Kratos' combat mocap actor, Eric Jacobus, used a dismembered arm and an axe in his audition video for God of War.
Although most will instantly think of Christopher Judge when they hear "Kratos' mocap actor", it wasn't just him involved in bringing the character to life. Although Judge was the one doing motion capture for Kratos during cutscenes, it was actually Eric Jacobus, who you might know from his videos recreating Tekken moves in real-life, who did the motion capture for combat.
Earlier this week, Jacobus released a video showing his audition tape for God of War. The video begins with Jacobus revealing that the God of War team had seen his Tekken IRL videos, which is what caused them to ask him to audition for the role. To "sweeten the deal", Jacobus prepared a moveset for Kratos and filmed himself performing it.
The video shows that Jacobus went as far as using a dismembered arm and what looks to be a real axe when performing the moves. Considering this was before Jacobus had even properly auditioned for the part, it's great to see how much extra effort he put into becoming Kratos.
Interestingly, we can actually see several moves in Jacobus' video that Kratos performs in-game, including the Superman punch when he's unarmed, a few different types of crosses and jabs, and even some of the axe combos look familiar to Kratos' moveset in the final game. Considering Jacobus ended up getting the job, it's no surprise he used some of the moves he'd prepared for the full release.
Jacobus gave a little more detail on the audition tape in the video's description, "In 2016 Santa Monica Studio asked me to audition for Kratos in God of War. Before I arrived, I sent in this video. The subsequent audition was 8 hours long and I got the part. I was not the only stuntman for Kratos. Many other performers lent their stunt talents to this character, including Chris J. and the late Shad Gaspard."
The audition was clearly a success, as not only did Jacobus get the role for 2018's God of War, but he'll also be doing the combat motion capture for God of War Ragnarok, according to his website.