s that show with Zach and Nathan Fillion, God willing. I mean, that would be amazing! Just being ourselves and totally autonomous. Our fans are the ones that support it. You’re not beholden to advertisers anymore, you’re not going to need that, you just pay as you go. I see a brave new world of content.
MEAGAN MARIE: So curating and creating the content. That sounds great.
ZACHARY LEVI: Yeah!
MEAGAN MARIE: Having a flexible future to do whatever you love. That doesn’t sound so bad. I like that.
ZACHARY LEVI: And all the while kind of believing in the idea of what I call conscientious capitalism, which is… It’s okay to make a buck in this world, and to give a buck at the same time. Do things where people are incentivized to help you survive and you can in turn help others to survive.
MEAGAN MARIE: Giving back. That’s a great motto. So when we… We just recently announced you as the host of the Final Hours, which is extremely exciting. When we announced you, we got a whole bunch of people on Twitter going, CHUCK! They were all excited. Then we also got a bunch of people going, FLYNN! So you’ve done V/O before, you did Flynn in Tangled, and you’ve also, correct me if I’m wrong, done Halo Reach and Fallout New Vegas. You had some parts in that. So is voice acting something else that you want to keep doing in the future?
ZACHARY LEVI: Yeah, I think that falls right into acting, still. Entertaining, still. In fact, it’s in a really cool and different way, it’s a challenge to me, to create an entire character with just your voice. I mean obviously the designers are building these characters, in Tangled it was the modelers and… Actually I guess that’s true for video games as well. You’ve got to animate these characters, bring them to life. There was no mocap, I’ve never done any mocap…
MEAGAN MARIE: Add that to your list.
ZACHARY LEVI: Yeah, right? But you’re still forming, you’re still bringing a character to life, and I think it’s so much fun. And because I love video games, it’s fun to play a video game where I’m like, that’s me!
MEAGAN MARIE: Is it kind of surreal?
ZACHARY LEVI: It’s so weird.
MEAGAN MARIE: I have to imagine. Every once in a while I’ll do temp V/O in the game, and it’s just really bizarre. And actually kind of embarrassing, because I’m not trained in any capacity, so I hear my voice coming out of the game and I usually just shy away and start walking away. But it’s weird! It is.
ZACHARY LEVI: Unless you’re, like, those super-famous movie trailer guys…
MEAGAN MARIE: “I love the sound of my voice…”
ZACHARY LEVI: “This summer…” Those guys love their voice. But everyone else, it’s kind of like the answering machine syndrome. When you hear your voice on someone’s answering machine, is that really me? Is that what I sound like? You go to play this back, and my god, I sound so nasal, what’s the problem?
MEAGAN MARIE: At this point I’ve been doing the podcast for, what, 11 or 12 episodes now? I’m kind of getting used to it, people tell me it’s not as offensive as I think it is. So that was actually the next question I was going to ask you, about what other roles you’d like to try in gaming. We need to find a way to get you into some mocap, too. Right? You’ve done voice acting…
ZACHARY LEVI: Video games or film, whatever… I don’t know. Honestly, I have some favorite types of games. But to me, I just want to do cool stuff. Whether it’s a title that already exists or has yet to exist or whatever, I just want to do stuff that people dig. I want to be a character in a game where people, at the end of that game, go, wow, that was satisfying! I believe in satisfying people. I hate it when you’re part of something and at the end of it you go… Yeah, that was alright.
MEAGAN MARIE: Knock it out of the park.
ZACHARY LEVI: There’s nothing worse than “good enough.” I’d rather try with all my might and fail than be good enough. Good enough sucks.
MEAGAN MARIE: I can understand that.
ZACHARY LEVI: Either be great or die trying.
MEAGAN MARIE: Awesome. That’s a good motto too. Okay, so any future projects that you can talk about that you’re excited about?
ZACHARY LEVI: Well, yeah. I just, actually just last night, I was able to finally announce that I’ll be doing Thor 2.
MEAGAN MARIE: How exciting is that?
ZACHARY LEVI: Beyond exciting.
MEAGAN MARIE: I mean, as a massive nerd…
ZACHARY LEVI: Yeah.
MEAGAN MARIE: You must just be…
ZACHARY LEVI: Marvel was a huge part of my childhood, and even now, I’ll still kind of check in from time to time. I’m more in the graphic novel world… Talk about a dream role, not necessarily video games, but I’d love to be Yorick in Y: The Last Man.
MEAGAN MARIE: Ohhh! Best comic ever. Sorry, I’m going to geek out. I love that book.
ZACHARY LEVI: It’s so good.
MEAGAN MARIE: I’m going to start a petition. You’d make a great Yorick.
ZACHARY LEVI: Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I think so. But anyway, that’s besides the point. The point is… When Thor one came around, it’s actually a really crazy kind of serendipitous kismet whatever, but… So I auditioned for Thor one. I got the job as Fandral. And then Chuck, at the eleventh hour, got picked up for six more episodes, and I couldn’t do it.
MEAGAN MARIE: Oh, no…
ZACHARY LEVI: So Josh Dallas ended up doing a fine job with it, but now his show, Once Upon a Time, conflicts with the schedule for the second.
MEAGAN MARIE: So you get a second chance. It’s yours!
ZACHARY LEVI: They called and said, you wanna do this? And I was like, man… I mean, I feel like it’s kind of meant to be. I wasn’t able to do it the first time around, but it came back. It’s like that old adage, if you love something, set it free.
MEAGAN MARIE: And it’ll return to you.
ZACHARY LEVI: That’s so lame. It’s so lame.
MEAGAN MARIE: Well, that’s a very exciting project.
ZACHARY LEVI: I’m super excited. I get to be this Errol Flynn lothario, Fandral the dashing, and work with Chris Hemsworth and Anthony Hopkins and Natalie Portman and Ray Stevenson…
MEAGAN MARIE: It’s a pretty good cast of characters.
ZACHARY LEVI: It’s so ridiculous. And I’ll live in England for five months and be there during the Olympics. I don’t know, it’s just a dream come true.
MEAGAN MARIE: Awesome. Well, I’m very excited to hear that, that’s a really cool role. Alright, well, thank you so much for stopping in. We’re going to let you go, because we’re actually about to have you record more Final Hours.
ZACHARY LEVI: Love it!
MEAGAN MARIE: Alright, see you later.
[Musical interlude]
Segment 2: Take Five
MEAGAN MARIE: Okay, so we are still at Nerd HQ, we just had a really lovely interview with Zach Levi
KARL STEWART: Isn’t he cool?
MEAGAN MARIE: He’s very nice. Alright, so we do have some other Tomb Raider goodness, we have our Take Five. Were you here… Did we have one last time? No, you were traveling. I think we skipped it because we had that whole E3 thing which was like a Take 500, we answered so many questions that we just skipped it for a month.
KARL STEWART: Once nobody answered questions when I was away, and I don’t know what the answers were…
MEAGAN MARIE: Alright, so I have five very specific questions that I’ve been hearing over and over and over.
KARL STEWART: Okay, so just before we start, everybody, normally she shows me the five questions… I have not seen these questions.
MEAGAN MARIE: He has no idea what these are. I like it this way, because then I keep you on your toes. Media training.
KARL STEWART: Okay, yes, exactly.
MEAGAN MARIE: Okay! So, the first question is kind of E3-related, actually, because people are wondering if the… If Tomb Raider will ever take advantage of Square Enix’s new graphics engine, the Luminous engine.
KARL STEWART: That’s kind of a tough question, because… You know, what the guys have been doing on Luminous, as I believe you saw, is absolutely phenomenal. They’ve been working on that for so long. I think as a company that shows the vision of where we want to go. It shows the vision of how every single studio is looking at the technology that we’ve got. Whether we as a studio ourselves use it has yet to be seen. But certainly, you know… There are cross-benefits of the technology that we’re seeing come through.
MEAGAN MARIE: Learnings and best practices and all that within the studio.
KARL STEWART: It was built by the team in Japan, so as we know, even working with Visual Works… When systems are built that way, by that team, to operate and use, when you try and take that entire engine and move it across to our game, there’s a lot of translations, a lot of work. It’s built specifically for them in a way. I can’t talk too much because I don’t actually know. When it was presented they kept it under wraps.
MEAGAN MARIE: And we have our own fantastic engine, too.
KARL STEWART: We have our own fantastic engine. We’re excited to see the company pushing with Luminous, but we have our own, and you know, we push our engine pretty hard. Everybody has seen that with this new Tomb Raider.
MEAGAN MARIE: So no plans, no specific plans, but we’re proud of what the company has been doing.
KARL STEWART: Yeah, no plans at this stage to use it right now at all.
MEAGAN MARIE: Second question. Some fans have spotted a Games for Windows Live symbol used in conjunction with Tomb Raider and are somewhat concerned with some DRM issues. Can you clarify our stance on that, if we are taking advantage of Games for Windows Live?
KARL STEWART: No, there’s no plans right now to do Games for Windows Live. I’m not sure where that logo was seen. It may have been something somebody else put up. It’s certainly not from the studio. In terms of DRM… We’ve had some great successes with Steam. We are doing a boxed version of course, but they’ve been great partners in the past and I have no doubt they’ll continue to be great partners. Still more to come on that, we’re way away from making that final decision right now. We’re still focused on getting the game finished.
MEAGAN MARIE: Absolutely. Okay, speaking of getting the game finished, this is another one that came out of E3, and I think that there’s just some merit in explaining the strategy behind it. Why do you announce DLC so long before the game is going to release? What’s the benefit of thinking that far in advance?
KARL STEWART: So to be honest, it was a great opportunity because we were on stage with Microsoft, to be able to announce some of the things that we’ve got planned. I think we’ve made it very clear so far that any DLC that we do will basically be an addition to the game. The game will come on day one and it will be the game from start to finish. The DLC that we’re looking at is complementary. We haven’t given any details on that yet, because we’re still working through the fine details. Coming up with the final story of what that will be or what that content is. But I just think it was a great opportunity to be able to get up and announce something as big as that. We’re very proud of our partnership with Microsoft, and they are very proud to give us the opportunity to be able to tell people that we have something coming.
MEAGAN MARIE: Great. And this was a funny one, but I’ve actually had it several times. Is the deer-killing scene optional in the game? “I don’t want to hurt Bambi!” And then a sad face. There were so many people who are just like, no, the deer! [laughter]
KARL STEWART: Unfortunately, it’s not optional. And the reason why it’s not…
MEAGAN MARIE: It’s one scene.
KARL STEWART: Yeah, it’s one scene. It’s not something that you’ll do over and over again. It’s contextualized because it is part of her growth and it’s something that you kind of go through to be able to see her get stronger and stronger. But if you do decide to kill a deer a second time, when you walk over to it and harvest it, it won’t kick in a cinematic a second time. It’s just something that you have to go through the first time around.
MEAGAN MARIE: It’s supposed to be a touching scene, it’s amazing that people… You have these jaded people who’ve been playing games for so long, journalists who’ve seen it all, and they see this scene and it is moving…
KARL STEWART: Yeah. And if you watch… I did the Up At Noon piece with Miller at IGN. If you get a chance, look at his second Up At Noon, the one after that, where he screamed “Debra!” And now I call her “Debra,” I feel like I need to get it into the credits again, “In Loving Memory of Debra.”
MEAGAN MARIE: Debra the Deer. Sacrificed herself for a greater cause.
KARL STEWART: Sacrificed… [laughs]
MEAGAN MARIE: Alright, one of the last questions that we got…
KARL STEWART: Hold on, that’s six!
MEAGAN MARIE: No, it’s actually five this time. Usually I try to sneak in six.
KARL STEWART: Maybe we’ve just been talking too long.
MEAGAN MARIE: So! Will you be coming to [insert my show here] and showing off Tomb Raider in the near future? Everybody wants to know if we’re coming near them, and so I thought we could maybe…
KARL STEWART: I haven’t heard of that one, InsertMyShowHere. Is that a new one? Where is that? Azerbaijan or Brazil or something?
MEAGAN MARIE: On the moon. Hot new gaming destination. So can we just talk about some of the shows that we’ve discussed publicly that we’re going to be at?
KARL STEWART: We’re getting into the big period of time when trade shows are on and we’re getting out there. This is obviously… E3 was the start to it. Now we’re here at Comic-Con, we’re going big at Comic-Con, then we’ve got Gamescom not long after it, then we’ve got PAX. Just show after show after show. I know last year… I did a whole long sort of schedule of going from show to show myself. I know we had you traveling as well, and we had Brent in South Africa. This year’s not going to be any different. We have an export team…
MEAGAN MARIE: We’ve confirmed Eurogamer.
KARL STEWART: Yeah, Eurogamer we will be at. We have an export team who, outside of the European and the American shows, which are the ones that we always turn up to, we always try to show off content there, we then have the export team, who are coming to us and saying, can you do Spain, can you do France, can you do Italy, can you do South Africa? Somebody even asked me if I’d go to Saudi Arabia, and it happens to be that that show is… I think it’s some time around September, when my second child will be due, and I will not be traveling for about six weeks.
MEAGAN MARIE: Six weeks is all you can…? That’s the length of the break?
KARL STEWART: That’s the lockdown. Basically it’s just a couple weeks before and a couple weeks after. Fortunately, even with my schedule…
MEAGAN MARIE: They’ll just have to send me.
KARL STEWART: They’ll have to send you. But unfortunately, I won’t be at Eurogamer, I won’t be at Tokyo Game Show. Because they are…
MEAGAN MARIE: We will hold down the fort for you.
KARL STEWART: Yeah.
MEAGAN MARIE: I just discovered a whole bunch of new Japanese Tomb Raider fan sites, so we have to make TGS happen.
KARL STEWART: Awesome, no, we’ll definitely be there. Right now it’s going to be a busy year for us, and we have a lot of plans to be at as many shows as we possibly can.
MEAGAN MARIE: And hands-on, a lot of hands-on from now on.
KARL STEWART: Yeah, a lot of hands-on from now on. I’m sitting up here with Meagan looking out on the floor at Nerd HQ, looking around here, so far I can only see two games as prominent. One is Tomb Raider and one is the new Gears of War. People, tomorrow morning, will be flocking in here, getting some hands-on. It’s a huge screen there behind you, Meagan, about fifty foot, sixty foot wide showing Tomb Raider trailers, it’s going to be exciting. But yeah, from here on in, we’re giving people the opportunity to get some hands-on, and you know… The big thing about hands-on for us, going off on a tangent slightly, for anybody who does get to play our hands-on, is that we’re giving people the opportunity to sort of get to know the hunting, pick up the bow and fire it for the first time. That’s very important to us, because it’s a part of our game which people will rely on the most as they play through. Aiming, shooting and so on. Moving around the space and traversal. Even though this is a shorter demo, we’ve had to be very careful about how the demo plays and how fun it is. We’re hoping that people understand that it’s not like they’re going to be able to sit and play an hour of our game. That’s a big thing for us. It’s going to be a small portion, long enough to be able to feel the emotion of the situation, pick up the bow and move around the space a little bit, maybe find one or two little hidden gems, but yeah, as with any demo, it’s our first time putting it out and the studio are very…
MEAGAN MARIE: A little nervous actually.
KARL STEWART: Anxious, to say the least. We’re very curious to see what people think.
MEAGAN MARIE: Great. Okay, thank you so much for stopping in, and we’re going to have a big show. Lots of news from Comic-Con. Although by the time I post this, the show will be over and everybody listening will know that we went big…
KARL STEWART: It was a success! Woo!
MEAGAN MARIE: We went big and then we went home.
KARL STEWART: Yeah. Make sure we put all the posters, the pictures out. I’m sitting here, as I look around I see, on the right-hand side there, Zach and Rihanna… Both, by now, people will know exactly who she is, Rihanna Pratchett, the new writer, the lead writer on Tomb Raider.
MEAGAN MARIE: Not new… She’s been doing this for a while.
KARL STEWART: She’s been doing this a long time. I just say “new” because it’s like… We’ve just announced it! New information!
MEAGAN MARIE: We finally have a name out there.
KARL STEWART: Yeah. But no, she’s been working on this for years, so how we’ve managed to keep it quiet is absolutely beyond me. It really is.
MEAGAN MARIE: We’ll definitely have to talk to her at a later date.
KARL STEWART: Yeah, yeah, over the next one or two podcasts, we’ll definitely get her on. I think you have a guest tomorrow as well, is it Friday morning we have someone to talk to?
MEAGAN MARIE: I’ll have to put her segment after this one, since you’re teasing her… We’ll mix it up a bit and we’ll put Take Five in the middle, but yes, tomorrow we’ll be talking to Camilla.
KARL STEWART: Yeah… She’s super excited to get on a podcast for the first time.
MEAGAN MARIE: I think everyone’s going to be able to hear Lara in her voice…
KARL STEWART: It’s going to be cool. And the fact that she is from London and she is English…
MEAGAN MARIE: Isn’t she from Ascot?
KARL STEWART: Ascot? Is that an Ascot around your neck?
MEAGAN MARIE: Oh, God, people are going to make fun of me for bastardizing that… But it’s Ascot, right? Because didn’t Zach make the comment about things you wear around your neck? I’m never going to forget now.
KARL STEWART: Yeah, yeah. Which… My geography being what it is, that tells me it’s still somewhere around London, if not in London. So her accent is real, people.
MEAGAN MARIE: It is, most certainly.
KARL STEWART: In my head I’m, right now, reciting the names of all the handles of all the people on the forums who were saying, “She’s not English! She’s got an American accent! She’s an American putting on an English accent!” I’m not going to call you out, but you know who you are.
MEAGAN MARIE: Okay, well, thank you for stopping by, Karl. We’ll have much more Comic-Con content coming soon.
KARL STEWART: Cool! Thank you very much, talk to you soon. Bye!
[Musical interlude]
Segment 3: Camilla Luddington
MEAGAN MARIE: So thank you, everybody, for tuning in to the podcast. I’d mentioned before that I’m really excited about this episode, because we had Zachary Levi on earlier, and now we have Camilla Luddington. Hello Camilla.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Hello, hello. So happy to be here!
MEAGAN MARIE: It is great to have you on the podcast. It’s sort of like… I know they can’t see you in person, but having your voice and having you as Lara, it’s kind of surreal. I can sort of hear bits of Lara popping through. And we also have Karl…
KARL STEWART: Don’t forget me!
MEAGAN MARIE: Hello, Karl.
KARL STEWART: I’m not important anymore.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: No…
MEAGAN MARIE: So, what we did last night is we went on all of our social media channels and we did a call for questions on our blog, our Facebook, our Tumblr, our forums, and then Twitter. So we have lots of questions from the fans, but what I wanted to do is I wanted to start with some general questions… There were four or five questions that everybody was asking. So we’ll get those out of the way and then we’ll get to the more fun, specific ones.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Okay.
MEAGAN MARIE: So, first. What is your background as an actor?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Well, I started stage acting in England when I was five. I was trained at an acting school from five years old until I was about 18. And then I went to New York and trained at the New York Film Academy. And then since then I’ve come to Los Angeles, obviously I still… I’m in class in Los Angeles, but I think being on set, more than anything, teaches you the ropes of being an actor. So that is my background.
MEAGAN MARIE: And when did you first get involved with the Tomb Raider project? You had to keep it quiet for a long time, didn’t you?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: I did! Yeah. Two and a half years ago is when I got involved on the project, and I swear I’ve never kept a secret for that long. [laughs] It’s been so agonizing, and I’ve been bothered so much on Twitter about it by fans, I so badly wanted to say… But yeah, two and a half years ago.
MEAGAN MARIE: The fans are super sleuths, and what they’d actually done is they took samples of your voice…
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Yeah!
MEAGAN MARIE: And samples of a couple of other actresses that they thought it could be. By the time we announced, they had already figured it out.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Yeah, there was a point where I think everyone sort of was…
MEAGAN MARIE: Everyone was messaging you.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Yeah. And I even saw something photoshopped of me in a mocap suit, and I’m like, they are so smart!
KARL STEWART: Yes, they are, fabricating evidence…
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Yes! I love it.
MEAGAN MARIE: And then what was your reaction to learning the news, when you found out that you got the part? Was some part of it intimidating, knowing that you’d be playing such an iconic character?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: I just was hoping that finally my brothers would think I was cool. That’s the first thought that went through my head.
MEAGAN MARIE: Your motivation…
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Yes.
MEAGAN MARIE: Do they? Do they think you’re cool?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Probably not, still, to be honest. But I think maybe a bit cooler. When I found out, I was in my car, because when we went through the audition process, it was all encrypted, they had coded it, I had no idea it was Tomb Raider. So then, at the end of the conversation when I got the role, they were like, oh, by the way, you’re Lara Croft. I freaked out.
MEAGAN MARIE: Really.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Yes. I really did. Of course. I mean, she’s so cool and… I was completely blown away.
MEAGAN MARIE: That’s an interesting tidbit, that they kept the fact that it was Tomb Raider from you until the last minute.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: They did. Her name was “Sarah” when I was reading the script. But what’s funny is that I thought, in a breakdown for the character, that she sounded like Lara Croft. So when I went in, I actually dressed in shorts and boots…
MEAGAN MARIE: Oh? You thought you’d kind of figured it out?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: I was like… No, I didn’t think I’d figured it out, I just thought, she’s kind of like Lara Croft. That’s how I was inspired, which is kind of cool.
KARL STEWART: So you were spot on.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: It was.
MEAGAN MARIE: Awesome. So you are from England, what is it… Ascot?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Ascot. I was born in Ascot.
MEAGAN MARIE: I’m not ever going to forget now, because Zach did the little ascot thing…
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Yeah, the ascot.
MEAGAN MARIE: I’ll always remember where you’re from. But you’ve lived in LA for a bit too.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Yes.
MEAGAN MARIE: So do you feel like your accent changes at all depending on your roles or where you are?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Well, of course it changes when you get a role. It definitely changes. On Californication, True Blood, this, I’m British. For the last third of my life, I’ve lived in the states, so I think it’s more mid-Atlantic. But the thing is, when I go home and when I’m around my family, it just gets instantly more English, just naturally. I don’t really think about it. And then when I’m back here, the more I’m here, it gets a little more American. It’s somewhere in between right now, it’s not something that I think about unless I’m on set and I’m playing a characters.
KARL STEWART: I get that too. A lot of the fans came back and said to me, who’s the American guy being interviewed? You all know I’m Irish, but you end up changing your accent depending on where you are. When I go home and come back here, people are like, wow, where do you live?
MEAGAN MARIE: Okay, so we’re going to go straight into Tumblr questions, then. We’ll start with that first. Twin Pistols asks… “Have you played any of the previous Tomb Raider games to get a feel for the character of Lara Croft? What sort of research did you do when you were getting into the role?”
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: When I was younger, my older brother had the first game. So when I was allowed to play… [laughs] I would play, probably not very well. But I did play some of the first game. The research I did… Well, I sat down with Crystal and I really talked to them about their… What they wanted to do for the reimagining, where they wanted to go, what journey they wanted to take Lara on. So I definitely did listen to them and that was part of my research. And then… I think I talked about this, I did archery as a kid, so that was kind of fun. I was doing archery again. But I’d never done motion capture before. I don’t think there’s a way to ever prepare for that experience. You sort of learn on the job.
MEAGAN MARIE: Okay! Tumblr questions first. Twin Pistols asks: Have you played any of the previous Tomb Raider games to get a feel for the character of Lara Croft? What sort of research did you do before taking on the role?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: When I was younger, my older brother had the first game. So when I was allowed to play… [laughs] I would play, probably not very well. But I did play some of the first game. The research I did… Well, I sat down with Crystal and I really talked to them about their… What they wanted to do for the reimagining, where they wanted to go, what journey they wanted to take Lara on. So I definitely did listen to them and that was part of my research. And then… I think I talked about this, I did archery as a kid, so that was kind of fun. I was doing archery again. But I’d never done motion capture before. I don’t think there’s a way to ever prepare for that experience. You sort of learn on the job.
MEAGAN MARIE: FYeahLaraCroftTombRaider, which I had to abbreviate because it’s the name of a blog… They say, “Hey, Camilla, loving your work on Lara at the moment, my question is, with Lara being such an iconic character in gaming, do you feel pressured about meeting the expectations of fans and gamers? How do you handle the pressure? And do you ever look online at fan feedback regarding how they want Lara to sound, or your performance…?”
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Well, first off, I think of course you feel some sort of pressure, because there’s such a huge fanbase behind Lara Croft. You don’t want to disappoint anybody. Do I go on fan forums and read stuff…? No, I don’t. I think that wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing for me to do. I read everything on Twitter, and so far I’ve had the most amazing support, so I’ve been really thankful for that. But for the most part, no, I don’t read that stuff.
MEAGAN MARIE: Is that more like, as an actress you just…do your craft, and then separate yourself from the media?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: You know what’s funny? This is a fun story. One time, I was in a bar by myself, because my friend worked there, and Will Smith walked in. And he sat down with me for an hour, we chatted, and he said, never read anything online, because it’s poisonous to an actor…
MEAGAN MARIE: That’s what I’ve heard, that’s why I asked, because I hear it’s a pretty common sentiment among actors.
KARL STEWART: And I think it’s right. We hired Camilla to basically perform the role, and the role has to be fresh, it has to be only what she reads on paper and how she brings that performance… I agree in the sense that, once the game is done, you can jump on and listen and talk to people, but really, right now it’s about keeping the character in the bubble. There’s got to be that bubble where you’re not getting anything from the outside and you’re focusing on the role itself.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: I think I need to just immerse myself in the game when I’m acting. I don’t think it would be good if, between breaks, I was quickly going on to see how somebody had commented on it.
KARL STEWART: But don’t worry, I keep her updated on the positive stuff. All the negative, we have to keep that out. [laughs] That doesn’t help. It doesn’t help me! I get tearful when I read some of people’s comments…
MEAGAN MARIE: When you see the pictures that they photoshop of us…
KARL STEWART: Oh, yeah, thank you all you people who like to play with my face…
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: And I think, of course, you know as an actor that you’re not necessarily going to please everybody. There are some people, everyone’s going to have their own opinion, you just really hope that people take a chance, play the game, and embrace you.
KARL STEWART: We had the same thing… Yesterday it was interesting, when we were doing all the interviews and people were asking Camilla if she plays games. We hired Camilla to be the voice. Right? To perform and act and bring emotion to it. We didn’t hire Camilla because Camilla was a gamer. It’s like hiring a composer to be an actor and saying, what do you bring… You’re hiring somebody for their skills and what they bring to the part. That’s very important, too… Camilla knows games, she’s very aware of games, but Camilla lives in the world of acting. And that’s what Camilla brings to the role, it’s something that she’s immersed herself in for so long.
MEAGAN MARIE: Well, speaking of the role then, VioletStory asks, “Did playing the role strike any particular chords with you emotionally?” I know we saw, during the Final Hours, that there were definitely some high emotions in some of these scenes.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Yes. I mean… Have I experienced everything that she experiences in the game? No. She’s going through a really extreme, nightmarish disaster. So have I ever been shipwrecked on an island? Absolutely not. [laughs] But I think that there are… We can all relate to loss, and I think that’s something that she really is feeling throughout the entire game. And of course, as a human being, you understand that feeling of sadness and desperation. So in that way, yes, I definitely can relate.
MEAGAN MARIE: So… Awestruck asks, “What exactly is it like performing in a motion capture studio, and how difficult is it to make things feel authentic compared to acting on a real set? And also, is it physically demanding?”
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Well, first of all, I hadn’t ever done motion capture before, like I said. The first thing I had to get used to was, we wear a helmet that has a camera attached to it, and it’s inches away from your face. That was something that, at first, I thought was going to be distracting. But the amazing thing about it is that you’re not having to… Because the camera’s right there following you, you don’t have to be aware of where you’re stood, where you’re cheating out to a camera, so in that way it felt like being on stage. I felt like I was actually more free doing motion capture, sometimes, than being on set. And what was the last part of the question…?
MEAGAN MARIE: Was it physically demanding? Is it tough running around in the suit?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Oh, yes. Ah… Yeah. There would be sometimes where they’d put ropes around me, I’m not exaggerating, they would drag me across the floor and I would have rope burn and I’d have bruises on me, I’d be falling off stuff. It was definitely physically demanding. But that was also realistic. She’s exhausted, I would end up being exhausted. So I think it helped.
MEAGAN MARIE: Hunter Wolfe asks, “What’s the most exciting, funny, or memorable thing you’ve done since you joined the Tomb Raider group?”
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Well, actually, I would have to say Comic-Con right now…
MEAGAN MARIE: It’s a unique experience.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: It really is. The other thing that was great, though, was actually doing the motion capture on my very first day. I didn’t know that I would be synced to her and able to see her on a big flat screen in front of me. That was really strange, once I had been suited up. Being able to see her mimic my movements live, over a live feed. That was really fantastic.
MEAGAN MARIE: The last Tumblr question we have is from Gamer’s Area. They ask, “If you were offered the role, would you agree to play Lara Croft in the movies?”
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Who wouldn’t agree? I want to know!
MEAGAN MARIE: Karl? You probably wouldn’t agree to play Lara…
KARL STEWART: No, if Camilla wants to go with the role, she can go with the role. It’d be awesome.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: I would love to, of course.
MEAGAN MARIE: That was a very popular one… We had to get that one in.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Yes, of course I would love to.
KARL STEWART: Unfortunately, it’s out of our hands. [laughs]
MEAGAN MARIE: Okay. So now we are on to the forum questions… RobM_2007 asks, “Were there any other famous women who also auditioned for the voice of Lara?” I don’t know, was there any transparency in this process, Karl?
KARL STEWART: I’m not going to give names, but at the very beginning, of course, there was a vision we had for bringing a particular kind of actress, and I flew to the UK and I met with a few… This gets back to what I said yesterday. Every single time we heard somebody’s voice, we kept saying, why are we doing this? Camilla nailed it the first time.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: So sweet…
KARL STEWART: So yes, we did look further afield. But I think it was in the stars, it was meant to happen.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: And I, of course, have no idea who auditioned for it. [laughter]
MEAGAN MARIE: That’ll stay a secret.
KARL STEWART: Yeah, that will stay with me and Darrell as a secret forever.
MEAGAN MARIE: So LaraLover asks, “How long ago did you start with the motion capture and voice recording for the game? Have you finished all of the work at this point?”
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: I started two and a half years ago, and I’m yet to finish. There’s only a tiny bit left. It should only be maybe a couple of weeks of work.
KARL STEWART: Yeah, we’re in pickup right now. So this is… The idea, people see the Final Hours of Tomb Raider, this is the idea, that Camilla’s coming to her final hours. This is like the end of it now for Camilla. We’ve got a couple of pickup lines and then it’s into promotion.
MEAGAN MARIE: Exciting. Promotion seems like it’s going to be the fun part.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: So far, yeah.
MEAGAN MARIE: Karl’s stepping away for just a second, so maybe we should ask a bunch of tough questions…
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Oh, no.
MEAGAN MARIE: No, we’ll go back into the list. So TombRaider, which is a nice, original name, asks, “Have you had a chance to play the entire game yet? If not, do you plan on playing and completing the game?”
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Of course I plan on completing it. It may take me forever. But yes, I actually was playing the game yesterday. We’re here at Nerd Headquarters in San Diego, and they have it all around the edge of the room, so I had to get on and play. It’s a lot easier shooting arrows in motion capture than it is in the game.
MEAGAN MARIE: How bizarre is that?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: It’s really… Here’s what’s so strange about it. I get so into it, I’m swearing constantly. Anyone around me is probably thinking, what is this girl doing? I’m swearing constantly and saying things like NO! at the same time as Lara in the game saying NO!
MEAGAN MARIE: They hear that similarity, turn towards you…
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: It’s just so strange for me, though, to hear that, too. It’s bizarre. But yes, I am playing the game.
MEAGAN MARIE: AdobeArtist asks, “If you could have a say in the character development, in what direction would you like to see Crystal Dynamics take Lara?” It’s just an interesting one, to see your personal take on Lara’s character…
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: I would love for Lara to go to a spa for a few days. [laughter] Just relax.
MEAGAN MARIE: I think she’s earned it, right?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: I think she has at this point. I’m sure they’ll take us to some awful, awful place. I just think that… You know, Lara, you really see her grow in the game, and I just hope that that continues.
MEAGAN MARIE: Yes, I agree. And JerryC asks, “What are the differences and similarities between you and the current Lara Croft?”
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Well, I think that… I would like to think that I’m actually ambitious and adventurous, which of course she is. And also, I loved history as a kid, that was my favorite subject in school, other than drama. So that we kind of have in common. But other than that, I would say that she’s a lot more fearless than I am, and she takes more chances. I think she’s more fearless than anyone I know. But I think that’s what makes her heroic, that’s what makes her iconic and special.
MEAGAN MARIE: Is that something that inspires you, then? Does it inspire you to be more fearless, to take chances?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Of course. Absolutely. I don’t see how it couldn’t inspire you.
MEAGAN MARIE: Alright, now we’re on to Facebook. So… And the Facebook crew were particularly interested in some of your adventures outside of Tomb Raider, so… Mike Pleat asks, “What was it like to work on the set with the cast of Californication?” He says you were awesome last season.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Well, thank you, Mike. It was amazing. I really did not know, again, what I was getting myself into, because you don’t… As an actor you don’t see the scripts for the entire season. You get them that week, you read it, and I would just flip through and be like, oh my God, are they doing this to my character? Are you kidding? But everyone on that set is so fun. I laugh as much off-set just hanging out with them, just as much as I did on the set and watching it. So it’s an incredible show, it’s such an honor.
MEAGAN MARIE: Let’s see, Petey Vendt asks, “How does Camilla feel that her and the developer’s take on Lara is different from the original? Is it an easier character to relate to on an emotional and motivational level for you?” So the original Lara compared to this new Lara.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Well… Again, we’re going back to Lara’s origins, and we’re rebooting it. I think she’s more relatable. The Lara in the past, she really did kick butt, obviously. But she didn’t feel that pain and despair that Lara feels in this game, that really drives her to have to do whatever it takes to survive. So… I think as an actress, that’s much easier for me to pull from, because you relate to it as a human being. Okay, your friend’s been killed or whatever’s happened, and now you have to survive this or you have to attack this person… I think that just, again, making her more of a human being helps. And hopefully the gamers will relate more to her, too, when they’re playing, and root for her even more.
MEAGAN MARIE: Kevin Pooley asks, “I really believe Lara Croft to be the first sex symbol in modern games. Is that being abandoned in the new game? Will she be in so much trouble so early in her career that we won’t really see that glamor to her character?”
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Huh…
MEAGAN MARIE: Which I think is an interesting question, because obviously, the original Lara was…physically very much a sex symbol.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: She was.
MEAGAN MARIE: But what’s your take on this new Lara…?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Well, I think I’ve said it before, that… I think her courage and her fearlessness is sexy. I think she does it in style, whether she’s in trousers or whether she’s in shorts. I don’t think that she’s not sexy in the game right now. Will she be wearing the hot pants any time soon? I don’t know, that’s probably not a question for me. But I think she looks great.
MEAGAN MARIE: I think she looks great too, I definitely agree with that. Desiree Campbell says, “Is Lara in the new game somehow modeled after Camilla, or was Camilla chosen because she looks like Lara?” We get this a lot!
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Yeah… Um, no? Absolutely not. She is not modeled after me. Because by the time I got the role, she had already been modeled. I think it just happens that I’m this brunette playing her, so people think that maybe there’s some similarities. But actually, no, she is not.
MEAGAN MARIE: Cleared it up once and for all. It’s a compliment on both ends, though, that works quite nicely.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: I would love to lie and say yes.
MEAGAN MARIE: Alright, where are we at? Christopher Jake Waller says, “Being British myself, do you feel that because Lara is from a British background, that you find it easier to relate more and get into character?”
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: That’s a hard one. I think that, really, to relate to the character… You kind of just have to have those core emotions that every human being has. I don’t really think it depends on what nationality you are. I think that you just have to be human to really relate to her.
MEAGAN MARIE: And the last one, from Facebook, Dale Andrew Tucker says, “From Lara Croft of Tomb Raider to Claudette of True Blood, how does it feel to be given the opportunity to play such large characters that already have huge fan bases? I know I’m 100 percent pleased you’re playing both of them, being a hardcore fan of both series…”
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Well, thank you so much, Dale. It’s an honor, of course. I mean, I feel like I’m just one of the luckiest actresses to get to play such iconic people. So I thank my lucky stars every day, and I love… The best part about it is, honestly, meeting all the new fans of Californication, of True Blood, whatever it is I’m involved in. Tomb Raider… Meeting the fans has been amazing, because there really are such huge fan bases behind each of the things I’ve done. I’ve been so lucky to be part of those projects.
MEAGAN MARIE: Great. So we’re on to Twitter, which is the last one. So Shaikh asks… “Camilla, which one do you love most, between acting in films and voice acting and doing mocap for Tomb Raider?” So where’s your heart at?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Where’s my heart at…
MEAGAN MARIE: That’s a tough question, because I think it could be multiple places…
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Yeah. You know, they kind of are really different. I almost feel, sometimes, more free doing motion capture. But they’re completely different. I love them both, I really do.
MEAGAN MARIE: I think that’s fair… I get asked all the time about what’s my favorite game, and really…?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Yeah. It’s hard.
MEAGAN MARIE: They’re such different experiences.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: They really are, yeah. I wouldn’t give up either.
MEAGAN MARIE: AlienFan17 asks, “Would you think about starring in another video game other than Tomb Raider?”
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Well, I do have some sort of loyalty to Tomb Raider at this point, since it is my first game. But who knows what lies in the future? The process has been so amazing that I would love to experience it again.
MEAGAN MARIE: RayMusic asks, “This game is about Lara becoming an adventurer. Do you feel like you’ve had that urge, to become more adventurous, since taking on the role?
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: I think I’ve always had an element of wanting to be an adventurer. As a kid I was out in my own imaginary world, climbing trees with my brothers. I moved around a lot ever since I was a kid, too, so I’ve always liked to travel. And also, I’m a Sagittarius, and apparently we are naturally adventurous. And also, with the archer, which is interesting because archery is used in the Tomb Raider game…
MEAGAN MARIE: That’s a little tidbit we can take away…
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Yeah, there we go. Exactly.
MEAGAN MARIE: I don’t even know how to pronounce this one… UpKoral asks, “Since you’ve been acting, do you feel prepared to survive by yourself on a deserted island?”
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: I would like to think so. I really would. The reality…
MEAGAN MARIE: You’d be able to string a bow and take out a deer…
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Exactly. I’m sure there are bows lying around… No, I’m sure I would be awful. But I would definitely think, what would Lara do?
MEAGAN MARIE: What would Lara do? We need to have those bracelets made…
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Yes, exactly.
MEAGAN MARIE: And last but not least, because this person’s name is SwooshyLeaf…
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Oh, nice.
MEAGAN MARIE: They ask, “What is your favorite thing about Lara in this new Tomb Raider? By the way, you’re beautiful.” SwooshyLeaf says that.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Oh, that’s so nice. What’s my favorite thing… This is a really tough question, but I love how realistic she looks. I think that, to me it looks so cinematic and the whole game looks like such an adventure. She looks like such a real person to me, and I think that’s what I love about her the most. And also… She’s fearless. I love that quality about her, and I love that she’s a real person in this game. All those things.
MEAGAN MARIE: Great. That was a sizable segment with you, I think we had you about half an hour. That’s a lot of goodness.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Well, it’s fun answering the questions from the fans, because…
MEAGAN MARIE: Absolutely. They’ve been waiting patiently. I mean, they’ve been waiting so long to have you announced… I promised them, like, at some point when we announce our voice actress, I will get her on the podcast! So I’m happy to be able to deliver on that.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: That’s good, because I get these questions tweeted to me too. It’s nice to be able to answer them.
MEAGAN MARIE: Thank you again so much for being on the podcast, and I hope you enjoy the rest of Comic-Con.
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON: Thank you! You too.
[Musical interlude]
MEAGAN MARIE: And that is it for our San Diego Comic-Con episode of the Crystal Habit podcast. I hope you enjoy getting some fresh voices and fresh perspective on the show. If you have any comments, critiques, or podcast ideas, segment ideas for the future, feel free to send me a message at
community@crystald.com, I’d love to hear from you. Until next episode!
07-11-2012, 12:06 AM
Was really enjoying the podcast. 
and awesome game 
Linear Mode
