![]() ![]() HUMAAM: Would you have an interest in working in theatre again?Ībsolutely! My first love. That allowed me to focus on something that was very difficult to do and still is. Acting also felt like a way to exercise my demons and get my frustrations out. ![]() My home life was interesting yet puzzling, so I wanted to explore that. Why do people make the choices they make? And when I was young, I was fascinated with human behaviour. There were things I was confident about – but in myself I was insecure. So they decide to pursue being other people. The deeper thing is that, for most voice actors, they aren’t comfortable being themselves. I knew I could make people think in a way they haven’t thought before. So, when the sporting jocks would approach me and be like “yeah… that was really good” – I knew I was onto something. That made me start doing plays and stuff at school. But interestingly, in these institutions, you can get these revolutionary English teachers and one of them said to me – ‘ you know I think you might be an actor.’ I then went the traditional route, through an English boarding school at the age of 7. It was also a way of getting people on your side and became this survival mechanism. I quickly discovered that either being funny, doing silly voices, or doing imitations of teachers got me into (and out of) trouble. Being a little overweight gave me a lot of shit. I was a French kid so I was seen differently at school. It was at school there weren’t any performers or actors in my family. ![]() WENDY: Where did your love of acting and theatre come from? I miss that simpler, easier England and maybe that’s just a constant of getting older. I miss the fact that not every pub was a chain. Life was sort of more carefree there weren’t many rules. Where people would be tearing around in Triumph Spitfires that they spent most of their weekend under than in. And it was just an England I remember from the ’70s as a kid. I took a friend up into the Dales, and we went to the brewery at Masham, and had a couple of pints with lunch. It’s gorgeous! It’s breathtaking! With the Hedgerows full of spring flowers and rolling hills, and the North York Moors. ![]() When England is like that, I don’t think there is anything prettier. HUMAAM: Do you miss the Weather in England?Ībsolutely not! The last time I was over, it was that blazing hot summer 3 years ago. And, of course, all of my history is French. But I get everything else, and very rarely do they look at me and go ‘what? He’s clearly British’. They’ve cast me as Arabs, Israelis, Russians, Americans, lots of New Yorkers. With voice over stuff, you have more control because no one cares what you look like – which can be handy if you look like this! You know on TV, I look like a foreign dodgy geezer, so I get all those roles. Yeah and I think it’s different on camera than off. WENDY: Yeah, because it’s like I was talking to another interviewee, who was saying if you don’t have the business mentality, then you aren’t going to make it. Whereas here, It’s very much a business because I’ve been able to engineer a career and feels like I’ve had more control over things. I worked in theatre, some of it I had to generate myself and some of it was pure luck. You can put all your effort in, in the UK, and not get anywhere. Once you understand yourself as a professional entity, you have a bit more control over your career because it’s gearing toward something. But here it’s like you are a professional entity. If I get a job in England, I feel like I’ve thrown some dice, gotten a lucky number and owe someone something. That’s why you often see the same people in the same things, again and again. But in England, the amount of work available is precious and people want to protect their little commodity. In the US, there is a massive hunger amongst casting agents to meet new actors and send them over. For me, back in the UK, acting feels a bit like a lottery. I began as a theatre actor, the most impoverished kind in England. WENDY: Do you see like a massive difference in terms of how things are done over in the US versus how they’re done in the UK? We have since reached out to JB regarding his experience at Blizzard but, at the time of writing, have not heard back. After introductions, and some light-hearted chit chat sharing our love of Northern England – a place we all call home – we began our discussion.Įditor’s Note: The following interview took place on 15th July 2021. Wendy and Humaam sat down to speak with JB during a rare break in his work. JB was kind enough to lend us some time for an interview, despite his already busy schedule. Particularly having directed, acted, and coached for many, many years. After all, JB Blanc is a prominent name in the gaming industry. We could go on all day listing roles this talented actor/voice actor plays. Dr Barry Goodman from Breaking Bad, Bane in Arkham Origins, Caustic in Apex Legends. ![]()
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