Robin Turner has been through a lot on Slasher. First, The Executioner chased him down Waterbury’s darkened streets and slashed his arms open. Then the serial killer murdered Robin’s husband, Justin, via poisoning—after first sending flowers to the bedridden Robin. But as Christopher Jacot—the man behind Robin—says, if it wasn’t for great writing, we wouldn’t care about him, or any other characters, in the first place.
In our fourth instalment, we spoke to Jacot about what makes for a good horror script and his extensive work as a voice actor.
You’ve been in some pretty interesting and diverse projects. Eureka, Degrassi, Murdoch Mysteries, Rogue and a bunch of voice work as well like Beyblade.
Christopher Jacot: I have. I’ve also done Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes.
Do you like doing voice work?
I do, it’s interesting. It’s not something I wanted to do, necessarily, it just sort of happened. I think they were looking for voice actors to kind of expand the group because at the time it was pretty small. That said, I do it, but I’m still not in that voice group. It’s a lot tougher to do than you think it would be. I remember that Marvel would be on the line while I was recording Johnny Storm and the script would say, ‘throw a fireball seven feet,’ and I would be like, ‘Unnhh!’ And they would say, ‘Um, no, that sounded like four feet.’ And then I’d go, ‘Unnnhhh!!’ and they’d say it sounded like 10 feet. And that’s why I think the community is so small; it’s crazy what you have to be able to do and the actions you have to create with your voice.
When you see footage of a voice actor working, their whole body is into it.
You are doing everything possible in the room … but trying to keep your head close to the microphone.
Let’s talk about your Slasher character, Robin. Tell me about him.
Robin and his husband, Justin, are the two entrepreneurs of the town. They’re adding the urban element to Waterbury. Justin has bought up a lot of the property, so we kind of own a lot of the town. That has a positive and negative effect. We’re generally accepted by the town, but there is another side; the side of ignorance. I’m the real estate agent who comes in and sets Sarah up with the gallery, and we become really close. We develop a nice bond and become the only people that we can trust.
The show in constantly moving and changing based on who dies, who is the potential murderer and who is in prison for it. The victims, the suspects, it’s a constant circle of moving chairs.
As an actor, you know who the killer is. Does who it is make sense?
I was surprised, but it totally makes sense. I telling Aaron when I was first cast, ‘It’s awesome to read something that’s essentially an eight episode novel.’ It’s cool to go from beginning to end and really sort of binge-read a show. The minute you suspect someone, it changes, and you have no clue what to expect.
It must be nice to be on a show that keeps the viewer thinking. It’s easy to fall into horror tropes.
You can have the archetype of the quintessential horror films—and if you look at them they all follow in some regard—but what makes it good is how fleshed-out the character are. How much we invest in them and that’s what I think is wonderful about what Aaron wrote. He really got into the complexities of a character. Robin, as much as he presents himself as having a flair for the dramatic in the beginning, really ends up diving into so many different emotional landscapes. Therefore, the audience becomes emotionally invested in the story and what happens to people.
Shitty things are going to happen to people.
Slasher airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on Super Channel.
