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MeIs there any drama more competitive than James Bond? Every week seems to bring a buzz of great imagination so it must be exhausting for the Elordis, Cavills and Dickinsons who are in the middle of it all. But when one of them ends up taking part, perhaps he should seek the advice of an actor who has played quietly for the past five years: Patrick Gibson. He is the star of 007 First Light, a video game that has sold out 2.7m copies since it was released two weeks ago.
As the digital Bond, Gibson is the first video game actor to lend his voice and character. With approval from both Amazon MGM and their previous promoters Eon there is a case for it being the seventh Bond (and the second from Ireland). Not that he knew this when handing over a self-made tape to Danish developers IO Interactive. “There were stories about martinis in the trial section that got me interested,” says Gibson. Although at that time I did not believe that it would be like that.
And when did the money go down? “It really worried me.”
The key to jumping into this – listen to all you 007s – was to lean into the challenge. “I think the size of the idea helped me. It was so impossible as a dream that I was like, of course, I can throw my hat in here,” he explains. As soon as he saw how the IOI team created the scene, it only strengthened his determination. “It sounded like Bond, which almost carried me. I went from trying to portray someone I knew, and suddenly I felt like I was growing a little bit more.”
Bright Side adds an extra wrinkle to the original story. This is not a new role for Gibson, who is best known for playing the young Dexter Morgan in the serial killer prequel Dexter: Original Sin. But there he had the north star of the great killer Michael C Hall: a good look, a good voice and a bad haircut. Although Daniel Craig was “his” Bond growing up, Gibson rejected any conversion, instead looking for similarities between the characters. “The fun part was taking away the Bond experience we’ve come across in the books and the movies and being left with the DNA of ‘who is this guy?’ What were the pre-existing factors that may have been nature rather than nurture?
The game’s news manager Martin Emborg seems to have a lot of money in reducing the morale of the game’s nudge-nudge fan-service box office. “The characters — the martinis, the one-liners, the tuxedo — easily get a comical, tropey quality to them,” he says. “You have to figure out who the person is, and why they are in the situation they are in. Thinking about it is what makes a person land.”
However, it must have been nice to say “Bond, James Bond”, right? Gibson’s cage at the moment the signature appears in the game – it is not opened by the movement of the gun, for starters – but it is consistent with our assessment that outside of “To be or not to be” there are few lines that are analyzed. What is it like to wake up, knowing that you have to say that day? “You have to think you’ve never heard it before. You remove yourself from the pop culture crowd and find the truth in that moment. These things happen naturally, instead of looking for the ‘a-ha’ moment.”
If the legacy wasn’t difficult enough already, there are technological enhancements that come with every video game. There are no jet stations here. The first recording of Light for several hours of cutting required head-mounted cameras, tracking dots all over the face, blinding lights and an uncomfortable morph suit. “You’re almost naked,” says Gibson. “The acting sounds like, but this takes it to another level.” Then Martin says: “Sweet and beautiful. Action!'”
As we speak Gibson still hasn’t played the game, I’m afraid it’s been since we saw “James Bond walking around made of boxes and squares” and he had to hide that “I’m not interested in pictures”. There is also a sense of wonder in seeing strangers drive his digital form around. “I didn’t really know until my husband said to me: ‘I can’t wait to play as you in this game’, and that’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever thought about.”
Above all of this hangs the question of where Gibson’s work will ultimately fit in the larger 007 plot. It’s been easy up until this point to treat the Bond video game as a geeky offshoot; stuttering dialogue is always around who will star in the film (although Gibson’s First Light co-star Lennie James said the filmmakers “would be crazy” not to consider him for the part). Emborg sees the sport as its own, profitable medium. “We’ve had a written Bond. We’ve had a movie Bond for 62 years. What we have now is the only bond that exists.”
Gibson seems to enjoy everything about Bond. Seeing his model for the first time (dapper, no tux). Studying the car they will crash (Aston Martin Valhalla). Hear his theme song (Lana Del Rey/David Arnold collaboration). For Gibson, this is impossible to pin down. “I had to keep reminding myself that I was doing this,” he said. “I think the only way to get there was to own it, ignore the formalities and take someone who’s reconsidered to the next level.”
