How The Cast Of GTA Really Feels About The Franchise
There have been way more "Grand Theft Auto" games than you might think. Since the series began in 1997, "GTA" has transformed from being a niche action title to becoming one of the biggest gaming franchises of all time. The "GTA 6" trailer finally let us know that the next entry in Rockstar's world famous franchise is really on the horizon, and even though the game is taking us back to familiar territory, it's going to be introducing a ton of exciting new characters, which is arguably where the series really shines.
"GTA" is beloved for its sandbox gameplay and brilliantly realized settings, but for many, the series' storytelling is its biggest draw. Every time Rockstar releases a new "GTA," the developer sets a new standard for narratives in video games, but the company doesn't accomplish that feat alone. Each memorable character has been brought to life through the work of the voice actors who've lent their talents to various games over the years. However, while some are absolutely thrilled to have been a part of gaming history, and others walked away from the "GTA" franchise vowing to never return.
Ned Luke came out of retirement for GTA 5
Ned Luke played Michael De Santa in "Grand Theft Auto 5," and before he took the job, he had no interest in starring in a video game. In fact, Luke had all but retired from acting years prior to landing the "GTA" role. He opened a restaurant with his brother and focused on being with his family, but eventually he got curious about acting again, which led to his "GTA" audition.
Luke told TheGamer that when his agent first mentioned the audition, his reaction was, "'I'm not going to do a video game. What would I want to do a video game for? I'm an actor.'" His agent namedropped Rockstar, but the company didn't ring a bell for Luke. Even so, he went to the audition and quickly became part of the "GTA" family. Luke spent three years doing voice work and motion capture for the game, and he loved his experience. He also grew extremely close with his costars, and the overwhelmingly positive reception fans had to his work let him know it was all worth it. After all his time spent working on "GTA 5," Luke would still happily go back. In the same interview with TheGamer, he said, "I would love to do ['GTA 5'] DLC. That would be awesome."
Steven Ogg had a blast (but don't call him Trevor)
Steven Ogg is another actor who loved his time with "GTA 5," and it's easy to see why. Ogg had been acting for over a decade before working with Rockstar, but "GTA" made him a global celebrity and helped take his career to a whole new level. Since the game came out he's gone on to play popular characters in shows like "The Walking Dead," "Better Call Saul," and "Westworld." Even though Ogg has been a part of the biggest shows on television, Trevor Philips is still the character that most people associate with him.
Ogg has been open about how he really feels about "GTA." He didn't just love his character; he deeply enjoyed getting to be a part of the motion capture experience. "So it was sure fun to do this motion-capture and to create, again, this rather crazy impulsive character that I had a blast doing it. It was like seven years ago, but it was fun — a lot of fun," Ogg said in an interview with Looper. Though Ogg said that he doesn't follow video games himself and has never actually played "GTA 5," his experience with the franchise will follow him for the rest of his life. Sometimes, however, he's less than thrilled about his close association with the series.
Ogg famously lashed out when YouTuber Hugo One asked him to take on his "GTA" persona once again in a Cameo video. He began the frustrated clip by saying, "[Hugo One] wanted me to give you this message from Trevor, which of course, I'm not Trevor. My name is Steven, and I'm an actor ... it's a cartoon, and I'm real life."
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Shawn Fonteno is still pinching himself
Shawn "Solo" Fonteno is a rapper, actor, and author who has been with the "GTA" series since the early 2000s. He provided miscellaneous character voices for "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," then eventually went on to star as Franklin Clinton, one of the primary protagonists of "GTA 5." However, thanks to Rockstar's penchant for keeping secrets, he very nearly left the franchise before his big moment. Fonteno explained in a 2022 interview that he'd been working with Rockstar on motion capture and voice recordings for roughly a year before he learned he was actually contributing to the next "GTA." Before then, Rockstar had only given him the code name "Paradise" when discussing the game. Had he not learned of the enormity of the project when he did, Fonteno might have left the project early. "Halfway through filming, maybe, it took me a year to start really getting in the groove of it," Fonteno explained.
Discovering he was involved with "GTA 5" encouraged him to stick it out through the difficult process. When he was asked to reprise his role as part of "GTA Online" DLC several years later, Fonteno told GamesRadar how happy he was to still be a part of the series' legacy: "It's so surreal. It trips me out sometimes. Sometimes I just have to wake up and pinch myself to make sure, you know, like, is this s*** really happening?"
Michael Hollick felt shortchanged by GTA 4
"GTA 5" made its voice actors mostly happy, but the franchise as a whole hasn't always had such a great track record. Michael Hollick played Niko Bellic, the main character of "GTA 4," and his experience with the game was a bit of a rollercoaster. On the one hand, Hollick's role in the game brought him newfound fame and attention, but on the other hand, he never felt like he was fairly compensated for the work he did.
Hollick told The New York Times in 2008 that he was thankful to Rockstar for giving him a chance as a relatively unknown actor in the States, "but it's tough, when you see 'Grand Theft Auto 4' out there as the biggest thing going right now, when they're making hundreds of millions of dollars, and we don't see any of it." Hollick worked on the game for 15 months and received $100,000 for his time. He felt stiffed, as the game itself made hundreds of millions of dollars.
In the interview, Hollick clarified that he placed the blame for that discrepancy on his union, which had comparatively rules for compensating actors in video games and Internet promotions at the time. Rockstar paid Hollick a little more than the minimum required by the union, but he receives no royalties on the game and no pay for online advertisements that used his voice, which were a major source of publicity for "GTA 4."
Young Malay will never work with Rockstar again
Michael Hollick may not have placed the blame for his frustration with "GTA 4" solely on Rockstar, but another voice actor slammed the company years after working with it. Chris Bellard, a.k.a. Young Maylay, voiced CJ in "GTA: San Andreas." Much like Hollick, he felt he wasn't paid fairly for voicing the game's lead character.
In a since-deleted Instagram post from 2020, Maylay wrote, "I never publicly dissed them because I made money from them but f*** @rockstargames them mf don't care if I'm eating or not." In no uncertain terms, he accused the company of being wildly out of touch and only caring about making money off of cultural appropriation and underpaid performers. Maylay even acknowledged Hollick's aforementioned comments about Rockstar and said, "He exposed the truth." Maylay made it clear that the only way he'd ever work with Rockstar again is if the company paid him a fair percentage of the millions earned by the game he starred in.
Cynthia Farrell didn't know how big GTA became
You might have forgotten that Cynthia Farrell voiced Catalina all the way back in 2001 for "GTA 3" and again in 2004's "GTA: San Andreas." Don't feel bad; she nearly forgot about it, too. In a 2022 interview with "The VOC Podcast," Farrell said that she had no idea just how widespread the "GTA" franchise had become or how relevant the games she helped make still were. She was even shocked to discover that "GTA 3" and "GTA: San Andreas" had gotten remasters.
Farrell was nine months pregnant when she got the role, and the process of recording her voice lines didn't go at all the way she expected. After getting the role, Farrell came into the recording studio for her first day on the job and was handed a massive stack of pages with all of her character's lines. She had to wing it right then and there — and two hours later she'd recorded all of Catalina's dialogue for "GTA 3."
In the podcast interview, Farrell said with a laugh, "I don't know if you want me to tell you on air what I made, because let's just call it a pittance." Like other "GTA" actors, Farrell pointed out that union rules didn't help actors make much for video game work at the time. It wasn't until after she'd been in "San Andreas" that Farrell realized how popular the games had become, and she said she's flattered by the millions of people who enjoyed seeing her as Catalina.