One of the actors in the upcoming Warcraft movie is a seriously big-time fan of World of Warcraft[1]. Robert Kazinsky appeared on Conan O'Brien's late night show this week and talked about how Blizzard Entertainment's PC MMO saved his life.
He explains that after the success of his BBC show EastEnders, he had trouble dealing with the fame. He turned into something of an agoraphobe to avoid people, which ultimately brought him to World of Warcraft.
Kazinsky says once he got hooked, he played the game 18 hours a day, ordering Chinese food constantly and putting out cigarettes in days-old Coke cans. He gained an estimated 50 pounds.
"This game suddenly became my life," he said. "This game would slowly give me rewards and it allowed me to talk to people and make friends who were judging me anonymously. So I was able to forge new relationships that didn't come with any preconceptions."
These in-game rewards positively affected his real-world confidence.
"And before you know it, I was able to have a little bit of self-belief again," Kazinsky explained. "I credit World of Warcraft with saving my life."
He says he has a great life now living in Los Angeles with his girlfriend, working on TV shows and movies. But he fondly remembers the days he spent playing World of Warcraft.
"I've never been happier than when I was really fat and no one had any expectations of me and I was playing video games," he said.
Kazinsky plays the character Orgrim in Warcraft. The film, directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code), opens this summer. You can watch the full segment above, in which Kazinsky also explains how he'd go about trying to beat up O'Brien.
Warcraft is one of more than a dozen movies based on video games currently in development. Check out GameSpot's roundup[2] to see some of the others.
References
- ^ World of Warcraft (www.gamespot.com)
- ^ GameSpot's roundup (www.gamespot.com)
- ^ World of Warcraft (www.gamespot.com)
