Hacking The Planet With Ruffin Prentiss

The first Watch Dogs video game was one of the most innovative concepts for a game in quite some time. Using the open world genre for a game where players could hack almost ANYTHING in a near-futuristic “smart city” was an idea that we had never seen before! And the possibilities were endless for a further games in what could be a HUGE franchise.

Well, the second game came out late last year and the folks at Ubisoft indeed took the game to new heights with a group of young, new-age hacktivists called DedSec. Now, usually when you think of people in the hacker culture you may think of Guy Fawkes masks and nerdy guys in their mother’s basements. What WD2 did was break all of those silly stereotypes and gave us a story of cool, stylish heroes and at its core...a family of misfits.

And what made the second installment of Watch Dogs even more superior (in my opinion) to the first is the amazing performance captures by the cast. With this next gen technology, the actors’ faces and movements are completely transferred into the game...making it very realistic and giving the player a story experience unlike anything I’ve ever played prior. You got to know these characters very well over the many hours (days/months...however addicted you become) playing this video game.

Well, I personally already was friends with Shawn Baichoo, who plays the breakout cult favorite character of the game, the masked Wrench. I interviewed Shawn many years ago and also covered his Punisher fan film, No Mercy, in which he starred as Frank Castle. Over time, we’ve become pretty close buddies and dare I say “geek brothers-in-arms”. Well, when Shawn and the most of the cast appeared as guests at this past Montreal Comiccon (Tasya Teles who plays Sitara couldn’t make it), he introduced me to the guys, John Tench (T-Bone), Jonathan Dubsky (Josh), Christopher Jacot (the villainous Dusan) and even the main character himself, Ruffin Prentiss (Marcus Halloway)! All of these guys were a joy to meet and we even all took a picture together that which got a lot of buzz on social media with the fans saying we all looked like a boy band...which I affectionately called the “Hackstreet Boys”! Good times!

I got even got an interview with Ruffin a.k.a. Marcus himself! We told me all about what it’s like to be an actual video game hero! Enjoy!

DM: I’m really stoked to be meeting you right now, man! Let the readers know a little about yourself!

RP: First of all, Dave, thank you for interviewing me, man. It’s nice to meet you in person, brother! Been doing so many interviews over the phone and Skype and stuff, so it’s nice to have some one-on-one interaction!

I’m originally from Richmond, Virginia, now a New York based actor. Been mostly doing TV and voiceovers. Mostly commercials. Been doing this for five years now professionally and (Watch Dogs 2) is a life changing project! It’s my first time doing a video game and it’s just awesome to be here!

DM: How did the whole Watch Dogs thing happen?

RP: In video games, they never tell you what the project is. So, my agent called and said, “Hey, I have a video game audition for you.” And I just assumed it as just for voice! And she said, “No, you have to go into an actual casting office and they are going to put you on tape, like how they do for television and film auditions.”

So, I thought, okay, it must be for mo-cap! I was super excited! I had no clue for what company this was for or what game...or even the characters! All of the character names are made up and they just want to get your sensibility at that stage, just to see if you fit the character. I remember going in, and the first time they just put me on tape. The second time the director flew down and we just hit it off! I remember leaving and feeling like “Man, I could book this thing!”

At the time Marcus' name was Reed, and I always felt like I was close to this character. I get his sense of humor, I get the moments he has, they gave me a few notes and I took them well and once I found out I booked it,  it still was a couple of months before I knew what project I as working on! But then they flew me up, I did the facial scan to get me into the system and they walked me through the plot of the whole, entire story. And I thought “Whoa, this is all already done and we haven’t even started shooting yet?!”

So, after that it was all work for about a year! Voiceovers, mo-cap, promotional work...it was a lot of fun, man!

DM: So all of the action stuff that Marcus does in the game, is that actually you?

RP: No. They bring people in...I swear, man, these guys are all muscle, lean...like 130 pounds...but straight-up NINJAS, man. And what they’ll do is they’ll have them do the action mo-cap, and then they’ll bring me in and have me do like, 50% of that, so they catch my facial reactions. I do my best, man! I got a little bit of stage combat in me, but these guys are doing flips and they’re crazy talented!

DM: How much of Marcus is Ruffin? Because it seems like he has a lot of your personality, and I’ve talked to Shawn about Wrench and he says that a lot of him is in that character, too.

RP: What’s great is that on the page it already felt really close to me, but when we started shooting, they would let me ad-lib and change lines when I wanted to. So Marcus is not very far from me at all! I’m a little bit of a geek, I love games, I love hanging out with a group of people that really get me and have the same type of principles  and morals that I have.

DM: So you’re a real fan of Danny Brown, is what you’re saying? (laughs)

RP: I’m a "real fan" of Bo Bo Dakes! I love me some Bo Bo! (laughs)

DM: Would you like to bring Marcus back in a future Watch Dogs game?

RP: I think the answer to that is a blatant YES!........WHOA!

 (In the middle of the interview a Wrench cosplayer with moving LED eyes and a voice modulator in the mask showed up and we all stopped to take pics and awe at this brilliance! At conventions, this happens from time to time when an interview is stopped and I—and the interviewee just stop to geek out at something! We soon got back to business)

 DM: So...after that awesomeness, I have to ask this...how close do you think we are to these games and actually having “smart cities”?

RP: So here’s what happened. We were recording the game and there’s a mission where they hack the CFO of Blume or something, and they hack her “smart home” and make it go crazy. And it made me think, because not too long after that, Google came out with Google Home app and smart speaker and Amazon came out with Alexa, and now Apple’s got their one...and I was like, “this thing HAS to be collecting data—EVERY DAY.” And dude, those things can turn on and off your lights and order you pizza, it’s crazy.

I think we’re REALLY close, man. I think it’s right around the corner. Now, if they will invade your privacy? I don’t know. After playing the game and seeing the potential of where the creators of the game see the future going, and knowing that it’s not too far off...it’s pretty scary, man!

DM: I think it could happen within the next 10 years or so...something VERY similar to Watch Dogs! I’m not a hacker of any kind, but being able to control stuff with your phone would be pretty fun!

RP: Well, I don’t know much about hacking, but I think it would be pretty scary to think that someone could turn off a whole building. In the first game, Aiden turns off the lights at a baseball park right in the beginning. I thought right away, “how awesome is that?!”

DM: Were you a fan of the first game before you got the part?

RP: I played it in preparation for it. When I found out I was the main character of an open world game, I was so excited. I mean, GTA brought me into that world. It changed the dynamic of gaming to me as a kid. In many ways! So, of course when I found out, I had to play the first one. I got about half of it, just because I didn’t have enough time. But I actually had no gripes, man! Aiden was pretty badass!

 DM: And *SPOILER ALERT* it was cool to have him show up in your game!

RP: Yeah, man!

 DM: I really appreciate this, man! I will let you get back to meeting your fans!

RP: Thanks for having me, Dave!

Well, there you have it...it was pretty crazy to meet someone who I’ve actually controlled (and made dance more times than I’d care to admit) in a video game! Ruffin is a cool guy and I was very happy to finally chat with him and the rest of the guys from the Watch Dogs 2! If you haven’t picked up the game yet, you definitely should, as it was one of the best games in the past year! It’s hours and hours of fun.

That’s all for now! Until next time, keep it on the EDGE!