Troy Baker is playing everybody’s favorite archeologist in the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and the story of how he finally managed to get into character is a doozy.
“I can tell you the wrong way to do it, and all the things that I thought were serving me and realizing that it was not,” Baker tells us. “Every time for me is something new. ‘What’s your process?’ I don’t have one. The only process I can think of is I want to be prepared and never rehearsed.”
If you’ve watched the documentary of the making of The Last of Us, you’ll remember the moment where it shows the behind the scenes of Joel, played by Baker, during his daughter’s death scene. He goes from screaming and wailing to just softly sobbing, and that’s the take that made it into the game. It’s a good example of being prepared rather than rehearsed/
“Drives my scene partner crazy because I’m not going as like I know exactly what I’m going to do,” Baker says. “It’s playing jazz every time.” For Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Baker first tried to prepare by watching all the original Indy movies and listening to John Williams’ soundtrack, but it wasn’t working for him.
One night, “I walk into the lobby of the hotel and sitting in the bar was Tony,” Baker tells us. “He goes, ‘T, let me buy you a drink.’ That was about 6:30 in the evening. Cut to about 3 o’clock in the morning, I end up on the piano, the bars kicked us out, and I spent the weekend nursing a hangover.”
When he returned to set on Monday, rather than watching the movies beforehand and listening to the soundtrack on the way, he listened to Choplin instead. “I get to set, and Tom looks at me, and I’m expecting some either pep talk or cautionary conversation,” Baker remembers. “He just looks at me, goes, ‘trust that it’ll be there.’ And that’s when I realized Indiana Jones doesn’t wake up every morning reminding himself he’s Indiana Jones. He’s just making it through his day.”
That revelation is what helped Baker settle into the role. It’s a good thing he managed to, as he had to really convince Bethesda boss Todd Howard that he was right for it. Howard originally was dead set against Baker playing Indy.
The game launches December 6, and if you want a sneak peek, read our Indiana Jones and the Great Circle hands-on preview.