Sniper Elite 5 Karl Fairburne Interview

July 4, 2022 at 6:35pm
By Jason Stettner

Interview with Tom Clarke-Hill, Actor for (Karl Fairburne) in Sniper Elite 5

For call based interviews we try to present the conversation replies as close to verbatim as possible, for context.

A staple I do in all interviews in order to start things off is to ask that you elaborate a bit about your work, and this particular role for those not familiar with it?

Tom: My name is Tom Clark-Hill and I'm a voice over actor but I started out as a musician. I'm still a musician, I play the double bass and the electric bass and I’ve done a bit of acting as well. I got into stand-up comedy when I was in Los Angeles and met some voice over artists and I decided that would be another bow to put into my quiver and it's worked out great.

In Sniper Elite 5, you provide the voice for Karl Fairburne. Could you tell us a bit about the character and the situation he finds himself in?

Tom: I did Sniper Elite two; three, four and five and so each one is different stages of World War II and I really found five interesting because it's getting closer to where I live. I live in England now and I could relate to all those places in France and also you know the Channel Islands and all of that stuff and yeah the situation he finds himself in is he gets to save the day. Concludes with reference: talk real low you know, it's behind you man watch out!

The voice just it just hits my mind from playing the games, it's amazing.

Tom: That's the beauty of voiceovers because once you get the job and you get established in the job people have that imprint in their head. I did the voice of Tony the Tiger for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes for many, many years and I remember after Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes “they’re great!” and after about the second or third year these kids came up to my car one time and I think I did the voice. They went wow you sound just like the guy on the TV and I went wait a second, I am the guy on the TV so I’ve been real blessed to be able to do that stuff that's incredible.

There have been numerous Sniper Elite and Zombie Army spin-off entries over the years. Reflecting on the character, how do you think he has changed over time and do you have a favorite entry in the series?

Tom: I hardly even played the games when I first got it and when lockdown came actually my older son is really good at gaming and he put up a little thing of me trying to play Sniper Elite. I’m just getting shot left and right man you know.

During lockdown I went through three just as the novice, then I went through four as the novice. By the time I quit playing on four I got strung out on it I was like you know that you get shot once and you start over again. So I have a special affinity for four and especially the one with the trains. Also the Italian village.

I didn't take advantage of two, was being able to isolate each sort of area and learn how to you know the one-on-one the different waves that come at you. I get too frustrated doing that so I would go through a campaign and then if things got too heavy I would retreat back into the last area which my son said was, you know being a wimp.

What do you feel was one of the more memorable moments for the character, in terms of a voice line you did or just a particular part of the whole experience that you most enjoyed?

Tom: I don't know man there's so many little one-liners that are good but, “one bullet could save the war or one bullet could change the future” or I forget what it is you know that sort of stuff. “That makes two, our fly boys can thank me later”.

“The main gate's gonna be heavily guarded, I should try and find a way around it.” Good thinking Karl. “Once I’ve dealt with the Nazis out there it should be a quiet place into the castle we can party”. Oh here's a great line: Karl kills the ground sniper “better luck next time”.

When preparing to voice Karl, were you given any initial direction in regards to the character? Just in terms of any examples of prep work to prepare for the performance?

Tom: When I originally auditioned for Karl I met with the head of rebellion Jason Kingsley and we just kind of sat there and looked at some lions and I gave him my take on what I do and if anything they've always pulled me back you know. Look there's somebody on top of that building, a little bit less somebody up on top of that building just quiet all the time which is great because I mean so many voice-over jobs I do all kinds of stuff.

You know some kind of crazy screaming sort of stuff and then I’ve done a bunch of games where they go. “Oh can we have another fifteen second death rattle” as you're hanging on the barbed wire fence and someone shooting area. Alien vs Predator was the best line somebody says oh no this is actually where the alien is reaching down into your throat and pulling, pulling your guts out to your esophagus or something like that.

The Karl stuff he never gets excited, he hardly ever gets excited, every once in a while he might yell at somebody but it's like a medium sort of pitch. I love it you know and we do a couple hours, two, three or four hours of sessions and go oh can you do a little bit longer and I go yeah I guess I could do a little bit longer.

What’s it like to see your voice attached to a game character?

Tom: It's hilarious, for I think Sniper Elite either two or three one time I got into playing and I was sitting there in my in my boxer shorts like at one in the morning. I couldn't sleep, I came downstairs and I’m doing this stuff and then and it's like my son my oldest son he would just skip through all the monologues at the beginning of you know setting up the thing.

He comes in, I don't know he's there and I’ve got the script for it up there and I’m going you know 1943. blah blah blah blah blah I’m saying all this stuff you know sitting there and sitting there you know in my boxers man playing this game and he goes dad that's really sad man.

I remember I did a game called Killzone and I was a character called Rico and he talked like “this all the time” and it wasn't politically correct so they kicked me out of Killzone 2 but Killzone 1 I remember like you voice this stuff but you can't see the character and then when they actually show this guy he's this big huge dude you know, got the biggest guns and stuff like that and it starts to inflate your ego a little.

Wow look at me but you know that and then reality comes at that, ain't you man it's just your voice and a character that sort of thing but yeah it's fun. I’m blown away you know by this aspect of my career that took off, like I say I started in music and then I started doing a little bit of comedy. Met some voice over guys, the first guy I think I met at the comedy store in Los Angeles a long time ago was the parrot off of Aladdin.

This guy named Gilbert Gottfried and I just heard him say hey I made ten thousand dollars this morning talking like a parrot and I thought wow how'd you do that man. I started taking some voiceover classes and then it just all went from there because it's a you know acting is brutal, you know you walk into a room and there's like ten other guys in suits that look just like you and you go up in front of these casting agents. They listen to them, they go yeah next sort of a thing but voiceover stuff is they generally know what you're gonna sound like before they even get you in and you've got a shot you know.

You’ve been attached to a number of games over the years, has that process of voice over work changed a lot since you started?

Tom: Everything's becoming ethnically specific whereas you know you might do a Hispanic voice or something like that. It's not like I’m talking making fun of anybody man you know but they'll say oh no you can't do that because you're a white Anglo-Saxon. We're going to get a an actual Latino which I think is cool, but I mean that that has changed a lot.

I was in another game called TimeSplitters where I was Cortez and Cortez TimeSplitters he was like that you know and I got that voice kind of a cross between James Brown and there was a DJ named Wolf Man Jack. I think if there is a new one I doubt if I’ll get the part just because of that you know, the whole thing where everything is ethnically specific now but I got no problem with it.

I've been lucky and also the other thing too is that especially with lockdown everything changed. All the people that were too cool to have their own home studio were scrambling you know and I got some great jobs during lockdown because I’ve always had a home studio. I've never lived in when I moved to England everybody says oh you better live in London or you won't get any work and I said no I’m going to live in the Midlands because my first wife was from here and I moved over. It was more of a family move, I didn't want to raise my kids in Southern California for various reasons and so I wasn't going to move from LA to another city and I moved to like the outside of Birmingham.

This little place called Droitwich and you know it's plenty to say. Yeah there hasn't been one drive-by shooting in Droitwich, it was a drive-by shouting in front of the chippy you know you call these mushy peas mate, you know that's about as heavy as it gets around here. My whole thing from moving over here was it was a family move, not a career move and then I’ve always as soon as, do you know what isdn was, a digital telephone system and as soon as that came out you were able to record anywhere in the world.

You could get a digital signal between you and me and there's some delay a little bit sometimes you know, but it changed the whole ballpark so I’ve always had a home studio. I had isdn and now we record everything down the line that sort of stuff too. I still go into town sometimes but everybody that that was too cool to have their home studio because they were in London or something like that or in a big city where they had a lot of studios to pick from were scrambling and so now a lot of people have got good setups at home and the industry's changed that way.

You want something done you can get it done right now, somebody you know, you're five hours ahead or five hours behind or something like that and the person you want isn't available you know you can find somebody else in minutes.

So, TimeSplitters, anything going on with that? There have been many talks about that franchise returning in some differing ways and some could say you did play a pivotal role in that series.

Tom: There was a fan based thing, a reboot or something, I should have wrote down what it was but somebody did like a fan based sort of a reboot or something. I did some voices for them not long ago, I think within the last year and I’m not sure if they made like a little a little clip of it or something like that. I also did a an interview with somebody, it's all a blur, Jason’s all over the column blur you know but I’d love to do it again.

I'd love to be involved in that, it was a hilarious game man. I loved it and I loved the fact they really took their time writing the stuff and making a lot of comic moments and also yeah it was a lot of the time we got to do the voice sessions in ensemble. Where we bounce off each other and say oh man you know that'd be funnier if I said that or that'd be funny if you did that sort of thing as opposed to most of the time you go in and somebody's already done their lines.

You just read what they would have said then you react to that which isn't the same and it and it takes away the chance to come up with something better right then and with the people like in the other side of the glass they'll say yeah okay, okay you can change that you know so the closest thing I’ve ever got to that situation is a cartoon that's on Netflix called Robozuna.

My son and I are both in that and we all did that in ensemble before lockdown and it was what I imagine would it be like working on The Simpsons or something like that where you get a chance to see the script and put your own input and bounce off each other and it's like improv acting, almost quite collaborative.


I would imagine this is a character you’ve grown accustom to over the years, do you have interest in further exploring this role down the road?

Tom: Sure, bring it on Sniper Elite 6! I don't know man, I hope he doesn't get as old as Clint Eastwood. The beauty of voiceover stuff is it's not how old you look, it's how old you can sound, that sort of thing and I I’m a little croaky right now because I woke up just about an hour ago but I haven't really like compared the way I sound in five to the way I sounded in two or three, that sort of thing. There's been a couple of games or not games but campaigns that I’ve been on that went over the years and I can hear a little bit of difference but for the most part I can still keep my voice up pretty high.

What are some other characters and or performances that people might know you from?

Tom: Well, Witcher was a good series that I did Eskel and he was he was just kind of another sort of down here sort of a voice and that that was a fun game too because that had some really good writing in it. A lot of different little areas you know I remember there was one where we get a horse drunk so that was that was probably bad.

Lastly I would like to leave a spot for you to say something or go over anything I might have missed during the interview?

Tom: I’ve got nothing to plug at the moment, I’m playing a gig tonight in Birmingham. I'll see how many people can fly over for that, they wouldn't make it on time. Yeah, but thanks for doing what you do.

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