Posted in: SYFY, TV | Tagged: 12 monkeys, Dark Matter, exclusive, interview, Jeff Trevainen, Terry Matalas, thanksgiving

Jeff Teravainen Discusses Dark Matter, 12 Monkeys, Voice Acting & More

Jeff Teravainen (Thanksgiving) spoke with us about bridging the live-action and voiceover worlds, revisiting SYFY's Dark Matter, and more.

Jeff Teravainen is a jack-of-all-trades on the screen performing roles in live-action and voiceovers across film, television, video games, and documentaries. Among the projects he's been involved with include SYFY's Dark Matter, The Expanse, Ubisoft's Rainbow Six: Siege, and Netflix's The Christmas Chronicles. While promoting his Tristar Pictures horror film in Eli Roth's Thanksgiving, Teraveinen spoke to Bleeding Cool about how he approaches documentaries live-action and voiceover roles, revisiting Dark Matter (where he played Lt. John Anders), and working with 12 Monkeys and Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas.

Why Jeff Teravainen Wants to Revisit 'Dark Matter'

Bleeding Cool: When you prep for a live-action role versus a voice-over, do you have different routines to get into the role?

Teravainen: It's similar because when you get a role, you try to make that person as real as possible. That character could be a monster growing up. That's trying to get anything I can out of the script and maybe talking with the writer or director if you have access to them and then literally making your own story. All the auditions I do or the roles I get have a full length that you've never heard of because it's in my head. I love doing that because that grows character. With video games, so many of the characters that we do, you're doing full acting in like motion capture, performance capture suits. When we do that, you're acting like you would in a regular movie or television show, and then you'll do voice stuff on top as well.

Do you approach a voiceover differently when it comes to narrative a documentary?

It's almost like that where you try to get as much as info you can. I love getting the scripts ahead of time. I know guys who work in docs that haven't even read the script before they're in the booth. That's scary because a lot of the time, you get what I call "words of mass destruction," which could be "names of mass destruction," and I don't want to blow those. Most of the stuff that I've worked on, I have a personal interest. I watch that program all the time. I'm giddy half the time when I'm doing it. I have a show I finished called 'Secrets in the Ice,' season three, now. This is a show I will watch because I love that stuff. They're finding all these different things in the ice, like mammoths and diseases that are becoming or coming out of the permafrost. I'm giddy every time I get a script.

You have been a part of so many different franchises. Was there one you are still hoping to join down the line?

There are so many and I'm blanking out. I'll tell you one thing. One of the shows that I worked on was 'Dark Matter' and long story, it never got its last season. All the cast, including myself, would jump on board even a miniseries to wrap that up, especially for the fans. It had such a strong cult fan base, but they were rabid about the show, and it's a shame we never got to end it properly. That would be great for me.

You never know, right? There are always certain things like they get picked up elsewhere and might have to wait years on that, but I'm holding out hope. You're great in 'Dark Matter' and '12 Monkeys,' too. I was curious, given Terry Matalas' work on '12 Monkeys', did he consider recruiting you for 'Star Trek: Picard' since he brought Todd Stashwick on board?

I'm hoping to work with him again. Actually, he did hire me for something, which was great. Unfortunately, what happened was I got COVID the day before we were supposed to shoot, but he promised me. There's a better role coming up down the pipeline. It's a new show. I don't even know if I'm allowed to talk about it. Terry's a great guy and one of those examples of a good guy you're working with. You meet him on set, and you stay friends with him afterward because he loves what he does. He's not one of those rigid, corporate-type set. His sets are great.

Sony Pictures' Thanksgiving, which also stars Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman, and Gina Gershon, is in theaters.

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