Rayne Man by Paul Simpson
Whether distributing cursed candy or turning his former best friend Rupert Giles into a demon, Ethan Rayne always spelt trouble when he visited Sunnydale. So, it’s not surprising that when the developers of the newest Buffy the Vampire Slayer game Chaos Bleeds needed an adversary to spice things up, it’s no wonder they called up Robin Sachs, who, as always, was eager to return to play the chaos bringer…

Ethan Rayne is back – and it’s as it he had never been away.
    After numerous appearances in the official spin-off novels, Rupert Giles’ old college friend is finally back on out screens, albeit in animated form, as the catalyst behind the Scooby Gang’s battle against a host of old enemies in the new Buffy game, Chaos Bleeds. Without giving too much away, Ethan’s reappearance in Sunnydale coincides with a very bad time for our heroes, as they do battle with foes long thought dead, and alongside allies similarly believed to be departed.
   Robin Sachs, the elegant English expatriate resident of Los Angeles who brought Ethan to memorable life on Buffy, returns to voice the villain. “Basically they wanted Ethan Rayne in the game,” Robin recalls, “I think everyone’s reprising their roles except Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan, so they wanted me in it. If I hadn’t been free, they would have got somebody else, obviously, but happily I had that couple of days free.”
    Chaos Bleeds is scripted by regular Buffy novelists and comic strip writers Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski. “Chris is a lovely writer and a lovely guy,” Robin comments, “and he’s a friend of mine, who had forewarned me that this was about to be offered, so I made sure I was able to make time for it. It was cool and good fun.”
    It wasn’t Robin’s first time working as a voice artist. Some years before he gave voice to the Silver Surfer, and around the same time as Chaos Bleeds, he was bringing to life to one of the Knights of the Old Republic in the Star Wars game. He was therefore used to the rather unusual working methods, in which everyone records their lines at different times, so they can then be moulded together in the editing process. “It’s always fun to be in the studio with other people, but this time it was just me,” he explains. “I didn’t know if any of the others recorded together, but with people as busy as the Buffy cast, it’s difficult to arrange that. These things take a long time to put together. The voices aren’t necessarily the last things to be done: the producers have to slot everything together, and it’s a very time-consuming project.”
    It was the first time that Robin had played the part since the fourth season, but he had no difficulty in finding the character of Ethan again. “The character fits on like an old glove,” he insists. “It’s such a nice part to play, and I guess, to some degree, after the first episode, he was created a little bit around me. So it’s like revisiting an old friend. He’s got the same lack of heroism about him, and that was a lot of fun to do. I always loved playing Ethan Rayne whenever I was asked to and this was no exception.”
    In one part of the game, Ethan has to ‘channel’ the Big Bad. “At one point, he becomes more evil that we would expect Ethan to be,” Robin laughs. “But no more evil than you’d expect your main bad guy to be.”
    To empathise the change in the character, Robin’s voice was modified for those sequences. “I did some voice alteration myself,” the author notes. “I did it two different ways for them, just in case they wanted to make it a full voice alteration. I didn’t want them to have to tweak it too far, so they could either use the alternate version I gave them. It’s still me, but also obviously whoever it is that’s speaking through Ethan.”
    The actor is constantly astounded and delighted by fans’ reaction to Ethan Rayne and to Robin Sachs. “The character, and hopefully my portrayal of him, added to  that already well-written character, which took their fancy so much,” he says. “That’s the kind of comeback that actors love – and if they don’t they’re stupid. I got a lot of fan mail from playing Sarris in  Galaxy Quest, but you don’t get recognised at the supermarket playing a huge green alien like him! Being recognised and having fan mail is part of the deal as an actor: it means you are succeeding in what you do. It’s not the same as theatre, where whatever you do is noticed, one way or another, for good or bad, at the time that you do it. In film and television there are a few reviews, but essentially you are totally reliant on feedback from the fanbase.”
    Robin still travels the world to Buffy conventions, but not very often,” he adds hastily. “I don’t want to wear out my welcome. The fans are always a delight and a joy to be with, so you always try to keep any backstage nonsense away from them and not let any of it reflect on your ‘performance’ for them.”
    Robin was recently on the big screen in the Polish Brothers’ independent movie Northfork, which opened in July in the US to good reviews. He plays the oddly-named Cup of Tea, one of a band of angels who appear in a town that is being evacuated. “I look like  a cross between Noel Coward and Claudette Colbert,” he jokes. “It was a wonderful experience, with an impressive cast.”
    So would he return again as Ethan? “Absolutely. I hesitate to say that Ethan is an easy part to play, because nothing is that simple, but it’s easy to enjoy playing him, that’s for sure.”.