One of the year’s biggest video game releases has turned Phoenix reserve police officer Andy McDermott into a local celebrity.
McDermott is the cover and marketing star of Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Activision’s latest first-person shooter, available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. He was with the Phoenix police department full-time for nearly eight years, and he’s now a reserve officer as well as a personal trainer and actor, splitting his time between Los Angeles and Phoenix. McDermott’s kids are too young to play Black Ops III, but, speaking to 12 News, McDermott said he signs copies of the game for the older kids he coaches in soccer and baseball.
McDermott is clearly enjoying getting such a high-profile gig, calling it a “dream job.” He’s even tweeted pictures of massive billboards of himself that he’s spotted around L.A..
https://twitter.com/andymcd23/status/662401069914324992
McDermott did a lot of motion capture work for Black Ops III, along with spending three days and thousands of shots getting the game’s key image just right.
He described the gig as one of the hardest physical jobs he’s done. “You know, [it involved] all kinds of ridiculous fake weapons and then all kinds of real weapons, but a lot of running and gunning and a lot of holding muscle poses and really mean faces [for] hours and hours and hours,” he said.