Famous actors doing videogame voicework

[PhyrxianLibrarin]

Remember that weird era where lots of video games hired actual movie and television actors to do the voice work? I'm not talking about actors who are known for their voicework; I'd say Mark Hamill is equally known for The Joker as for Luke Skywalker at this point. And obviously video games based on movies and TV shows will get the same people; of course Patrick Stewart voices Professor X and Captain Picard. I mean the ones where the cast list became a selling point for the games. Just look at this nonsense.

 

The Legend of Spyro - Elijah Wood, David Spade, Christina Ricci, Gary Oldman

 

Dishonored 1 & 2 - Vincent D'Onofrio, Rosario Dawson, Sam Rockwell, Pedro Pascal, Chloe Grace-Moretz, Susan Sarandon, the list goes on for this one

 

Sleeping Dogs - Mostly famous Chinese/Hong Kong actors, but they got Emma Stone at the height of her fame to record like a dozen lines! For a throwaway character!

 

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - Ray Liotta, Dennis Hopper, Burt Reynolds, Luis Guzman, Danny Trejo, Gary Busey, and a whole lot more

 

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - A lot of west-coast rappers, oh, and also Samuel L Jackson because why not

 

Beyond Two Souls - Literally starring the faces and voices of Elliot Page and Willem Dafoe.

 

It's one thing to have one "regular" actor do one voice, but I feel like "our game has actual actors, not just voice actors" is a huge gimmick that always pulls me out of a game. All of these people sound like themselves, they can't disguise their voice, and I know what they look like. So as soon as I hear Ray Liotta's voice coming out of not-Ray-Liotta's face, the spell is broken.

 

Anyone else?

 

 

 

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by PhyrxianLibrarin

[Conor]

 

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain- Kiefer Sutherland

 

Death Stranding- Norman Reedus, Lea Seydoux, Mads Mikkelsen, Lindsey Wagner

 

Call of Duty: World at War- Gary Oldman

 

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare- Kevin Spacey (erm...)

 

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare- Kit Harington, Conor McGregor (not so much an actor as a clown)

 

Omikron: The Nomad Soul- David Bowie

 

Kingdom Hearts series- many actors from Disney reprise their roles, Haley Joel Osment, Billy Zane, Christopher Lee, Hayden Panettiere, David Gallagher

 

Until Dawn- Rami Malek, Hayden Panettiere, Peter Stormare, Brett Dalton

 

Horizon: Zero Dawn- Lance Reddick

 

Captain America: Super Soldier- Chris Evans, Haley Atwell, Sebastien Stan

 

Any game Mark Hamill is in

 

Off the top of my head, anyway

Edited February 12, 2021 by Stan Lee

[FawltyPowers]

Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below - Daddy Pig

[PhyrxianLibrarin]

28 minutes ago, Stan Lee said:

 

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain- Kiefer Sutherland

 

Death Stranding- Norman Reedus, Lea Seydoux, Mads Mikkelsen, Lindsey Wagner

 

Call of Duty: World at War- Gary Oldman

 

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare- Kevin Spacey (erm...)

 

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare- Kit Harington, Conor McGregor (not so much an actor as a clown)

 

Omikron: The Nomad Soul- David Bowie

 

Kingdom Hearts series- many actors from Disney reprise their roles, Haley Joel Osment, Billy Zane, Christopher Lee, Hayden Panettiere, David Gallagher

 

Until Dawn- Rami Malek, Hayden Panettiere, Peter Stormare, Brett Dalton

 

Horizon: Zero Dawn- Lance Reddick

 

Captain America: Super Soldier- Chris Evans, Haley Atwell, Sebastien Stan

 

Any game Mark Hamill is in

 

Off the top of my head, anyway

 

A lot of these have the decency to model the character after the actor, at least. Sylens looks like Lance Reddick, Sam Bridges looks like Norman Reedus. That makes sense. It's when a recognizable voice comes out of a totally different face that I can't stand.

[Conor]

10 minutes ago, PhyrxianLibrarin said:

 

A lot of these have the decency to model the character after the actor, at least. Sylens looks like Lance Reddick, Sam Bridges looks like Norman Reedus. That makes sense. It's when a recognizable voice comes out of a totally different face that I can't stand.

 

Yeah, I feel that. It sometimes seems like studios cast somebody to have a famous name on the billing first, practicality comes second. 

[RadiantFlamberge]

Soldier of Fortune 2 Double Helix:Todd Susman, Keith Szarabajka, Mark Hamill, Iris Bahr, Cam Clarke

 

CoD Black Ops III: Christopher Meloni, Jeff Goldblum, Heather Graham, Malcolm McDowell

 

CoD Black Ops II: Eden Riegel, Michael Keaton, Julian Sands, Byron Mann, Erin Cahill, Sam Worthington

 

Medieval Madness (Williams pinball) : Tina Fey, Scott Adsit

 

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - Kiefer Sutherland, Jay Tavare, Robin Atkin Downes, Keith Szarabajka

 

Trails of Cold Steel series: Eden Riegel, D.C. Douglas, Cam Clarke, Rachel Kimsey

 

Cyberpunk 2077: Keanu Reeves

Edited February 12, 2021 by RadiantFlamberge

[JohnCenaSong-]

7 hours ago, PhyrxianLibrarin said:

The Legend of Spyro - Elijah Wood

 

To me, this one really worked in those games. If they ever revisit the Legends Spyro universe in the future and they don't get Elijah Wood on board then it'd be a big nope from me, he simply is Legends Spyro in my eyes.

[Dr_Mayus]

 

[LoveInHell]

I don’t see the problem?

[StraightVege]

They definitely blew a bunch of money casting Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - Forest Whitaker, Cameron Monaghan, Tony Amendola, Debra Wilson, Liam McIntyre.

[peffsi]

Using Peter Dinklage in Destiny was one of the worst stunt-casting decisions ever... The character is literally an emotionless robot (I think?), they could've hired an intern to do it and it would've been less jarring.

 

Oh, and remember when they cast Ronda Rousey as Sonya in Mortal Kombat 11? Not only is she a terrible person, she is also a terrible actor.

 

The worst thing about using famous actors is that you might not get a good vocal performance out of it. Could be due to the actor being disinterested, or too busy to come back for retakes, or just not being used to voiceover work.

 

 

Edited February 12, 2021 by peffsi

[Lava_Yuki]

For me I don't mind as long as the voice suits the characters, regardless of whether the voice actor or Seiyuu in Japanese games is famous or not. The only famous English game VAs I know are Jessie Mccartney as Roxas and Ventus in KH, Ellen Paige in Beyond two souls and Jessie Williams from Grey's Anatomy who is Marcus in Detroit become human. I thought they did really well in these roles. 

I do have a few favourites though that I like to see, like for Japanese games Toriumi Kousuke, Kaito Ishikawa and Yuki Kaji, and for English games I liked Tara Strong who was Rikku in FF. I don't think any of these are famous outside video games though. I'm not a fan of troy baker because his voice reminds me of arrogant Snow in FF13 and I hated Snow. 

 

[StewartBros]

On 11/02/2021 at 11:23 PM, PhyrxianLibrarin said:

Remember that weird era where lots of video games hired actual movie and television actors to do the voice work?  Just look at this nonsense.

 

Snip.

 

 

You have an interesting definition of "nonsense".

[RadiantFlamberge]

I don't think it's "nonsense"... if a developer wants a certain celebrity to be a VA for their game, or if the celebrity is offering to do so, I see no harm in it. Most of the time, it doesn't matter to me if a character in the game doesn't look like their VA. It can be a bonus sometimes, like Cyberpunk 2077 which has Keanu Reeves' character using both his voice and appearance.