“I have the black belt in trash talk, not in karate.”
He’s a Nazi, and an especially vile one at that.
Voss is so snide and so sure of himself in that greasy, smart arse kind of way.
“Nothing is quite so easy to manipulate as an insecure male,” he says at one point.
And don’t get me started onthosegestures.
He also dubbed Alexios inAssassin’s Creed Odyssey, Venom in Spider-Man 2 and Dani Rojas inFar Cry 6.
When Gavrilis first auditioned for the role of Voss, he had no idea where things were heading.
The project was shrouded in mystery; code names were used for both the title and its characters.
“I never imagined it would be Indiana Jones,” he tells me.
The scene Gavrilis was given for his audition was actually Voss' very first introduction in the Great Circle.
“I thought ‘wow, that’s some brilliantly intense written character’.
“I was flabbergasted, I couldn’t believe it.
Thank God I didn’t know that I was auditioning for something that big.
For Gavrilis, this sense of freedom saw him put a rather interesting spin on his audition scene.
But, landing the part was only the beginning.
What is it that drives him, why is he the way he is?”
But I did want to add a bit of Klaus Kinski flavour to him in terms of intensity.”
Tom knew exactly how to trigger the right approach with the directions he gave."
That’s the challenge of playing a villain of his kind.
But what is it that actually makes Voss such an enticing and standout baddie among other baddies out there?
“I think it’s his radical and unapologetic nature.
He is truly driven.
It’s the constant switch on a razor’s edge between deadpan seriousness and clownery.
“However, he never acts ‘clowny’ for the sake of cheap entertainment.
Thankfully Gavrilis revels in playing such a deplorable character.
Playing the baddies is fun.
“Ultimately, that’s what acting is about.
Don’tplaythat guy, find what resonates with you about him andbethat guy.
That’s the essential matching element you’re looking for as an actor to identify with your part.”
“And thank goodness I didn’t.
Otherwise we would have never finished our game.
I have the black belt in trash talk, not in karate,” Gavrilis jokes.
“Tony took it personally.
He pulled out his ‘Do you know who I am?
‘card, asking the bouncers if they had seen Candyman.
Everyone started laughing,” he tells me.
In the end, however, the twosome decided to just go for drinks in their hotel.
“We had a blast that evening.
We - I - miss him deeply.
I’m glad MachineGames dedicated the game to him.
“He was something else.”
But what to do with Voss?
He is, after all, a rather key player in the Great Circle’s narrative.
Thankfully, stunt man Nicklas Hansson saved the day and stepped in for Gavrilis.
“I gave Niklas instructions on how I would like him to move and turn as Voss.
I had a mic and I did the voice-over while Niklas was doing the physical part simultaneously.”
Gavrilis laughs, “it was quite surreal”.
Surreal it may well have been, but it worked, and “Niklas nailed it” Gavrilis says.
“That was the ending sequence of the game.
When I was back in Sweden, we shot the part again only with my face being performance-captured.
“It was about time,” Gavrilis says.
And I will tip my fedora to that.
