Playing the Fool

*All that glisters is not gold, often have you heard that told...**This article is about The Dark Pictures Anthology's first installment,* ***Man of Medan***
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***Playing the Fool*** is the second segment in *Man of Medan*'s Special Features. This is a short interview with Shawn Ashmore where he talks about his character Conrad.

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Shawn Ashmore explains what it's like to play Conrad and reviews his character.

## Transcript

[Alex]

Hey!

[Conrad]

What's up man? Conrad.

[Alex]

Good to finally meet you, Conrad. This is Brad, by the way. My little bro.

[Conrad]

Hey man. Wanna crack a cold one with me?

[Shawn Ashmore]

In *Man of Medan* I play a character named Conrad and I think initially when we find Conrad he is a sort of entitled guy, a wealthy American who's on vacation.

[Conrad]

Where's the ol' crust bucket skipper, anyhow?

[Shawn Ashmore]

He's an adventurous guy, he lives off the cuff, he does what he wants...

[Fliss]

I'd invite you to make yourselves at home but...

[Shawn Ashmore]

... and I think that's kind of fun to play as an actor. He has no sensor, he has no filter so whatever circumstance he's put into you know exactly how Conrad feels and so it was a kind of fun performance to start out being brash, kind of a silly guy and just jump in and have fun with that.

[Fliss]

So is everyone on board and ready to go?

[Conrad]

If you're selling, I'm buying.

[Shawn Ashmore]

I think Conrad and I have some similarities, I think the sense of humour and the sense of fun are similar between Conrad and I, but I will say that he's a little more aggressive and a little more outlandish than I am.

[Conrad]

Guys, look, I think we gotta listen to our experienced, beautiful, smart, and... beautiful captain here. If she says we should do things the r-

[Julia]

Connie, please, I didn't bring you on this trip to get laid.

[Conrad]

Wait what?

[Shawn Ashmore]

Conrad is the kind of guy that I would like to be at a party with. You know I would like to have a barbeque and drink some beers with him. I don't know that Conrad and I would be best friends, I think we'd butt heads a little bit.

[Conrad]

Right on Bradical. I like the cut of your ship.

[Brad]

It's "jib".

[Conrad]

Don't ruin it.

[Shawn Ashmore]

I think the scenes that I've had the most fun with so far are basically when Conrad is going absolutely crazy. I don't want to give too much away but there is this scene where these sort of fishermen interact with our divers, with our core crew here, and he's just a bit of an asshole.

[Olson]

Hey, we got damage here. You see this?

[Conrad]

We can take care of this man. It's not a problem. What do you think? Like, uh, 10 bucks cover it? Oh... whoops, my bad. Let's make it 20.

[Shawn Ashmore]

Okay, okay. Hold on, I got this.

[Conrad]

Well shoot. Y-You think it's more like 30? I can do 30. Alright, you guys drive a hard bargain. But I'm with ya. Here. Let's just throw in the whole pot.

[Shawn Ashmore]

That's yours. You go ahead.

[Olson]

Let's go. Now!

[Shawn Ashmore]

He's just got an attitude, he's brash. These people are messing with his group and he just kind of lets loose and talks trash to them, and, as a guy who would never do that in real life, it's a lot of fun to just kind of let Conrad flow, say whatever he wants.

[Fliss]

You're an idiot.

[Conrad]

They left, didn't they?

[Fliss]

That doesn't make you any less of an idiot!

[Ayisha Issa]

Y'know the only thing funnier than seeing you try to buy the way out of that situation is watching you put your money to waste.

[Shawn Ashmore]

I gotta a smile outta ya. Worth every penny.

One of the most interesting and one of key moments that sticks out for me is Conrad's decision in the first act of the game either to stay with the group or potentially just take off...

[Conrad]

The storm's eight miles away.

[Julia]

They came here on a boat. Maybe we can take it.

[Conrad]

Yeah! Yeah, it's a speedboat! I can get out through the window. We gotta break these off first.

[Julia]

Too loud, they'll hear it!

[Conrad]

We're gonna break them during the thunder.

[Alex]

Ah! Good call!

[Julia]

Don't leave us here, okay?

[Shawn Ashmore]

... and I think again this is what's interesting depending on how the player sculpts the story, Conrad can become a coward essentially and desert his friends and his family or become a hero and stay...

[Conrad]

These fuckers need to pay!

[Shawn Ashmore]

... and so that to me is very, very interesting. Two very human choices and depending on how our player decides to live with these characters can totally change the outcome of the game so I think that I enjoy when Conrad makes the heroic choice and gets to stick around he obviously gets to see more of the adventure but it's just as possible that he tries to save his own life and takes off.

[Shawn Ashmore]

Uhh, wow. That was intense!

[Ayisha Issa]

That's one way to put it.

[Shawn Ashmore]

You got a better way to put it?

All the characters do have very strong personalities and drives.

[Arielle Palik]

Leave, leave, leave!

[Shawn Ashmore]

I think Conrad is the instigator.

[Conrad]

Good news, bad news...

[Alex]

"Bad news"? I don't see how this could get any worse!

[Shawn Ashmore]

I think he is the one that really starts the confrontation with the fishermen...

[Conrad]

These are kinda... maybe the fishermen I pissed off earlier.

[Julia]

Oh, goddammit Conrad!

[Alex]

Great, just great! And the good news?

[Shawn Ashmore]

... so I think, in a lot of ways, Conrad is there to stir the pot and create drama.

[Conrad]

Uh... I recognize them.

[Julia]

How is that "good news"?

[Conrad]

I thought you were gonna ask the good news first!

[Julia]

You're such an idiot! Jesus!

[Shawn Ashmore]

Do I prefer playing the good guy or the bad guy? I think that there's fun in both. To be honest I don't get to play the bad guy as much as I get to play the good guy so I think I relish those moments where I get to play the darker side of things but I think every good hero has that balance, has that dark side. I think a good guy who only is doing good things is kind of boring...

[Fliss]

You just had to pissed them off, didn't you?

[Shawn Ashmore]

... so I think that there's elements of both sides in both characters and the best villains are the villains that don't think they are doing anything wrong. Their motivation is not like "oh I'm a moustache twirling bad guy" it's like no they are doing what's right for them it just happens to be against what most people think is the right thing to do.

If I can't shoot them as payback at least I could give them a nice jab at the sharp knife.

Because I'd had some experience working with motion capture and games before, this experience was much easier for me coming right in. I didn't feel like I was jumping into the deep end. What I really like is that all the actors are constantly there all the time, there's the ability to work off each other without the pressure of specific lighting and marks. There's a freedom to that that I really, really enjoy. It's been really good. It's been very kind of a free experience as far as I like motion capture performance.

[Conrad]

You got a funny way to say "thank you, Conrad".

[Fliss]

You're a piece of work, Conrad.

[Conrad]

I'm not all work, I'm a little play too. Hashtag wink.