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Quantum Break is out today, and everyone should get involved with its wonderful meld of live-action TV and gameplay. Even Shawn Ashmore, the X-Men actor who lent his voice and his likeness to the game's protagonist, Jack Joyce, is loving it - as a gamer, "not just because I'm in it". 

We were lucky enough to nab some time with Ashmore to celebrate the title's release and chat about the "supportive" motion capture suits, how different working on video games is from movies, and whether he'd do it again. 

Is this the first video game work you've done?

I've done a little bit of voice work. When we were shooting X-Men 3, I don't know who did it but there was an X-Men video game where you could play as Nightcrawler, Iceman or Wolverine, which was cool, but the game was not that good. I'm just being honest. But it was really fun and I did maybe a few days of voice work, so it was a minimal amount of gameplay - there wasn't much story. It was just reacting as Iceman was flying around and stuff. 

But this was a whole other level - of detail, immersion and complexity of story. It was pretty incredible. 

How different is it working on a game compared to a movie?

There are a lot of similarities and a lot of differences. You approach it in the same way as any other character: you want to have depth, you want him to be relatable, accessible but also dynamic, exciting, all those things. You create a character and you start with a backstory and we did all of that. 

The biggest difference for me was that I had never done motion capture before. So you're capturing the performance in a completely different way and motion capture is in a weird way a more technical way of creating a performance, because there's nothing there. You're in this empty volume and there's a monitor off to the side that shows you in stick figures the size of the room that you're in. 

So if you're in a room in Riverport University you can see how big it is, because that will affect how loud you speak. If Will is across the room, are we in an auditorium that's going to echo? All of these details you have to figure out. If you were on a movie set you'd know, you'd be in a real location that you could gauge. So there are all these little details that you're not given in a motion capture performance that your director has to talk you through.

But the thing that's great about it is that you're very free. It's just the actors, the director and your script. There's not a 100-person crew standing around you, there's no lighting to wait for. You can just shoot - just rehearse and do it. It feels like you're rehearsing for theatre or something like that. You're very removed, it almost feels like it's just the actors and the director doing what they want to do.

Sounds quite intimate!

In a weird way it's very, very intimate. We're also all wearing these spandex suits together, so you have to be very comfortable with one another, so that's kind of intimate too. 

You do get over that quickly though. The first day I put it on and I was like, "Oh what am I doing," but then I got on set and everybody else was wearing the same thing. 

I was usually in orange. The colours are based on sizes. Green was small, orange was medium and I think red was like large. So everybody's wearing different colours. They're actually very comfortable. They're hugging, supportive. Yeah, it's good.

Would you do it again?

Oh, in a second. I loved it. 

It was challenging. The schedule was difficult. I was shooting a TV show at the same time I was working on Quantum Break, so when I had a break I would work on it here and there. But it was actually good too, because it kept me on my toes. When you're working on something consistently, you become comfortable with the character. I was switching back and forth between two characters, so I really had to be on my toes. 

But I loved the team, I loved the actors, I loved the story, I loved Jack Joyce. I really enjoyed the experience. 

Was the blend of TV and gameplay appealing to you?

To be honest, when I first heard about it, it was one of the reasons why I wanted to do it. I had never seen anything like it and it was new and exciting - and risky. I didn't know how it was going to work out. 

I've finished the game now and I was amazed at how well it worked. And also how seamless it was. It wasn't jarring. Obviously you can tell the differences between the two, but it's not that jarring. The likenesses are very, very similar so it doesn't feel like you're jumping from one medium to the next - even though you are. 

What does it feel like, seeing yourself in the game?

It's incredibly cool. It's unsettling in a way because you're controlling yourself. It feels like an out-of-body experience, which is kind of freaky. 

But it's fun, it's cool. My inner 10-year-old is jumping up and down. I grew up gaming and it's just exciting to see this come together - especially at the level that it is. It feels like such a hugely immersive game. 

Are you still a gamer?

Yeah, although I'd say in the last five years I've had to really pull back. Not because I want to necessarily, but it's my lifestyle and I've been busy. 

But my brother lives in Toronto and I live in Los Angeles, and we honestly hang out playing games online. We both play Starcraft so I just call him up and say: "Hey, I'm on Battle.net, wanna play?" 

That had to be part of the appeal of Quantum Break?

I played Max Payne and I played Alan Wake, and I loved the games so I was like: "Yeah, of course, let's make a Remedy game, that's awesome." Another part of it too, just from a performance standpoint, is when I was shooting X-Men: Days of Future Past, Ellen Page was in Beyond: Two Souls and I think the game was just about to come out. She was telling me about this thing and I was like: "Wait, you and Willem Dafoe were in a video game?" She told me how much she liked the motion-capture experience, as an actor.

So I was like, yeah, I have to do this.

It seems like there's a trend in celebrities getting more involved in video games lately. Do you think that's good for the gaming industry?

I think it's great, but personally I think that the crossover might be difficult for some people. If they identify an actor with a specific role, it might be difficult to remove them from that. 

But what I love about video games is getting lost in the fantasy. Getting lost in the story. For me, that's all about performance and character. So if you can bring really great actors over to this medium to tell great stories then that's a positive thing, for sure. 

Do you think voice acting is an under-appreciated art?

When people ask what it was like doing the voice acting for Quantum Break, it truly wasn't voice acted, because every single line including traversing things when Jack is moving, we captured visually using the capture system. I had to perform everything. 

What I will say though is that traditional voice acting is so difficult. I've auditioned for so many cartoons and I can't get them. I want to do it, I want to try it, but it's so challenging. I think voice actors are generally underrated. It's such a unique skill set and challenge, it's a totally different way of performing and I haven't figured it out yet. I want to learn, figure it out and be part of an animated film or something. But it's really, really tough. 

The subtleties of just using your voice are beyond me at this point, because it's not a skill that I've had to learn or practise. I really respect and appreciate a really great voice actor. 

Do you think the involvement of celebrities in video games is making people appreciate them more as an art form now?

I hope people appreciate performances in video games if they're well done. But I don't know if that's how the general gaming public is looking at it or not. I think it's maybe yet to be seen. 

For me I think it's the biggest compliment when people just love the game. 

You mentioned X-Men earlier: Marvel recently revealed that your character Iceman is gay. How did you feel about that?

Gilbert Carrasquillo

I thought it was very interesting. I think it's probably the most interesting thing that could happen to Bobby. The X-Men are about diversity. That's the whole concept of the X-Men. It's about the things that make us different make us great. I think that an X-Men character - whether it's Bobby or somebody else - coming out and being gay fits so well within the lore and the point of the X-Men. 

I think if I were to get to play Bobby again and if that were the direction they wanted to take it, I think it would have to be handled well. We've obviously set Bobby up to have these romances with Rogue and with Kitty, so it would have to be handled correctly. There would have to be some writing so that it wasn't just this total switch, making people wonder where is the Bobby that we've got to know over four films. But I think it could be really interesting. We'll just have to see what happens.