10 Actors Who Stupidly Turned Down Video Games
Jean-Claude Van Damme turned down Mortal Kombat, the fool!
Transcript
00:00 Hey everyone, it's Perma Egg Jules here, and we're delighted to say that today's
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00:09 Now the world of video games has truly come into its own over the last 10 to 15 years,
00:14 what with mainstream society learning to accept the medium as a legitimate art form, where
00:19 even A-list celebrities are lending their faces and voices to rich, character-driven
00:23 stories. And while the majority of jobbing actors generally aren't in a position to
00:27 turn down most roles, these 10 actors all ended up saying no to these various video
00:32 games. So let's take a look at them as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these
00:35 are 10 Actors Who Stupidly Turned Down Video Games.
00:38 10. Kurt Russell - Metal Gear Solid 3 - Snake Eater
00:42 It's no secret that Metal Gear Solid's gruff hero Solid Snake was inspired by Escape
00:47 from New York's steely protagonist Snake Plissken, who was played so memorably in the
00:51 film and its sequel, Escape from LA, by Kurt Russell. In Metal Gear Solid 2, Snake even
00:56 disguised himself with the pseudonym Iroquois Plissken. Subtle, it is not.
01:01 The similarities between the characters were significant enough that the movie's rights
01:05 holders, Canal+, wanted to launch a lawsuit against Konami and Metal Gear creator Hideo
01:10 Kojima. This was only halted when the director of both movies, John Carpenter, intervened,
01:14 being both a video game fan and a friend of Kojima himself.
01:18 Yet when Kojima was ramping up production of Metal Gear Solid 3 - Snake Eater, which
01:21 would star Solid Snake's genetic father Big Boss, Kojima reached out to Russell in the
01:25 hopes of hiring him to voice the part. Russell, for whatever reason, ended up refusing, and
01:30 Kojima instead offered it to David Hayter, who voiced Solid Snake in the first two games
01:34 and was a natural second best pick. Hayter, of course, did a wonderful job in the role,
01:39 but Russell's distinct vocal tenor would have differentiated Solid Snake and Big Boss
01:43 in a very interesting way, especially as Big Boss went on to be voiced by other performers
01:47 like Richard Doyle and Kiefer Sutherland in subsequent games. Russell turned down what
01:52 would have been an easy payday and would have opened him up to a whole new generation of
01:56 fans.
01:57 9. Alec Baldwin - Grand Theft Auto 2
01:59 The Grand Theft Auto franchise has featured voiceover roles from some of the most iconic
02:04 and beloved actors in the business - Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Liotta, Dennis Hopper, Michael
02:08 Madsen, Ricky Gervais, and Danny Trejo, just to name a few. But back before the series
02:12 got its revolutionary 3D makeover, it also tried to lure in big-name Hollywood talent,
02:17 with Alec Baldwin being offered a voice role in Grand Theft Auto 2.
02:21 Though it isn't clear precisely who Baldwin was invited to play, he ended up turning the
02:25 gig down because of concerns over the game's content, and in particular, the actions of
02:29 his character. He said that he was offered a ridiculous amount of money to just come
02:33 in and record the voice for one or two days. And in his own words, he said, "And I turned
02:37 them down because the character was a cop killer. I didn't want to get near that because
02:41 of my reputation. I have enough problems with the press as it is, so I said no."
02:45 Given that not a single actor has had their career suffer from appearing in a GTA game,
02:49 it's safe to say that Baldwin would have been able to just take the money and run,
02:52 as he probably should have done.
02:54 8. Tom Cruise - Every Single Video Game Based on His Movies
02:58 Tom Cruise is, without question, one of the most famous actors on the planet, a bona fide
03:02 movie star if they ever existed. And so it's little surprise that video game publishers
03:07 have been all too eager to produce games based on his many hit movies. Yet we've curiously
03:11 seen few of these games made beyond the likes of Top Gun and Mission Impossible, because
03:15 there's just one continual issue - Cruise has never lent his likeness to a video game.
03:19 Cruise is extremely protective of how his image is used in merchandise, and has never
03:23 allowed his face to be used in action figures or in video games based on his films.
03:28 And so, none of the several Top Gun games, nor 1998's Mission Impossible, were able
03:32 to use Cruise's likeness in the game or even on the box, which of course created quite
03:36 the commercial hurdle for all of them. Cruise hasn't ever explained the reasoning behind
03:40 this, but given the many commercially successful movies that he's made, that would have been
03:44 ripe for the video game treatment like Edge of Tomorrow, anyone? He's been leaving millions
03:48 on the table. Granted, Cruise is clearly pretty wealthy without it, but since when has enough
03:52 ever really been enough for the Hollywood A-list?
03:54 7. Michael Wincott - Halo 3
03:57 Michael Wincott provided the voice for the villainous Prophet of Truth in Halo 2, his
04:01 signature gravelly voice proving to be an absolutely perfect fit for the statuesque
04:05 antagonist. And yet, for reasons which have never been fully disclosed, he turned down
04:10 an offer to reprise the role for Halo 3, with Bungie ultimately casting Terrence Stamp to
04:14 replace him. As terrific an actor as Stamp is, his performance sounds more conventionally
04:18 menacing and phoned-in than Wincott's, which has more depth and granularity to it.
04:23 Though it's entirely possible that Wincott gave a lowball offer to return while understandably
04:27 expecting a pay-bump for the sequel, it's still a damn shame for the fans' sake, compromised
04:31 with a, let's face it, inferior subsequent portrayal. It probably didn't help that
04:35 the Prophet of Truth is written to be more cartoonish in Halo 3, but Stamp's work just
04:39 doesn't measure up to Wincott, so it's very unfortunate that he refused to return.
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06:32 6. Matt Damon - The Bourne Conspiracy
06:35 It was just a matter of time before a video game based on the Jason Bourne movie franchise
06:40 was released, though High Moon Studios hit a major stumbling block when star Matt Damon
06:44 refused to lend his likeness to the project.
06:46 In recent years, Damon has spoke about how he turned down a bunch of money to put his
06:50 face and voice in 2008's third-person action game The Bourne Conspiracy, because he just
06:55 didn't want to be tied to another shooter. He said, "I just didn't want to do a first-person
06:59 shooter. They offered me a bunch of money, but I was like, 'If you could make it more,
07:03 a little more thought had to go into it, like Myst. I love that game. So I was like, 'More
07:07 like Myst,' and they were like, 'No,' and just went ahead and made it without me."
07:11 The game hewed close to the storyline of the movie regardless, with voice actor Jeffrey
07:14 Pierce in Damon's stead. While one can respect Damon's integrity in being discerning about
07:19 what video games he endorses, considering The Bourne Conspiracy ended up receiving broadly
07:23 positive reviews, he could have certainly just taken the money without denting his reputation.
07:28 Plus the reviews would probably have been a little more generous with his involvement
07:31 as well.
07:32 5. Linda Hamilton - Terminator 2 - Judgment Day
07:36 Midway released an arcade game adaptation of Terminator 2 - Judgment Day to tie in with
07:40 the hit movie's release, and the company managed to secure the involvement of three
07:44 of its four main stars - Arnold Schwarzenegger, Edward Furlong, and Robert Patrick - to use
07:49 their digitized likenesses. The sole holdout was Linda Hamilton, who of course plays Sarah
07:53 Connett in the film, and it wasn't because she objected to video games, or this one in
07:56 particular, but because she wanted more money.
07:59 Legend states that Hamilton demanded to receive the same likeness payout as her considerably
08:03 more famous co-star, Schwarzenegger, and because Midway wouldn't acquiesce, she turned their
08:08 offer down. Hamilton was instead replaced by veteran stuntwoman Debbie Evans. This was
08:12 throwing away easy money, really, and considering Hamilton was hardly a star on Schwarzenegger's
08:17 level, it was a misguided power play to try and match his payday.
08:21 4. Takeo Kimura - Judgment - PC
08:25 This is a most peculiar case indeed. Japanese singer-actor Takeo Kimura lent his likeness
08:30 to the original console release of the Sega Action Adventure game Judgment, and also its
08:35 recent sequel Lost Judgment, where he played the protagonist. However, he and his representatives
08:40 ended up massively complicating matters when Sega planned to port both games to the PC.
08:45 With Sega's Yakuza franchise recently being ported to PC, it was widely expected that
08:49 both Judgment games would soon follow, only for Japanese media reports to state that Kimura's
08:54 talent agency were blocking the development of PC versions. The report seemed to suggest
08:58 that the agency, Johnny and Associates, presumably at Kimura's command, were concerned about
09:02 the potential for a PC port to allow players to mod and manipulate his face in ways he
09:07 didn't consent to.
09:08 And while that is absolutely true, so what? Modding is widespread in just about every
09:13 popular video game ever released for PC, so unless you've got an ego more fragile than
09:17 glass, hand-wringing over likeness manipulation seems incredibly silly. Kimura would presumably
09:22 be able to bank some extra cash if the Judgment games came to PC, and given that he wouldn't
09:27 need to do any more work to make it happen, it's incredibly silly that he just held
09:30 things up. Worse still, there's even rumours that this kerfuffle could end up preventing
09:34 production of a third game, as Sega may no longer be interested in a console-exclusive
09:39 release. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
09:41 3. Sean Connery - Goldeneye 007
09:45 This one really stings. While developing their legendary, groundbreaking first-person shooter
09:49 Goldeneye 007, Rare operated under the belief that they had carte blanche to use any characters
09:54 they wanted from James Bond's storied history. And so they went about adding prior iterations
09:58 of 007, played by Sean Connery, Roger Moore, George Lazenby, and Timothy Dalton, into the
10:04 game's multiplayer suite as playable characters. Yet these alt-Bonds ended up being cut after
10:08 Rare was unable to secure likeness permissions from Sean Connery, holding up the approval
10:13 process and prompting Nintendo's higher-ups to give it the chop. Considering how this
10:17 would have made an incredible game somehow even better, it's deeply frustrating that
10:21 Connery turned down a likeness payment, which would have required him to do absolutely nothing.
10:26 Ironically, Connery ultimately gave his likeness to the 2005 game from Russia with Love, even
10:30 recording new dialogue some 22 years after retiring from the role.
10:35 2. Jean-Claude Van Damme - Mortal Kombat
10:38 It's not exactly a huge secret that Mortal Kombat's Johnny Cage is basically a parody
10:42 of martial artist movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme. Though originally Midway did actually
10:47 approach Van Damme himself to appear in the game. Back before it became Mortal Kombat
10:51 in earnest, Midway was creating a fighting game intended to be a grittier version of
10:55 Street Fighter II, with Van Damme's potential digitised presence as its major selling point.
11:00 Franchise co-creator John Tobias pitched the idea to Van Damme, but he turned it down while
11:05 considering other video game offers, causing Tobias and co-creator Ed Boon to rework their
11:09 concept into what would become Mortal Kombat. And because they could no longer include Van
11:14 Damme in the game in any official way, they instead created Johnny Cage as a wink-wink,
11:18 thumbing of the nose at the actor, with his clothing even imitating that worn by Van Damme
11:22 in his film Bloodsport.
11:24 Van Damme's other video game offers didn't pan out, though in a feat of possible karmic
11:28 justice, two years later he starred in the flop movie adaptation of Street Fighter, as
11:33 well as its 1995 video game adaptation, which was also utter cack.
11:37 1. Danny Glover - Saw the Video Game and Dead by Daylight
11:42 And finally we have Danny Glover, who despite being given two separate offers to appear
11:46 in Saw-themed video games featuring his character Detective David Tapp, has turned both down.
11:51 2009's Saw the Video Game had only Jigsaw actor Tobin Bell reprise his role, and with
11:56 Glover turning down a chance to play Tapp once more, the in-game character ended up
12:00 looking nothing like his cinematic counterpart, as well as inexplicably looking considerably
12:04 younger than Glover. Glover also turned down an offer to portray Tapp in the hit survival
12:08 horror video game Dead by Daylight, and this version of the character hilariously ended
12:13 up looking even younger than his non-likeness version in the Saw video game. While actors
12:17 have often got complex reasons for turning gigs down, it is free money, and not really
12:22 something you'd expect the star of Age of the Dragons to say no to.
12:26 And there we go my friends, those were 10 actors who stupidly turned down video games.
12:30 I hope that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in
12:33 the comments section below. As always you can follow me over on Twitter @RetroJWithA0,
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12:45 But before I go, I just want to say one thing. I hope you're treating yourself well with
12:48 love and respect my friend, because you deserve all of the best things in life like love,
12:52 happiness and success. You are a big ledge, and do not let anything or anyone else tell
12:56 you otherwise, alright? I want you to go out there and smash it today. I believe in you.
13:01 As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak
13:04 to you soon. Bye.