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Rustique will presents hello and welcome
to our assistant special of the magnus
archives we’re in our season break at
the moment and we thought we would take
the time and catch up with some of the
assistants for the archive because we
all listen to a certain Jonathan Sims
rather a lot on Magnus archives so I
thought we might spend some time with
people other than Johnny with that in
mind who have I got with me today we got
Mike who plays Tim Stoker Lydia who
plays Melanie so first things first then
obviously you play Tim Mike you play
Melanie Lydia ton and I play Martin sort
of remembering good job there so what
you actually think about your own
characters I knew the heavy stuff was
gonna come out of this I’m happy to lead
the charge and say whilst Martin’s
lovely I think he drive me completely up
for I’d be like no you’re lovely
stopping them at stop stop doesn’t just
go go visit pets at home and Stroke some
animals yeah but for the rest of you how
what your actual takeaways of the
characters that you play well gone then
I’ll go next so my my character I’ve
always found a whelp since season two
I’ve found a bit of a struggle mostly
because he started off very
happy-go-lucky and sort of you know very
lively very chipper and then the well
without am I allowed to give spoilers
yeah amazing well towards the end of
season two everything kind of goes to
pot and Tim becomes horrendously
depressed to the point where my
character was the polar opposite of what
I was originally brought on to do
literally was the best which don’t get
me wrong I enjoy it I do really enjoy it
it gives me a moment of quiet
contemplation so I can consider my life
decisions at least once a month but like
at the same time I if I were to meet Tim
I just slap him back hand as well
tempering her upping he’s had a rough
time of it he’s had a very
very rough time of it but come on
support network yeah lack thereof lack
thereof yeah I think that that is the
main problem is that there is no
predefined support network for Tim he
needs like something hold him out anyone
after that happens if that happens it
things will probably get better for Tim
but hate north to see ya hora podcast
I’m sure that getting a wonderful
support network yeah and the tools to
work through traumas and lots of hunts
and puppies is exactly what’s gonna
happen well the thing is they’ll be
readily available but never accessible
[Laughter]
well that’s that’s still brighter than
ours taking the tools to deal with your
problems in the Magnus universe
generally consists of some kind of book
or like a gun or a knife or fire fires a
good one yeah you know what so far yeah
completely oblivious there’s your
solution yeah how about you Lydia
playing Melanie how have you been
finding it how do you what do you think
of your character I’d still want to know
why and how she was shot by one of us do
know johnny will not well i won’t tell
me the only person who knows is johnny
and he has object Lee refused to tell us
is some is a little frustrating only a
major defining character moment that
drove you back towards the Magnus
archives exactly it’s not like you need
to know what your motivations later than
you too and it came in I thought it was
probably gonna be for a one-off early on
and the only characteristic that I gave
her really it was the it was you know
how far is the rod upper us on any
particularly given day and since then
I’ve sort of developed that into it she
it’s very important to her that she
seems competent and she has to lash out
the moment that she doesn’t really know
what’s going on or that she thinks other
people think she doesn’t know what’s
going on and so yeah that’s the one way
you could hurt her the most probably
like yeah I think her ideal to it would
be something like the spiral where it’s
like she’s given a test and she hasn’t
studied for potentially like IKEA
furniture when she’s the only one and
doesn’t have a hand but other people
doing it who do have all asked for it
exactly exactly
non-branded he-man is not just green
things smash right smash smash anger yes
mashing grrrrrr yeah so she still got
some cheer in her which is ridiculous I
think the last time I played her she was
inviting
mine to the pub yes there’s actually
some some happiness which is obviously a
cruelty playing the character so we
obviously we know like what you think
about them and stuff like that but when
it comes to actually playing the
characters obviously like for all of us
these aren’t us like they’re really
really not yes as people I mean like you
would have absolutely no sympathy with
Alex in real life no kittens for Alex
but in all seriousness obviously like
you have to have an end you have
dominating for your character you have
to have a way to get in and actually
like portray that so I’m curious because
Mike starting with you you’ve had the
most change because you’re in initially
when we were sort of going over
character stuff was very much yeah that
positivity and it was that it was almost
like if the Magnus archives needed to
have a PR face be Mike you know come
join the mangas are merged
most of the characterization for that
just consisted of raining it in a bit
yeah exactly
now that’s kind of gone so wash you’re
in now because I’d actually say that
you’re getting really good at just
switching as a character
Tim on and off well I feel I mean this
is a horror podcast but I feel like
you’re gonna bring the tone down now so
basically in the season one
stuff like you say it was very is very
easy for me because my my character
outside of the character is very I
filled it very lively and bubbly and if
you saw the Christmas livestream than
that that basically is who we are as you
know as people and having to make that
switch around season two was very very
difficult that was tough to the
beginning for the beginning of it
literally you know you guys probably
don’t know who are listening but we have
show notes at the the in the middle and
at the end of everything that we do and
Alex sits through and takes us through a
couple of his thoughts and we discuss
ideas about how we could have played
that scene differently or better or
whatever it’s almost like respecting
your actors but but not yeah exactly
yeah all almost like giving a helping
hand but it with the helping hand is
also a whoopee cushion so what we
actually what we ended up doing Alex and
I during the beginning few times was
that we’d sit down and Alex would be
like you have to be less of that yeah I
think you were thrown by just how hard a
change the character had to go because
at first it was very much like okay so
you want it still to be sort of like Tim
just maybe a little bit of things like
no no no this is like broken completely
broken
there is nothing Leno hope left about
anything and that in the beginning was
very difficult but now if going back to
the original question my in to getting
there is actually to think about
everything in my life that has gone
wrong and then that is how I hit the
tone of Tim when I come into the
recording studio that’s because I mean
from Tim like the way we were discussing
as a character was like we only really
started making progress and I realized
it was best to just you are not playing
Tim anymore no you’re playing another
person who is still called Tim almost
like because it was just yeah we had to
take it right back down to zero I mean
like you said it’s very much a case of
we had to go back beyond zero I feel to
kind of get to where I am with Tim now
because I have to remove
everything from my mind that was what
Tim was in season one and know that that
character is still there underneath
everything else listens it feels like
there’s still there’s still like the
shape of the character there because
it’s coming out now and very dry hue and
what’s sort of clever about it is it’s
not an empowered dry humor it’s not a
I’m laughing at what’s happening to me
it’s just it’s a really bitter dry humor
Lydia playing playing Melanie what’s
your what’s your in cuz again I think we
had a harder time with it at the star
but you’ve gotten really good similarly
it just of adopting that persona now so
I am NOT a voice actor I I’ve done quite
a lot of recorded stuff it has always
been me doing the work and I really
struggle with a lot of kinds of
performing because I essentially don’t
have a poker face and I’ve worked quite
hard on a lot of things like improv
skills and presentation skills so like
you’re very skilled speaker yeah that’s
things I do as me and so it’s actually
quite strange I haven’t actually acted
as another character in terms of like
how the character themselves is I tend
to think of what is she doing work that
she’s proud of right now so in the first
thing where they’re in the the old
hospital oh yeah the frustration is her
job didn’t work yes and she doesn’t
understand why yeah and so she’s old but
that’s almost more of a problem than the
the fear mm-hmm I saw this thing and I
don’t have the answer whereas like she’s
she’s the producer right like her whole
character is that she’s a producer she
makes stuff happen and she makes stuff
work and she knows people and she gets
things too and then in quite a few other
things like all the things that have
happened since there was something spun
out and like where she went broke into
that train carriage it’s all very
planned yeah he’s a producer she works
that I had to do I had to go there there
was a lot of security but I found a way
in yeah yeah and then all spirals out of
control and so this is horrible for her
something that I actually think that she
quite enjoyed the time that she read the
statement of the guy in the bed because
there she’s doing her job
at the end she’s going through all the
finals and as you say what this is okay
this is a working day and you know sue
me I’m not gonna spoil it too
specifically but you know there’s a lot
of things where there’s a okay here’s a
terrible threat to you that someone’s
made a horrible threat what’s the
obvious solution
I actually was bit annoyed that it was
done so clumsily well I mean if I was
Melanie which I sort of am because I
happen to know that what she’s using
wouldn’t really work you know you think
she’s under a lot of pressure yeah so
and that’s why I think you know it makes
sense for her to click with Becerra so
yeah when it comes to playing Martin
there’s a bit of a weird juxtaposition
there because on the one hand I’d argue
that he’s been used earlier for a lot of
the comedy like again he was he’s a foil
he’s a foil to the the dour archivist
but on the flip side that isn’t enough
for a character so it meant that we’ve
had to sort of dial up things other than
just Oh Wacka Wacka Wacka how inept but
part of that means that when it comes to
playing Martin I basically looked back
picked all of the things about myself
that I left by the wayside in a younger
version and then just make that the
entire person to all of the worst bits
of Alex about ten years ago but
obviously the caring thing I mean that’s
a weakness of you like that nervousness
[Music]
obsession with trying to make things
work and so on like I basically just
hunted down a bunch of negative yeah
Eric turistic yeah it’s true that
needing to fix everyone is definitely
something that you oh it’s something
that I so common and then you you do
genuinely have to kind of like sometimes
yeah Martin not everyone will like you
all of the time okay
Martin so very much an eighteen year old
like that’s what Martin like I realized
the character is not good
an 18 year old where someone older comes
along goes listen one people are gonna
hate you yeah - that’s okay and three
you can’t fix everyone you know exactly
yeah blessed of intention yeah so I like
that’s me just hunting down for all of
the hard lessons so can he genuinely
genuinely when I listen to Martin on the
Magnus archives I just want to give him
a hug and then I have to come in and
play a character I’m obliged to eat the
narrative gods require me to ruin your
life okay so how will you want us to
call you now someone you do everything
yeah twice so what were your favorite
character moments then so we’ve been
sort of discussing a few specific
examples in any type whether it was
horror just good acting funny whatever
for your character specifically what
would you say are the bits that you
actually like really enjoyed because
certainly from my perspective I find it
really hard to do that because for me
it’s always I’m looking at the work so
I’m started going are could have done
that I probably should have tweaked that
I could improve that so I found it quite
difficult to home in on I really enjoyed
this production Wilson and well we
started with me a few times do you wanna
go first I’m happy to go first if it’s
gonna say so there were few of mine that
I liked I liked doing big and because
doing the statements is a nice moment
where you can kind of lay aside the
character that you normally play and
play sort of someone else and I’m
especially been enjoying them recently
because I’m it’s almost like I’m not
doing the statement I’m doing an
impression of how Johnny would perform
this
Bateman Ryan I see mm so there’s an
added layer to that which makes it quite
fun and quite interesting and from like
from a comedy perspective it I know a
lot of people it’s cringe humor and I
personally hate fringe you the was
improvised so whilst the statement like
we had a couple of bullet points to here
and one of them was that that she’s
under the impression that she’s gonna
get paid but pulling out money and
paying for it was just off the cuff and
I entire tape that we finally used was
basically lower II desperately trying to
not react out of character as she’s
crying with laughter suppressing it cuz
it came from like completely left field
so that was good fun because we got a
great take literally on the other side
of the microphone is I have her biting
her lips so it’s quite nice I enjoyed
that I can’t wait if there’s offcuts of
that kind of lie I did enjoy that a lot
so my favorite would be I can t remember
which episode was but the first time I
came in and had an argument with Johnny
on yes so at that point you were still
quite early on in oh yeah yeah and news
does according under blankets
yeah yeah yeah yeah and the fact that so
me and Johnny have known each other ten
years and from the beginning that was
through comedy theater at University and
but we just could not keep a straight
face and well over an hour I got a long
time like five minutes eh yeah I can
believe it but but I mean that actually
means that the energy in the thing is
people that are frustrated were not
really well known tapered and that’s
because like we’re both looking at each
other
daring each other to crack up I think
there was like by the end of it there
was just like the complex web of in
jokes about the fact because the the
light on the corridor as well so so we
will record
under a blanket in Martin Martin and
Sarah’s corridor and the light in the
hallway was disco at disco light yeah so
you’re under a blanket
shouting each other and then you can
take it off while alex is reviewing the
sound and working out how to direct your
next tape and you’re like and then you
just start dancing each other and trying
to wind each other up in as different
characters while also winding each other
up as real people it’s a total roller
coaster ride don’t miss the disco
corridor I loved that corridor yeah all
the time
every take so what was yours laughter
there are a few there are a few that
stick out I think one of my favorite
scenes to shoot was the one where Martin
and Tim and the backstory to this was
the the recording that we were doing at
that point was in the corner of a room
and so it was Martin and Tim running
away from not Sasha and then having to
run down corridors by the layers and
then pant and be out of threat in a
corner for about eight takes and that
was before we set the audio running so
that we would actually be out of breath
by the time I got to shoot everyone
likes the exciting episodes you know
where a lot happens as a way of breaking
it up I cannot stress enough there is no
better way to feel like a complete
pretending to have fights or pretending
to run like recording combats the worst
yeah makes you feel such an idiot boys
be good fun sprinting at a wall over and
we were actually jogging on the spot as
well like to try and get ourselves in
the mind of the character I mean the the
production level like quality level on
the Magnus and gaming I like I can say
it’s absurdly high because I don’t do
any of the work like it’s Alex and his
team of extraordinary editors that do
that but it means that like the stuff
that they end up demanding of us in
order to produce the right Foley or the
right kind of attitude or the right you
get some very bizarre asks finishing up
them with a last bit of like how what is
your relationship with horror so you as
a person know your characters let’s not
get like really meta with it or anything
but for each of you how are you engaging
with horror
how are you interacting with it even if
it’s just I hate horror which I don’t
think is the case for either of you but
nonetheless like how do you engage with
it as a genre so I have no interest in
being upset scared by media sure but I
have a long relationship with horror as
a thing to make and a thing that is that
has an interesting kind of commentary on
the world yes but like we were talking
earlier actually today about like the
British horror tradition which from
vertigo and Alan Moore and Karen Berger
which I see the Magnus archives as being
but it fits very nicely within that
tradition because very it’s politically
aware clever psychological horror there
is of its time and reflects kind of
ideas and fears of the current kind of
era so yeah so we near earlier but like
the arc of swamp thing where it starts
out so yeah I b-movie type guy turns
into a comp off in a place they get
blown up
and the wife dies because motivation
that’s what we’re good for guys turns
into a compost heap and then wants to
like avenge because that’s where we are
and it’s pretty b-movie it is a good
b-movie but then Alan Moore comes in and
it changes like there’s this incredible
kind of shift as it becomes a
about identity and bodies and psychology
and your own connection to the earth and
it has all those weird LSD sex scenes
see I’m for that specifically I was
always fascinated with because it was
allemaal that really dove into it the
whole he’s fine unless you’re afraid and
then the fear like hurts so then he gets
like aggressive like that’s that was a
lovely way of exploring a lot of stuff
absolutely because shocker people who
work on the Magnus archives are
interested in the fear as a mechanism
and yeah so yeah I love horror as a
mechanism to talk about interesting
scary things it’s good lens yeah but
I’ve got absolutely no interest in
watching horror films and getting
freaked out you know I find I find that
really interesting actually because
coming on board with the Magnus archives
was a massive step change for me yeah
because I don’t know about all the
awesome writers that you guys know about
and I’m sort of starting to learn about
it because I’m interested you know and
I’m interested in Johnny’s motivations
and Alex and Lidz motivations and all
the other guys on the cast as well and
for me I used to deal with comedy you
know my youtube channel was a comedy
channel and coming into the Magnus
archives are than editing it and you
know playing a character in it was just
the polar opposite of everything but
I’ve never known I was used to because
like you Lydia I don’t there is some
horror that I enjoy watching but I don’t
really enjoy being scared inverted
commas by by media and what-have-you you
know there’s enough of that in the world
already so I’m very much of the opinion
that I prefer things that aren’t horror
so then playing the character in a
horror podcast for me gives me that that
perspective of what would happen if
someone came in and they didn’t have the
first idea about any of this law or you
know but yeah I mean obviously I know
about things like the eldritch horror I
mean you’ve got stuff like that you know
I’m familiar with it I’ve listened to a
few of the audiobooks now that was
introduced to me by by a friend of mine
and his brother and that was my entry
into a lot of the things that you I
think you guys have been thinking about
for a while
and some of the the sort of stuff that’s
sitting in the background and I’m
actually learning about this stuff as
I’m going through playing the character
listening to the stories listening back
to everyone’s work and yeah that’s yeah
where I pitch in see how many people
weird one when it comes to horror
so shocker teenage boy likes horror stop
the presses yeah how weird I wa I know
this has never happened before never so
I was shocker I was a little bit of an
obsessive kid in certain ways and one of
them is if you introduced me to an
author
I’ll read every single thing they ever
read and then I’ll move on to the next
door I mean every single thing they ever
read and move on and so on
yeah but for me with horror I’m a little
bit broken in that I’ve genuinely never
found any piece of horror media that’s
really or very rarely at least found
anything that actually has an effect on
me I don’t get that kind of emotional
response it just doesn’t really work for
me yeah but I’ve engaged with horror or
lots both like writing myself or in
making like it’s been a while like film
and so on but I’d say my main in has
been sort of cinema and so on but for a
lot of it comes down to horror is an
excellent technical example for working
in fiction oh yeah there’s a reason that
if you are starting a new production
company or you’re trying to break into
film yeah almost everyone makes horror
yeah and there’s a reason for it and
it’s that it has a lot of very very
clearly codified tropes trend and
techniques yeah you know if you want to
do horror oh is your character is your
character feeling psychologically
unbalanced chucking a Dutch angle in
there rotate the camera by about you
know 25 degrees and then maybe do a tilt
shift to mess around with like some
distances and so on but I think horror
is one of the genres more than any other
where it allows technique to shine
absolutely because if you are bad it
does not matter how good your monster is
or how good your conceit is your thing
will be garbage yeah exactly it’s
peculiar in that everyone always goes to
horror because they know horror best but
it’s also a lot of ways the least
forgiving I think comedy and horror
actually have quite a lot in common
yeah they’re all about you you have to
be playing with the audience’s energy
you have to be exactly aware of where
they are on any kind of park yeah yeah
break the tension at exactly the right
point so I think the father most of us
of the wider team knew each other
through comedy and we’re trained in
comedy like comedy is the hard I think
is the hardest thing to do well yeah I
and to do really well and that means
that you’re you and you I think in many
ways you have to lose your ego to be
good at it because you have to be
willing to mess up in the most
embarrassing ways like yeah yeah first
hundred five minutes and an open mic
night are going to be horrendous yep and
that allows you to then play with energy
and timing we’ve got a draw to a close I
think we’ve had a lot of discussion I
know we’d like to go into stuff in some
more detail but you know tight time is a
thing that we have to factor so what I
would ask then is what if you had to
recommend one piece of horror for
listeners not necessarily like you loved
the Magnus archives so you will like
this but something more like if you want
to know horror you should try this I
think already this podcast but reading
that early vertigo stuff that British
psychological horror twist and there’s
only you you probably only need to get
through a bunch of like you know maybe
100 rather short comics it can be read
in a relatively short period of time and
you begin to see this you see this whole
world change and I think it’s a really
interesting direction shift that changed
a lot of horror that came after it but
I’m not expert so it could well be that
other people be like no this other
writer came well before but reading
through the early Swamp Thing and then
how that exploded into Sandman and help
laser and a lot of other like related
characters was super valuable to me I
thought you might so from the way that
I’ve engaged with horror I guess they’re
like Lydia said there are lots of
different styles and there are lots of
different elements but if you want a
pure in my opinion kind of
spective on different kinds of horror
that exist within one place or one
universe of one thing alien isolation is
a fantastic way to get into it because
having having a thing about other gaming
titles there are a lot of gaming titles
like dead space and things like that
which give you weaponry to be able to
deal with whatever threat is coming
after you know which is its horror but
it’s a once removed kind of it because
you know that the threat is always at
arm’s reach if you need it to be unless
that’s taken away from you and in alien
isolation it is there is a constant
threat and it will never go away and it
follows you throughout the entire game
I’m generally too terrified by the very
concept to think about picking
examination of detention yeah well not
just tension though I’d say it’s more
than that building on your point is that
it’s tension but it’s also the
subjugation of an individual within a
tense environment and there are points
where you have weaponry but you still
can’t do anything to get rid of the main
threat so you know and then there are
other elements as well like you know
stealth bits and you know there’s things
in the it’s a really good example of
taking those those important bits that
we think in like Western horror
especially in horror sci-fi obviously
yeah obviously because it has to turn
them into mechanics yeah highlights them
in a really interesting way yeah so it
does like if you go into it with a
critical eye yeah like trying to like
engage yourself and learn you can learn
a lot just by playing that game by going
oh I see what you’re doing with the
music yeah yeah look at how you’ve set
this space out to focus on I see yeah
it’s a good demonstration if you choose
to interpret it that way and you know
what as well for those of you who aren’t
aren’t gamers and are listening to this
if you want a get in I would recommend
the film version of 2001 Space Odyssey
yeah definitely because well it has it
has a total removal of power that then
becomes horrifying but if you haven’t
seen our won’t spoil oh yeah it’s been
it’s been not that long since it was
originally released
so yeah I agree with you me I worked
really hard to make sure I read that in
the year 2000 basically a child when so
my recommendation is gonna be a bit
generic but it comes with an addendum
which is I recommend reading a random
selection of lovecraft but with a very
very key consideration which is ya love
crafted a lot for cosmic horror and so
on but the guy was really problematic
another really really problem for his
time as well yeah boy his tie is he was
a ticket for his tie is easy to read his
stuff and go well you know it’s the past
I think no no no like even at the time
he was extremely problematic author but
what I would say is if you choose to
engage with it critically and again this
is me the soulless robot man who’s
always concerned with the how if you
actually really dig into it and you want
to wrap your head around horror it’s a
good way for you to read it and go I see
what should have been different there or
I see how this could be problematic and
there’s a very important aspect with
horror that people forget especially on
the creation side which is when you make
something you are telling people
something you are not just telling a
story you are telling someone everything
everything that you make has a message
yeah and sometimes that message can
either be not what you thought or can be
the opposite yeah if you don’t want to
tell a story about a strong female
character in bunny ears except at the
end of it all the audience thinks is Wow
that was a really flat one-dimensional
character congratulations your message
is almost certainly not what you hope to
know and love craft is a really great
one to dig into especially the Innsmouth
fish people one as one of the examples
where it’s like interesting I get I get
the horror and I get why it’s scary and
this bit side to take but it’s a really
good example of something that you can
read and you can’t just go oh yes that
was brilliant job done you have to
engage with it and you have to go okay
if you were wanting to make something as
horror as this yeah it’s do you leave
behind what bits are not appropriate
what bits do not fit our modern world or
even let’s be frank the world that is
but it’s just it’s very easy to read
passively and it’s very easy to watch
something go
that was scary therefore it was good for
her I’m inclined to agree having very
recently been introduced to the actual
the written version and the audio
version of I think it was what’s it the
Dunwich horror yes the don’t which how
are ya the Dunwich horror I’ve recently
heard the audio version of that and
having listened to it for the first time
I totally agree yeah totally you can
literally see the point’s where you can
go ah right yeah so I think we will wrap
up there yes we’re gonna have to put a
reading list on these we will we will
put together a reading list so that it’s
things that we think that you should
probably give a goat apart from that I
think that we’re done here I think we’ve
covered the systems thanks for coming
and thanks so much for listening and
thanks for bearing with us over the
season break next week we should be
returning to our previously scheduled
programming exciting science I mean I’m
very much them I just decide to hold off
the cliffhanger for another six months
just really is yeah but yeah major angle
off of there so thanks for me and thanks
my for one else
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