As far as the entertainment industry is concerned, the video game niche is seen as something rather embarrassing by celebrities, who generally make fun of the notion of being a gamer themselves.
And yet, there have been dozens of games that have starred well-known names, with A-List celebrities being commonplace in featuring in video games. Since it’s hard to make out who’s doing the voices while you’re playing the game, the fact that the following A-List actors have starred in these 10 games will not be common knowledge to you. So, read on through and realize just how mainstream the video game industry really is.
10 Beyond: Two Souls (2013) - Ellen Page
For the actress, this wasn’t so much an experience in video game making as it was an advanced acting job. The role required her to don a motion capture suit at all times, as well as record lines individually.
According to Page, the job was more hectic than a normal acting gig, and she had to recite a script over 2,000 words long. A usual day would have her recording 30-40 pages, with the overall effort requiring a year’s worth of material. As with all Quantic Dream games, Beyond: Two Souls was an interactive drama, with Ellen’s character being the main protagonist in the center of the conflict.
9 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) - Samuel L. Jackson
Jackson is known for playing tough guys, with his antagonists always being a stiff challenge for the main character. Even in the video game landscape, Samuel L. Jackson fulfilled a similar role, with his character being the main antagonist of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Tenpenny, voiced by the actor, was a corrupt police officer who forced the protagonist CJ Johnson to do his dirty work. After putting up with this for the whole game, the ending saw CJ take Tenpenny out. Jackson brought his usual bombs in language for this performance, and it was dialed up to the max degree due to him having a free reign of the material.
8 Hitman 2 (2018) - Sean Bean
Oh, Sean Bean, how many times do we have to see you get killed? Whatever medium it is that Sean acts in, you can be certain he is going to die in brutal circumstances. Hitman 2 now gave the power of killing Sean Bean to the people, as Sean played the role of an Elusive Target - which means you’re definitely going to be killing him.
Not only did Sean die by our hands, the player had a multitude of options to pick from in order to take Sean’s character out. Basically, this game took the whole “Sean Bean has to die” trope to the highest lengths imaginable.
7 Batman Series (1994-Present) - Mark Hamill
We can’t even list down the number of games Mark Hamill has been featured in, seeing as it would fill out about thirty entries just to name them out. Choosing one character means we have to go with Mark’s most iconic voice acting character, which of course is the Joker.
Mark has been voicing the Joker in video games for the 25 years, and this won’t likely ever stop considering he’s retired from the part, only to return only a couple years later. His most well-known role as the Joker has been in the recent Batman: Arkham series, where Mark was on par with his DC Animated Universe performance and stole the show.
6 X-Men Series (2002-06) - Patrick Stewart
The 2000s had seen every major film release get a video game of its own as well, and Patrick Stewart was one of the few big actors who obliged with starring in these two. Unlike the other actors, though, Patrick’s role as Professor X required him to record new storylines.
The X-Men games weren’t the same as the film stories, and would bridge the gap between the films’ events. This entailed Patrick voicing Professor X in a new light, which can be comparable to him working on a film role seeing as he had to come up with an entirely fresh performance each time.
5 Middle Earth Series (2002-15) - Elijah Wood
Elijah Wood is a rare film actor who is a legitimate gamer. He doesn’t just see video games as a means for him to make additional cash, and has genuine opinions about gaming in general, being knowledgeable about the happenings of the industry.
This made his voice performance in the Lord of the Rings video game series all the more authentic, as Elijah brought his A-game in these titles, rather than just regurgitate his live-action performances. He continued with voicing Frodo Baggins in other games like The Hobbit and similar entries, with his last performance coming relatively recently.
4 Call Of Duty Series (2008-18) - Gary Oldman
He’s been seen in various forms and disguises throughout his career and has even bagged an Oscar, but Gary Oldman insists starring the Call of Duty games are one of the most maddening experiences he’s had.
On The Graham Norton Show, Oldman revealed the process of recording his lines, telling that it took him four days to record; this doesn’t sound much, but Gary elaborated by informing viewers that he was required to shout his throat out for hours on end in order to do justice to the battlefields of World War II. It makes sense why he felt weird too, as the actor also told that he would be more or less alone in a booth, which isn’t exactly an environment where you feel like you’re in a war.
3 Batman Begins (2005) - Morgan Freeman
You know what? It’s a crying shame that Batman Begins never got any recognition for what it was. The game was pretty incredible in capturing fear as a theme, the same as was the case for the film, and had no boring moments in it.
Even Morgan Freeman was roped in to record lines as Lucius Fox, despite his character having little to no bearing on the game. Morgan was brought in to make the game a faithful likeness of the movie, and his character came up in the burning mansion scene. There are also clips available for you to see how Morgan found it a challenge to be in a video game.
2 Metal Gear Solid V (2014-15) - Kiefer Sutherland
There was an uproar from the Metal Gear fanbase when Kiefer Sutherland replaced the previously longrunning actor who voiced Big Boss from before the two Metal Gear Solid V games, but he actually ended up doing a pretty good job.
Kiefer isn’t a stranger to voice roles either, with him also being featured in the Call of Duty series, where Gary Oldman mentioned Sutherland had admitted he hadn’t worked this hard at anything since his marriage. Metal Gear Solid V had Big Boss at his most vulnerable, so Sutherland’s performance does deserve praise. It’s not easy living up to voicing such an enormously popular character.
1 Death Stranding (2019) - Norman Reedus
Of course, the name on every video game fan’s lips these days is that of Norman’s, who will get his fair shot at stealing the stage with Death Stranding. Couple years ago, Norman had been poised to enter legendary voice acting status with Silent Hills, but the game ended up being cancelled.
Now, Death Stranding will feature Reedus in the starring role, with the actor doing motion capture, voice, and all of the promotion for the character. It’s all looking very ambitious for the moment, and with Hideo Kojima at the helm, big things are expected from the game and Norman as well.