Kingdom Come: Deliverance and its sequel simply wouldn't be the same without the performances of Tom McColl and Luke Dale, two English actors who completely immerse themselves in the roles of men living in 15th century Bohemia. With both Kingdom Come: Deliverance games selling millions of copies, you might think that its actors are swimming in opportunity. But, after the first game Luke Dale, the actor for Hans Capon, almost quit acting entirely.
"After having given it a good four years, I said to my agent, "Look, I'm going to take a year off to think about this. It's just not working out. I have to find something else to do to make money. If I can do that, and it's flexible, then I'll come back to acting. It's not going anywhere,'" Dale said in an interview with Firezide Chat.
"I got a sales job, and while I was doing that I thought, 'I quite like the marketing element of the sales stuff.' I liked shooting little videos. I didn't really like being on the phones selling, but I liked the idea of marketing...Then I found another company where I shot videos and basically became an event videographer for this big events company."
Dale went onto explain that he worked as a videographer for a year, then went into lockdown. At that point, Warhorse called him to talk about returning for Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, at which point he felt like the stars aligned to give acting another go. However, Dale hasn't found that the game's success brought him back to acting in a big way. As he's balanced working as a filmmaker and an actor, he's found opportunities for the latter have dried up, saying "the industry at large has never really given a fuck."
Fortunately, Dale has found his niche with streaming, which he says has been working "incredibly well." Instead of relying on acting work, he now relies on his streams for income, but is happy doing it.