Jack Quaid Discusses New Audio Drama 'The Safe Man' [SDCC Interview]

well I mean that's it it's it's an audio drama like all you have is your voice and the audience is probably you know looking at the car ahead of them or in their kitchen cooking um you don't have even in a cartoon you have uh you have the animators who make incredible animation um and they have you know there's a a person who is a surrogate for your voice that they can actually watch uh but this when it comes to Performance it all has to be in your voice you know there's nothing that we can communicate with our faces or like a cartoon face so um that was definitely the challenge but uh I have a I have a little bit of experience with this um I I produce a Dungeons and Dragons podcast um that my friends uh they created uh it's called hero club and yes that is a plug for hero Club um but what they do is um they basically cut out all the cross talk of DnD and they just kind of present it as a radio play so I don't know I kind of I spent years doing that with them and I think that if anything that prepared the most for this project uh but also Titus Weller is an incredible director so we were in good hands what Drew you to the role of Brian like what was your favorite part about playing him I like that he's uh kind of Torn Between Two Worlds obviously he has that family history with his uh dad being a thief I like that he's trying to you know make a new life for himself uh I like I don't know the best characters are ones with a with with a real conflict like that where they're being pulled in two different directions so I mean the character was really compelling to me but also the story I just thought it was a I couldn't put it down I just kept flipping through it um and that's just a credit to Michael's writing so I I just felt like I had to be part of it when you lend Your Role to a voice or like you know when you do a voice roll does it make you want to do that in live action someday uh uh do the voice roll in live action yeah I I mean I I have a weird history with that I did an episode of Star Trek strange new worlds where I got to bring uh Brad boyler from lower deck to live action and that was so fun I don't think I've ever had more fun than doing that um uh so yeah I mean like if it's ever a possibility I I would love to and I think this is a story that could work the safe man's a story that could work just as well uh in live action I'd love to see it was this a production that you recorded all your parts separately or were you able to have a little bit of back and forth with either Titus or some of the other uh we had we had we were all in the same studio uh sometimes in different rooms but always reacting off of each other which is a real Rarity these days like typically when I do um voice over I think it's just I don't know Co made things a little complicated but also uh you know everyone has various schedules and they try to get people when they can with this one I was really impressed with the team they tried to get everybody in there uh to kind of bounce off of each other and it was just so much fun and Titus uh is an incredible director but also an incredible seat partner and um no I got got a little too used to it I like I want that P I want to do that more often because it kind of felt like you know like Orson Wells and like the Mercury Theater like that's it's such a radio plays are such a cool thing and I'm glad that the audio drama has kind of brought that back can imagine the faces you guys are making oh yeah there's a lot there's a lot of faces so so how do they direct you is it like a table read when it comes to this yeah it's it's essentially a table read where um like a scene with Titus for example like we'll just be they set up two microphones um in a room and uh we're just we're reading off of each other we have the script in front of us um but it's it's nice to you know understand what the actor is bringing to their role so you can naturally react off of that the best thing they did with this was for the more action bits like there's a whole Heist at one point um that's just I they put a a lav mic on me um and I just ran through the hallway like I just like they did like the hallway of the studio several times throughout the throughout the story it's just me running through the hallways of the studio screaming um and it just it kind of captures that you know obviously it's not a soundproof booth uh with Incredible audio but you know the story lends itself to you know there's there's always a camera recording in our story right so it was really cool to I don't know they it was really nice as an actor to get that energy of like hastily running because it's so weird to replicate that when you're just standing still and um yeah it was really I really love how they approach recording process it's really awesome how different that recording experience when you're director also expi different language between the two oh yeah yeah no Titus is he's such an incredible actor um and he is a real actor's director as well like there's a I don't know you kind of just uh there's a secondhand nature to it where you already kind of speak the same language and I I I always love that and um we became really good friends like we still hang out like I I genuinely love Titus so much he's so great do you appreciate the difference in physicality between something like this and live action shows that you've done before because you don't have to be covered in fake blood oh it's so great I brought it I brought it myself uh no um uh no it's so nice to I you know voice acting and live action work are so different but uh the biggest benefit for me of voice acting is just showing up and I can I can wear whatever I want and not have to go through hair and makeup and I can just be in my PJs and that's fine um I've never actually done that though and I want to now I want to actually show up in pajamas a thing I don't have um just like oldfashioned pajamas I gotta buy some and I got to show up in a booth um but no it is really but I often find that when I'm doing voice work uh I am very physcal you know even though um No One's Gonna see it I am like I really helps to move your arms I almost never sit down uh I'm usually just like trying to jump around uh one part of the room essentially like I can't move too much because the mic won't pick me up but um it is nice to keep the energy up and and get physical with it I was wondering how that huffing and puffing there a lot of huffing and puffing and that was and that was great that they just let me kind of run around the studio I felt bad for anyone else working there because it was just Jack Quaid running through the halls and screaming that's what they had to deal with one more question you kind of have your hands in so many different things and you're constantly working what really makes you want to do a project when it comes across I think if the story is something that I would be interested in as a fan that makes me want to do it like when it comes to like let's say the boys I remember reading that first script um first episode being like man I would watch the hell out of the show um I really want to make sure I book this I really want to audition well um but if I can't be Huey I would love to be an extra like if I have that feeling about a project then I I know that I have to do it um and that just speaks to Michael's writing and how it was such a page Turner and I was like I can't not be a part of this like this is amazing thank you so much guys