Assassin's Creed actor 'tapped into' Welsh childhood for big role

Assassin's Creed actor 'tapped into' Welsh childhood for big roleImage source, UbisoftImage caption, Swansea-born actor Matt Ryan returns as the playable protagonist Edward Kenway in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag ResyncedByLeigh BoobyerBBC WalesPublished8 July 2026The actor who plays the lead character in the new Assassin's Creed video game about pirates has said he "tapped into" his childhood in Wales for the role.Matt Ryan, from Swansea, was the Welsh-born playable protagonist Edward Kenway in the Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag video game in 2013, and took on the role using motion capture. An updated version of the game will be released on Thursday.The game follows Kenway, also from Swansea, as he sails to the Caribbean as a privateer looking for wealth, and evolves into a pirate, then assassin.Ryan said he "invoked his imagination" which he had as a child growing up in Wales running around and playing, while acting as the character.Image source, UbisoftImage caption, Ryan said Kenway's English backstory was changed for him"Doing this game, I was doing a medium I've never worked before...motion capture, where you have the camera in front of your face on a helmet, and all the little dots on you," he told Behnaz Akhgar's BBC Radio Wales show."It reminded me of when I was a kid growing up in Wales, running on the village green and down to the old mill. "You'd pick up a stick and it could be a sword, a gun or anything. "Your imagination was so vivid back then."The Welsh voice behind huge hit video gameMatt Ryan explains how his Swansea accent influenced his Assassin's Creed character.Listen on SoundsThe original game is among the Assassin's Creed franchise's best sellers, with millions of copies sold worldwide, and was beloved by fans.Although fictional, the game stars real characters such as the infamous English pirate Blackbeard, and other pirates inclu...