‘Destiny 2: Curse Of Osiris’ Interview With Oded Fehr
The launch of Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris this week also brought the opportunity to interview with the man who voices Osiris, veteran actor Oded Fehr. He’s been a part of movie franchises like The Mummy and Resident Evil along with TV shows such as 24: Legacy and Once Upon a Time. Voicework on several animated shows also fills his filmography, but Osiris marks only his second appearance in video games. We talk about his enjoyment of voice acting along with how he got the role and how it made him the coolest dad in the world.
Like many busy dads juggling their career and family, Oded has not had much time with games, so he was not terribly familiar with Destiny or Destiny 2. That doesn’t mean he’s completely unfamiliar with Bungie though as he recounts how he used to play Bungie’s original first-person shooter, Marathon, with a friend on the old Apple Macintosh while dressed as his character from The Mummy.
It was Bungie who approached Fehr about providing the voice for Osiris as they had his voice in mind with the character. It was then he made the connection between the game developer and his son’s favorite game.
“The thing about Destiny, my son is 14, turning 15, and absolutely in love with the game,” Fehr explained. “He’s been playing Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 now and is thrilled and excited about the new release, the character of Osiris, and me playing it. It’s made me the coolest dad in the world.”
While Oded was only tangentially familiar with Destiny through his son, he worked with Bungie to learn the lore of the game and the history of the character he needed to fuel his performance. While some of the performance is simply to advance the plot to move the player forward through the campaign, the actor was able to work with Bungie to add more to the character.
“The character [of Osiris] is hugely cool and [Bungie] has been pretty darned awesome letting me try to give him a little more character and throw in a little more emotion.”
The lore behind the Destiny franchise can be surprisingly deep and crazy with Guardians that can be resurrected through the power of the Light of the Traveler, multiple space-faring races, time travel, pocket dimensions, and more. While Bungie was there to help Fehr understand certain plot points, he also had the assistance of his son.
“I have to give kudos to my son here because my son has been with me from the beginning with this and is so excited about it. He had to promise he would not share one bit of information with anybody. My poor son, I cannot even tell you how difficult it was for him to keep his mouth shut… It was incredible he never said a word to anybody.”
“He was sharing a lot more information than me because he obviously plays the game and knows it so well. There was a lot more that he knew than me,” Oded said, adding that he would sometimes ask his son questions for clarification on the Destiny lore.
Osiris can come across as an arrogant character in Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris and Oded says that comes from the character’s motivation. He’s not understood by the other Guardians, which ultimately led to his exile, but he has strong motivations for what he is doing.
As far as he’s concerned, he’s not arrogant. As far as he’s concerned, he’s short because he doesn’t have time to waste trying to explain things to people who can’t understand what’s happening. It seems like arrogance but he’s obviously trying to do the right thing and save humanity.
Destiny fans may see more of Osiris as Bungie plans to continue with the character in the future, per Oded. That’s good news for him as the classically trained actor loves doing voice-over work when he can because it allows him to use his voice to tell a story.
“It’s a wonderful art form that I’m just loving and enjoying.”
We’d like to thank Oded Fehr and Activision for the interview opportunity. Mr. Fehr was traveling back home to be with his family during the middle of the wildfires in the Los Angeles area and was gracious enough to spend time talking about a video game.
