How one of gaming’s best-known actors took on one of film’s biggest roles
5 min read
Troy Baker has more than 400 acting credits to his name. [Heirlume]
You might not expect one of the world’s best-known video game actors to suffer from imposter syndrome.
But, as Troy Baker will tell you, no-one’s immune.
His most famous role is Joel Miller, the main character of post-apocalyptic adventure The Last of Us – a game regularly praised for its storytelling and performances.
He’s also appeared in celebrated series including Bioshock, Uncharted and Batman: Arkham.
But stepping into the lead role of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was a different matter.
Troy says taking on the character made famous by Oscar nominee Harrison Ford was daunting, even for him.
“I turned it down,” he tells BBC Newsbeat, thinking back to when he was first offered the job.
“I was scared. I felt the weight of what this character meant.”
Troy says the performance capture team at developer MachineGames convinced him to change his mind, but there was one more person he had to win over.
Todd Howard, the boss of publisher Bethesda, had long dreamed of making an Indiana Jones game and oversaw the project.
But, Troy says, he “rolled his eyes” when the actor was first put forward.
Howard felt it would ruin the experience for players so used to hearing him.
“I never thought that my success would actually work against me,” says Troy.
Rather than walk into the role, Troy says, he had to audition with dozens of others.
It eventually came down to him and and one other actor. The decision was left to a test audience and a “blind taste test” where they had to choose the performance they preferred.
“Todd Howard said they picked you every time,” Troy says.
“And I thought that was a compliment.
“He was like: ‘No, it’s a challenge. That’s the standard’.”
The weight of expectation isn’t only resting on Troy’s shoulders – anticipation for Indiana Jones’s first video game outing in over 15 years is high.
Bethesda’s parent company Zenimax was bought by Microsoft in 2020, before it acquired Activision-Blizzard last year for a record-breaking $69bn.
The games it got hold of in that deal – including Call of Duty and Warcraft – have continued to be successful, but its gaming division hasn’t had a new in-house hit this year.
They’re hoping Indiana Jones can change that.
Troy says the production for the game’s sets was lavish, with crews building accurate representations of boats, airships and other locations on giant motion-capture stages.
That’s not unusual for a blockbuster video game in 2024, but it will mean The Great Circle needs to sell well to recover the costs of making it.
The game will initially come out on Xbox and PC, and Microsoft recently announced plans to release it on rival platform PlayStation 5.
This angered Xbox fans, who accused it of going back on promises to keep the game exclusive, but the company has said its main goal is to get its games on as many devices as possible.
Axel Torvenius, creative director at Swedish developer MachineGames, speaks to Newsbeat as the final touches are being worked out prior to The Great Circle’s release.
He doesn’t get deep into the details of exclusivity but says he’s “happy” the game will be widely available.
Axel says his bigger concern was figuring out how to use the team’s expertise to create an adventure that felt authentic to its inspiration.
The studio is known for its work on the rebooted Wolfenstein series.
Like Indiana Jones, the 3D shooter’s hero William “B.J.” Blazkowicz takes on Nazi enemies, but he does so using a range of increasingly devastating firearms.
That wouldn’t sit quite right with the adventurous archaeologist, says Axel.
“That’s not Indiana Jones, that’s not the brand we’re working with. That’s something else,” he says.
Indiana Jones relies more on stealth than direct confrontation, and the game contains plenty of puzzles.
The game is also played from a first-person perspective, a decision Axel says was made early in the game’s development.
“We’ve been trying to make you feel like Indiana Jones, like literally stepping into his shoes and seeing the world through his eyes,” he says.
“There’s an intimacy you can’t achieve in third-person.”
Marios Gavrilis, who plays The Great Circle’s villain, Voss, had a slightly less rocky road to landing the part.
Like Troy, he’s worked in video games before, mainly re-voicing characters from English into German.
This is one of the first times he’s been part of an original cast, and his character’s appearance is modelled on his own.
Marios, who’s also got TV credits to his name in Germany, says there’s potential for more crossover with video games.
While understanding of motion-captured performance – the issue currently at the centre of an actors’ strike – is growing, he tells Newsbeat not everyone appreciates the work they do.
“Very often we’re referred to as voice actors,” says Marios.
“What we’re actually doing is full-on acting.
“This is something people forget, like we’re not just doing the voice.
“It’s the entire body, it’s the entire performance that’s being captured.”
Early verdicts on The Great Circle’s acting are positive, with many critics praising Troy’s version of Indiana Jones
It’ll come as a relief to the actor, who tells Newsbeat he spent the first days on set worrying he’d be fired after Todd Howard’s early scepticism.
But, he says, an email from the boss during recording helped to settle his nerves.
“He said: ‘You’re doing a hell of a job’,” says Troy.
“And I was like: ‘You have no idea how much I needed to hear that right now’.”
The final verdict will come from players when they get their hands on the game, and Troy says he plans to join them.
“I’ve already experienced it one way, as a performer,” he says.
“But there is nothing like picking up the controller and now you are Indiana Jones. so that’s what I’m looking forward to.
“If you get to the end of the game and you feel like ‘I was Indiana Jones’, then I’ve done my job.”
Source: BBC
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