video gamesYes, you know this actor from video game ‘Call of Duty: ModernWarfare II’. To help you identify Glenn Morshower, he’s known from TV showslike ‘Ozark’, ‘Agents of SHIELD’ and ’24’, in which he invariably playedauthority figures. Just like in the new edition of the annual military shooterseries, in which he, as General Shepherd, sends the player characters onshadowy missions.
His determined body language, his chiseled image, his cool facial expression,his calm but firm voice: it can’t be missed, the digitized character GeneralShepherd in video game ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II’ is, in all itsfacets, Glenn Morshower. “But then a version of myself that occasionally comesinto a fitness room,” laughs the 63-year-old actor.
To recognize Glenn Morshower, it is actually sufficient that you have switchedon a television set at some point in the past forty-five years. Since the ageof seventeen he has played in more than two hundred TV series, films and(later) video games, often as a role comparable to the one he plays in ‘ModernWarfare II’: he has already played more than twenty military roles, especiallyhigh-profile military roles. ranks as colonel or general, and more than tentimes he trotted up as a government agent. “I’ve built a career on playingauthority figures,” Morshower says. “It’s closest to my physiognomy, I guess.In any case, this wasn’t the first time I’ve played a general. But the firstin a diving suit.”
Image from ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II’. © Activision
Performance capture
The digital version of Glenn Morshower entered the so-called ‘cutscenes'(animation sequences between the shooting levels to propel the story forward)of ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II’ using a technique called performancecapture: the actors use their movements , facial expression and voice arerecorded in a studio with dozens of cameras set up around the entire space.They mainly register dozens of so-called ‘markers’, white plastic spheres onthe body of the actor, who is hoisted in a kind of diving suit, plus dozens of’facial markers’, which register the slightest movement of the face. It is nowa tried and tested way of making games, which is used in almost all majorblockbusters of the moment. But it is also a challenge for the actors, who arenot on a real set and therefore have to come up with the decor.
“You are at the mercy of your own fantasy,” Morshower says. “All the movingparts that you normally find on a film set are not there: everything is addedafter the recorded rendition. On the performance capture set, you have tobuild the scenery in your own mind. You operate in the dark, with a vision inyour mind of what the end result should look like.”
Morshower during the ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II’ show. © Activision
“Up and at ’em!”
Glenn Morshower , married since 1978 and father of two grown children, grew upin Dallas, the stepson of a soldier at heart. This gave him his authoritativevoice and persona, says the Texan, who, in addition to his often typecastacting roles, he also uses as a motivational speaker with his lecture ‘TheExtra Mile’. “I don’t have a military background, but I do know how military-trained people behave and think,” Morshower said. “My stepfather was one ofthe old-fashioned ones: as a child I had to get up at O’sebn, that is, seveno’clock in the morning, and he wouldn’t tolerate delay. It was from ‘Up and at’em’ and ‘Hit the deck’ and so on. A bit of overkill, perhaps, especially fora young child. Little did I know then that that experience was alreadypreparing me for ‘Call of Duty’ (laughs).”