“Be careful of pigs”, that’s the piece of advice from Aussie actor Evan Evagora, one of the stars of new teen-horror video game The Quarry.
“Everyone will understand once they play,” he laughed.
The Quarry is a new video game from the creative mind of Will Byles (Until Dawn) and Supermassive Games that sees nine teenage camp councillors attempt to survive a night of horror.
Melbourne’s own Evan Evagora plays one of the critically endangered teens, Nick, and describes his character as the “shy jock”.
“He’s a kid with a good heart and a good soul. He’s a little timid,” he said.
“When it comes to people, he attracted to he just needs that kind of like a kick in the bum to get things going.”
READ MORE: Hands-on with upcoming teen horror game The Quarry
Nick shares a love interest or two in the game, as expected in any teen drama.
Evagora said he and the other actors had to get creative with intimate scenes.
“The opportunity to pash and sink my lips on someone was a fun experience to do,” he said, confessing it was difficult to kiss someone with a full motion-capture suit on.
“There was no actual contact because it’s a mocap, if two of you kiss, you know, you’ve got this camera that’s like this far away from your face, you’d be clinking heads.
“So you just kind of get a certain distance and pretend to kiss.”
Many of the scenes filmed for the game weren’t produced with everyone in the studio at once.
COVID-19 restrictions and studio space limited the actors at times but playing the game you’d hardly notice.
“We were never all together as one, so if it was a large scene, a lot of the people we’d blend in and we’d be doing a scene with maybe three or four of the actors as opposed to everyone but it created a very intimate environment,” he said.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Evagora now finds himself living in New York City, where he’s taking up an acting course at William Esper.
The 25-year-old has previously starred alongside Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: Picard and is now acting alongside big names like David Arquette, Ted Raimi, Ariel Winter and more in The Quarry.
Evagora said he’d always dreamed of being in such a situation.
“If I went back in time and probably told my younger self that, you know, this is where I’d be living and this is the situation I’d be in — so early on in my career — I wouldn’t believe it at all,” he said.
“It is very much a surreal experience and a dream come true.”
READ MORE: Cricut’s crafty machines are creating big side-hustles
In The Quarry, despite the game being set in upstate New York, Evagora’s character does manage to keep his Aussie accent, something he credits to the game’s director Will Byles.
“Before we started filming, he (Byles) asked what I’d like to do, whether I’d like to do an American accent or not,” he said.
“The ball was very much in my court and he also kind of like pushed for it too, which was great.
“It is great to add a bit of my Australian essence into this American production.”
Evagora said experience acting and filming The Quarry was unlike anything he’d done before.
“I’ve done a little bit of blue screen and green screen but this is the first time, you know, I’ve put on essentially what’s a scuba suit with this little camera attached to my forehead and it just felt very freeing,” he said.
“It’s a different form of acting, and I’m glad that I got to dip my toe into and hopefully this is just the first of many.”
Evagora said unlike traditional film acting, being in a motion capture suit saved a lot of time in the hair and makeup department.
All he had to worry about was tying his long hair into a bun before donning the scuba suit.
“My makeup consisted of having a series of dots drawn onto my face, and that was just to line the camera and everything like that in order to really capture the expression and reaction on my face,” he said.
In The Quarry, players will have to make life-altering choices to drive the story forward.
The game itself has more than 196 endings and Evagora revealed the script was 900 pages long.
“Normally a script is maybe like 100 pages and this was 900. So it was you know very in-depth and it’s a credit to Will Byles and the team for creating this amazing game,” he said.
READ MORE: How your iPhone will change in 2022
Evagora’s favourite scene to film was “Peanut Butter Butter Pops” with his friend Zach Tinker.
“I’d have to say my top moment was definitely Peanut Butter Butter Pops with my friend Zach Tinker.
“We were just getting to know each other and we really did forge a friendship with each other,” he said.
“Every scene I did with him, you know, just reminds me of me being a person. You know me moving to LA and not knowing many people and becoming like a really close friend.”
So what are Peanut Butter Butter Pops?
“I still to this day don’t know what it is,” he laughed.
“And depending on which character you’re talking to, they’re either the best thing ever, or the worst thing in the world.”
Just like Until Dawn, make sure you really research and explore your environment, Evagora urged.
The most anticipated video games of 2022 and beyond
View Gallery
The Quarry is out now on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC.
Source: 9NEWS
Thanks for the feedback! That’s an interesting point. I suppose there are many reasons, internal and external, why we do not accomplish all that we might. Regardless, I am thankful for the Lord’s grace in that. Thanks again!
harp music for meditation