The actor who voiced and supplied the motion capture performance for Volo Bolus discusses their collaboration with ILM for the mixed reality playset.
By Jay Stobie
In Star Wars: Beyond Victory – A Mixed Reality Playset’s Adventure Mode, players follow the journey of up-and-coming podracer Volo Bolus, whose plight to become famous leads them to team up with the infamous Sebulba. ILM.com sat down with actor Fin Argus, who voiced and provided the motion capture performance for Volo Bolus, to learn more about their approach to portraying the character, their time collaborating with Industrial Light & Magic, their thoughts on the interactive gameplay experience, and much more.
A Star Wars Story
Argus’s zest for Star Wars stretches back as long as they can remember, with cherished memories ranging from watching their original trilogy gold VHS box set to carrying around a Darth Vader backpack filled with figurines. “I also dressed as Jar Jar Binks in my preschool’s costume contest for Halloween, and I was robbed,” Argus jokes. “The first video game I ever completed was, in fact, LEGO Star Wars, and it’s still one of my favorites. Star Wars was the first fantasy world I fell in love with. It is epic and vast, and I was convinced that I was destined to be a Jedi. Joke’s on me – I was actually destined to be a podracer!”
When Argus finally had the opportunity to audition to become that podracer, the information they were provided about Volo Bolus was understandably limited. “Such is the nature of the things for stories as huge as Star Wars,” Argus relays. “All I knew is they were a non-binary podracer with a good sense of humor. Part of the audition scene was just the directive: ‘Act like you’re working on things like an engine,’ so I grabbed a spatula and ladle and started banging them around in my living room. I’d say that’s the energy I honed in on for the whole of the project: just some kid banging spatulas together hoping something great comes of it!”
Motion Capture Magic
Once they landed the role, Argus dove right into the motion capture process at Industrial Light & Magic. “I was brand new to the mo-cap world, so I learned on the job. Luckily, I was with a team of seasoned professionals who made it fun and easy. I got into my little outfit, which is a skin tight body suit. Then I get velcroed in from the outside while people add reflective balls to any point on my body that has a joint so they can track my body movements in the studio.
“I also had to wear bright red lipstick so the camera that pointed directly at my face from the helmet they put on me could make out the contrast of my lips to use for the animators to add on to my character design,” Argus explains. “We then go through a series of motions on the stage, almost like an aerobics class, that calibrates my avatar with my own body. There’s a ‘magic mirror’ that then shows you your character design reflected back to you – that’s where I practiced my character’s ‘walk’ and learned how long Volo’s limbs are so I could reach for objects in the mo-cap world accurately. Learning the dimensions of my new body was the hardest part of the job for me, but by the end of the first week it was second nature. After that, it was off to the races!”
Argus’s favorite element of the motion capture work involved collaborating on setbuilding scenes with multiple actors. “There’s a scene where I hop up onto Sebulba’s ship to join his crew and pilot for them. Our team had to build a multi-level structure of perfect proportions so the dimensions of our characters’ bodies fit perfectly on the ‘ship’ and still allowed my character’s movement to look natural,” Argus declares. “It makes so much sense in retrospect, but I was surprised to learn that, because all of our characters are such different sizes, we as actors had to interact with the set very differently to make our characters land in the right locations. For example, for two actors in the same scene, the cockpit of the ship could be in totally different locations on the stage, because our characters are different sizes, relatively speaking.”
Volo’s Voice and Movements
When it came to developing Volo Bolus’s voice, Argus harnessed their younger years for inspiration. “Their voice is basically just me as a teenager! A little more animated than I am in everyday life, but the game is still very much grounded. I just got to tap into how a younger version of myself would speak and react in those situations, while hanging on to that sense of humor to cope with all the chaos that ensues for them,” Argus outlines.
As far as their four-armed character’s movements, Argus lightheartedly proclaims that “with all respect, Volo and I are both pretty gangly, and I leaned into the floppiness of my arm movements to highlight their youthfulness and draw attention to their four arms. How fun is having four arms? Very,” Argus quips.
“I didn’t have to worry too much about the second pair of arms, as those were controlled entirely by animation. I only controlled the top two, which I guess you could say are Volo’s ‘dominant arms.’ The bottom two were mainly doing auxiliary tasks or in use while piloting when every single arm had a job to do at once. I would say the most I thought about having four arms is when I was imagining all the very specific choreography they could do. I hope I can test this theory someday, but I think it would be very hard to beat Volo in a dance battle.”
An ILM Experience
Speaking on their time collaborating with ILM, Argus credits their colleagues for creating such a special experience. “A huge shout out to [Beyond Victory director] Jose Perez III for his direction and the passion he brought to the project,” the actor says. “He set a tone of excitement and drive that kept everyone on set happy to be there, and to tell the story. [Writer] Ross Beeley turned out an amazing script and kept us focused on the heart of the story throughout a process where we had to jump around and film different parts of the story,
“Big shoutout to [motion capture performer] Nathan Camp for not only delivering a sensational performance as Coy Vrizh, but also as so many other characters for mo-cap. He taught me and a lot of other actors how to navigate mo-cap performances with so much kindness and patience,” Argus continues. “The ILM team is a dream to work with every step of the way, and I feel lucky to have done my first video game with such an all-star group of creatives and professionals.”
From Performer to Player
Given Argus’ dedication to their craft and enthusiasm for all things Star Wars, it’s no surprise that they took Beyond Victory for a test drive as soon as it was available on Meta Quest. “I was so blown away by the immersiveness and game mechanics. It was strange hearing my own voice in my ears and seeing the game from ‘my own’ perspective, but as the character. It felt nostalgic, like I was reliving the filming experience but peeling back the layers to see the reality of what we were making. It felt like watching a dream come true in real time,” Argus beams. “I’m still not over it, and I probably never will be.”
Argus takes great joy in their character, revealing, “Volo is a total sweetheart and goofball, but I think I may have brought a slight edge to them through my performance. Maybe ‘sass’ is a better word, actually?” The actor also admits that their initial playthrough of Beyond Victory might have been forever enshrined, as “I’m pretty sure my friends have a video of me playing for the first time and jumping up and down, screaming, when I first heard and saw Volo within the game.”
For as grand in scope as the Star Wars galaxy is, Argus ultimately believes that the slightest details are what truly stand out, observing, “It may sound a little silly, but I’m most proud of seeing the really specific things come to life: like a shot where I had to open a dumpster to a jump scare of a droid popping out. When we filmed, it was tough to get the placement of my hand and timing of the reaction just right, so seeing those moments of attention to detail pay off to create such an immersive, exciting, and beautiful game makes me so proud of the entire Star Wars: Beyond Victory team, and I hope we get to do it again!”
On Meta Quest, dive into three unforgettable adventures with Vader Immortal, Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge and Star Wars: Beyond Victory — A Mixed Reality Playset, each 50% off, or get all three together for $30 from April 28 to May 5.
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Read more about Star Wars: Beyond Victory here on ILM.com:
Bobby Moynihan Takes Us Behind the Scenes of ‘Star Wars: Beyond Victory’
Inside the ILM Art Department: ‘Star Wars: Beyond Victory’
‘Star Wars: Beyond Victory’ Now Available and Director Jose Perez III Takes Us Behind the Scenes
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Jay Stobie (he/him) is a writer, author, and consultant who has contributed articles to ILM.com, Skysound.com, Star Wars Insider, StarWars.com, Star Trek Explorer, Star Trek Magazine, and StarTrek.com. Jay loves sci-fi, fantasy, and film, and you can learn more about him by visiting JayStobie.com or finding him on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms at @StobiesGalaxy.
