Gavin Hammon has some great voice-over credits on his resume. He has been apart of the Batman Begins video game… the epic Halo 4 video game and now has become beloved in the video game world for voicing one of it’s controversial characters, Kenny from The Walking Dead. He has also done nationally televised commercials, kick-ass interactives, dense medical narrations, heavily concatenated educational toys, unwitting voice matches, obscure audiobooks, bizarre non-verbal emotes, hideous monster sounds, muzak, and regionally challenged adolescents. After scoring an interview with Melissa Hutchison (The voice of Clementine), I had to get an interview with Gavin, the other returning voice actor from season one.
Kenny went from a very strong yet tortured father in the first season, to a aggressive-but-vulnerable man trying to survive. Gavin does a great job portraying the change that Kenny has gone through from season one to two. There are sometimes were you get upset at the way Kenny handles things and there are times were you feel sorry for what it seems like he has lost. When you add that to his connection with Clem, you have the pieces to a great back story that helps drives season two.
Gavin took some time out of his day to answer some questions for the GuysNation and Walking Dead fans.
Mr. Incredible: Well you are the second voice actor I’ve interviewed from the Walking Dead video game. And I just gotta know…did you have a feeling that it was going to be such a big hit when you first auditioned for it?
Gavin Hammon: Hi! Thanks for having me for this interview. Nah, I mean, I knew it was different based on the script and was excited that it was TWD IP, but no one knew it would take off like that.
Mr. Incredible:How did you end up being a part of the game?
Gavin Hammon: I auditioned for several of the male parts (we usually just get the whole packet of characters) and Kenny was one of the few characters that didn’t come back for additional rounds of auditions or callbacks. Just my good fortune, I guess
Mr. Incredible:How did you come up with the voice that you used for Kenny?
Gavin Hammon: I did what I usually do with any script, read the character description or specs and then let the actual script tell me how to sound. I rarely go into an audition with a preconceived notion or what voice I’ll use and just try to let the script do that for me.
Mr. Incredible:Now at the end of Season one…did you know that they were bringing Kenny back?
Gavin Hammon: I had had some hints from various folks at Telltale, but since S2 hadn’t begun development, I really don’t think anybody knew.
Mr. Incredible:In this season of Walking Dead, Kenny seems a bit more aggressive, can you explain why?
Gavin Hammon: He’s lost a lot, he’s suffered considerably and he doesn’t have Lee to keep him grounded. I also dial the anger up a bit in some takes and for all I know it’s what goes into the game. But there might be some even angrier Kenny to come…
Mr. Incredible:Now it seemed that the cast from the first season just blended well with each other. How does it feel to be working with a new cast of voice actors?
Gavin Hammon: Well, honestly, we really don’t work “together”. We all record in isolation, though we do sometimes hear other actors’ lines as “feeders” into our reads if their lines have been recorded. S1 really was mostly just us pals from the SF Bay Area, this time we have more actors from LA and Atlanta and other places. But, everybody does a fine job, though my own bias would be to put all my friends in the game!
Mr. Incredible:If you had a chance would you ever take a spot on the actual Walking Dead series?
Gavin Hammon: I don’t really do on camera, but I’d sure as hell try if that came up.
Mr. Incredible:Now outside of working with Walking Dead…you have also worked on another big franchise game in Halo. How was that?
Gavin Hammon: It was great! That was a busy game year for me, but working with the team on Halo 4 was particularly exciting.
Mr. Incredible:Now other than those two, you have been in the Tomb Raider reboot, Batman Begins and a bunch of other games. Now by your resume, it seems as if Video Games are the main medium you work with…would we ever see you do animation voice over?
Gavin Hammon: Ah, but my resume and IMDB don’t cover the vast majority of the VO work I do for toys, commercials, corporate and TV narration and other weirdness. I’m fortunate to have a fantastic LA agent, SBV that does give me plenty of opportunities to read animation sides. Hopefully one of them will stick!
Mr. Incredible:Are there any games that you wished that you would of voiced if you had the chance?
Gavin Hammon: Not really, I’m grateful for any and all opportunities.
Mr. Incredible:Do you play any of the games that you have done voice work in?
Gavin Hammon: I rarely do. I’m not a very objective critic when it comes to my own work, but I do play games as often as I have the chance to.
Mr. Incredible:Was voice acting your initial for a job?
Gavin Hammon: Haha, no! I was in a band for 15 years or so (called Dance Hall Crashers), I worked in construction after college and started to pursue VO in 1999.
Mr. Incredible:Do you have any projects in the works that we should be on the lookout for?
Gavin Hammon: Yeah, but nothing I can talk about just yet.
Mr. Incredible:For those that haven’t played Walking Dead Season 2 yet…can you tell them why they should play?
Gavin Hammon: Well, being one in that category myself, I’d say it’s supposed to be a good emotionally charged adventure game, but the main reason would be to hear my bestest buddy, Melissa Hutchison kill it as Clementine.
Mr. Incredible:Thank you for taking time out to do this interview. Is there anything you would like to say to the fans and readers?
Gavin Hammon: No, thank YOU guys! And thanks for the support! If people are interested in the crap I say, they can follow me on Facebook at Gavin Hammon VO and on Twitter @gavinhammon. Thanks again!
