SDCC: Jack Quaid Breaks Down Audible Original “The Safe Man” and How He Approaches Voice Acting

At San Diego Comic-Con 2024, Popwire sat down with Jack Quaid (The Boys) to discuss his latest project, an Audible Original audio drama, The Safe Man, based on the short story by Bosch author and creator, Michael Connolly.

The eight episode audio series tells the story of Brian Holloway, voiced by Quaid, who was hired by famous horror author Paul Robinette (voiced by Bosch star Titus Welliver) to crack and antique safe in his home, which unleashes something sinister.

“I read the script first and I just couldn’t stop flipping through it,” Quaid said of the series. “The thing that makes me want to do a project is if I would want to watch it if I was just a viewer. It was such a wonderful experience and I’m really glad I did it.”

Quaid dived into the challenges of performing only as a voice with no physical embodiment. “I’ve done a lot of voice work, but with that, you are represented by an animated character, the audience has something to visually see while your voice is coming out. You have to make sure every intention is coming through in your voice, cause when people are listening to this, they’re either driving or cooking.”

“Even though it’s pure audio, physicality does help,” Quaid continued. “Often when I voice act, my arms are doing crazy things. I feel like I’m conducting a weird orchestra. For a lot of the more action sequences, when I’m running through the hallways, they strapped a mic to me as I was running through the hallways and reading through the lines.”

“The character’s great,” Quaid said of Brian Holloway. “I love that he’s kind of pulled between two worlds. He’s trying to make good and do right by his girlfriend. It took so many interesting twists and turns that I never saw coming and that’s a testament to Michael Connolly and how good of a writer he is.”

Between The Boys and Scream, Quaid is no stranger to graphic violence and talked about how he performs in extremely violent sequences, such as the memorable and unsettling opening sequence for The Boys. “You kind of have to play the reality of the scene,” he said.

“My role in a meta sense on that show is to be the audience surrogate, I have to be the guy who reacts as an every day, normal person would. Anytime that you are commenting or outside of it, it doesn’t work as well. You have to treat it all as if it was actually happening.”

The Safe Man is now available on Audible.