Jean-Claude Van Damme turned down Mortal Kombat, the fool!
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00:00Hey everyone, it's PermaEggJules here, and we are delighted to say that today's video
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00:08about that later in the video.
00:09The world of video games has truly come into its own over the last 10-15 years, what with
00:14mainstream society learning to accept the medium as a legitimate art form, where even
00:19A-list celebrities are lending their faces and voices to rich, character-driven stories.
00:24And while the majority of jobbing actors generally aren't in a position to turn down most roles,
00:28these 10 actors all ended up saying no to these various video games. So let's take
00:32a look at them, as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 Actors Who Stupidly Turned
00:37Down Video Games.
00:3810. Kurt Russell
00:40Metal Gear Solid 3 – Snake Eater
00:43It's no secret that Metal Gear Solid's gruff hero, Solid Snake, was inspired by Escape
00:47from New York's steely protagonist, Snake Plissken, who was played so memorably in the
00:51film and its sequel, Escape from LA, by Kurt Russell. In Metal Gear Solid 2, Snake even
00:56disguised himself with the pseudonym Iroquois Plissken. Subtle, it is not.
01:01The similarities between the characters were significant enough that the movie's rights
01:05holders, Canal+, wanted to launch a lawsuit against Konami and Metal Gear creator Hideo
01:10Kojima. This was only halted when the director of both movies, John Carpenter, intervened,
01:14being both a video game fan and a friend of Kojima himself.
01:18Yet when Kojima was ramping up production of Metal Gear Solid 3 – Snake Eater, which
01:21would star Solid Snake's genetic father Big Boss, Kojima reached out to Russell in
01:25the hopes of hiring him to voice the part. Russell, for whatever reason, ended up refusing,
01:30and Kojima instead offered it to David Hayter, who voiced Solid Snake in the first two games
01:34and was a natural second best pick. Hayter, of course, did a wonderful job in the role,
01:39but Russell's distinct vocal tenor would have differentiated Solid Snake and Big Boss
01:43in a very interesting way, especially as Big Boss went on to be voiced by other performers
01:47like Richard Doyle and Kiefer Sutherland in subsequent games.
01:51Russell turned down what would have been an easy payday and would have opened him up to
01:54a whole new generation of fans.
01:569. Alec Baldwin – Grand Theft Auto 2
02:00The Grand Theft Auto franchise has featured voiceover roles from some of the most iconic
02:04and beloved actors in the business – Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Liotta, Dennis Hopper, Michael
02:08Madsen, Ricky Gervais, and Danny Trejo, just to name a few. But back before the series
02:12got its revolutionary 3D makeover, it also tried to lure in big-name Hollywood talent,
02:17with Alec Baldwin being offered a voice role in Grand Theft Auto 2. Though it isn't clear
02:22precisely who Baldwin was invited to play, he ended up turning the gig down because of
02:25concerns over the game's content, and in particular, the actions of his character.
02:30He said that he was offered a ridiculous amount of money to just come in and record the voice
02:34for one or two days. And in his own words, he said,
02:36"...and I turned them down because the character was a cop killer. I didn't want to get near
02:40that because of my reputation. I have enough problems with the press as it is, so I said
02:44no."
02:45Given that not a single actor has had their career suffer from appearing in a GTA game,
02:49it's safe to say that Baldwin would have been able to just take the money and run,
02:52as he probably should have done.
02:548. Tom Cruise – Every Single Video Game Based On His Movies
02:58Tom Cruise is, without question, one of the most famous actors on the planet, a bonafide
03:03movie star if they ever existed. And so it's little surprise that video game publishers
03:07have been all too eager to produce games based on his many hit movies. Yet we've curiously
03:11seen few of these games made beyond the likes of Top Gun and Mission Impossible, because
03:15there's just one continual issue. Cruise has never lent his likeness to a video game.
03:19Cruise is extremely protective of how his image is used in merchandise, and has never
03:23allowed his face to be used in action figures or in video games based on his films.
03:28And so, none of the several Top Gun games, nor 1998's Mission Impossible, were able
03:32to use Cruise's likeness in the game or even on the box, which of course created quite
03:36the commercial hurdle for all of them. Cruise hasn't ever explained the reasoning behind
03:40this, but given the many commercially successful movies that he's made, that would have been
03:44ripe for the video game treatment like Edge of Tomorrow, anyone? He's been leaving millions
03:48on the table. Granted, Cruise is clearly pretty wealthy without it, but since when has enough
03:52ever really been enough for the Hollywood A-list?
03:547. Michael Wincott – Halo 3
03:57Michael Wincott provided the voice for the villainous Prophet of Truth in Halo 2, his
04:01signature gravelly voice proving to be an absolutely perfect fit for the statuesque
04:05antagonist. And yet, for reasons which have never been fully disclosed, he turned down
04:10an offer to reprise the role for Halo 3, with Bungie ultimately casting Terrence Stamp
04:14to replace him. As terrific an actor as Stamp is, his performance sounds more conventionally
04:18menacing and phoned-in than Wincott's, which has more depth and granularity to it. Though
04:23it's entirely possible that Wincott gave a lowball offer to return while understandably
04:27expecting a pay-bump for the sequel, it's still a damn shame for the fans' sake, compromised
04:31with a, let's face it, inferior subsequent portrayal. It probably didn't help that
04:36the Prophet of Truth is written to be more cartoonish in Halo 3, but Stamp's work just
04:39doesn't measure up to Wincott, so it's very unfortunate that he refused to return.
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06:326. Matt Damon – The Bourne Conspiracy
06:35It was just a matter of time before a video game based on the Jason Bourne movie franchise
06:40was released, though High Moon Studios hit a major stumbling block when star Matt Damon
06:44refused to lend his likeness to the project. In recent years, Damon has spoken about how
06:48he turned down a bunch of money to put his face and voice in 2008's third-person action
06:53game The Bourne Conspiracy, because he just didn't want to be tied to another shooter.
06:57He said,
06:58I just didn't want to do a first-person shooter. They offered me a bunch of money,
07:01but I was like, if you could make it more, a little more thought had to go into it, like
07:05Myst. I love that game, so I was like, more like Myst, and they were like, no, and just
07:09went ahead and made it without me.
07:11The game hewed close to the storyline of the movie regardless, with voice actor Jeffrey
07:14Pierce in Damon's stead. While one can respect Damon's integrity in being discerning about
07:19what video games he endorses, considering The Bourne Conspiracy ended up receiving broadly
07:23positive reviews, he could have certainly just taken the money without denting his reputation.
07:28Plus the reviews would probably have been a little more generous with his involvement
07:31as well.
07:325. Linda Hamilton – Terminator 2 Judgment Day
07:36Midway released an arcade game adaptation of Terminator 2 Judgment Day to tie in with
07:40the hit movie's release, and the company managed to secure the involvement of three
07:44of its four main stars, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Edward Furlong, and Robert Patrick, to use
07:49their digitised likenesses. The sole holdout was Linda Hamilton, who of course plays Sarah
07:53Connor in the film, and it wasn't because she objected to video games, or this one in
07:56particular, but because she wanted more money.
08:00Hamilton demanded to receive the same likeness payout as her considerably more famous co-star
08:04Schwarzenegger, and because Midway wouldn't acquiesce, she turned their offer down. Hamilton
08:09was instead replaced by veteran stuntwoman Debbie Evans. This was throwing away easy
08:14money really, and considering Hamilton was hardly a star on Schwarzenegger's level,
08:18it was a misguided power play to try and match his payday.
08:214. Takuya Kimura – Judgment, PC
08:25This is a most peculiar case indeed. Japanese singer-actor Takuya Kimura lent his likeness
08:30to the original console release of the Sega Action Adventure game Judgment, and also its
08:35recent sequel Lost Judgment, where he played the protagonist. However, he and his representatives
08:40ended up massively complicating matters when Sega planned to port both games to the PC.
08:45With Sega's Yakuza franchise recently being ported to PC, it was widely expected that
08:49both Judgment games would soon follow, only for Japanese media reports to state that Kimura's
08:54talent agency were blocking the development of PC versions. The report seems to suggest
08:58that the agency, Johnny and Associates, presumably at Kimura's command, were concerned about
09:02the potential for a PC port to allow players to mod and manipulate his face in ways he
09:07didn't consent to.
09:08And while that is absolutely true, so what? Modding is widespread in just about every
09:13popular video game ever released for PC, so unless you've got an ego more fragile than
09:17glass, hand-wringing over likeness manipulation seems incredibly silly.
09:22Kimura would presumably be able to bank some extra cash if the Judgment games came to PC,
09:26and given that he wouldn't need to do any more work to make it happen, it is incredibly
09:29silly that he just held things up. Worse still, there's even rumours that this kerfuffle
09:33could end up preventing production of a third game, as Sega may no longer be interested
09:37in a console-exclusive release. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
09:413. Sean Connery – Goldeneye 007
09:45This one really stings. While developing their legendary, groundbreaking first-person shooter
09:49Goldeneye 007, Rare operated under the belief that they had carte blanche to use any characters
09:54they wanted from James Bond's storied history. And so they went about adding prior iterations
09:58of 007, played by Sean Connery, Roger Moore, George Lazenby, and Timothy Dalton, into the
10:04game's multiplayer suite as playable characters. Yet these alt-Bonds ended up being cut after
10:08Rare was unable to secure likeness permissions from Sean Connery, holding up the approval
10:13process and prompting Nintendo's higher-ups to give it the chop. Considering how this
10:17would have made an incredible game somehow even better, it's deeply frustrating that
10:21Connery turned down a likeness payment, which would have required him to do absolutely nothing.
10:26Ironically, Connery ultimately gave his likeness to the 2005 game from Russia with Love, even
10:30recording new dialogue some 22 years after retiring from the role.
10:352. Jean-Claude Van Damme – Mortal Kombat
10:38It's not exactly a huge secret that Mortal Kombat's Johnny Cage is basically a parody
10:42of martial artist movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme. Though originally Midway did actually
10:47approach Van Damme himself to appear in the game. Back before it became Mortal Kombat
10:51in earnest, Midway was creating a fighting game intended to be a grittier version of
10:55Street Fighter II, with Van Damme's potential digitised presence as its major selling point.
11:01Franchise co-creator John Tobias pitched the idea to Van Damme, but he turned it down while
11:05considering other video game offers, causing Tobias and co-creator Ed Boon to rework their
11:09concept into what would become Mortal Kombat. And because they could no longer include Van
11:14Damme in the game in any official way, they instead created Johnny Cage as a wink-wink,
11:18thumbing of the nose at the actor, with his clothing even imitating that worn by Van Damme
11:22in his film Bloodsport.
11:24Van Damme's other video game offers didn't pan out, though in a feat of possible karmic
11:28justice, two years later he starred in the flop movie adaptation of Street Fighter, as
11:33well as its 1995 video game adaptation, which was also utter cack.
11:381. Danny Glover – Saw the Video Game and Dead by Daylight
11:42And finally we have Danny Glover, who despite being given two separate offers to appear
11:46in Saw-themed video games featuring his character Detective David Tapp, has turned both down.
11:512009's Saw the Video Game had only jigsaw actor Tobin Bell reprise his role, and with
11:56Glover turning down a chance to play Tapp once more, the in-game character ended up
12:00looking nothing like his cinematic counterpart, as well as inexplicably looking considerably
12:04younger than Glover. Glover also turned down an offer to portray Tapp in the hit survival
12:08horror video game Dead by Daylight.
12:11But this version of the character hilariously ended up looking even younger than his non-likeness
12:15version in the Saw video game. While actors have often got complex reasons for turning
12:20gigs down, it is free money, and not really something you'd expect the star of Age of
12:24the Dragons to say no to.
12:26And there we go my friends, those were 10 actors who stupidly turned down video games.
12:30I hope that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in
12:33the comments section below.
12:34As always you can follow me over on Twitter at RetroJ with a zero, or you can swing by
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12:42Reports so if you're into that sort of thing, then please come and check us out.
12:45But before I go, I just want to say one thing. I hope you're treating yourself well with
12:48love and respect my friend, because you deserve all of the best things in life like love,
12:52happiness and success. You are a big ledge, and do not let anything or anyone else tell
12:56you otherwise, alright? I want you to go out there and smash it today. I believe in ya.
13:01As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak
13:04to you soon. Bye.