Teabag Prevention Presents: An Interview with Carlos Ferro
There’s no telling who’s around the corner when you’re at the San Diego International Comic-Con. In our case, a very lucky case I might add, Carlos Ferro was just around the corner. The name may not sound too familiar at first, but it damn well should be. Maybe you saw him in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation way back in 1994. No, that couldn’t be it.
Maybe you heard his voice in a couple of James Bond 007 video games. Not that either? Try Leonardo Da Vinci in Assassins Creed II and Brotherhood. If that hasn’t got your attention, then this will: You probably know Ferro the Great mainly from his work on the Gears of War franchise.
Carlos Ferro has been voicing Dom from Gears of War since 2006. I’d sit here and write down everything we thought he said during the interview, but thankfully we’re smarter than that. Below is the transcribed version in all it’s glory. Enjoy our meaningful interview with Carlos Ferro at Comic-Con 2011.
Kelsie: What’s your favorite line to deliver as the voice of Dom?
Carlos Ferro: *IN CHARACTER* “SUP, BITCHES?!”
Jake108: Do any kids talk trash to you on Xbox Live?
Carlos Ferro: My gamertag is private, but I have had guys not know that they’re playing with the voice of Dom. And I always play as Dom and they’ve noticed an unusual echo when they do talk trash. Like, *Whiny Voice* “Dom, man you keep dying! Fucking Dom!” And stuff like that. And I’m the first one that in Dom’s voice starts echoing maybe his sentiment while someone’s talking shit. But I’m never, never over the line, I mean they’re fans, they’re playing the game. I do it in good fun. But yeah, trash talking man, that’s the multiplayer experience!
Jake108: Do you ever mess around with any people online by talking in Dom’s voice over the mic?
Carlos Ferro: Only when they know, only when like two or three people on my squad know that I’m, you know, and there’s one person that doesn’t, I’ll have a little bit of fun with them. But eventually they’ll be like, “Are you guys hearing that?” And we’re like, “Yeah Dude, you’re playing with the voice of Dom.” And then they’re very happy, so it’s a good thing.
Jake108: Do you know what rank you are in Gears 2?
Carlos Ferro: I do not know right now, I do not. I know what level I’m at. I know I haven’t got my wings yet, I’m not a hundred yet, no where near a hundred yet. I’m at like seventy-something. I don’t get to play no where near to play as much as I’d like.
Jake108: Do you prefer Gears 2 over Gears 1, mainly because of the Horde Mode?
Carlos Ferro: It’s not a preference. I just haven’t played Gears 1 since Gears 2 came out. I mean, I would go back, but Horde was a new thing when it came out, and I’m still addicted.
Jake108: Once Gears 3 comes out are you going to jump ship and play that?
Carlos Ferro: I don’t know about jumping ship man, I don’t know if I’m going to be that quick to jump ship. I like my horde. I ease into my games. You know, I’m a gamer, I play a lot of games, not just the ones I’m in you know what I mean? And I can imagine that I’ll probably get really good at Horde 2.0 before I jump ship and start playing with my friends. And I think all the experience that I built on [Gears] 2 will help.
Kelsie: Is there anything in Gears 3 that made you just go “Wow”?
Carlos Ferro: I played Horde 2.0 yesterday and the lighting- I don’t want to get too technical, but the lighting and the color pallet of the game is so different. You go into there and play the [Gears of War 3 Horde 2.0] demos that are there right now, the new tickers, when they explode that’s a wow, man. That is no bullshit. That was a bloody gory wow factor for sure.
Jake108: Have you play any beast mode?
Carlos Ferro: I played beast mode last year.
Jake108: What’s your favorite Locust to play as?
Carlos Ferro: I’m a big fan of the Kantus because it makes me laugh, it makes people faint. *Carlos Ferro does his best, most awesome Kantus screech, which happens to sound a little like a dying goat.* And it cracks me up. But yeah, last time I think I was playing as a Berserker, I can’t remember! But I was kicking ass and I was big, so probably a berserker. Beast mode, what I saw was amazing. Just seeing the teams die, it was weird to me to watch Dom get killed by a ticker. That’s odd! But fun and cool all the same time.
Jake108: When you are recording your lines of dialog is John Di Maggio there too?
Carlos Ferro: Yes.
Jake108: And you guys are basically talking to each other as the characters?
Carlos Ferro: Not always, but we try to do that as often as possible, especially for the campaign. There are so many scenes that I think it’s kinda vital that Marcus is interacting with Dom, and we have been really fortunate that Epic lets us.
Kelsie: How satisfied are you with the Gears 3 conclusion? Without spoiling anything.
Carlos Ferro: Without spoiling anything? Oh, I’ll spoil everything! I’ll tell you what happens!
Kelsie: That would be great for us!
Carlos Ferro: Oh I’m sure it would be. How satisfied? Totally. They did not screw around, the story is satisfying. They don’t shut down the universe, it doesn’t end with a bomb going off and there’s no more Gears universe. That’s ridiculous. It’s not that, the big bang doesn’t happen and then it’s over. I mean ridiculous like that, I mean I’m going as stupid as possible. But every storyline, all the questions, they get answered. And that’s awesome.
Jake108: Is there any room to go forward or backward in the Gears timeline, such as the Pendulum Wars?
Carlos Ferro: In our industry, there’s room to go forward, backwards, up, down, sideways. It is a big expansive universe. They worked very hard since the beginning to create a universe that makes books, games, comics. There is a lot going on, man. I mean if you tried to read all the comic books, books and everything you’d have very little time to do anything else.
Carlos Ferro (to Kelsie): Is that him? Does he read everything?
Kelsie: I actually read everything.
Carlos Ferro: And he is like, “Will you finish Jacinto’s Remnant already?!”
Kelsie: Unfortunately he is more of a Halo guy, I’m more into Gears.
Carlos Ferro: Oh really? Well this interview is over then. Goodbye.
Kelsie: Nooooo!
Jake108: She’s a big Gears fan.
Carlos Ferro: I actually worked on the Halo: Reach trailer so I can only talk so much shit. I was the first guy that did the voice of Carter. I’m alright with Halo. We’re down! We’re down. But I am an Assassin’s Creed guy too, I am the voice of Leonardo da Vinci.
Kelsie: Aside from Gears 3, what game are you most looking forward to?
Carlos Ferro: What am I waiting on? Actually this a good segway: Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, I really am looking forward to seeing what happens with Desmond and all these sorts of things. I can only speak about Leonardo Da Vinci, I can’t say if he’s in Revelations –
Jake108: I was just about to ask you that!
Carlos Ferro: Yeah, I can’t say, but as a fan, I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens. I don’t know everything.
Jake108: Do you read any other fiction into video game lore?
Carlos Ferro: I’ve read Assassin’s Creed: The Fall comics, the Gears comics, Aspho Fields, Jacinto’s Remnant. Quite Frankly, I do them for research. To be brutally honest, I don’t kickback and say, “I’m gonna read Aspho Fields.” I WANT to read the story of the Santiago family and want to know what’s going on. They named Carlos, his [Dominic Santiago] brother after me, so I had to read that shit. I wanted to know what happened. It was amazing and I think it did open the door for me to read more fiction. I was more a biography guy before.
Jake108: What book did you enjoy the most?
Carlos Ferro: Aspho Fields, without a doubt.
Jake108: What do you think is the most terrible thing that’s happened to Dominic Santiago?
Carlos Ferro: There’s no question, the death of Maria [Dominic Santiago’s wife, which we saw in Gears of War 2.]
Kelsie: Why does Dom have such bad luck?
Carlos Ferro: It’s not bad luck. It’s the military families man, it’s a metaphor. If they didn’t say it, I’m saying it. This is Carlos Ferro’s reasoning of how I act Dom. This is the secret to how I act. The heart of my character work on this is that he’s always been a metaphor to me for military families. Military families in this country, and globally, give everything to their cause, their country, to the revolution, and it can be any kind of fight. They give their sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, and horrible things happen in the name of the cause. And that cause is always hopefully a noble one, a good one, fighting the good fight, and helping people live better lives. For me, again, I’m not speaking for Epic or Microsoft, the Santiago family is the perfect metaphor for military families: What happened to Carlos, and what happened to the [Dom’s] kids, to Maria. The fiction in Gears of War is not really that far off of our planet. You can relate it to the Blitzkrieg in Europe. People do lose their kids and their wives go missing. People do have to watch their wives die and pull the plug because of a war. You lose your brother, your parents, or you get separated, and so for me, it’s not bad luck. It’s what happens when war happens, and when people don’t take passive positions. My responsibility was to bring that heart, that level of feeling to it, to tell the story. The Santiago family had a horrible time when E-Day happened and during the Pendulum Wars. The family has been hurting. Military families hurt. There’s my long-winded, heavy-duty answer. I’ve never said that to anybody. It was fun telling you guys that.
Unfortunately, Carlos Ferro didn’t have that much time to talk to us to begin with. Kelsie and I are grateful he gave us the ten minutes he had to have a conversation with us.
Follow Carlos Ferro on Twitter!
Written & Transcribed by:
Kelsie Hernandez & Jacob Lopez
