We've been sharing our conversations with the talent behind the new sci-fi thriller Ride Share. The series is an audio/video podcast hybrid which uses a motion-comic animation style to tell the story of an imposter Uber/Lyft driver.
So far, we have spoken with James Gavsie (Digital Sky, Who Would Win) and Julie Nathanson (Avengers Assemble, Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay), and now we are thrilled to share our interview with Cooper Barnes, who plays Captain Man in Henry Danger and all of the related spin-offs and animated series such as the current Danger Force.
Cooper spoke with us about how he got involved with the project initially, the remote recording process, his previous voice acting roles, and a ton of other interesting tidbits.
To hear our chat with Cooper Barnes click the podcast player below. We have also included our chats with fellow Ride Share talent Julie Nathanson and James Gavsie alongside the transcript.
1m 58s Literary Joe: What can you tell me about your character in the show?
2m 3s Cooper Barnes: My character is a damaged guy, kind of a wounded animal who has reached rock bottom. Whether he realizes it or not, he still has quite a lot to live for. He still has a family. That being said, he was estranged from his family, which makes things harder for him. He's a veteran, and he's been through some stuff. He's seen some things that you can't unsee, and by the time we meet up with him in the story, he is at the part where he's saying to hell with it about everything. He's up for whatever, because nothing matters to him anymore.
3m 25s Literary Joe: When and how did you get into this project in the first place?
3m 29s Cooper Barnes: It came to me by way of my manager. He floated it my way during what was a dead time with coronavirus and everything. I'm on a show called Danger Force right now, and it was not in production at the time, and we had some time to kill. And he was throwing me projects that came across his desk that were good, and this one sounded interesting. I said, why not? That sounds interesting, that sounds like something I've never done before. I always find it challenging to just rely on your voice for performance, not to be able to fall back on anything you're doing physically or with your facial expressions. I was up for the challenge. It was an enriching experience, and I'm glad I did it.
4m 30s Literary Joe: Have you done any other Voice work before this?
4m 34s Cooper Barnes: Nothing like this. I'm on a show called Last Best Hope, which is a podcast. It's a radio-play format, but it's silly. It's an old school serial-style, and by that, I mean the kind they use to show in the forties and fifties. Not the kind of you pour milk on it and eat. It's not at all the same style. This was a much more naturalistic acting style, and Eric and I, who played the other guy that I was in most of the scenes with, he and I improv and bounce stuff off one another. On each take, we learned a little bit about one another enough to make small adjustments. Still, we didn't know jack about each other, which made it very interesting, mysterious, and fun and added to the tension between the characters.
5m 36s Literary Joe: Did you guys have to record your lines in Zoom meetings together?
5m 40s Cooper Barnes: Yeah, we did it just like this. We logged in and hadn't met before. You know those movies where those cat and mouse thrillers, where the bad guy and good guy only know each other, by a voice on the end of the phone, in the line of fire or whatever it is where their fate is in each other's hands, but they never actually meet until the end of the movie. It was like that. Except I still never met the guy at the end because not only did I have that experience where it was just a voice on the other end of a phone, because even though we zoom sessions recorded, we couldn't see each other. It's all a bit of a fog right now. I can't tell you why. I might've been able to see the administrator, but we couldn't see the other actors. I never saw the guy and never worked with him before, and we still haven't met, but we did this fairly intense project together, and it was fun. And he was great. We had fun bouncing off one another, and the director was great. I'm glad I did it. I've done some other voice-over and mainly animated stuff, cartoons, and things like that but nothing like this.
6m 60s Literary Joe: As far as your personal life, have you had any crazy Uber, Lyft, or taxi experiences yourself?
7m 9s Cooper Barnes: I feel like I should have been prepared for this question. It's not like I've ever had a situation where the drivers like, "guess what mother f**ker I'm going to kill you" that's never happened. But I have had a situation. I was late. I was driving to a doctor's appointment, and for whatever reason, my car was in the shop, and I needed to make this appointment, and I was in Santa Monica, somewhere on Sepulveda, the guy's car broke down. It started puttering. It was like, "I'm sorry, dude. My car has been acting crazy, and I don't think I'm going to be able to drive you the rest of the way". I'm like, "what happens now," and he goes," I guess you just get out" Alright, well, this is new.
So that's the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me with Lyft or Uber. The drivers' car stopped working, and he's like, "get out of my car, dude. I've gotta get this thing towed," and then I had to get another one. I am notorious for not having a charge on my phone. I'm always at 3% whenever my Uber arrives. So once he kicked me out of his car, I had about 2% battery power to get my ass out of Westwood or wherever the hell I was.
*This interview has been edited for clarity.*
Escape Reality with a thriller fiction podcast to get lost in. Ride Share is the series premier episode of DIGITAL SKY, an anthology podcast series of social and science fiction about the apps that control our lives. Fans of Twilight and Black Mirror will love Ride Share! Trapped in a Car with Strangers!
On his ride share app, Keith decides to choose the carpool option. They all take a drive they never expected. Hang on for an awesome sound experience that will take you on a wild trip, projected like a movie inside your mind. If you’ve ever used a ride share app, it probably crossed your mind that you are getting into the car of a complete stranger. Our hero Keith decides to make it even more interesting by choosing the super-saver carpool option, which adds even more strangers to the ride. Now Keith appears to be trapped in a car with three people, who are very strange indeed.
You can check out Ride Share on Youtube and all other podcast platforms, with new episodes releasing every Tuesday.