TennoCon 2024: Ben Starr On His Bridgerton Moment In Warframe 1999

With his The Game Awards -nominated performance as Clive Rosfield in Final Fantasy XVI complete, Ben Starr’s next big role is in Warframe , where this winter he stars as Arthur Nightingale, the face of the Warframe 1999 chapter and the progenitor of the long-running game’s most iconic character.

We met up with Ben Starr before day two of TennoCon kicked into full swing to chat about the pressure of stepping into such a well-established franchise and fanbase, revisiting Y2K, and working with Canadians.

First of all, I just want to say it’s an honour to meet you. Watching the whole press tour for Final Fantasy XVI, I really appreciated hearing the story of how your dad was the motivation for that role , as he had introduced you to that series. I lost my dad in 2021 as well, and hearing your story really added a new layer to your performance.

Ben Starr: Thanks for sharing that. I think it’s a very difficult process to go through and one that I don’t think you ever really get over. I’m sure you know this; you’re going to spend the rest of your life trying to heal and figure out how you can move on from that thing. So I thought, well, I would like to remember him in the small ways that I can.

It’s tough when you have someone in your life who disappears so quickly and so abruptly and so traumatically, essentially. And you want to figure out how you go on. I still want to feel like I’m sharing aspects of my life with them and about them, even though they’re not really here. And like I said, he’s so instrumental in promoting and fostering my love of the things that I love now. He’s so much a part of the fabric of who I am as a person. I mean, quite literally, genetically, but also just so many of my loves I share with him.

My favourite colour is his favourite colour. The subject I did at university is the subject that he did at university. My love of fantasy is a time fostered by his love of fantasy. By the side of his bed, he would just have books and books and books of just thick, deep, hardcore sci-fi books that he would always be reading. That was a way of me bonding with him, sharing his interest. So it’s just really important that I continue remembering him and allowing him to be a part of my future, even though he’s not really here necessarily in person to share it.

That’s beautiful, you nailed it. I feel the same way, too. Anyway, I didn’t mean to start so heavy!

Ben Starr: No, I didn’t have to drill down on it. But I think it’s really important that if we have an opportunity to talk about it, I think there is a stigma around loss that sometimes we don’t want to talk about it because we don’t… Like you said, you’re apologizing for bringing the mood down. I don’t think it does. I think it’s a wonderful celebration. We haven’t said negative things. We said positive things about who they are as a people.

I still feel what you feel. You don’t want to feel like you’re dragging someone else down with your notions, but you’re not. You’re sharing the life of someone or remembering them. I think it’s really important.

That’s beautiful. Anyway, as a native of London, Ontario, I wanted to ask you—how are you liking the “other London?”

Ben Starr: I love it. I haven’t seen a huge amount of it because I’ve been working so much. I landed and it’s been a lot of obligations here. But it’s amazing that in London, Ontario, you have this 400-person studio that is making one of the biggest video games in the world [ Warframe ]. It’s this crazy hub. And then, every single year, thousands of people make a pilgrimage to celebrate this worldwide phenomenon. I think it’s really, really neat. I think the one thing I know about and figured out about London is that there’s about, even in this square mile, in a 5-minute walk, there are 4 Tim Hortons.

Through Warframe 1999 , you’re effectively being introduced as the face of Excalibur, one of the most popular or common iconic skins from this long-running game. Today’s essentially your debut to the community. How does it feel to be stepping into this prominent position?

Ben Starr: Really exciting. I’d be lying to say it wasn’t a little bit intimidating because there’s going to be 3,000-odd people watching in the theatre. There’s going to be 500,000 people watching at home. You want to make sure that you’ve done a good job. But I believe in the support that the team have given me, of directing me in the way that feels right, feels organic, feels like I’ve given what I wanted to the part, and hopefully it comes together to create something really cool.

Unfortunately, it’s not just about Arthur. It’s about all the other characters that we’re introducing today. And I’m very, very lucky to be amongst a really esteemed group of brilliant, brilliant actors who are going to bring all these other characters to life as well. Ultimately, Arthur is being introduced, but it is about you, the player. It’s your experience. He is one character that you’ll get to interact with on some level.

It’s fun. It feels like a coming-out party. It’s like a débutant’s ball. I feel like I’m in Bridgerton right now. I feel like Daphne coming down the stairs. [laughs]

Arthur has been the face of Warframe 1999 since its reveal at TennoCon 2023 , but now, through the Gemini Series Skins, the players can be you anytime they want.

Ben Starr: It’s really fun. I’ve obviously had it before where you are part of the iconography of the game. He is not the main character because the player is the main character. It’s always cool to have the character that you identify with be the face of so much of the marketing. But I didn’t design the way he looked. I didn’t design all the other aspects of the story. I just come in on the tip of the spear, just taking it over the edge, really.

Yeah, you don’t write the words.

Ben Starr: Yeah, I don’t write the words. There is a huge team of people that work on this game and bring this character to life. I’m just a very small, important, but very small part of finally bringing it to audiences.

When you were first approached to play Arthur in Warframe 1999 , what was it about the character or Warframe that made you want to say yes to the role?

Ben Starr: My belief and faith in Rebecca Ford [ Warframe creative director], really. I think she’s so cool. I’m so proud to call her a friend and a colleague. When she approached me, she said, “Would you like to do this?” I wouldn’t have said yes, I don’t think, if I didn’t trust her so much to come on that journey.

I think I’ve been very lucky to get close to Reb and Megan [Everett, Warframe community manager] over the past year, essentially. And it’s really cool. The game [ Warframe ] speaks for itself, the quality of the game and the intense, brilliant fans. They are so passionate about what they have. But I trusted the team.

It’s always like a jump off a cliff saying, “do you want to come on this journey?” They don’t know where it’s going to lead. I had no idea where Final Fantasy XVI was going to go. I just went in blind a little bit, knowing how much I love Final Fantasy . You can never tell how the audience is going to react to a character.

And it’s the same with this. You just have to trust the process, trust the creativity, jump in, do the best that you possibly can, and then just sit down, get in the raft, and see where the rapids are taking you because you’re not really in control of it. This will cease to be our character, and it will start being everyone else’s as soon as they jump into the game.

So you were familiar with Warframe and Digital Extremes beforehand?

Ben Starr: Yeah, massively. I haven’t played the game [ Warframe ], but I’m so aware of it. I consume lots of literature around video games, whether it be podcasts or YouTube. I usually have seven or eight different podcasts on the go, various daily update shows and stuff alongside deep analytical stuff. I follow so many different YouTubers and content creators who make so much stuff about video games. So just because I can’t play them, because I don’t have the time, I can still be aware of them and explore the lore. hello

Warframe was one of those games that I liked because I followed Laura for years. I’ve been a fan of SkillUp , and he was such a champion of Warframe. I used to watch this big deep dive into the various updates , so I was so aware of what TennoCon was. So it wasn’t a difficult yes for me.

That’s a really cool perspective, coming in as someone who’s familiar with Warframe , and to be here in TennoCon in person.

Ben Starr: I like to be across as much stuff as possible. I like to have a perspective. There are only so many hours in the day to play stuff. And if I can’t play it, then I like to still read about it. I don’t play Call of D uty, but I watch a lot of content around it. I love listening to people, like deep, deep analyze games that I’ve never played but games that I still have a deep familiarity with because of their passion for those games.

It’s an opportunity for me to revisit games that I’ve already played but haven’t maybe fallen off with. I love watching Metal Gear retrospectives because I’m not going to get to play them again, but I still get to deep dive into them. And also, I can do it with other games that I haven’t played ever but still understand why they’re so popular and what it is about it that people really love.

What are some of your favourite sci-fi or cyberpunk media? Did you do any special “research” to get into the feel of the universe for Warframe 1999 ?

Ben Starr: No, I didn’t. I think as an actor, for me, I’m a pretty simple performer. I look at a character, and I go, “How do I make them feel real and grounded in that world?” Or what fundamentally services the story? I grew up. I’m a child of the ’90s. In 1999, it was a really important period of time. I was around the same age as Rebb, or a little bit older, in 1999. My eyes were open. I was learning and absorbing so many things around 1999. Those colours, those sounds are so fitting to me.

When it comes to sci-fi literature, I like my classic, really. I grew up on whatever, really. Star Wars , The Matrix , Terminator , anything time travel-related. I’m fucking obsessed with time travel. I’ve written screenplays about time travel. I think a lot about it. I have very particular opinions. I love books like Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut.

Probably I think my favourite modern sci-fi is Mass Effect . I know that’s not modern, but I think when it comes to space opera, nothing will hit me quite like playing Mass Effect 2. Just the aesthetic of it, the world, it’s so special to me. I’m incredibly excited about them, whatever it is that they come up with.

Yeah, I agree; it’s going to be huge. I’m looking forward to that. I’m actually around the same age, and I have a similar recollection of 1999. It was a weird time to be a kid. Now, obviously, Warframe 1999 is based heavily on the concept of New Year’s and Y2K. Do you remember where you were on New Year’s 1999?

Ben Starr: I know exactly where I was on New Year’s. I was at my family friend’s house, and they used to have loads of people over. All our parents were… [ laughs ] All our parents were out getting wasted at the pub. Because the kids were various ages, from 9 all the way up to 18, the responsible kids in their late teens could be left to babysit us. We were all in this big house.

Yeah, it was really scary and exciting because the fever about Y2K, the end of days, was also juxtaposed against that real sense of excitement. What happens when the clocks no longer have a 9? It’s like zero, zero, zero. That was really neat. I think about the year 2000 as a watershed moment in my life. I don’t think it was that long ago.

It doesn’t feel like 25.

Ben Starr: Yeah, 25 years ago . It’s crazy. I think it’s crazy now to look back and think about how nostalgic I am for that period of time: the music… What’s really crazy is that ’90s fashion is coming back in now. Like, ’90s fashion is current again, which is weird. I’ve been pointing out a lot with my friends, going, “Wow, that’s the best aesthetic again.”

Yeah, back at the time, the ’70s were coming back around. Parents were like, “Yeah, bell bottoms are back!”

Ben Starr: It’s not nostalgic for a lot of people because there are people who are working for Digital Extremes who were not or were born after the ’90s. That’s the interesting thing.

That was the interesting thing about what happened yesterday with the Cloudstrike outages . Our whole generation has been here before, so we think, “Yeah, this sounds about right.” And the younger generation’s just like, “What?”

Ben Starr: This is what we thought “the Y2K Bug” was going to do. It’s actually more serious than Y2K.

How did the process of recording for Warframe vary from other roles that you’ve done?

Ben Starr: Every process of recording for a video game is different because the requirements are always different. It’s all dependent on how the team likes to work. I really love how there’s this real sense of creativity and play, but there’s efficiency within that, and the team know what they want. So I’ll come in, and they’ll say, “Ben, give us this sort of flavour.” I’ll give them that sort of flavour. They’ll go, “Right, we’ll make this, this, this, and this,” and in the room, they’re making this choice because there’s this understanding of what the requirements of being put in the game are.

But they’d always let me the opportunity because they are so efficient. They’d say, “Have one for you as well.” There’s this feeling of, “You give us what we want, and then you give us what you want to give us, and then we can see what works.”

Then split down the middle, yeah.

Ben Starr: Yeah, it’s really, really fun to do. That’s what I always feel, like I’m creatively satisfied as well as actually being in service to the game itself.

Do you feel that we, as Canadians, do any of that differently?

Ben Starr: No, I don’t think you do. I don’t think it’s a Canadian thing. It’s just going to be a studio-by-studio thing. I’ve been working with a couple of different studios, and each one has their own requirements because the game is different. It’ll be whether you want to get reaction banks, banks of noises and stuff that they can use and put into it, or whether we want to tailor each reaction individually to something.

I have been very fortunate over the past year—four years, but like, basically the past year—to really get to spread my wings and on a number of different projects and seeing how they work differently. It’s been really fun and enjoyable because it always keeps things different. Whenever you first start a project, you’re feeling each other out, seeing how it works.

Ultimately, I have a phrase that I say, which is, “I am a vector through which your will is expressed.” If you ever need me to do anything, I’m happy to bend to the needs of what they need me to do, because ultimately it’s their game and they need to be proud of the product, and they’ve hired me to solve the problem for them.

Voice acting is fundamental. Video game acting is a problem. It’s a problem that needs to be solved, and it can be solved by actors because that’s what you do. And it’s always fun to get to be the solution to it, to a problem. That’s cool.

This year, Digital Extremes and Make-A-Wish are granting a young man a wish to become a voice actor. Did you get a chance to meet him before his Warframe 1999 recording session the other night? Did you give him some tips?

Ben Starr: Yeah, we had an amazing… I think it’s one of the coolest things I’ve been a part of. I have told people about this, and I think the ability to make someone’s dream come true in what might seem like a small way that’s such a huge way and have such a huge impact on someone’s life is one of the great privileges of being in a position where you have that. I think it’s a testament to Digital Extremes that they get to use their platform in order to make something so profound.

And also, he’s a great actor. You’ll see him in the demo. He’s fab. And he’s so lovely and so passionate about what he wants to do. I’m so glad that we’ve been having the opportunity to celebrate it. And I get to be in a scene with him.

As I said to him, what you do now—it’s something that I found really daunting whenever I was working on other projects—is the immortality of the work that you do. You turn up hungover, you turn up tired, you turn up sick on a day, it doesn’t matter. What you do in that booth or on that mocap stage or whatever is going to exist forever. It’s going to have potentially a profound impact on someone’s life.

I found that to be quite intimidating. But then, when I was reframing it for James, it was like, what he’s done today is going to live on forever. He knew his soul, his essence, his talent was going to live on in this game. So, as long as people keep playing it, I think that is one of the coolest things to have, is there’s always going to be a part of us that remains. And what a privilege to have the opportunity to be witnessed, to be experienced by millions of people and to have your talent show. It’s really fucking cool.

Warframe 1999 , starring Ben Starr as Arthur “Excalibur” Nightingale, will arrive in Winter 2024. You can also see Ben in the actual-play D&D podcast Natural Six , in his Game Award-nominated role as Clive Rosfield in Final Fantasy XVI , and in the upcoming Expedition 33: Clair Obscur , expected in 2025.