Robin Lord Taylor may be best known for playing Oswald Cobblepot on Fox's hit Batman-inspired series Gotham, but he's just made mark on the video gaming industry in Dishonored 2 as the voice of The Outsider.
Taylor spoke with GameRevolution about the character, video games and his first dip in voice acting, and we were shocked to find out that Bethesda hasn't hooked him up with the latest hardware.
"I still have my PS3," Taylor said. "I really wasn't familiar with the Outsider character or the game, but I did my due diligence."
Being born in 1978, Taylor said that the video gaming world has changed so much from what it was when he grew up. This much is true, as voice acting in gaming didn't really take off until the early 2000s. Once it did, though, games would strive to get the best actors they could, and while the fight to prove which studio could pay the biggest name the most money raged on, the bar of voice acting rose.
Dishonored 2 is Taylor's first non-live-action role, and certainly his first in a video game.
"The gaming world is so detailed, and the talent that is coming to it is amazing," Taylor said. "It's the new paradigm for acting."
And what a role it was with The Outsider, a mysterious character whose role in Dishonored 2 is that of a benevolent, but somehow still sinister being that knows all there is to know, but, for reasons unknown, still tries to help the protagonist through the journey.
In order to prepare for the role, Taylor said he looked into the "amazing performance" by Billy Lush in the first game and reviewed information the game's producers sent to him to try to bring the character to life.
"The Outsider is an omnipotent, all-knowing and damaged soul," Taylor said. "He's seen the worst and best in human nature."
The only comparison Taylor was able to draw between the Outsider and Oswald Cobblepot is in both character's attraction to knowledge.
"Oswald thinks and acts like he knows everything; the Outsider truly does know everything," Taylor said. "But they both have that conviction."
Taylor said this whole experience has been eye-opening to all the hard work that voice actors do and has made piqued his interest in pursuing other opportunities in gaming, perhaps one that requires motion-capture or other such physical elements.
Since The Outsider doesn't really interact with any other character, Taylor would just be stepping into a booth by himself reading off a story to no one in particular.
"It's like singing a song to yourself," Taylor said. "Lyrically telling a story as clearly as possible."
