There are always a lot of surprises at a comic-con like event, but at Game Con Canada, chatting with Steven Ogg was the biggest surprise of all. Ogg is well known for playing rough and tough characters on screen, like Simon from The Walking Dead, Mean Joe Lean in Dark Match, Rebus in Westworld, and most notably, Trevor from GTA V. You would expect a bit more of a gritty personality, but after 20 minutes in the Game Con Canada green room, I’ve learned that he appreciates acting, art and Canada’s own Dallas Green more than anything.
That is what makes Steven Ogg such a great actor, he can mould to any character you throw at him, and none of them are anything like him in person. In his words, “It’s acting…It’s not documentaries.” CGM also chatted with him back in 2014, but with another decade under all our belts, we sat down with Ogg to learn a little bit about his relationships with past castmates, his love of reading, and really, what makes him tick—and no, he doesn’t appear to be in GTA VI, but he has a great idea for a cameo!
We’ve got to start with Game Con Canada! What got you involved in this specific event?
Steven Ogg: It was Aleks [Paunovic], actually.
Really?
Steven Ogg: Yeah. He asked me to come. You know his new water company? So it was just about coming and hanging out with him and supporting his business and then getting to visit Edmonton. Very cool as well.
I got to speak to Aleks before the event, actually, and chat with him about a few things. You guys are very buddy-buddy on stage, so you have a history together, I’m guessing.
Steven Ogg: Well, we met, I don’t know if we met before Snowpiercer, but we did Snowpiercer together. So we spent a lot of time in Vancouver.
And Vancouver is a good place. Everyone seems happy when they say Vancouver.
Steven Ogg: I love Vancouver.
Perfect. And what is it like being able to do cons in Canada compared to anywhere else?
Steven Ogg: I mean, it’s home, right? So it’s nice to come home to Canada. And I’ve just been in Europe. I just got back on Wednesday or something. So I’m still on Paris time. I don’t know where I’m at.
Don’t know what day it is [laughs].
Steven Ogg: Yeah, but yeah, it’s just nice, you know, Canada, you just it’s home. You just feel different. You know, like calm, even if I don’t know if it is calmer or not, you just feel more at peace being home.
I love that.
Steven Ogg: I don’t really know if there’s a big difference because you get the good, the bad, the ugly, everywhere.
You said you were just in Europe. I believe you said you were working on some things for The Walking Dead. Was it a press junket?
Steven Ogg: No, I was just doing, like, a Walking Dead family reunion type of thing, which was fun. We got to go to Germany and then Paris. We had five days in between where we all got to hang out with significant others because everyone brought their significant others. I had a wonderful time. Went to Vienna. Really beautiful. And just hanging out with friends is great. We all love each other.
And you’ve been with The Walking Dead for a while now. Between the different series’, what’s it like being able to come back to that family, that character and that series?
Steven Ogg: Well, I just did that one appearance on Jeffrey’s [Dean Morgan] show, the spinoff [The Walking Dead: Dead City]. It’s always, with these things again, it’s just the friends, right? It’s like with Aleks. You always remember the relationships. And it’s like in anything when you’re around, you know, whatever your work environment is, or your family, whoever you are around is what you remember. Certainly with The Walking Dead, it’s just a great group and we really love being together, so that’s nice.
That’s very nice!
Steven Ogg: We were in Atlanta, too. We did Atlanta, Germany and Paris.
Those places aren’t together.
Steven Ogg: Every weekend for three weeks, we were together, which was cool.
That is cool. Are there any other “families” from your career that you want to get back to visit?
Steven Ogg: I mean, with GTA, Ned [Luke] and Shawn [Fonteno], I see them a lot at these cons we do together. Cool.
We actually just met Ned at CES with ASUS.
Steven Ogg: Yeah, he does all of that. So we hang out. That’s what these cons are, also really kind of cool for. You get to reunite with people. Like in Manchester, coming up, Garret [Dillahunt] will be there. Just so many people like that, you don’t always get to see, and then at the cons, you get to hang out and chill and catch up.
And like the Snowpiercer gang, I’m trying to think, who else? But yeah, you go to these things like, “We worked on this together. We worked on that together.” It’s very cool. I always say, under the umbrella of being so incredibly grateful that this is what we get to do.
You do seem really grateful. We were watching your interviews yesterday on the Game Con Canada MEGA STAGE, and you have this air of just being so thankful for what you do. How do you keep that up throughout a career that’s lasted this long?
Steven Ogg: I mean, just gratitude, right? I’m in such a fortunate position. And I always say, I don’t understand it, but I don’t understand sports. Like last night, someone said about the Oilers, like they’re like, “I don’t think a grown person should wear a sports jersey.” And it’s that. It’s that whole thing of being in this position. It’s always funny when people are like, “Oh, thank you for coming and thanks for spending time. It must be so tough taking pictures.”
And I mean, you know, especially in the mornings when you’re taking pictures, like, “What are you going to do with that?” I can understand if it’s some beautiful person, you can maybe look, what are you going to do with this? It’s so incredible to have that opportunity—and make some money.
That part doesn’t suck.
Steven Ogg: It’s great. I mean, especially when you do these projects that don’t pay. You know, as an actor, it’s certainly not what people think.
You’re not all billionaires?!
Steven Ogg: It’s so funny. It’s like the sort of “the celebrity” thing or whatever. It’s just, we’re all people, right? I always say we all bleed from the nose. It’s just some people get sort of notoriety for projects. But, yeah, it’s a very funny thing when people just assume, “Oh, yeah, you’re an actor, so you are rich.” No, no, I mean, I make a good living, I’m very blessed to make a good living.
But even that is a tiny percentage, like 1 or 2% of the union makes a living doing it. And then within that 1 or 2%, then it goes from making a living to the big millions of dollars actors. But it’s yeah, it’s certainly not true. And it’s gotten worse with what shows pay you.
That’s unfortunate.
Steven Ogg: The business is…because we know they’re making money. I mean, that’s what strike was about. And they make so much money, and it’s like, come on. Share it.
I’m curious about your thoughts on the strike, because there’s also the video game actors’ strike going on right now.
Steven Ogg: Yeah. It just ended. I don’t really follow along.
But you’re both!
Steven Ogg: I don’t follow along with that stuff. I mean, because Grand Theft Auto V was the only video game I’ve done.
But you could be in GTA VI! We keep trying.
Steven Ogg: I don’t know. Honestly, actors are the last to know. I’ve always said that, in regards to GTA VI, I said it. I thought it’d be cool because in GTA V, one of the first scenes, when I’m stomping on that guy’s head, he’s from [GTA] IV. So I thought that would be a nice sort of passing the torch if Trevor got slaughtered in the first scene. You know, it’s kind of a cool idea, but again, I don’t have any say in that. Right?
I’m not sure that they know what’s going on either, but it looks cool. Do you have any thoughts on how long it’s taken for this next one or how it looks? Have you checked it out at all?
Steven Ogg: I just don’t follow. I never played video games. I mean, growing up, maybe Donkey Kong or Pac-Man.
That counts! There’s a new creepy Pac-Man coming out, Shadow Labyrinth. It’s spooky.
Steven Ogg: I don’t follow any of that stuff. I don’t look at that stuff. I don’t.
So what do you do?
Steven Ogg: It’s like acting, I don’t watch a lot of stuff, because I love to do what I do, and that’s perform and act. I’m not precious about seeing my work or not, but I don’t care.
You know, some people care way too much.
Steven Ogg: So it’s, especially film and TV, it’s not an actor’s medium. You know, that’s other people’s. They can cut it and make it what they want, and they can make a bad actor look good. They can make a good actor look bad. So you have to just surrender to the moment of, again, the performance and acting. And then it’s like they do what they want.
So, outside of that then, what hobbies do you have?
Steven Ogg: I read. I am a crazy fucking reader. When I’m back home in California, and if I’m not, because if I have a project—like I have a project coming up filming in July, I become very myopic. I’ll just read the script every day. That’s sort of my process, not just for the memorizing, but also to sort of organically get a sense, and you have it in your head, and different ideas come up.
But when I’m not doing that, when I’m not working, which is, I don’t work all the time, it looks like I do, but I don’t, I just literally love to sit by the pool and read. Like, I’ll go through five novels in a week. And the joy of being able to read, especially a smaller book, it’s an incredible experience to read a book back to front in a day.
So what kind of books do you read? Do you have a genre you prefer?
Steven Ogg: I mean, good writing. It’s fiction. So I just read a lot of…I’ve been sending book lists to people, like, there’s The Most Secret Memory of Men, I think. I always butcher the title. It’s this amazing French writer [Mohamed Mbougar Sarr]. I want to say he was from Senegal, and he moved to Paris. That was one of my, like, blew me away.
I was always more of “the classics”, like when I lived in Europe, I used to do, like it was kind of my education, I took the Russians, and I would do sort of the student, teacher, mentor. So I think it was like Dostoyevsky. Tolstoy. Ah, who was the third? So I do the French, I do Flaubert, and then I went to the British and I’d just have like three writers and go from teacher to student to mentor type of thing. Words excite me. My morning routine involves my coffee, and I need words or art, like reading art books and getting inspiration from that.
And that’s kind of what you were saying on stage yesterday. Everybody kept asking, you know, “How do you get into your character and how do you change characters?” And you just kept saying, “Acting as acting. It’s the words.”
Steven Ogg: It’s the words. And it’s also, for me, music is a great way into characters. It was funny because with some of the characters I play, like even like a Trevor with the game [GTA V], people are like, “How did you get into that headspace?” And people maybe thought, with music that I’d be listening to Black Sunfire or some fucking Metallica.
I like the Canadian choice first, though. I’m impressed.
Steven Ogg: Yeah, well, I’m going to see Dallas [Green] tonight, actually. He’s performing in Spruce Meadows.
I didn’t know that!
Steven Ogg: Yeah. So I want to go give him and Matt [Kelly] a big hug.
I think they started in the city I grew up in.
Steven Ogg: St Catharines.
Yeah, that’s where I’m from!
Steven Ogg: Yeah. And actually, it’s funny because I’m friends with Wade [MacNeil], too. So Wade comes and.
That’s so cool. I love Canada.
Steven Ogg: Canada is great. Like a rock and roll room where people come. So I remember it was Dallas, actually, that’s how I got into [character] Dallas, City and Colour was for Trevor. I used to go, I’d be in my dressing room and put on that album. I would listen to it, and it brings me to tears. Like, Dallas brings me to tears. Like tonight, I’ll be having a good cry.
But I would literally cry. I would just get really upset. And through that, being emotionally raw and vulnerable makes a character like Trevor or those characters easier. Because if you have no epidermis, everything becomes alive, and you can feel everything. And I like to access, through that, like just being an emotionally raw thing, like everything.
We just learned that Dallas Green helped create Trevor from GTA. I just want to I just want to solidify that.
Steven Ogg: Yeah, crying to City and Colour because Ned and Shawn are always like, “What are you listening to?” But I love a good cry, but I also feel like when you’re more, it’s just like in life, right? If you’re emotionally vulnerable, I think it makes for a better human being because you feel, which can be draining too. You have to have boundaries.
That’s fair, that’s fair. You gotta turn off Dallas sometimes, it’s got to happen.
Steven Ogg: You can’t cry all day long.
The question that I want to ask, just for my family’s sake: You span so many characters, my mom’s a fan of yours. I’m a fan of yours. My husband’s a fan of yours. And we all love you from different things.
Steven Ogg: That’s wild.
My mom loves you, and she doesn’t know anybody, but she likes The Walking Dead and Better Call Saul. So she was like, “I know him!”
Steven Ogg: That’s funny.
I’m curious what a con turnout looks like for you when you cross so many genres, so many kinds of characters.
Steven Ogg: It’s a lot of dudes [laughs].
Sounds fair.
Do you find them mostly for specific things, or are you ever surprised?
Steven Ogg: I mean, it’s been nice recently because I did my first volume of poetry book, last year it was published [Catharse-is], and that always makes me feel good when people bring a book that I wrote. That’s really cool, that surprises me. And lately, it’s been a lot of people, like, with my Instagram, which is sort of my own little art installation.
Because I need to, again, unlike friends who paint or sing, they can make a song, or they can paint something I can’t. My canvas is my life. And so Instagram became something that I just, it’s to squeeze—I used to say a boil, but I need a better word. It sounds gross. But I need to express and get something out. It’s been really nice with people coming up and just like, “Thanks. It made me feel something,” and like, that’s what I’m about. It’s like, you don’t have to understand it.
Like, that’s what I love about life. I’ll take feeling over understanding. So when people are touched by, even if I share with my dad, who hopefully I’ll be able to go give a hug this afternoon. You know, he’s not my dad. It’s dementia. And so, seven years, you lose them over and over. Kind of death by a thousand needles, but sharing that, hopefully, then people go and be nicer to someone. Be kind. Like again, show your vulnerability. Show that you’re open. I think it makes for a better place.
Do you ever think people are surprised to hear that from you, especially given the characters that they know you from?
Steven Ogg: Oh, yeah. I mean, a lot of people go, “Oh, you’re not like your characters.” And I mean, it’s acting.
You didn’t beat the crap out of me. What?!
Steven Ogg: It’s not documentaries. If it was a documentary, okay. But that’s what’s fun. Like, I don’t grow up. Right? I get to just, like a kid, I said yesterday, I did Betty Boop. I was in drag in elementary school.
Which I would pay money to see, by the way. I love that that’s your start. That’s your origin story.
Steven Ogg: I don’t know if we have pictures of that. And it was so weird because it was literally just recently, because I was doing a podcast or something or an interview, and I was telling people how that was my start, and that I kind of came up with it. I think my mom was visiting, actually, and I had a question for her. And I went down and I said, “Oh, mama,” I didn’t say mama.
I said, “Mom, I was telling about Betty Boop,” and I said, “Do you remember what age that was and why I did it?” or something like that, and she goes, “No, that was your teacher, Mrs. Prasso.” So I’d been taking credit for it up to recently, which now I say, “No, my mom put me right.”
I will wrap up. I know you want to get out of here. You’ve got things to do!
Steven Ogg: I think I’m going back to the big stage.
We’ll be following you to watch, then! What has been your favourite experience at Game Con Canada so far, or is there something later today you’re looking forward to?
Steven Ogg: I mean, getting to hang out with Aleks again. You know, when you get to hang out with a friend. That’s wonderful. It’s really lovely to meet everyone. It’s cool again. You just feel like, I keep saying it, but just really grateful to be here and that people get something out of me. That they feel something, and it brings them a smile in the selfie or whatever. Again, I don’t understand it, but it’s like, fuck, that’s so cool.
So being able to do that at these things, you just feel really touched by it. And I used to not, I used to get more creeped out, and it was tough. And that’s boundaries, right? Like, especially when we used to do the Walker Stalkers. There was a Make-A-Wish boy today that came, but those, man, that’s tough, when people are coming in and they share their stories.
That’s a lot to take home with you.
Steven Ogg: You. It’s a lot. I think it was in Europe, it was in Germany, a woman was like, “I tried to kill myself. And thanks so much for your posts and what you do.” And, you know, she was showing me scars on her arms, and it’s like, it’s a lot. You just have to have a boundary of, like, “I’m glad you’re alive,” and give a hug.
But you can’t, because the Walker Stalkers we used to, so many times, we’d get people, and then you’d go behind the curtain, behind our table, and just have a good cry and hug each other and get back out there. Whereas now I’ve done this so much, you just have these boundaries that you don’t take on people’s stuff. And that could be their smell. You don’t take it on.
You are at a con. It happens.
Steven Ogg: The con smell.
Absolutely. Well, thank you very much. I will give you your freedom. Well, kind of your freedom. You’ve got stuff to do!
Steven Ogg: Back to the main stage!
