Digital fame: famous actors in video games

The latest installment in Activision and Infinity Ward’s FPS series, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, stars a dazzling array of well-known actors in both voice and motion-capture roles. For starters, it has Jon Snow himself, Kit Harington, as Admiral Salen Kotch, and Supergirl’s Martian Manhunter, David Harewood, as Sergeant Usef Omar, along with fan favourites such as Claudia Black, Claudia Christian, and Baywatch star and German pop superstar David Hasselhoff. But this is not the first time that the Call of Duty series – among many others – has enlisted acting heavyweights to lend credence and passion to its storylines. 

Call of Duty

Earlier in the series, Kevin Spacey had his face splattered with green motion capture dots to play the villainous Jonathon Irons in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Gary Oldman and Keifer Sutherland lent their well-trained vocals to the 2008 entry Call of Duty: World at War. Jurassic Park stalwart Jeff Goldblum donned a gaudy digital moustache for the zombie section of Call of Duty: Black Ops III, alongside Heather Graham and Hellboy himself, Ron Perlman.

With his instantly recognizable deep, gravelly voice, Perlman has been sought out for many video game roles, including Payday 2, the Halo series, and as the narrator in the new generation of Fallout games, beginning with Fallout 3. That game also had the voice and likeness of Irish thesp Liam Neeson as the protagonist’s father.

Mass Effect

Other Hollywood names have stepped into the spotlight of video games, or in Martin Sheen’s case, the darkness, playing the mysterious Illusive Man. He was joined by a bounty of big names in the sci-fi extravaganza, including Seth Green as the Normandy’s pilot Jeff ‘Joker’ Moreau, Keith David as Admiral Anderson, and Chuck star Yvonne Strahovski as your teammate Miranda Lawson. Other well-known actors in the game include Firefly’s Adam Baldwin, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Oscar-nominated actress Shohreh Aghdashloo.

Quantum Break

One of the most interesting games to appear recently was the third-person, time-bending adventure Quantum Break, starring Shawn Ashmore, best known for his role as Iceman in the X-Men films. Not only was Ashmore’s character Jack Joyce beautifully rendered to look exactly like him, capturing the smallest detail, but the game was a multi-medium experiment that also included a TV show. This meant players could watch Ashmore’s TV performance and motion-capture performance, knowing it was the same character, not just through his name and appearance, but through his nuances and actions. Although the TV series and game were not critically well-received, it opened the door for other stories to be told over multiple mediums, blurring the lines between a real performance and a motion-captured one.

As motion capture technology has progressed, along with games become more popular and profitable than films, actors who may have once shied away from video game roles are now fully embracing and relishing their parts. In order to truly appreciate every nuance of these performances, players will need a gaming machine with an amazing display, such as the ROG Strix GL502. With FHD resolution and In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology offering a 178 degree wide angle, it allows players to see every detail no matter where they are.

 

By Andrew Rainnie