IN THE ROOM WITH

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In the Room With

Andrea Toyias

The CD behind “Diablo IV” and other hit titles on how she casts for video games

By Lisa Granshaw

FROM FIGHTING DEMONS IN THE “DIABLO” FRANCHISE TO

choosing to join the Alliance or the Horde in “World of Warcraft,” part of what draws players to Blizzard Entertainment’s video games are the incredible characters they meet along the way. Finding actors that can give them life is the task of Blizzard’s senior casting and voice director, Andrea Toyias.

What was it like casting

“Diablo IV”? “Diablo IV” is a very specific game, and I think some people still have the idea that video games are kind of fun and comical and silly and over the top. More and more, we’re not looking for cartoony voices; we’re looking for very grounded, gritty, real performances. Voice acting is very hard. When you’re on camera or onstage, you’ve got your face. You can make a sad face or your “blue steel” face, but for voice acting, I need to hear the entire realm of the human experience in your voice. That’s really, really difficult, and I don’t think people realize how hard that is unless they’ve done it. For “Diablo IV,” it’s very dark, very grim. It’s a game of rough existence. It’s been challenging. We’re looking all over the globe, because there are lots of accents, to really find performances where people, through their voice alone, can convey the weight of the world.

How do you get people to that

place in an audition? Oddly enough, we really talked about COVID-19, because what I have to do as a voice director is take our crazy fantasyscape and make it real. So rather than going, “You’re in a land infested with demons,” we were talking about COVID-19 and how it’s hard. You’re tired and you’re exhausted, and every day there’s more bad news. Think about the weight that COVID-19 has put on you and channel that into your performance, rather than going, “You’re attacked by an onslaught of demon goats.” That doesn’t make sense to anybody. What does make sense is connecting to your own experience of COVID-19 and knowing and feeling safe enough to share with me the fatigue, exhaustion, and sadness in your voice to connect with “Diablo IV.” It’s actually been quite interesting to cast for a game that’s all about the weight of existence during a time that itself has a weight of existence.

I think for the actors I’ve found so far who’ve recorded, it’s almost like an outlet. When they come in on “Diablo IV,” actors don’t have to hide what they’ve been going through for the year. If you’re tired and exhausted and sad and a little bit scared, don’t push that away for the session. Bring that into the session, because that’s “Diablo IV.” It’s been kind of exciting and hard and heavy, but to let the truth of our own lives come into the game—I think that’s really going to sell the game and make our characters more real and empathetic.

What advice would you give actors who want to work in

video games? I meet a lot of people who are like, “Hey, I can do 55 voices. Here’s my reel of me doing all these different sounds and characters, and it’s funny.” And that’s not who we are any more as an industry. We’re storytellers at the heart of it. If you want to get into voice acting, are you going to need to do different accents and vary your voice? Yes, absolutely. But that’s not what’s going to make you successful. My fivestar actors are the ones who are actors first. The more you can open your heart, the more you can really dive into your truth, the more successful you’re going to be. The best actors I work with are the ones who give me all their baggage, give me all their human story, but on top, can vary it as a demon goat or an orc with textures and sounds and accents. The sound is the background. The acting is the forefront.

Want more?

Read the full interview at backstage.com/magazine