Actor Michael Rosenbaum discusses his role in Sega’s beat-’em-up spectacular, Yakuza.

Actor Michael Rosenbaum is not Japanese. Of course, he’s not superhumanly fast or a complete joker either. It’s called acting, kids, and it’s what Rosenbaum does, whether its as The Flash in the Justice League cartoons, as Lex Luthor in Smallville, or as Nishiki in Sega’s Yakuza, the American version of the Japanese beat-’em-up Ryu Ga Gotokui. It’s a game that not only appeals to his Galaga-loving fingers, but one that has him co-starring with Mark Hamill, Rachael Leigh Cook, Eliza Dushku and Michael Madsen, which is just one reason he was so eager to yak about Yakuza.

GameSpy: How did you get involved in this game?

Michael Rosenbaum: One of the producers had worked on the game Gladius that I did a voice for a few years ago. We had a good time doing that game, so he called me to be in this one.

GameSpy: What was it about the game that appealed to you?

Rosenbaum: Before I signed on, they showed me the game, which was pretty much done at that point, and just blew me away. It’s like a little movie. It’s the kind of game I’d want to play. Honestly.

GameSpy: Does that actually matter? Like would you not do a game you wouldn’t play?

Rosenbaum: It’s not really about that, it’s about whether it’s an interesting game or an interesting character.

GameSpy: So would you do a game that looked like it was going to be a good game, even if it was a game you’d never want to play?

Rosenbaum: Sure. But it’s much better if it’s a game you’d actually like to play. Like with Yakuza, I felt like I really had to step up because I knew that I was going to be playing the game, and so would my friends. I also think this is going to be a big game, so I think I put a little more work into it.

GameSpy: Speaking of work, has there ever been any talk of doing a Smallville game?

Rosenbaum: No, but I actually went to the producers when we were doing the first season and suggested it to them. I think it would be a really good game. I don’t know why they didn’t do it.

GameSpy: A few years ago, when you did a voice for the LucasArts game Gladius, your co-star and love interest in the game was Linda Cardellini from E.R. and the Scooby-Doo movies. But at the time, you two had never met. Did you ever get to meet her?

Rosenbaum: Yeah, we finally met. We saw each other at a Golden Globes party, and we were totally like, "God, it was so good working with you." We just went into this whole thing. She started telling her friends, "Michael is such a giving actor..." Though after about ten minutes of that we told her friends that we’d done a video game together, and had actually never met before.

GameSpy: Did you have a chance to meet any of your Yakuza co-stars?

Rosenbaum: I’ve actually worked with Mark Hamill. He does a great Paul Lynde impression, so we’d do dueling Paul Lynde impressions. He’s a very animated, funny guy. As for Madsen, I saw him in the gym one time when I was working out in Vancouver, but we never met. And I know Eliza Dushku, who plays the girl my character’s always been in love with, and actually ran into each other at the studio. She was leaving when I was coming in to do my session.

GameSpy: Don’t you think it would be better to do your sessions together?

Rosenbaum: When you’re doing a movie or TV show, it helps when the other actors are there for support, when they’re giving you something and you can react to it. But with video games, the sessions are four or five hours long, and you have tons of dialog, so you couldn’t do them together because it would take you twenty hours by the end. You’d probably end up killing each other.

GameSpy: So if Yakuza is the kind of game you like, what are some of your other favorites?

Rosenbaum: I’m a big hockey fan, so I love hockey games, but I also like older games like Galaga. I actually have a Galaga machine. Though lately I’ve been really into The Warriors.

GameSpy: You just shot the movie Kickin’ It Old Skool. Did you play any games with your co-stars Jamie Kennedy and Debra Jo Rupp?

Rosenbaum: I didn’t know Debra was into video games!

GameSpy: Yeah, she’s a big Nintendo 64 fan. She goes on eBay and bids on N64 cartridges.

Rosenbaum: Wow! That’s pretty freakin’ cool. I had no idea.

GameSpy: Did you also not know that Maria Menounos, who’s also in the film, was in the James Bond game From Russia With Love?

Rosenbaum: No, I didn’t. Though I don’t know how that would’ve come up. And I actually like the Bond games, though when I play Agent Under Fire and Nightfire with my friends, I always end up getting a bazooka to the back.

GameSpy: So aside from yourself, is there anyone who’ll be wildly impressed that you’re in Yakuza?

Rosenbaum: Yeah, my friend Christopher McDonald. Not the Christopher McDonald who I just worked with in Kickin’ It Old School, the one who was Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore. He’s great, but he won’t give a shit. But another Chris McDonald who’s a good friend of mine. He’s a huge gamer. Sometimes I’ll be home and I’ll hear something in the basement, and it’ll be Chris, playing my PlayStation. He’s the guy who kicks my ass in Bond. He kicks my ass in Halo. He’ll be really impressed, especially since it’s a game he’s really going to want to play.