As soon as I saw Aaron Staton I immediately turned to fellow journalists and said, “hey look Cole Phelps is here”, at which point I realised I almost felt that I knew the actor. Seeing him in the flesh was an eerie experience.

Aaron Staton was up for the Best Performance award, but missed out to the brilliant voice-work of Mark Hammill’s Joker. We managed to grab him for a few minutes to ask a few questions.

(M= Media, AS= Aaron Stanton)

M: Do you find it harder working on L.A. Noire as opposed to films or TV?

AS:Ok yes. But I had the opportunity, because I was there for about a year, to get comfortable in that process. So by the end of it, it was sort of similar to something else I had done. The first time on a film set is foreign, having done theatre. The first time in theatre you’re trying to talk to someone else and ignore there are four hundred people sitting right there. There’s always something to ignore and in this case there were thirty-two cameras to try to ignore.

M: A lot of people, no offence, didn’t like the character of Cole Phelps. Usually in games you try to make a character that people empathise with. Do you think Rockstar and Team Bondi decided to do this in order to create a more cohesive story in L.A. Noire? (*SPOILER IN RESPONSE*)

AS: I don’t think that he was a very nice guy. I don’t know that I agree that there’s always a character you empathise with. I think in the case of Cole Phelps is somebody who was very, very selfish who is just driven. I think as the game went on you saw the cracks and certainly by the end when he dies, you feel bad for the guy. I don’t think that’s always the case. I think that a lot of these protagonists are jerks.

M: They are usually jerks that you are meant to like because they are kind of badass though. So they may be evil, but they are cool.

AS: Exactly. Cole Phelps is a bit different. He’s kinda a tight-wad. He’s got his tie a little too tight and you’re kind of annoyed by the fact that he is this by-the-book nerd. All though he is an erratic interviewer at times.

M: Congratulations on your nomination and good luck tonight.

Remember we interviewed a whole load of people. Read more from Portal 2, Minecraft and  Modern Warfare 3′s creators here.

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