Jeff Schine grateful for chance to play Captain America

Jeff Schine is having a big 2020. The voice actor, who plays Captain America in Marvel’s Avengers, also appeared in Resident Evil 3 and Wasteland 3. But Captain America may be one of his most prominent roles to date.

“What people love about Cap is what I love about Cap, which is he is the version of ourselves that we want to be,” Schine said. “When I step into that role, this is the guy when I’m on my best days and I’m a good husband and when I get to step into the role of father, this is hopefully what I’m bringing to the table. He’s selfless, altruistic, caring, compassionate and self-sacrificial. You hope on your best days that you’re one shield away from being that guy.”

During the audition process, Schine had no idea what role he was trying out for, though his wife had an inkling.

“My wife, who is not a comic book fan, says you remind of this guy, he’s in the comics,” Schine said.

His wife was referring to Captain America.

“I didn’t believe her,” Schine said, smiling.

Turns out, she was right.

Stepping into a role as big as Captain America can be daunting. But Schine worked hard to honor what came before him without trying to copy it.

“The juggling act becomes how do you acknowledge all that and not do a facsimile of it,” Schine said. “Any attempt at imitation is just a watered-down version of what’s already been done fantastically. For me, it’s about not honoring the version that exists in the moment that audiences love, and rightfully so, honoring the canon of the character from the very beginning up until now and then taking what’s on our page and injecting my own version in that.”

Schine is no stranger to big video game series. He also voiced Carlos in the Resident Evil 3 remake released this year and played Javier in The Walking Dead: New Frontier.

While there can be inherent pressure in joining franchises that people love, Schine works hard to ensure he’s doing all he can to be a positive influence on those projects.

“Worlds like Mafia, The Walking Dead and Resident Evil, these are worlds that people care about,” he said. “They’ve invested their time, they’ve invested their emotional energy and money into these things. You have to respect that.”

Creatively, that means understanding the worlds that you are entering.

“How do I make sure my choices make sense in the world,” Schine said. “I’m not going to come in and reinvent the universe. There’s arrogance in that. You have to figure out how to play nice in the world that’s been created and at the same time offer a contribution.”

As Marvel’s Avengers continues to evolve, Schine said he tries his best to keep a pulse on what fans are saying without becoming too engrossed in it.

“You want to know if people are resonating with it,” Schine said. “You try not to do it from an egoic place and you try not to let it be the driving narrative in your psyche because the internet is a great and simultaneously a very dangerous place. You can feel great on one page and on the next have your entire universe ripped apart, and I’m not immune to either of those things. I’m happy to hear that generally people are happy and pleased.”

For Schine, people’s reactions are gratifying after an experience that he said was something truly unique and fun.

“Being in the space together, it’s a real gift,” Schine said. “You feel like the team and then the guy from production hands me the shield. It hits you that this is real, and for those eight hours, I’m Cap and you can’t tell me otherwise.”

Contact Lukas Eggen at leggen@reviewjournal.com or702-383-0279. Follow @lukaseggen on Twitter.