Cosplay: Interview with Rick Boer

Netherlands resident Rick Boer is a 26-year-old school teacher and, in case you haven’t noticed before, an incredibly AWESOME costumer. He’s made a splash around the cosplay community with his recreations of Metal Gear Solid‘s Naked Snake a.k.a. Big Boss, as well as various characters of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. He’s even worked with Ubisoft to film promotional work for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, portraying Edward Kenway.

The first time I saw his Snake cosplay, I didn’t actually realize at first that it was a real person. I thought someone did photos of an action figure.

In light of the recent release of Assassin’s Creed IV as well as hype for the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V, I had a lovely chat with Rick about his experiences as a cosplayer and a gamer. It’s a pleasure to have someone so talented and enthusiastic share insight:

Which of your own costumes is your favourite, and why?
Every costume has it’s own story. Mostly because you build one in a specific time frame. So when I’m in a certain period of a year, or even a special year in general, the costume I’m working on represents that period. It’s like a memory of that particular part of my life. So in that respect, they all have their own charm and value to me. Snake, however, was really a relaxed and personal project during the winter months. Something to do in between the Assassin’s Creed projects. He came out alright and the response was amazing and unexpected.

You’re a fan of video games, particularly Metal Gear Solid and Assassin’s Creed. What inspires you to portray the characters from these games?
The storytelling in those specific games is so huge. Anyone who ever cried or laughed at a feature film or a book should understand the emotions that good storytelling can make you experience. Combining these emotions with a creative hobby is a lot of fun. I try to make an homage to a franchise or the specific character with each costume I do. If you’re into collecting figurines or statues, it’s no different. It’s a challenge to recreate the characters as realistically as possible. If I can look at those pictures without seeing me, but just the game character… well, then I did a good job!

 

Cosplay is becoming more recognized by mainstream culture and media. What do you think about this? Is it a good thing?
It’s a wonderful thing. Cosplay has a very negative label. In the eyes of most, it’s either softcore porn or nerds. And to be blunt… that label is not entirely untrue. However, through all that there are some people capable of creating pieces of art with their costuming hobby. The amount of craft required to create a costume, to express the character, getting the right picture… it’s quite a lot. My background lies in drawing and painting. And to paint one of these characters isn’t one-tenth the amount of time and attention that is required when doing a good and beautiful cosplay of the same character.

I hope game developers will make more use of cosplay. I can imagine cosplayers  being used for the cover art of certain games. If done well, then that is entirely  plausible. It also allows fans and other people to “meet” their favourite character at  events. Like Mickey Mouse in Disneyland. We all know it’s a dude in a costume… but it’s still fun to get a picture with Mickey.

A dream would be to do costume design the other way around: a real costume being created and tested for it’s mobility, etc. before it is animated into the game. Concept art for a character in real-life. That would be amazing! I can have dreams right? Ha ha ha!

What do you like the most about doing costumes as a hobby?
The creation of the costume, no doubt. And eventually to get a picture taken that could truly be that particular character.

Do you have any cool experiences or memories from cosplaying?
Quite a few. The events and videos with Ubisoft are always a lot of fun.

Some of the most amazing moments, however, were with the 501st, the Star Wars costuming community. I was at an event with my friends from the Dutch Garrison and I was there as Boba Fett.

The event was for sick children, who were there to get away from all the hospitals and medical treatments. A girl about the age my daughter is now came up to me. She had on a little princess gown and even a magic wand. She waved at me and I knelt down. She came over, shook my hand and took a picture. Remember, its hard to see through the helmet, but as she walked up to me I could see the oxygen hoses going into her nose, and her princess crown was on a hairless but beautiful head. She smiled and ran back to her parents, who were also smiling. I think about that girl from time to time and I wonder how she is doing… if she is doing. Well, I was just glad I wore a helmet, because that was tough and beautiful at the same time.

There’s even more personal memories like the one mentioned above, concerning a good friend (also a 501st member) who died of cancer. We went to the hospital, all dressed up to lift his spirit. Now, that was…words can’t describe that.

How do you feel about the new creative developments for upcoming Metal Gear Solid games? Any thoughts or opinions on the new open-world format, or David Hayter being replaced by Kiefer Sutherland?
Metal Gear has never been disappointing, so I am expecting quite a bit. If people were interested to see Anakin Skywalker falling to the Dark Side, the story of Snake is more tragic and understandable. I can’t wait to see how it unfolds. Open World sounds like a refreshing new feature that will launch this franchise to a whole new, next-gen level.

I am hoping that with Sutherland introduced, we’ll see a possible re-make of the original Metal Gear with Big Boss voiced by Sutherland and Solid Snake by Hayter. Other then that, here’s what I came up with in terms of the change:

The idea was not to bash Sutherland or Mr. Kojima, but to make a funny (to any MGS fan, anyways) video clip that would eventually be a big thank you to David Hayter himself. He saw it and retweeted it: “That is awesome. Best impression yet. Thank you. DH”. That made my day, but also made 2013 an even more special costuming year.

Any words of wisdom you’d like to share with the world?
I am not a very wise person… I just hope people can look at cosplay as a true form of art. And as with any art form, there’s quite a few different ways to do cosplay. But everyone who does it is most likely to have fun doing it. That is something nice by itself, right?

deviantArt: RBF-productions-NL
Youtube: RBFproductionsNL

Gallery photo credits in order: Philip van Ees (1-2),  Cynthia Veekens (3-4), Dominique Boer, Mirjam Muller, Crazylazy, and Jolien-Rosanne.