Shawn Ashmore’s ‘X-Men Days of Future Past’ co-star Ellen Page inspired him to star in video game ‘Quantum Break’.
The 36-year-old actor was given the task of bringing protagonist Jack Joyce to life in the ground-breaking Microsoft Studios third-person shooter which merges the video game genre with live action TV to create a unique experience which affects how players finish the adventure.
When Shawn and Ellen were shooting their scenes as Iceman and Shadowcat respectively for the 2014 superhero film the 29-year-old actress shared her experience of making video game ‘Beyond: Two Souls’ and what she told him left him with no hesitation in accepting his part in ‘Quantum Break’ when it was offered to him.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz, Shawn said: "One of the reasons I jumped on board ‘Quantum Break’ so quickly is that when we were doing re-shoots for ‘Days of Future Past’ Ellen told me about her experience making ‘Beyond: Two Souls’ and she said as an actress the motion capture stuff was amazing because it was so free. She didn’t have outside influences it was just her and she seemed to really like it. So her comments were like another tick in the box to make video games something I should explore."
Shawn – who starred in four ‘X-Men’ films – believes many more Hollywood stars will lend their talents to video games in the future because the improvement in graphics on the next generation consoles means their performances can be relayed to gamers properly.
He said: "As the technology improves I think actors will find themselves leaning towards this medium because the performance you give can be accurately captured. Before, with video games, people had to overact to get the point across and you would miss some of the subtleties. But now in a game like ‘Quantum Break’ you can get something just as much across with a look, or a raise of an eyebrow, you don’t have to say it out loud because we’re now at that level of detail with graphics that you can properly act out a character. What ‘Quantum Break’ tries does really well is take the best of the mediums of games and TV and put them together."
‘Quantum Break’ – which also features Aiden Gillen as character Paul Serene – is out now for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One.
Quantum Break star Shawn Ashmore inspired by Ellen Page
