Jacksepticeye and DanTDM's favorite game of 2021 is a soggy sequel

It’s been a long wait for Jacksepticeye and DanTDM to make their big-screen debuts.

Free Guy features cameos from some of the world’s most popular gaming personalities, including YouTubers Seán McLoughlin (Jacksepticeye) and Dan Middleton (DanTDM). The film stars Ryan Reynolds as Guy, a bank teller who discovers he’s a background character in a video game that’s about to go offline to make room for an upcoming sequel.

Jack and Dan filmed their parts a year before the Covid-19 pandemic, so looking back on their 2019 selves was a bit of a jarring experience.

“God, what age was I when we recorded? Well, it was supposed to come out in July last year. And we recorded a year before that,” Jack tells Inverse. “So I lived in a completely different place. And my face looked different!”

“My son wasn’t even born,” adds Dan, “and he’s a year and a half now.”

Ahead of the release of Free Guy, Inverse spoke with Jack and Dan about making the jump to the big screen and their favorite games of 2021.

You’re both very used to being in front of a camera, but was there any part of filming Free Guy you found challenging?

Jack: Having to actually learn lines was a different scenario! Me and Dan are very similar — we just kind of turn on the camera and go. We have a vague outline of what we want to do, but you just improv everything as you go.

I was like, “Wait, am I overreacting? How do I act like myself?!” You kind of get in your own head about it.

Dan: Shawn [Levy], the director, put a big emphasis on doing it in your own style. So there was the element of “am I acting too much like not myself?” But you could choose your own words and intonation and stuff. That helped make it a more natural performance.

Jack: Recording from home made it so much easier. There's no lights or cameras — well, other than our own — or a director telling you what to do. They trusted us to do the lines the way we would normally do them.

If you woke up trapped in a video game like Guy, which would you pick?

Jack: I play some dreary games. I play games that punish me a lot. So I want to wake up in Mario Sunshine or Odyssey. Put on a hat like a rabbit and be something else for a day.

Dan: Or a T-Rex if you’re feeling crazy. Oh, that’s a great choice.

Jack: Can’t steal my answer, Dan. Don’t copy my homework!

Dan: See, even Minecraft has scary stuff in it — explosions, you can die. I'd say probably Mario Kart, seeing as you just race cars all day. That'd be fun.

Jack: I just want to be a kid again. That's really what it is. There's a lot of psychology going on right now.

What’s your favorite game of 2021 so far?

Jack: Oh God — time doesn’t exist. Did Last of Us 2 come out this year? What is the best thing I've played this year? I just keep replaying Bloodborne, and that came out in like 2016.

Dan: The new Subnautica came out this year.

Jack: Oh yeah! That and Resident Evil 8.

Free Guy comes to theaters August 13.