Aaron Paul Discusses His Role In Dispatch and Love For Video Games

If you're a fan of narrative games, Invincible, or anything in between, odds are you're the target audience for AdHoc Studio's Dispatch. Starring Aaron Paul, Jeffrey Wright, Laura Bailey, Matthew Mercer, and more, this star-studded adventure puts you in the hot seat as a dispatcher for a superhero office.

But you're not just a regular person: You play as Mecha Man, an Iron-Man-esque superhero who is temporarily out of commission due to a lost suit, voiced by the incomparable Aaron Paul. ScreenRant sat down with Paul himself to talk a bit about Dispatch, his history with video games, and the voice acting industry as a whole.

Dispatch Puts You In The Hot Seat

You Play As A Dispatcher/Out-Of-Commission Hero

Dispatch Robert Robertson main character taking on new role at superhero dispatch center

Aaron Paul really needs no introduction, as he's been a fixture of TV, movies, and animation since the 2000s. Beyond his iconic TV role, he's also done voicework for shows like Tron: Uprising and BoJack Horseman; now he's entering the video game industry. I had the chance to try out Dispatch, and it has a ton of promise, led by a stellar voice cast.

Getting right into it, I asked Paul about his prior career in voice acting, and if video game work is different from his experiences in animation: "I really I love animation so much I always have. But what I love about sort of adult animation is it tends to be funny at the core of it, but they're, they're not afraid to really tug at your heartstrings. You know? I mean, they've been doing that forever with like Disney, you know, always at the very beginning of Disney movies, they kill off one of the parents, you know, it's just like, Oh my God! It's like, I remember watching Bambi, and when they killed Bambi's Mom, it was like, one of the most horrific things I've ever seen as a child. You know, I couldn't believe that that was even an option in life, right?"

Paul segues immediately into his work on Bojack, and how he ended up getting the starring role for Dispatch: "And so I felt very blessed to have joined Bojack, you know, very early on in the development stages. You know, part of the pitches and what I loved about Bojack is that it's extremely funny but also extremely sad. And in the same vein, you know, Invincible, extremely graphic, but just at the core of it, they're telling a really, really thoughtful story, you know."

He continues: "Animation is very precious to me. And you know, I get, I get sent a lot of stuff [for work], and I tend to just say no, because there's no reason to sign on to something that really isn't just really affecting me, you know. And so when this was sent to me, it was stacks of scripts, you know, and also a little sizzle reel of the tone of the game, and then one scene in particular that just really resonated with me. It's just these two characters sitting on top of a billboard, having a conversation, and I just, I just love the tone, you know?"

"And so I started reading through these scripts, and I couldn't stop, and it took me a long time, because it's a sort of choose your own adventure game, and so the directions are kind of endless, and it took me a long time, but I really fell in love with the story. It's got to be on the page. And then I sat down with the creators behind it all, and really, really connected with them. And it was kind of a no-brainer, and I saw why, you know, like Jeffrey Wright had already attached themselves to do it, and he's an old dear friend, and, you know, he's very cool."

Having played the game, I told Paul about how the rapport between him and Jeffrey Wright sold me: "Yeah. Oh, good, good. Well, that's great to hear, because we're, we're very specific, you know, we want to just try to attach ourselves to stuff that kind of just moves us, you know, you know, what other reason would you attach yourself to something, you know?

As a follow-up, we asked Paul about the process, including the lengthy recording sessions: "It took a long time. It took two years for us to record this thing. There are just so many directions that you can go, like the gamer, right? And so we wanted to make sure that it was, you know, recorded properly with every option. Out there. So it's great. I think people are going to really respond to it. I really love the story. It's a lot of fun, but also it really hits you, you know, emotionally, yeah?"

According to Paul, he slipped right into the role: "To be honest, I didn't really draw from any inspirations. This is just such a detailed story. You know, that's what's so great about, like, big, thick books, you're just diving into a very detailed narrative. And so it was all there for me on the page."

Like a true professional, Paul breaks down his character and his state of mind when recording: "And so, you know, he is a generational sort of superhero. His father was Mecha Man. His grandfather was Mecha Man. They all wore the suit. He's desperate to put the suit back on and fight crime. And now, you know, as the suit is being repaired, you know there's damage during battle, and as the suit is being repaired, he's working at this superhero dispatch office. And he's in charge of this group of misfits that were once villains, and now they're trying to take a swing at being the good guys, and so he's in charge of keeping them in line. He's very frustrated. He doesn't want to be there. They're not giving him any respect, and he's just trying to show them a lot of patience. Sometimes he doesn't really show his patience, but show them that they can, in fact, be good."

I asked Paul how he felt, knowing that some people wouldn't hear all the lines in the game, and would need to replay it to get his whole performance: "It was...wow, I never really thought about recording so much dialog that the gamers are never going to hear. But that's true. It's all about their choices. And yeah, it was, it was strange to work on something for so long. Because I had all the scripts for so long. And yeah, there were, you know, a lot of rewrites, but not many. I mean, the scripts are so solid from the beginning, but they were all sent to me when it landed on my desk, and so I read them very early on."

Aaron Paul Is Perfect Casting For The Lead

He Brings A Lot To The Role

Shifting gears a bit, I inquired about Paul's gaming background, and found out that he used to play a ton of video games: "I used to play a lot, but I was one of those gamers who couldn't put the controller down. You know what I mean? It became like an unhealthy gaming scenario for me. And so you know, I used to, back in the day, like Mario Kart, crushing Mario Kart, even when it went to Nintendo Wii. Loved Mario Kart. But then the more sort of, you know, you know, [first-person games] like Goldeneye. When the first Resident Evil came out. I was just, because I would love to play it. It was like watching a horror movie, right? You want to watch a horror movie when it's dark outside. You know, when I was playing the first Resident Evil, like at night, playing it until 5am you know what I mean? And I've never felt so scared, right?"

It was then that we shared a moment, talking about how the dogs crashing through the window freaked us out during midnight Resident Evil sessions: "Oh the dogs, yeah, the dogs! It was just so good. And you know, my brother's a big, big, big gamer. That's where most of his community is. You know, in games, people he's never met in his life, but are dear, dear friends of his, you know, that live all over the world, and so I have such respect for gaming, just as a whole, like what it's done, it's really brought, brought people together that you know would never have met before if gaming didn't exist. And I mean, I said this previously, earlier today, that I love going to comic cons of the world, because you are so. Surrounded by the most passionate, excited fans, with no filter, you know what I mean, with no disguise. I mean, yeah, there may, there may be, like, dressed up in like, beautiful, you know, attire, but they're just, they're just, they couldn't be more real, you know what I mean? And it's really exciting."

Bringing things back around, we started talking about how easy it is to connect to art sometimes, no matter the medium: "And so I've had, I've had a lot of games sent my way, and this game for some reason, man, it just really, it really connected with me. And so I'm extremely excited to finally be a part of the gaming universe. I remember, I forget what Grand Theft Auto came out when, like, one of the little Easter eggs was, I was on the back of, like, a mountain, my face. And I remember when that came out, there were all these videos of people, like, trying to jump out of a helicopter and land on my face and see, you know, I just, I was so excited to finally be like a small part of a very small part of a very large game. And so I've definitely been on the hunt, you know, searching for a game that resonated with me. And this is certainly that one. Yeah, I think people are going to resonate with it as well."

With time running short, I asked Paul about his favorite superheroes, and we shared the same thought: "I mean, I'm [into] classic Gotham. You know, I love Batman. I think Batman's probably my, maybe my favorite, because he's kind of just like the real guy, right? He's just the guy with a lot of money and a lot of toys, and he's not messing around, you know what I mean? But also, I mean, I love Superman, you know? I mean, I love it all. It's just such a fun, fantastic world where the options are sort of limitless."

Paul leaves us with a fascinating anecdote: "I sat down with Christopher Nolan on another project. This was years ago. I think it was for, I think it was for Interstellar, but I was, I was offered a very small, you're literally just reminded me of this, a very tiny role, and one of the Batman movies he was doing, but I was literally shooting another project, and I couldn't do it, and I was and it was a tiny, tiny, tiny role, but I don't care. I just want to be in his universe. You know what I mean? I just watched Dark Knight the other night, and I thought about that. I was like, ah, it would have just been so cool to just be, you know, 30 seconds in one of those movies."