Casting director Ivy Isenberg knows what it takes to work in the video game industry. With 15 years of experience casting games, she’s worked with celebrities and noncelebrities alike to bring to life captivating characters for a number of well-known games. She’s cast such notable releases as “Call of Duty: Black Ops” and “Ghost of Tsushima,” a recent BAFTA winner. Backstage spoke with Isenberg to learn more about how she casts video games and what actors, especially those interested in voice work, should know if they want a successful career in gaming.
“They have to be actors first. They have to be classically trained. They have to be good. There’s nothing specifically different about trying to get a job in this industry versus television and film. You just have to be good at your craft. You have to put thought into it.”
What is your casting process for a video game?
Everyone has their own unique process. I think part of what we bring to the table as a casting community is our wealth of knowledge and experience. With the niche I’ve carved out for myself in the gaming community, there are so many aspects of the requisite skill set for gaming that are inherent in other media. Before COVID-19, I’d go to New York twice a year, go to London every year, and I’d literally spend the entire time watching plays. As a casting director, we bring that knowledge of performers who have the requisite skill set for what we’re trying to accomplish within the project. I always start with a target list of who, if I had my druthers, would be ideal in that role. It’s based on all the plays I’ve been to, the TV shows I watch, the video games I play. As I have conversations with the team on their limitations, whether it’s scheduling, budget, or permits now with COVID-19, we eliminate some of those ideas based on logistical difficulties. I release breakdowns for video games but because I have a plethora of NDAs, I need to be very careful with the information I release. I say as much as I am allowed, so it’s really up to the actor to read the information I provide on tone and context very carefully.
10 Tips To Help Your Video Game Voiceover Career How has your process changed during the pandemic and are there changes you think might stick around in the future?
I would hope, on a personal level, that the pandemic will open people’s eyes to extra safety, extra precautions, and add more of that human touch—although not literal—that I think the entertainment business has been missing for a really long time. That sense of care and concern for people’s safety and wellbeing. That being said, having worked in gaming for 15 years, that’s never been a problem in my industry. I’ve worked for the biggest publishers in the world, and once a performer participates in a video game, either voiceover or performance capture, they literally beg me to be in another one, celebrity or non-celebrity, because everything is safe and contained.
If you participate in a well-known, established [gaming] franchise, our days are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on a contained set with safety precautions. All my games have separate stunt teams so actors don’t have to perform stunts. They have separate motion capture teams. Anything that doesn’t involve speaking or a performance that’s attributable to that actor, meaning if I’m capturing generic running or throwing or arm movement, are digital assets. There’s no shooting at night or in unsafe circumstances. There are coordinators that we have so if someone has to jump 1 foot off of a soapbox, we have a stunt coordinator there. It’s really the most fun you can have if you’re willing to commit to the art of it.
“The people who put in the effort become successful. The people who are very in touch with their emotional talent are successful. The people who put in the time and the effort and the thought are successful.”
What makes an actor memorable to you in their audition?
I gravitate toward artists and people who are classically trained. A performance is memorable when someone is fully committed the entire time. When they’ve thought about the subtlety, like the macro and the micro. I have a BFA from USC. I went to theater school. I studied Meisner and Stanislavsky. I did Uta Hagen, I did all of this stuff. The whole point of my college education was dramaturgy. So, when a performer comes in and thinks they can wing it, you lose so much of the richness they could have included had they given it more thought. I gravitate toward people who have really thought about the words to maximize the value of the message.
Where do you look for talent?
I get so many auditions, and the one thing that I’m really proud of is that I’m not an agency or manager snob. If I’ve asked for it, then I want it. I accept auditions from the smallest of managers, the biggest of agencies, the smallest of agencies, etc. Really good things come from unique places or relationships that you may not have had before. I let everyone that I think is right audition and I watch everything.
What advice would you give aspiring actors who want to get into video games?
They have to be actors first. They have to be classically trained. They have to be good. There’s nothing specifically different about trying to get a job in this industry versus television and film. You just have to be good at your craft; you have to put thought into it. Because I cast games top to bottom, I do celebrity negotiations, I do “Guy #3,” I do “Soldier #4.” I do the lead roles, supporting roles, the battle chatter, everything. Because of that, I have so many auditions in my files. It’s just chock-full of stuff. It shocks me when I get thousands of auditions of people who don’t know what the point of the words is. Who don’t understand the context, who don’t know what they’re saying or what the words mean.
I just don’t understand why they wouldn’t take five minutes to Google something or to look something up. Why does everyone want to be successful, but they don’t want to put any work into it? It’s not the lottery. You don’t just scratch it off and become a millionaire. The people who put in the effort become successful. The people who are very in touch with their emotional talent are successful. The people who put in the time and the effort and the thought are successful.
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