If you like video games - and I know I don’t anymore! -you’ve probably seen that actors guild, SAG-AFTRA, is currently striking most video game work. The reasons behind this are complicated and have a lot to do with both money and corporations’ unwillingness to part with it for a living person’s work.
For example,a lot of game companies would love to replace every actor with cheap AI voices that sound close enough to actual celebrities without them having to pay actual celebrities. Oh, the gulf between the people who make games and the people who make money off games is as wide as it is grim. But it’s also not the only issue video game actors face. One really fun one is, apparently, they rarely know what actual acting/pretending they’re going to be doing.
In an interview with the BBC, an actor and casting director said that many voice and motion capture actors go into sessions with little idea what they’re about to be hit with. One time she showed up for an assignment and found out she would be recording a violent assault scene. While the developer dropped the scene after the actor presented her concerns, it’s still pretty wild. That’s hard for any professional actor, even without considering the possibility that an actor themselves could have been a victim of abuse in the past.
That’s not to say a game can’t demand heavy emotions from its actors. It can! Acting in games has long expertly conveyed the depth of life’s tragedies, such as when the main character inHeavy Rainkept screaming “Jason” while searching for his theoretically American child who had an oddly French accent. I think the voice director just assumed the script had a typo when it said that the child was from “Montpelier.” I probably shouldn’t be making jokes about voice work in a thing where I’m defending voice work, but here we are and there Heavy Rain is. Regardless, actors - French or otherwise - should absolutely know what they’re getting into before they do.
The problem, of course, is that video game companies are ridiculously secretive. While I believe it’s nice and good to keep spoilers from getting out, the video game industry is so secretive that often full scripts and lines and stories are hidden even from the people performing them until the absolute last second. And, sure, leaks do happen! Actors and crew members and staff in any form of entertainment can spring a leak. That’s not good! But that’s also why NDAs and other contracts exist. I understand that leaks can hurt both the sales and publicity of a game, but that worry shouldn’t preclude making sure someone doesn’t have to suddenly go act out something they really don’t want a full team of people to watch them act out.
This is especially rough for actors who are just breaking in and don’t want to rock the boat or seem difficult. You finally got a gig, but you’re not allowed to know what it is entirely - maybe not the full extent of the role or not the game or not the lines. Maybe they vaguely cast you as a villain soldier henchman. Character actor stuff! And let’s say you get there and find out you’re the bad guy - okay - but you’ve got to say and motion capture some truly awful stuff.
Rather than having days or hours to mentally prepare for the role, you have to just jump right in. That’s not always the case for all games, but it is for some. And that’s putting aside scenes where you have to dress in ping pong balls and pretend you’re the one facing something humiliating in front of a team of strangers. Nobody is forcing anybody to be there - anyone is free to leave - and, again, the person in the article did give feedback and that developer did cut that scene. Which is good. So I’m not complaining that people are being forced.
But as an actor, you don’t always have a lot of options. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but it’s been said it’s quite hard to succeed as one. If you’re just breaking in, it can feel like you’re sabotaging your own career to complain or quit a gig over the material - especially on the spot after you’ve been cast. Especially when the company will happily point to the door and tell you twelve people are willing to do the scene if you’re not. This isn’t a new problem in entertainment - and it’s not even a new problem in games - but it is a problem.
To be fair, folks at this very website have covered companies handling sensitive scenes with, you know, sensitivity. Of course, as required by international law, the game that got things right wasBaldur’s Gate 3. Side note, I love Baldur’s Gate 3! It may be one of my favorite games of all time. I’ve never experienced anything that has sucked me in and kept me riveted quite the same way. That all said, we need more examples of games getting things right. The expiration date on “If Baldur’s Gate 3 can do things well, other games can too” might be around the corner. Larian shouldn’t have to carry that beacon of hope alone. Our world will collapse the moment that a company has one skeleton in its closet.
But no matter what the game is, actors should know what they’re getting into. Both because they shouldn’t have to be in a scene that horrifies them on a personal, non-professional level - and because, honestly, knowing what they’re going to be doing helps the actors be better actors. Acting is actually harder than it looks. People have to prepare for it. Getting your lines at the last second makes it harder to give the best performance possible. It’s a cliche to call acting a “craft” but maybe let them do their craft for once? Let them cook, as the kids say or the kids that are now having kids, I don’t know. Alpha? Jesus.
I understand that the gaming industry is secretive. I get that someone playing a minor role can spoil a major portion of a game if they get script pages too early. But that’s the risk of having professional talent - the same risk you get hiring artists or writers or any human being that might have the flaw of “wanting to brag about a secret.” But it’s worse - and, not for nothing, less productive - to make an actor feel suddenly pressured on the spot to act out something they’re not comfortable with. Let the professionals be professionals. Give ‘em scripts. And don’t cast European children to play American kids. It’s stolen valor. The British already tookSpider-Manone and a half times.
Baldur’s Gate 3
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Baldur’s Gate 3 is the long-awaited next chapter in the Dungeons & Dragons-based series of RPGs. Developed by Divinity creator Larian Studios, it puts you in the middle of a mind flayer invasion of Faerûn, over a century after the events of its predecessor.
