There is a huge event going on right now within the gaming industry where voice actors and other performance artists that help make the games lovable are currently fighting for their rights within this profession. Unfair working conditions, sub-par pay, non-stable contracts, non-disclosures, physical injury – these are just a few of the points being raised to the big corporations that tend to chew up their talent and spit them right back out.  What would Mass Effect be without the voice of Shepard? Nathan Drake without his voice from Uncharted? Lucio without that that “pump up the volume” personality? No matter what genre of gaming is your favour, there is always at least that one title that you could not picture another voice bringing that character to life.

Lucio, comin’ at you! For fans of Overwatch, the abundantly positive and super laid back support character Lucio is definitely a fan favourite and DFTG was lucky enough to have the opportunity to sit down with him and get to know the person behind the voice a little bit better, actor Jonny Cruz.

A little background for the readers: Jonny Cruz was born in El Paso, TX and quickly delved into his passion of performance art at an early age. After coming back stateside from studying abroad in Würzburg, Germany, Cruz began to study acting and film making at the University of Texas at Arlington. The fruits of his labor weren’t for naught, as he began to build his acting and writing portfolio with feats such at Saving Jessica Lynch, The Closer, Cool Wheels, Prototype 2, Hitman, Castle, and now Blizzard’s Overwatch (among many others). With an enrapturing personality and positive attitude to boot, anyone can see that Cruz is just beginning – his talent, passion, and continuous push to always evolve in his craft makes him an inspiration to the community both as fans and colleagues.

“To ever get an opportunity or a chance, you know [in this industry] – you have to be a lucky duck. And I feel like with Overwatch, I’m that lucky duck.”

No topic left uncovered. He gave us an in-depth look into his own journey, the industry as he sees it, the SAG-AFTRA strike and more. The love for his fans is immediately clear and we’ve got to admit – he just made us life-long fans here at Don’t Feed the Gamers. Fan fiction smut (I swore I wouldn’t bring that up!), Comic Con craziness, Blizzard as a company, fellow voice actors, and a whole lot of laughs  – Check out the video below to see our interview with the man himself:

You can find Jonny Cruz at his official website here, or on his official Twitter and Instagram. Show him some love, DFTG community! Sound off with your thoughts in the comments section below! And you can also check out the timestamps if there is anything you specifically wanted to hear about on a time crunch <3

TIMESTAMPS FOR JONNY CRUZ INTERVIEW 

2:15 – Introduction to Jonny Cruz. Most recent role as Lucio
3:25 – How are you?
5:50 – Do you ever game with your fans?
6:50 – So you could definitely say your life has changed since Overwatch?
13:05 – Other than that absolutely fantastic video that you made at Blizzard last week, and it’s been making the rounds like crazy as you’ve seen – do you have any special memories from BlizzCon this year?
19:10 – Towards the end of that video, when Reaper’s voice actor asked about the bathroom. Did you modulate that at all or did he do that on his own?
20:30 – I have to ask are you surprised by the overwhelming success? I know with you having the eclectic background of being director, actor, musician – I mean you’re just all over the place. Did you expect Overwatch to take on the gaming world as it has?
24:30 – What is something about the current industry that you wish you could change? About the video game industry or the voice acting industry in general?
28:40 – One thing about Overwatch is that it is very inclusive. You’ve got different race, different nationalities, and now different sexualities that are being introduced. Do you feel like that’s a big hurdle the video game industry needs to overcome – is the lack of inclusion?
35:00 – This is our chance to get to know you, and we want to get to know you and what your thoughts are especially with the SAG-AFTRA strike. What are your thoughts on it? What are your personal experiences? Do you have any negative reactions you’ve encountered so far?
37:20 – Do you have any current or future involvements with the SAG-AFTRA strikes? Crispin Freeman recently did an interview and he shared your thoughts about Blizzard – that Blizzard has just been fantastic.
44:12 – Rolling off of that, does what you hope will happen and what you think will happen match up?
45:50 – I know we touched on some of this earlier, but what are some of the worst and some of the best experiences you’ve had with working in voice acting? Do you have a few examples perhaps?
49:45 – As we bring this interview to a close, is there anything you would like to add? Anything your fans should know about your stance on the current industry? Or anything you would like your fans to know, in general?