What do we actually think about David Hayter? | Hayter vs. Sutherland | Famous Voice Actors

[sky pies]

I'm curious to know what the gaming world thinks of David Hayter, famous for voicing Solid Snake but also responsible in part for many fascinating components of the accumulated digital and audiovisual entertainment body of work...

A brief look at his wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hayter#Filmography] page (forgive me) reveals that he acted in and wrote (or at least co-wrote) X-men, he apparently wrote 'The Scorpion King', X2: X-Men United, and Watchmen (at the time considered genius). He has voice acting roles in Metal Gear Solid, of course, but also Dragon Age: Inquisition and Star Wars: The Old Republic, in which he is the voice for the male Jedi! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3QKMJVGw7I] (This surprised me because the male Jedi doesn't sound one bit like Snake)

Despite this glittering CV, however, Hayter doesn't seem to be so widely known outside of his role as Snake - or is he? I'm not sure really, I'm sure the majority of you all are much more clue'd in than I.

Anyway, at times he is an achiever, at other times he is a laughing stock [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9XOSzVb0O0], so I simply ask:

What do you think about David Hayter?

Furthermore, while I do not wish to copycat the thread from last week, do you have any thoughts on Hayter's being replaced for MGS V? What do you think the reasons for this were?

Are there any other voice actors who occupy anywhere near the place in our gaming lives that Hayter does?

 

[Zhukov]

Meh.

I've never recognized him in anything other than MGS.

I always thought he sounded silly. Well, that gruff smoker voice he does anyway. But for better or for worse it became iconic to the MGS series and I suppose it fits the goofiness of said series well enough.

As for other voice actors... I suppose that would be Steve Blum, Jennifer Hale and Troy Baker. All very overexposed of course, but all still undeniably excellent at what they do.

No doubt I shall think of more about 10 seconds after I post this.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I only knew him as the classic voice of Whatever Snake from MGS. I always thought he sounded ridiculous, but then I tend to think American dubbing over Japanese sounds ridiculous. It really seems like they're trying too hard to convey a certain mood, and keeping that one mood up no matter what they're saying. Which in Snake's case would be something like dumbfounded reluctance/weariness. I've never heard Hayter's Snake step out of that one monotone.

I still think it's weird he'd get replaced at this point in the lifespan of the series, though.

I guess Nolan North is another ubiquitous guy, though I think he's slowly getting replaced by Troy Baker as "default guy". I respect this jack-of-all-trades acting that is quite serviceable and goes unnoticed, though it's hard to stand out unless it's through offbeat roles (North voicing Penguin, and Baker voicing Joker for that matter). And I do respect actors who basically "become" the one character, like how Charles Martinet has hogged the role of Mario since the dawn of time (and Luigi, etc), TJ Carson as Kratos... and Hayter as Snake, at least until recently. It speaks quite a lot of their impact that their replacement becomes an issue. Like how they tried replacing Yuri Lowenthal as the Prince of Persia and that lasted exactly for one unfortunate game before Ubisoft ran back to Yuri.

 

[GrumbleGrump]

I prefer Sutherland to Hayter. Mostly because Mr. Sutherland makes Snake sound like an actual soldier, rather than a comedy imitation of a gruff sounding dude.

 

[Fox12]

Well, the only thing of interest he wrote was X-men and X-men: United, two of the better superhero films out there. The Watchmen comic is a work of genius, of course, but the film was garbage. There was no sense of flow, and he clearly didn't understand the source material. What we were left with was a bad cliffnotes version of the story that was neither a good adeptation nor a good film in its own right. He just copied down major story beats.

So I don't think much for or against him. He seems to have a normal amount of talent, but nothing exceptional.

 

[Jeremy Dawkins]

David Hayter also acted in a movie sequel to the first Guyver movie, where he was the main char. I vastly prefer him to Sutherland, as his voice IS Snake, has been for tons of games.

 

[N7KnightSabre]

I know him from the live action movie based on the Guyver anime (Guyver 2: The Dark Hero), his performance as Tamahome in Fushigi Yuugi: The Mysterious Play, and various other game appearances. I will say that I'm not a fan of his writing. I didn't like the Xmen movies at all (I mean, no Gambit!? C'mon!). I did like Watchmen, but that movie had an awful lot it wanted to tell and it gets convoluted. You really have to pay attention to get everything. I haven't read the comic series, which I'm more than sure is waaaay better. But....

One of the reasons I'm fond of him is his obvious love for the MG series. He's always up for the role play of Snake and how he took a pay hit so that they could hire all the original voice actors for the MGS remake, The Twin Snakes. As a long time fan of the game, that meant a lot to me (even if Hale didn't perform Naomi nearly as well in this iteration).

I've always liked David and his voice for Snake; I thought it fit MGS series well. I was so pissed that they hired Sutherland to replace Hayter for Snake. I didn't buy MGSV because of it. Seriously. I know it might seem a ridiculous thing to do, but I absolutely hated the way Hayter was swept to the side after 15 years while the other voice actors who've played Snake in other countries continue to voice him. Kojima's been bitten by the Hollywood bug. He's a superstar over here. It is something he's always wanted, being in that film world, so he suddenly decides to have a hand in the American localisation and hire a Hollywood star. Forget Hayter, he's not big. It was just a dick thing to do. Plus, I'm sick of Kojima. His heads too big.

Just my opinion.

 

[happyninja42]

What do you think about David Hayter?

I don't. I don't think about him at all. I didn't even know his name before this thread.

 

[sky pies]

The Watchmen comic is a work of genius, of course, but the film was garbage.

I remember a ton of people loving watchmen when it came out, saying it was the best superhero movie ever etc etc, because of the gruff characters and dark mood, I guess regard fades~ still it was quite a blockbuster and I was pretty amazed to hear a voice actor wrote the screenplay

 

[Fox12]

The Watchmen comic is a work of genius, of course, but the film was garbage.

I remember a ton of people loving watchmen when it came out, saying it was the best superhero movie ever etc etc, because of the gruff characters and dark mood, I guess regard fades~ still it was quite a blockbuster and I was pretty amazed to hear a voice actor wrote the screenplay

Well... It was, but most of those people hadn't read the book. It was better then most of the films being made at the time, but it was a pale immitation of the source material. I don't think regard fades, I just don't think it captured audiences imaginations. The people who read the book didn't like it, and the people who don't like comics don't really care. The books been around for a while, though, and it's not going anywhere anytime soon.

 

[Zetatrain]

What do I think of David Hayter

Honestly I think he's a good voice actor even great sometimes. Obviously he can sound very goofy at times as snake (varies from game to game), but it usually fits the tone of the series since it has always been both serious and goofy. Hell I don't even think his performance in Twin Snakes is nearly as bad as a lot of people say it is and in some ways i think he improved on his original performance.

Also, as you pointed out, its surprising how little people know of his work outside of Metal Gear Solid. The biggest surprise for me was finding out that he voiced Bernie in Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. The man's voice definitely has range.

As for the whole Sutherland replacing Hayter issue. Eh, I'm not too torn up about it TBH. At first it made sense since this was a more subdued and tired out Big Boss, but then it turned out that he barely even talked so I don't even know what the point of it was, surely it wasn't just the mo-cap. So in the end I can't really say if Sutherland would have been a better Big Boss since there isn't much to go on and even then I feel like David Hayter could have given a performance to match the tone of MGSV. A combination of the subtle gruffness of his MGS1 performance and the tired worn out feel of MGS4 would been good.

Is there any other voice actor that comes close the David Hayter for me? Hmmm...as far a video game VAs go the closest one I can thing of is Yuri Lowenthal and Troy Baker to a lesser extent.

 

[F-I-D-O]

I don't really think of Hayter outside of the MGS series.
I was a fan of his voice for Snake since, despite being incredibly campy and ridiculous juxtaposed with an action movie gruffness, the games did it too.
His shifting tone and weird delivery helped make MGS what it was, and eased the clash of political ideology with bad jokes and ridiculous set pieces/dialogue.
Big Boss in PW was overly gruff, and there was a a definite risk of that getting worse if he voiced Boss again in MGSV, but I felt if they'd returned to his more relaxed style it would have fit the games tone better. It's a little easier to swallow villains like Skull Face and weird plot justifications when you have an equally abnormal (but vaguely realistic) main voice. He was likely replaced because of cost reasons or him not willing to voice a quieter protagonist. It might have come down to we can pay Hayter less, but over more time, or Sutherland more currently. Trying to get an actor's name associated with it could have also been an attempt to reach more of a Western audience with a mid-level well known TV personality.

I don't tend to think of voice actors as much as I do characters, so they tend to very much be a behind the scenes element to me. The only other one I'll recognize is Steve Blum, since he has such a prevalent body of work across games, anime, and cartoons, and then he shows up in EDF.

 

[Rabish Bini]

I love Hayter, his cheesiness fits the MGS series perfectly.

As for Sutherland/Phantom Pain, there are issues (among a myriad that that game has): Sutherland was criminally under-used. His voice is absolutely perfect for Snake I feel, and also fits with the darker content (something that the game failed with but that's another issue), but he barely talks! Complete waste of talent.

Ideally the game would have ended with you establishing Outer Heaven, and in the final moments Solid Snake appears in all his Fox Engine, Hayter-voiced glory.

 

[sky pies]

I love Hayter, his cheesiness fits the MGS series perfectly.

As for Sutherland/Phantom Pain, there are issues (among a myriad that that game has): Sutherland was criminally under-used. His voice is absolutely perfect for Snake I feel, and also fits with the darker content (something that the game failed with but that's another issue), but he barely talks! Complete waste of talent.

Ideally the game would have ended with you establishing Outer Heaven, and in the final moments Solid Snake appears in all his Fox Engine, Hayter-voiced glory.

Ahkeepmateef Baidabed Inajar!

I am intrigued by Sutherland's performance, I haven't heard it but the idea that hayter wasn't used just mystifies me, I heard a few words in the YouTube video - "kept you waiting, huh?" - but it wasn't really enough to draw conclusions from.. He seemed to lack the growling edge to his voice that was presumably why hayter got the job in the first place

 

[Danny Dowling]

From what I hear about Hayter he was pretty arrogant about being Snake and had a very "I'm irreplaceable" mindset about it. So replacing him is welcomed for me. No one in entertainment should be arrogant, in that business no one is worth that much especially Hayter.

I also though Kiefer did great, he's an exceptional actor and performer in general also.

 

[verdant monkai]

Are there any other voice actors who occupy anywhere near the place in our gaming lives that Hayter does?

Tara Strong: She's been in the Tales of Symphonia, killer 7, Metal Gear and loads of other stuff.
I also like Quinton Flynn for being Raiden and Guo Jia in Dynasty warriors 8.

I know why they cast Kiefer as Venom Snake and it makes sense for the character. Although Hayter should have been in THOSE audio files you get at the end. I prefer David Hayter of the two though. He costs less than Kiefer, knows what the series is fucking about and has a really unique voice.
Granted Kiefer has a good voice and can act, but he can't voice act like Hayter can. I was not pleased to hear him in the Phantom Pain.

 

[Danny Dowling]

Are there any other voice actors who occupy anywhere near the place in our gaming lives that Hayter does?

Nolan North? The guy that did Nathan Drake and like a million other voices? Including the new Ghost from Destiny

 

[karloss01]

I prefer Hayter to Sutherland though I liked what Kiefer did. The problem with Kiefer is not what he said or how he said it; it was how much he said. I felt like he was being paid by the word hence why he spoke so little.

 

[lord canti]

He was great when he use to say "EA SPORTS, IT'S IN THE GAME"

 

[BarryMcCociner]

Hayter was great for previous MGS game and breathed a lot of life into Snake.

In the current game? Eh... I don't think he'd work. The animations emulate human faces amazingly well, better than most games. It wouldn't look believable to see Boss talking with all that real human expression, and hear that over-emphasized voice come out.

Sutherland? From what we see of him he does well but we don't see enough of him to cast any judgement.