Original Solid Snake Voice Actor: "I've Got no Love For Kojima"

[RedRockRun]

I don't see the problem. If Kojima wants to take the thing he created in a different direction, that's his prerogative. Personally, I would have loved to hear Kurt Russell voice Snake, given the EFNY connection, and honestly, I never thought Hayter was that great a VA to begin with. There's pretending to be a cheesy 80's action hero, and then there's doing such a good job at acting cheesy that you just come off as a cheesy hack.

 

[Leg End]

But Hayter explains that Kojima had been trying to replace Hayter ever since Metal Gear Solid 3, when he approached Kurt Russel (who's Snake Plissken character in Escape From New York is the inspiration for Metal Gear's Solid Snake). Russel turned the role down, and Kojima was "stuck" with Hayter.

But that actually makes sense. Wouldn't YOU want the man who is basically the father of your main series character to be voiced by the man who inspired him in the first place? Who wouldn't want Russel?

That's weird. This isn't an article about Akio Ōtsuka.
Yeah, I'm a snob. Shoot me.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Never understood the Sutherland thing. Hayter's voice was Snake for the largest sect of the Western audience. I'd like to see how much Hayter would have earned with the gig compared to Sutherland's cut. I can't imagine Sutherland would be cheaper, or as experienced with VO, so that raises additional questions as to the move they took.

I'll chalk it up to Kojima being Kojima. Nobody's perfect, and everyone is an arsehole in some way. On another note, I have the inverse problem. I wouldn't play any game I VO'd for .... because I'd be like;

Me: "Does that sound right? I feel like I could have done better... What do you think?"

Random person: "For the 18th time, I don't know. I don't care. Can we just play the game, please?"

It would destroy my confidence to listen to it. Better to just assume I did awesome, and not hear myself to question the belief of awesomeness.

 

[Scarim Coral]

So is this suppose to make us hate toward Kojima? Sorry but my hate is directed more toward Konami

 

[loa]

Well lucky for him, the replacement didn't last for many mgs iterations.
I don't consider whatever ways konami desecrates metal gear solids corpse after this to be an entry of the franchise.

As for kojima wanting to get rid of the voice of snake, that's crazy and I expect nothing less from whoever dreamt the plot of the metal gear games up.

 

[hermes]

"But IIII wanna play Big Boss! He's my character!" His voice may be iconic, but it certainly wasn't GOOD. Now that bit is my opinion, but I never really liked the silliness factor besides the gags. The VA performance of most of the Metal Gear games is campy, even when it shouldn't be.

You should blame Kojima for it, not Hayter. Like it or not, the campy is part of his writing style, and the Japanese version is not less campy.

OT: I didn't hate Sutherland's performance in Ground Zero, but it was somehow a little distracting that it sounded nothing like Snake. It also helped that he has maybe 10 lines if you don't count side missions and collectibles. If that amount was distracting, I can't imagine it in 5.

 

[verdant monkai]

I've heard Akio Ōtsuka as snake. I think he's shit. I've heard a lot of Japanese people play MGS with the english dub, with most characters being western it makes sense. So there's probably more to why Kojima got rid of Hayter than simply, Hayters performance not fitting his vision.

I respect kojima as a creator and I'm a fan of his. But his treatment of Hayter and even the fans here has been really bad. I know this mistreatment hasn't dissuaded Hayter from voice acting and I have a lot of respect for him as a professional. It's just a shame MGS V was a great stealth game but not a good metal gear game.

To all the people saying Hayter is a bad voice actor HOW IS HE BAD!? I mean what do you expect from a voice actor? he was able to display a decent and full range of emotions with Snake. If your main complaint is that his voice was silly , have you even played metal gear it is a rather stupid series (in the best possible way).

 

[elvor0]

If your main complaint is that his voice was silly , have you even played metal gear it is a rather stupid series (in the best possible way).

Pretty much this. I think the hammyness is actually important to making the universe of MGS work. MGS5 has no hammyness at all and it kind of makes it feel a bit flat, because the villainous plot is mental and silly as all hell. MGS5 is so dour and broodingly serious that the silly elements(The parasites, Skullface(whos apparently the only guy who knows he's IN a MGS game), Sahelanthropus, Quiet in general and Psycho Mantis etc) silliness are magnified tenfold and feel out of place, they stick out rather than blend in.

At least if everyone is chewing the scenery, you can get into the groove of having cyborg ninja assassins, Fission Mailed, Raiden wondering around bollock naked, Snake laughing about his Bandanna giving him infinite ammo, or having the 4th wall beat you over the head by psychically moving your controller.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Kojima to me seems like an idiot who wanted to be a film maker but he got stuck making video games instead. Kind of like David Cage, only less pretentious because he's actually a genius programmer with a real vision. That vision of his is a problem because he doesn't seem to have an ounce of understanding of his fans and the things that make people love MGS so much. A large part of what makes a video game character iconic is his voice. He's an idiot for failing to understand that.
That being said, I didn't have a problem with Sutherland's performance, when he was allowed to talk. But I still would have liked to hear Hayter instead, at least when the real Big Boss showed up.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

What's funny Kojima never ONCE tried to replace Akio Ohtsuka during the entirety of MGS for the Japanese language track. Furthermore, his constant attempts to replace Hayter really show how insecure and desperate for attention Kojima is (as well as presumptuous, thinking he could get a guy like Kurt Russell). I suppose Kojima got what he wanted, but unfortunately what emerged was a sub-par performance from Kiefer Sutherland clearly phoning it in (and considering how bad MGS V's script is I can't blame him) so it was a Pyrrhic victory at best.

 

[verdant monkai]

MGS5 is so dour and broodingly serious that the silly elements(The parasites, Skullface(whos apparently the only guy who knows he's IN a MGS game), Sahelanthropus, Quiet in general and Psycho Mantis silliness are magnified tenfold and feel out of place.

I have to agree MGS V took it self too seriously and in doing do forgot what made it a beloved franchise. The sad thing is I think it could've been salvaged so easily. If it had actually had more than 2 boss fights (that weren't just skull encounters), the ability to go into the interior of mother base and see/talk to miller and the other soldiers. I don't mourn the loss of the codec as much as others as there was still loads of dialogue.

If I could say one thing about the phantom pain's voice acting it would be that Robin Downes, was easily the best voice actor in the whole damn game, the guy was flawless far superior to Kiefer. Whenever Kiefer spoke (and it wasn't often) I just kept thinking, you could have built a better game with the money you spent hiring this Hollywood B Lister. I don't know why they didn't hire Hayter, Venom Snake only needed about 1 weeks worth of voice acting, and thats if you redo most of the lines. As for the facial capture I hardly saw Snakes face move. He mostly just looks pissed off, you don't need Kiefer Sutherland for the range of emotion venom snake shows.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

All this over a character that has what, 20 lines of dialogue in the game?

 

[johnnyboy2537]

I never thought he was a very good voice actor honestly but Kojima has always been overrated too. I like a lot of his characters but he is horrible when it comes to dialogue, most of the humor, and parts of the story. He'd probably be good if he had a decent editor but without one his games are painful(MGS4).

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

As a long time fan of MGS, it makes total sense for Hayter to have been replaced as far back as MGS3. Having the voice of the "imperfect clone son" of the original Big Boss be the same is silly. I bet Hayter was kept on due to forces outside of Kojima's hands.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Don't know. I find this pretty disrespectful for the actor, the fans and the character. Big Boss having a different voice would be fine, and yes that would be 3. But do you really think Solid Snake of 4 would then have had Hayter back? And why has Big Boss in 5 a different voice?

Not as many fans of the series got mad at the voice switch as Haytar likes to think. The fans didn't get disrespected here. Canonically it would make sense not to have Haytar in MGS3 and their spinoffs, then return in 4.

Haytar said himself that Kojima wanted a different voice for Snake in 3. The ending of MGS4 got weird when

Spoiler

Big Boss returns after being believed dead with a different voice though he was voiced by Haytar in 3.

I think the fans, myself included will chalk this kerfuffle up to an exec at Konami rather than Kojima showing animosity. Haytar's making it seem like Kojima replaced him as punishment for something and Haytar has been acting this for years. It makes him look like a sour puss considering we haven't heard Kojima say anything about the issue.

 

[Lightknight]

You mean the producer/director of a game wanted to make a cast change?

Oh no, that big meanie! Doing what is explicitly what he's supposed to do... [/sarcasm]

To the artistic mind, the voice actor is like any other asset. Sometimes you're not happy with the same asset and want to switch it out with something else. Hayter is behaving like this was something personal. He's (Hayter) actually the one being unprofessional here. Much as I love his voice acting, this is a shame to hear such disrespect for a former employer coming from him unless he can fully articulate why he was asked to do something out of the ordinary or why he was poorly treated. It just smacks of typical unemployment drama.

 

[Snotnarok]

Nice way to burn bridges there. Did he ever think that maybe Kojima just didn't want him playing Big Boss because it's supposed to be a different guy? Or that he wanted to distance the character from Snake?
Yes clone whatever, he may have wanted to make a difference somehow.

Not defending Kojima either because, I think his writing needs at least 4 editors to chop down the vomit waterfalls he dumps en mass when doing games.

 

[Naldan]

Snip

I find this disrespectful when it insults the intelligence of the fans. As you said, it -would- have made sense for BB to have a different voice.

But, as you pointed out, this is very one-sided. Hayter could tell the truth and it is very unlikely that KONAMI didn't do any insulting things at all regarding... pretty much anything, but who knows if Hayter is telling BS about Kojima. I fell into this trap again. Sorry.

 

[Darth_Payn]

I feel for ya, David; that voice for the Snakes (solid and Naked) are iconic. Good luck with your future endeavors.
That said, when are you going to sneak into Marvel's HQ and make that Black Widow solo movie you had bouncing around already? You can intimidate tem into green-lighting it wit "The Voice".

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Snip

I find this disrespectful when it insults the intelligence of the fans. As you said, it -would- have made sense for BB to have a different voice.

But, as you pointed out, this is very one-sided. Hayter could tell the truth and it is very unlikely that KONAMI didn't do any insulting things at all regarding... pretty much anything, but who knows if Hayter is telling BS about Kojima. I fell into this trap again. Sorry.

I hear you. It doesn't help Hayter's case that the reaction to him being replaced in MGSV was a resounding "meh". None of the usual fandom based internet campaigns appeared. It makes him look overly salty. And as has been pointed out, Hayter shouldn't be hurting for jobs. He's also a scriptwriter for some big Hollywood movies like X-Men 1, X-Men 2, and an unused version of the Watchmen script that was complimented by Alan Moore himself.

He's taking it too personal in my opinion, but I wasn't there when these decisions were made so I'm just speculating.