Interview with Hugo Pierre Martin, Chamber's voice actor

Yoann: Hey, hello everyone! Today I’m with Hugo Pierre Martin, Chamber’s voice actor!

How are you, and how would you introduce yourself?

Hugo: I’m good, thanks for having me Yoann! I’m primarily an actor, though my career has been largely in voice-over in commercials, animation, TV, films, and video games. I also write, I created an audio series for fun!

Yoann: Awesome! When and how did you get into acting?

Hugo: In college, being in a very good theater department, doing improvisations, plays, Shakespeare… Then I went to a few different schools, and I ended up in Los Angeles, and that’s when I pursued film and voice-over, which came out of nowhere!

Yoann: That’s interesting! Were you interested in gaming before Valorant?

Hugo: I was when I was very young! The very basic computer games, before graphic cards, the early graphics card games from Sierra, I liked role-playing games, but I stopped soon after. I think I played Counter-Strike and Team Fortress for a little while, that’s the last game I played, I’ve never played Valorant!

Yoann: What studies have you done to become a voice actor?

Hugo: Just acting, I only took a workshop for voice acting, but it wasn’t very helpful. I usually tell young actors to focus on acting, on stories, scripts, and working on themselves, and developing their instrument! Voice-over classes weren’t a thing when I started, so it was just theatre school and acting! 

Yoann: Was working for Valorant different from your past work experiences?

Hugo: Yeah, my previous video game experiences were for support characters or NPCs, Valorant was a different category, being a major character in a video game, they give you more time, you have multiple recording sessions, and if they need to, they’ll ask you to record new lines. That’s very different because most video games try to get it done as fast as possible. 

Yoann: That’s great! You are also working on an audio series, what can you tell us about that?

Hugo: Sure! The audio series is called “The Diaries Of Netovicius The Vampire”, it’s about Vampires, but it’s really about recovering from trauma.

I started it in February, and I release an episode every week. Artists all around the world who found me through Valorant started to make art for the series, which you can see on Twitter or my YouTube (Links at the end of the interview). 

I’ve also had a voice actress from Diablo 4, Caroline Fabre, and Sova’s voice actor from Valorant, Aaron Vodovoz! It’s good fun, I hope to have more voice actors in the future!

Yoann: That’s amazing! Let’s now get to the quick questions part, I will ask you a few quick questions, and you’ll have to answer as fast as possible, ready?

Hugo: Yeah!

Yoann: Have you met the other Valorant voice actors in person?

Hugo: Not in person, but we’ve had Zooms before! We know that we can check in with each other when we need to. 

Yoann: What’s your favorite map?

Hugo: Fracture! Because Chamber was involved in it!

Yoann: Is Chamber the best agent in Valorant?

Hugo: In the right hands, I think he’s the best agent!

Yoann: What's your best memory as a voice actor?

Hugo: Oh, that’s a good question! Probably the very first job that I ever did, which was for Xbox, it was a French ad, and I did it in San Francisco. I was very nervous, but I handled it, I did a good job, and everything after that was a lot easier. That’s a visceral memory, it was fun to be scared!

Yoann: Oh that’s great! Are you interested in Valorant's esports scene?

Hugo: I do follow the scene a little bit, I watched the last Champions finals between EG and PRX, and I think one guy was playing Chamber, that was cool to see! I don’t know how to play, but it’s fun to pop into Twitch and see the games! 

Yoann: What kind of music do you listen to while working?

Hugo: Sometimes, when I’m doing an audition, I’ll put music or ambient soundtrack in my headset at a very low volume to get the pace and feeling!

Yoann: What's your favorite voice line from Chamber?

Hugo: “Viper, you should let me take you out sometime. Dinner, dancing, I know the perfect place!”

Yoann: Awesome haha! Let’s now get back to the standard questions.

What are your hobbies or passions aside from acting?

Hugo: My audio series really is my hobby and passion. Writing and telling stories is important to me, fantasy stories, but also include things from my life experience.

Other than that, I like to travel, and go for long walks, and I also like architecture! 

Yoann: That’s cool! Do you have any input in the character development of Chamber? In the lore, creating new voice lines and things like that?

Hugo: I think my only input is in the accent, we worked on it being stronger, or less strong, and I ultimately adapted it to what I think sounds best. 

With the voice lines, not so much. It’s out of my habit to propose lines, I haven’t had an opening to come out with an idea yet. 

Yoann: That’s interesting, because in my interview with Carolina Ravassa (Raze’s voice actress), she told me that Riot was very open to taking her own voice lines ideas, so maybe you should try giving them new ideas for Chamber! 

Hugo: Maybe I should try, I’ll talk to Carolina!

Yoann: Are there voice lines you wish were in the game, but aren't? 

Hugo: I had some sneaky ideas about easter egg callouts to the esports community or the Valorant community. I keep that secret if I can ever use it!

Chamber’s voice lines in French are always a bit older, with antiquated expressions, and that’s fine, that’s almost like he’s a time traveler. But it would be fun to add more French lines that are a little more current, I think that would be fun!

Yoann: That’s for sure! More recently, Valorant added voice lines in the language of the agents, Sage has a new line in Chinese, and Reyna talks in Spanish more for example, so I think Chamber could do it too!

Hugo: I hope so, we’ll see!

Yoann: What advice would you give to someone willing to pursue voice acting as a career?

Hugo: I would say that you need to separate the love for acting from the business. When you start, it’s usually only for the love for it, you’re not thinking too much about making a career out of it. But if you start competing, it becomes more of a business, and it can affect your love for it, but your love for it is necessary to the business.

At some point in your career, you will need to protect your love for acting. And when you feel it’s being affected, don’t think that it’s normal to grind through it and hate what you’re doing. Even when you’re 20 or 30 years into this job, you need to protect your love for it, because when you like doing something, you put a little bit of yourself into it, and it makes it more special!

Yoann: That’s so important! What are your short and long-term ambitions?

Hugo: My short-term ambition is just to enjoy, and find balance in my life. 

My long-term ambition is related to the previous question, just to protect my love of my creativity as much as possible, so I can do it as long as possible!

Yoann: Yeah, for sure! Is there anything else you would like to say?

Hugo: Thanks for the opportunity, Yoann! It was a pleasure!

Yoann: The pleasure is mine! Thank you so much for your time, and I wish you the best in the future!

Hugo: Thank you!

Hugo Pierre Martin’s socials:

Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/HugoPMartin

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/o4afilm

Website: https://www.hugopierremartin.com/index.html

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hugopierremartin/