An Interview with Edmund McMillen: The Prologue.

You know Edmund, you play his games, you’ve read his interviews. Like other members of the Isaac team, we wanted to give you an even deeper insight into who he is and what made him the game designer, husband and father he is today. There’s a lot to go over with Edmund, and I want you to enjoy every answer, anecdote and story he has to tell, so we’re breaking this one into a multi-part interview, covering a lot of his past, his upbringing and his origin as an artist and game designer. This is just the entry into the interview. I hope you enjoy it, please be sure to talk about it and discuss. And if you have questions for him, HMU on Twitter or just go directly to Edmund’s Twitter.

Let’s get started... What’s your name?

Edmund

Edmund McMillen. How do we know that’s your real name?

Edmund

You don’t; you could be fabricating this whole interview. I didn’t think of that. But this interview is real. Start the beginning for us.

Edmund

I was born in Santa Clara. Just about 20 minutes from Santa Cruz.

Tell us about your family. Edmund: My parents were together until I was five. [My dad] is a preacher. I have a relationship with him. It’s gotten better in recent years. We have a respectful relationship where he doesn’t push anything on me and I’m not critical of him. We both live our lives and check in on each other once or twice a year. I send him pictures of my kids and ask him what he’s doing. It’s nice. We had a difficult relationship when I was younger, but it’s become a mutually respectful, adult relationship as of the last seven or eight years.

Is your mom religious, too?

Edmund

My mom grew up Catholic, but I would say she’s not very religious anymore. But my grandma was super religious, very Catholic. Your Grandma Rodriguez, I love her last name.

Edmund

[Laughs] To make Isaac you must have had some understanding of the subject matter. Where did that come from?

Edmund

Grandma. I had seven years of catechism. I stopped at confirmation. That was the year that I told my mom in the drive-thru at Burger King that I wasn’t sure that I believed in God and I felt it was disrespectful to continue to go to catechism when I didn’t really believe what they were telling me. How did she take it?

Edmund

Very badly. She cried before I got to order my Whopper.

Did you stop going to catechism? Edmund: I think right after that I said I wasn’t going to do it. She had a fit about it for a bit, but then eventually warmed up enough for her to stop bothering me about it and didn’t force me into it. It’s one of the few things I put my foot down about when I was younger and said, “I think I’m old enough to say I don’t want to do this anymore.” I stopped going. I also did a summer of Catholic school. That was terrible. That was back when the nuns would hit you and stuff... [Peach enters the room. Edmund and Peach proceed to negotiate. Peach wins.]

You started your art very early. Edmund: I think by kindergarten people started saying I was good, so I wanted to do it more. Some of the fans who are reading this, they may not know about “the talk.” It