Elias Toufexis: Deus Ex's Jensen Cost Me Jobs

Karloff

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Elias Toufexis: Deus Ex's Jensen Cost Me Jobs



Far Cry 3's loss is Deus Ex's gain.

Voice actor Elias Toufexis, speaking at London's MGM Comic Con, lamented - with a slight hint of irony - that success has cost him work. His performance made Deus Ex's Adam Jensen stand out, but other development teams became wary of using him, fearing that his Jensen would overshadow any work he did for other titles. Far Cry 3 replaced him as Jason Brody for exactly that reason. "It's justifiable," said Toufexis, "it's understandable, but my normal voice is what I used for that character too. So now it's like I'm losing work because Jensen is so popular."

"I knew about Deus Ex [before auditioning for the part] because I was a PC gamer as a kid," says Toufexis, whose two favorites were Deus Ex and Wing Commander, but all the studio gave him as a hint sheet was 'Jensen's kind of a Clint Eastwood character.' Then, once he had the part, he had to find his voice. That's why, early on in the story when Jensen's in the cop shop trying to convince a former colleague to let him in the front door, his voice sounds very different when compared to his performance in the rest of the game.

"That was my first day," Toufexis recalls, "and I was just finding the voice, and finding the character." He then forgot about it until much later, when he heard his performance after the game shipped, only to be horrified by the way that sequence turned out. He even called Square Enix; "you guys couldn't change that one line, where I sound like I'm from the Bronx?"

But those days are done, and now he has new projects on the go. "The games I'm working on now, I know they're going to be next gen," he says, "and I can't wait to see what they're going to do with them." Nor can we!

Source: Xbox 360 Achievements Live Stream [http://www.xbox360achievements.org/news/news-16482-MCM-2013--Deus-Ex--Human-Revolution-s-Adam-Jensen-Takes-to-the-Main-Games-Stage.html]


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Imre Csete

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Jul 8, 2010
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Nor can we, indeed.

He is an awesome guy RL, name another voice actor who does LPs of his own work and makes youtube tributes of fan videos. :D
 

UrinalDook

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DVS BSTrD said:
Shouldn't use your normal voice for a character unless you know it's gunna be a series.
Right, because Jennifer Hale has had no work since using her normal voice in Mass Effect. Or Steve Blum, I mean he's also never been successful bringing his distinctive burr to multiple franchises, right?

Elias has just been a little unlucky in that his breakout character was both incredibly popular and was defined greatly by 'dat voice'. I'm sure he'll find plenty of work, as implied in the article, come the reset of pop culture memory that will hit with the next gen.
 

Andy Shandy

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Jun 7, 2010
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He is unlucky in respect that Jensen was well known by his voice. I can see why Ubisoft did it as well. When a big part of your game is on the antagonist instead of the main character, as it was in Far Cry 3, having the player go "Oh, I'm Adam Jensen. I never asked for this. Hurr." might have taken away from that.

Plus it's not like Ubsioft didn't have him do other work, considering he's Andriy Kobin in Splinter Cell.
 

Chester Rabbit

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Well at least he is still getting work with those car adds. Heh I always get a bit of a kick when I hear Adam Jensen doing a voice over during a car commercial.
 
Nov 28, 2007
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UrinalDook said:
DVS BSTrD said:
Shouldn't use your normal voice for a character unless you know it's gunna be a series.
Right, because Jennifer Hale has had no work since using her normal voice in Mass Effect. Or Steve Blum, I mean he's also never been successful bringing his distinctive burr to multiple franchises, right?

Elias has just been a little unlucky in that his breakout character was both incredibly popular and was defined greatly by 'dat voice'. I'm sure he'll find plenty of work, as implied in the article, come the reset of pop culture memory that will hit with the next gen.
You do realize Jennifer Hale had a good bit of success before Mass Effect, right? Metroid Prime, Knights of the Old Republic, Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2 (both games playing different characters), La Pucelle: Tactics, and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy all had her playing fairly major roles before she got the lead in Mass Effect. At that point, you can afford to use your normal voice.

As for Steve Blum...I agree with you there. But for every actor like him, you get one like Brandon Keener, who has people walk up to him on the street and recognize him as Garrus because of his voice. You can't tell me that won't affect his career if he is that recognizable.
 

Barbas

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Oct 28, 2013
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It's a shame when a good actor be typecast in a certain role. That doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to playing the Director's Edition of Human Revolution, though. He did a very good Jensen.
 
Apr 28, 2008
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Yeah, he mentioned this before. Still a laugh when people go "he's sounding too hard to be gritty" and I tell them that it's actually what he sounds like. Also, since you mentioned Deus Ex and Far Cry 3 in the same story, I have a flimsy excuse to post these videos!


 

Guffe

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Jul 12, 2009
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So if we want a character to get famous we should let him do it?
Meet the new...
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DONKEY KOOOOOONGG!!!!
[sub][sub]or maybe StarFox?[/sub][/sub]
 

dakkster

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Aug 22, 2011
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Here's an awesome video of Elias being part of a let's play video of Deus Ex Human Revolution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flszuT3ROdo

It's hilarious to hear him riff on different situations in the game :)
 

rofltehcat

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Jul 24, 2009
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I wouldn't mind hearing him in some other games. Unnecessarily reducing the pool of good voice actors really isn't a good idea. In the end you'll probably just end up with Oblivion if you want to avoid using good voice actors just because they already voiced other notable characters somewhere else.
I hope he gets some good roles in the future.
 

Callate

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Dec 5, 2008
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He did a great job in Human Revolution. I hope he finds more lead work elsewhere. I mean, they don't all have to be Nolan North, right?
 

matrix3509

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Sep 24, 2008
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God I would have KILLED to have him voice Jason Brody. The VA they got for him was fucking atrocious.
 

Rad Party God

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Feb 23, 2010
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I guess Toufexis... never asked for this.

I absolutely loved Jensen's voice and his character wasn't too shaby either, it's a shame it ironically gets him less work, having him along with Michael Mando in FC3 would've been a match made in heaven.

thebobmaster said:
You do realize Jennifer Hale had a good bit of success before Mass Effect, right? Metroid Prime, Knights of the Old Republic, Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2 (both games playing different characters), La Pucelle: Tactics, and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy all had her playing fairly major roles before she got the lead in Mass Effect. At that point, you can afford to use your normal voice.
Also Eternal Darkness :3