A history of Celebrities in games
A couple weeks ago, I had a thought pop into my head. I was thinking about my favorite celebrity performances in video games, in terms of either voice or performance capture acting, and I’ll reveal those later. And then I had another thought, how had these performances evolved as technology has evolved? Because I read a Hollywood Reporter article late last year that I’ve been thinking about lately and it said, in essence, that celebrity involvement, (that is actors who gained fame for their performances in TV and movies and then moved to accept roles in games) has massively expanded in recent years. When the PS2 era started, celebrities were in games, sure, but most mailed in their performances. It was just a paycheck to them. But now, with the expanded use of full facial and motion capture, it has become as much of a production as a TV or movie role. Here’s a brief history of celebrity involvement in video games and how it has evolved and changed over the years.
To start out, I’ll say this. We won’t be starting our history until the mid 90s, when advances in CD technology allowed for these celebrity performances to exist in the first place in a largely unaltered state, with uncompromised audio. That, and there is no singular moment where this concept was birthed, rather, it kinda just started happening. Off the top of my head, I can think of a game that Mark Hamill was in that had full-motion cutscenes as part of the story. The game in question was Wing Commander 3, and features performances from Hamill as well as Malcolm McDowell, and Thomas F. Wilson, among others:
As one can possibly surmise by watching it even for a few minutes, this game’s cutscenes have not aged particularly well in terms of quality, both in the quality of the video itself, and the performances. Hamill seems like he’s mailing it in almost, which is odd, considering what we’ll talk about later. This was made in the era of CD technology where everyone was still trying to figure out what it was to be used for. Luckily, full-motion video would be eschewed for in-engine cutscenes, lending itself to cutscenes that have aged way better over time.
As technology and consoles evolved, so too did the complexity and nuance of the performances. For instance, on one end of the spectrum, you had Clancy Brown, who is perhaps better known for his role as Mr. Krabs on Spongebob, but also had a turn as the villainous Kurgan in the 1986 film Highlander. In the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy, released from 1996 to 1998, he lends his voice to the mad scientist Dr. Neo Cortex, creator of the titular hero in a lab experiment in the first game, as he tries to take over the world. It’s a pretty barebones and standard plot of that style of game, but thanks to strong performances from Brown and others, the game gains character.
I will cover it in more detail a little bit later on, but for now, let’s just say that the voice performances, though sparse and not easily noticeable, contribute, though only slightly, to the reasons that this game is one of my favorites.
We’re about halfway through this post and I will say, it’s been quite difficult to do some research for this, especially considering how, as I’ve said, there’s no definitive first ever celebrity, and I’m just basing it off of cursory research and my own experience. Here’s where the cursory research comes in, the Playstation 2 and Xbox era.
Games based on other existing film and television properties exploded during this time, and so too did the involvement of celebrities. I’ve never personally played a lot of these games, so the only input I can give is “He/she was in this game! That’s cool right?” For instance, a game was made based on the 1963 James Bond film From Russia With Love, and the role of Bond was filled by Sean Connery, 22 years after his last performance in the role. A game based on the 1983 film Scarface, featured Al Pacino’s likeness, but not his voice, perhaps unwittingly setting a trend that would continue to this day. The Godfather received 2 games during this generation, and the first one started production before Marlon Brando’s death in 2004. Brando played Don Corleone, starring alongside castmates James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Abe Vigoda, although only one line of Brando’s was used, due to him being in poor health at the time. And I must say, with The Godfather being my favorite film of all time, the amount of star power and faithfulness to the original cast is admirable, especially for something that has been looked down upon historically by the rest of the film and TV businesses. Of course, no discussion of celebrities in video games would be complete without mentioning Kingdom Hearts. As I mentioned in my review, this game brings together perhaps the best and most varied cast of Disney voice actors, as well as celebrity voice talent. Haley Joel Osment is obviously the star of the show, but there have been other, well-respected actors that have lent their voices to these games. Like Sir Christopher Lee, famous for his several appearances as Dracula, as well as the Sith Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels, who had a major role in Kingdom Hearts 2, as DiZ, a heavily bandaged man who conceals his identity to help Sora battle evil. But the undisputed king of celebrity voice involvement during this generation was Rockstar Games! The Grand Theft Auto series during this generation became the giant-selling behemoth we know it as today. The locales were engaging, the protagonists and narratives were interesting and part of that is the celebrity involvement. Ray Liotta voiced the protagonist in GTA:Vice City, and Samuel L. Jackson voiced the antagonist in GTA: San Andreas. That’s some serious star power right there. But I’ve never played these games, so I’m in no position to comment. But the next generation is where things get really interesting.
Celebrity involvement increased again during the seventh generation of game consoles, across all types of games. Leonard Nimoy was involved in both Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, an action RPG, and Civilization IV, a strategy game:
Shooters and action games saw the most development on the celebrity voice acting front during this time. The Call of Duty series is a really good example, as it saw all releases from Call of Duty 2 in 2005, to Black Ops III in 2015, and a wide range of celebrities from the world of music (Brian Johnson, the former lead singer of AC/DC played a British Sergeant in Call of Duty 2. Rapper and actor Ice Cube played the character of Bowman in Black Ops.), to the world of sports (Running back Marshawn Lynch made a cameo in Black Ops 3). But the pinnacle of celebrity involvement in the Call of Duty series was Black Ops. In fact, it was my replaying it that got me thinking about making this a post. The plot, involving Cold War espionage, brainwashing, apocalyptic stakes, and strange sequences of numbers, is actually way better than I remember it being, and part of it is due to the excellent cast. Sam Worthington, by then having gained considerable acclaim for Avatar, plays CIA agent Alex Mason. Ed Harris, famous for Apollo 13, and Enemy At the Gates, plays fellow CIA agent Jason Hudson. But my favorite performance in that game is that of Gary Oldman, playing former Russian 3rd Army World War 2 hero Viktor Reznov. He lends a voice of vengeful wrath, stating that all of his former colleagues and brothers-in-arms, who are now the main antagonists, must pay for their wrongdoings against the Motherland! It’s super over-the-top and I love it! But, it is not my favorite performance from that generation…
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Portal 2. This wacky puzzle game is a nonviolent shooter, requiring you to solve puzzles using the handheld dual Portal Device. Along the way, you’re “aided” by your robot friend Wheatley (who doesn’t actually do anything), voiced by British comedian Stephen Merchant, known for the original British version of The Office. He eventually deposes GLaDoS (the antagonist from the first game) and becomes the power mad head of the Aperture science facility, and throws both you and GLaDos down a pit into the bowels of the old Aperture facility. You are then guided by Cave Johnson, the eccentric and enigmatic former head of Aperture, in pre-recorded messages. He is voiced by the absolute legend, JK Simmons, and he kills it!
He returns in Portal 2’s DLC as well, and owns the role once again. But, even still, he’s not my favorite performance of this generation. That belongs to our old buddy Mark Hamill. He returned, along with some of the other Batman Animated Series vets, for 2009’s Arkham Asylum. And this was where I realized, he’s the perfect Joker!
He returns in Arkham City, the 2011 sequel. Sick from the Titan experiment turning him into a grotesquely muscular version of himself at the end of Arkham Asylum, it turns out his blood is poisoned and is slowly killing him. It is here that Hamill gives his best performance as the character.
You can hear how weak and frail he is throughout the video. That’s the beauty of it, the feeling that if this is it, Hamill is giving the character the appropriate energy and giving it his all after more than 20 years of voicing the character. I think this is my favorite performance in the entirety of this post. After this game released, Hamill announced his retirement from the character. Though, he was merely teasing us as he came out of retirement for the final installment, Arkham Knight, despite his character technically being dead. He appears as a manifestation of Batman’s subconscious, egging him on to embrace the chaos. It’s a nice conclusion to a legendary series of games and one that I’ll maybe cover in the future!
And that brings us to the PS4/Xbox One generation! Celebrity involvement did plateau during this time, but that didn’t stop some famous actors from portraying famed characters.
Perhaps the best known voice turnover of this generation occurred in 2014, when it was announced that the role of Snake in Metal Gear Solid V, occupied by David Hayter since the original Metal Gear Solid in 1998, who, aside from his role of the character is probably best known for being the writer of the original X-Men movie in 2001 and Watchmen in 2009, was recast in favor of Keifer Sutherland, known for portraying Jack Bauer on 24 in the early 2000s. This game is perhaps the best example I can use for the evolution of capturing actor’s performances, which as tech evolved, became more advanced. Watch this video with the game’s director Hideo Kojima and Sutherland for an explanation of why Sutherland was cast, and the methods used to create such a unique performance:
As you can see, the advancement in technology has lent itself to better and more complex performances. Like 2019’s Death Stranding. Norman Reedus, best known for his role on The Walking Dead, gives an incredibly powerful performance as Sam, and it was actually a performance, as the below video shows, with both the actors in their motion capture suits, and then rendered into the game.
That’s part of why I like video games so much, as tech has evolved, we’ve gone from the extent of performances being just “here, sit in this booth and voice act” to it being on the same level as a true cinematic performance. Benjamin Byron Davis, the actor who played Dutch in Red Dead Redemption 2 described it best, saying that it was 5 intense years of motion capture and 1 day of voice acting. Or maybe it was Roger Clark, the guy who played the protagonist, Arthur Morgan who said that. I don’t know. The point is, it’s not fair to describe these actors as just “voice actors”. Not anymore at least, as there is much more to it than that. Death Stranding in particular featured scans of famous directors (Guillermo del Toro and Jordan Vogt Roberts being an example) but not their voices. I might do a list of my favorite performances in video games later on down the line. For now though, let’s talk about the future of celebrity voice performances. The only one in the pipeline for right now is Keanu Reeves, set to star in Cyberpunk 2077 in a supporting role. Since Keanu is coming off massive success and a career revival of sorts with John Wick, his performance is sure to be a massive draw for many people, myself included. But as long as technology keeps advancing and the stories get more ambitious, I’m sure we’ll be in for more famous actors lending their talents to games!