By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Kevin Dorman has returned to Pandora.
The actor from Bowling Green is back on the distance planet located in the vast reaches of filmmaker James Cameron’s imagination after his role in the original blockbuster released in 2009.
The sequel “Avatar: The Way of Water” is in theaters and bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office.
Dorman is part of the team of actors who do motion capture work. The process involves filming live actors performing the movements for characters who will then be animated on top of the live images. This creates far more fluid and realistic animations.
As in the original, Dorman also does live action acting in the new “Avatar.” He appears as the adjutant to General Ardmore played by Edie Falco.
“Avatar: The Way of Water,” a much-anticipated sequel, has been five years in the making, requiring filming live sequences in New Zealand and motion capture scenes in Los Angeles.
“For five years I kind of dropped off the face of the earth while I was doing this,” he said.
His first motion capture work was on the “Beowulf” released in 2007. The sense of community and the knowledge of the industry gained on that production “made me think this was sustainable,” he said.
“The cool thing about the motion capture characters is usually you’re playing a very different kind of character, an alien or creature or something,” Dorman said in a recent telephone interview following the premiere of “Avatar: The Way of Water.” “That’s what I love about motion capture – it allows me to play things I normally would not play as the human me.”
With live action, he said, “I’m going to get typecast for a character that looks like me, walks like me, sounds like me while motion capture opens the door so you can play anything.”
And the process of motion capture is socially a distinct experience. “The first ‘Avatar’ was definitely a family affair,” Dorman said. “We all gained a great group friends and family and we remained close all through the time in between when we weren’t shooting. When this started up, it was kind of natural: ‘Okay, everybody let’s get back to work.’”
He continued: “When you’re playing a human character, you just do your part, and then go and sit in a trailer, and then come back in a couple hours and do a little more of your part.”
The motion capture cast is smaller. “A handful of us who play all the characters.”
They put in long days, transitioning into different roles, “trying to shovel food in your mouth while you’re moving to a new location.”
At the center of this family is James Cameron.
“Jim is a very collaborative devoted director,” Dorman said. “We all often refer to ourselves as the ‘Avatar family’ and Jim is very much at the heart of that family. He is always right there alongside his teams, working just as hard and often much harder, bouncing ideas, trying new things, developing new methodologies, and digging deep. Seeing him work it’s easy to buy in and want to dig in deep with him.”
Cameron is a stickler for detail. “No aspect is ever glossed over because it’s been a long day or a long week, and because of that his cast and crew would go to the ends of the earth with him to make it all happen.”
Dorman’s career in acting started as a member of another kind of family – he played one of Fagin’s boys in a Bowling Green Summer Theatre production of “Oliver!”
Dorman said he always wanted to be an actor. He’d watch TV and say: “I want to do that.”
Then his mother spied an audition notice for “Oliver!” when he was 7.
The show was directed by Jim Brown, the long-time choral director at Bowling Green High School.
Dorman continued to be focused on becoming an actor. “I don’t ever remember wanting to do anything else.”
He particularly loved musical theater, working on the Black Swamp Players musicals directed by Bob Hastings. Musicals, he said, have that family feel with a group of people working together from start to finish to stage a show.
He also sang in a boys choir and in choirs at Bowling Green High School.
He graduated from BGHS in 1997 and went on the BGSU. At first, he majored in construction management, thinking of going into a family business. But within a few months, Dorman realized his mistake and told his parents he wanted to switch to theater.
He was concerned about what their response would be. They told him they had been expecting the call.
That switch in major, though, let him short of credits to graduate on time. Jim Brown came to his aid again. He helped him enroll in a mime workshop in Gambier.
At the time, Dorman said, it was just about the credits. As it turned out “it helped me in my career more than anything else. It was about character movement and embodying a character.” This comes into play when doing voice acting for video game, when he portrays creatures of different shapes and sizes. The mime training helps him embody them as he voices the character.
When he packed his car and headed to Los Angeles right after BGSU graduation, he said, “I wanted to be an actor.”
He didn’t know about all peripheral opportunities such as voice acting. Motion capture technology had yet to be developed. His resume also includes working as Ewan McGregor’s body double in “The Island.” He’s busy during voice work for video games “Resident Evil,’ “Spiderman,” and some “Call of Duty.”
These are now the jobs he loves, and that have sustained his career and family. He and his wife, Jenna, have two daughters, 3 and 6. He credits his wife for keeping the home front together during the 17 months he was in New Zealand filming “Avatar.” Because of the pandemic, his family was not able to accompany him.
“Avatar” has another family link. His elder daughter “got to work on it with me as one of the kids in a flashback. She’s very excited to see it.”
Reflecting on his career, Dorman said: “I did my two years at Olive Garden. I finally got to walk out one day praying to myself that I’d never have to go back. And 30 years later haven’t had to. … Yeah, it’s been good. I’m at the point now that there are jobs I’m having to say no to.”
And if Cameron produces any “Avatar” sequels – according to media reports, some live action sequence has already been filmed, Dorman is ready to answer the call.
