Note: This post includes story spoilers for Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate. We recommend you finish the campaign before reading this article.
Destiny 2 often uses expansions to introduce new characters and build out their stories. With The Edge of Fate, the first chapter of the new story arc Bungie calls the Fate Saga, the developer introduced a very new, very different kind of character, named Lodi. Your main point of contact in the expansion’s destination, Kepler, Lodi has a deep, strange backstory that introduces a whole lot of new elements to the game’s story and lore.
Lodi, it turns out, is a time traveler, kidnapped from his place in the distant past of the 1960s and flung through centuries as part of an unknown agenda. That makes him a different kind of character than Destiny 2 usually sees–his frame of reference is a lot closer to the people playing the game than the immortal Guardians who populate it. He’s also much more of a “regular guy” than any of the characters the game has told stories about up to now, and that makes him something of an interesting anomaly in Destiny 2’s world.
In The Edge of Fate, Lodi is portrayed by actor Brian Villalobos, a newcomer to the game. Since taking on the role, Villalobos has been immersing himself more in the Destiny 2 world, and has even taken to streaming the game on Twitch (his brother, Michael, is the well-known Dark Souls streamer LobosJr). GameSpot spoke with Villalobos via email about the experience of taking on the role of Lodi and finding the humanity in the character amid the space magic.
GameSpot: I’ve seen that you’re streaming Destiny 2–how familiar were you with the game and its story when you took on the role of Lodi? What was your process like for getting into the character and finding his place in the Destiny world, and how did your familiarity with the game play into that?
Brian Villalobos: I was not very familiar. So, I’m not necessarily a gigantic gamer–my younger brother’s a big, big Dark Souls streamer and he got me into that whole beautiful nightmare for a while, and he’d played Destiny a bit, but I never had. I got the notice that I was cast just over a year ago, and I’d obviously heard of Destiny, and I knew it was a huge, long-standing franchise, and I have friends who’ve been playing it forever, but I really only knew it as a “space shooter.” I thought you just loaded up with friends and went in and blew up robots and aliens or whatever. (Aside from that, I think I maybe knew Nathan Fillion was in it? Haha.)
What really, truly surprised me and blew me away once I started digging in was the profound depth and breadth of the storytelling, and of these characters and lore. There’s a whole cosmology. There’s like, space magic; space religions, kind of; cohabitating peoples and societies; a winding military history; Eldritch interdimensional meddling–it instantly felt as expansive and deep as something like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. So, that part of it–which, as an actor preparing to try to somehow step into that world, was the first part I engaged with and was the first part I really fell in love with–I was not at all familiar with. Which, honestly, in a weird way, played right into the prep for Lodi: One of the very fortunate things about him–and I’ve been incredibly, incredibly fortunate in so many ways with this dude–is that he’s this Timelost, Stranger In a Strange Land kind of guy.
So, I prepped–I mean, I played the game, I mainlined lore videos and Destiny storylines and did background stuff and all that–but so much of him, a.) felt like it was so clearly and beautifully on the page, and b.) was rooted in this kind of thing where it’s like, “Okay, welcome to Destiny, you’re playing this astonishingly regular-ass-seeming guy who’s kind of constantly overwhelmed and confused by everything, but very interested by this massive preexisting fantastical future-world that he’s just been thrust into, and he kind of has no idea what’s going on and is in over his head and really doesn’t want to screw things up, but he’s just doing his best.” And I was like, “Yep. Okay. I can fully relate to that.”
Lodi has some pretty heavy stuff to contend with, as a guy who was abducted by aliens, sent to the future, and now is getting his brain messed with. There are a few moments where a lot of anguish comes through in your portrayal. Can you talk about the challenges of capturing that emotional range? How do you channel all that sort of unknowable weirdness to get to the humanity of such an out-there situation?
BV: Man, it was just so much fun. So, so much fun. Honestly. There’s a ton of massive-scale weirdness, but that’s just what makes this role such a dream–it sucks I can’t spoil, but there are things I got to do as Lodi that I literally never, ever, ever would have imagined I’d get to do as an actor. Ever. Ever. Haha. The stakes are huge, everything matters in a cosmic, existence-in-the-balance way, but also, he’s just a guy. Dealing with all of it. And he’s smart, and adaptable, and kind, and open, which are all wonderful, useful tools, but also, someone just flipped the sheets of reality and spacetime on him, and he’s got to take it all in and survive and integrate without letting his face twitch and giving him away. But I think with anything, as an actor, what you have, always and obviously, is the writing, and the thoughts and emotions and experiences of the character. And, if you’re lucky, the eyes of another actor, which, for the cinematic stuff, I was very, very lucky: We got to do performance capture in Stockholm with multiple teams of wonderful people, including two truly amazingly gifted actors, Allyson Kulavis and Richard Sloniker–who are Destiny legends and, aside from voicing characters in the game, have done the physical and facial performances of so many characters over the life of the series–who made my job so very much easier.
We started with [performance capture], which was fantastic, so I had Allyson and Richard as scene partners (and patient, expert PCap mentors, because I’d never done it) to help ground the performance. All I had to do was lose myself in what I imagined Lodi was thinking and feeling and look at their eyes and what they were experiencing, and I was there. And so then, when we did all the booth-recording sessions over the past year, I had that week in Sweden with the team and Allyson and Richard as a foundation, which was such a help, because you’re just in a booth by yourself imagining things.
As for humanity: The humanity is in the writing. Really. The narrative team on Edge of Fate is incredible (and kind!), and they not only created what was, for me, an instantly relatable character; they were immensely supportive–they had a very clear direction in mind, and everything was very precisely scripted, but they also made me feel very, very free to bring my own natural cadences and pauses and vocal idiosyncrasies, and really my whole self and personality to Lodi.
Early on, I knew the scope of this story was huge–there are almost-incomprehensible cosmic elements, there’s interstellar time travel and unknowable space-deities and space wizards and the end of existence, not to mention that it’s Destiny, so there are 10-years-plus of incredible performances and storytelling and an incredible, passionate community and tradition and just a whole, whole lot available there that I could choose to pressure myself to live up to if I wanted to. But I’ll give myself credit for one thing, which is that I pretty instinctively felt like looking at any of that in that way wasn’t part of the job. The job is this guy, and what he’s thinking and feeling. What he says isn’t even my job. That’s taken care of. Just be open, and trust, and don’t put any judgment or anything extra on it, and trust, and take a step into the unknown. And trust. Kinda like the guy himself.
Lodi is a really interesting character within the scope of Destiny 2 also, because he’s maybe the most fish-out-of-water anyone can be, and anyone has been, in Destiny 2–but he also has to be authoritative in some ways, guiding the player through the course of the story. So what was it like trying to balance those two aspects?
BV: Again, it’s kinda like the job itself. And in a way, kind of like any job an actor walks into. To paraphrase the brilliant and kind Alison Lührs, Bungie’s narrative director, Lodi’s a fish out of water, but he’s also the most qualified fish from that particular pond. So, as an actor, you come with your own set of experience and skills and perspective, and you can feel some level of confidence and comfort in that, and in the fact that you’re here, that the artists creating this story saw something in you that seemed to fit, in their estimation, so you must be somehow “right,” in some way, for the job. (That, or the other guy wasn’t available.) But so, you were chosen for this purpose. You’re “qualified,” say. But also, this job is different, and enormous, and strange, and there’s a lot riding on it. So, what do you do? You do what Lodi does. He’s like the S-Tier fake-it-’til-you-make-it guy. And don’t we all kind of do that? Or, not fake it. Trust it. More positive. Trust-it-’til-you-bust-it.
What was the most interesting or compelling part of playing Lodi for you? What drew you to the role?
BV: Well, everything, which isn’t a good answer, but it’s the honest one. Literally everything about this guy was interesting and compelling to me. We also share a somewhat uncanny amount of similarities on the page. We both love languages and people, we’re both pacifists at heart, we both share a primary passion of communication and connection, we’re both part Latino and speak Spanish but totally pass for a regular white dude, we’re both peacemakers to a fault–I mean, it gets silly. I even loved ceviche before I went vegetarian. (I mean, I guess I still love it, technically.) We also kind of look alike.
One element of the character and story I will say I particularly enjoyed was that there was a fair amount of situational comedy that arose from being “guy from ’60s cast into spacemagicfuture.” There were some really, really fun beats to play with Lodi when he was getting fully discombobulated while trying to keep his cover and fit in with people who knows how many centuries past his frame of reference. He’s like the ultimate, “How do you do, fellow kids?” guy, which, come to think of it, is another similarity we share. I kind of feel like I’ve been functionally 40 since I was 17. (Without, like, all the responsibility and knowing-about-stocks stuff.)
Were there any particular movies or performances that inspired you in bringing Lodi to life? Any other inspirations?
BV: I got Kyle McLachlan/Dale Cooper tossed at me lightly, which made me squeal very audibly in the booth, because I’m a massive Lynch and Twin Peaks fan. And there was maybe, I think, a little mention of The X-Files. But honestly, it might sound boring, my North Star, so to speak, was the writing and Lodi himself. There were some very interesting and fun references made while discussing how to approach Lodi’s other–let’s say “personalities,” to avoid spoilers?–but I’m honestly not sure I’m at liberty to discuss those. Heh. Man. That’s why this character rules. I really got to do so, so much with him that I never ever saw coming.
Are you aware of the theory that Lodi assassinated JFK? Follow up: Did Lodi assassinate JFK? Have you got a different theory? We’re okay with headcanon for this one.
BV: Sorry, hold on. I think I’m getting a call. I probably need to answer this.
About The Author
