David Menkin on being an out voiceover artist, vampire crushes, and handsome Norwegians
guarantee you know his voice.For over 20 years, the Norwegian-born actor has been a prolific voiceover artist for film, television, and video games.
He’s lent his talents to everything from anthropomorphic construction vehicles on Bob The Builder to a vengeful viking in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.He even voices Luke Skywalker in the latest Lego Star Wars video game, which means we can (unofficially) claim the iconic hero is gay now!Menkin has also appeared in a number of high-profile on-screen projects, working opposite fellow legends like Meryl Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins and Tom Hanks in A Hologram For The King.Though he’s never hidden his queerness, it wasn’t until a profile in Gayming Magazine last month that he publicly spoke about his sexuality, opening up about representation and how he finds commonality with all of his roles, gay or otherwise.In light of that interview, we knew we wanted to learn all we could about Menkin and his incredible career, so we invited him to the hot seat of Dishin’ It, our rapid-fire Q&A series.
In our conversation, the actor revealed the movie that “made” him gay, why he felt it was important to be out and open now, and five facts about Norwegians that will definitely surprise you!A post shared by David Menkin (@davidmenkin)QUEERTY: Is there a piece of media—whether a movie, TV series, book, album, games, etc…—that you consider a big part of your own coming-out journey, or something that has played an important part in exploring your own queerness?
Why does it stand out to you?MENKIN: It was the movie Beautiful Thing by Jonathan Harvey. I watched it in the morning, had an existential crisis by lunchtime, and came out that night.
