More Strange Video Game Casting Calls

Unlike the film industry, where these actors made names for themselves, video games rarely use their acting talent as a means to promote a game. It's usually a surprise to learn a noteworthy actor appears in video games, and it's often after we've already finished playing them.

We looked at a few strange choices of voice cast in games a few weeks ago, which you can see here, and I've added to that list more actors I was surprised to hear in assorted video games.

Gary Oldman in The Legend of Spyro series
In the world of video games, Gary Oldman’s role in Call of Duty: Black Ops is well known and appropriate. He’s an intense actor playing a role in intense story about war, but Oldman’s video game work begins before Call of Duty.

Oldman plays Ignitus in The Legend of the Spyro series – the Spyro reboot games that appeared on the PlayStation 2 beginning in 2006. He had appeared in the Harry Potter films a few years prior, showing that he was certainly willing and more than capable of appearing in roles focused towards a younger audience, but it was still surprising to learn Oldman, the drug-addled crooked cop from The Professional, would be playing an animated dragon.

Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thornton in Deadly Creatures
Deadly Creatures is a bizarre Wii exclusive game starring a tarantula and a scorpion as they watch two human characters, voiced by Hopper and Thornton, trying to uncover a treasure cache. Hopper and Thornton’s participation in the game is odd mostly because the game is odd. We played some of the game on an episode of Replay, which you can see below.

It wasn’t a particularly noteworthy game, and it released exclusively for the Wii, but it had two well-known and respected actors technically not even playing lead roles in the game.

Peter Serafinowicz in Dark Souls II
Serafinowicz is one of those actors you recognize whenever you see him, but probably don’t know his name. He played Shaun’s other roommate in Shaun of the Dead and makes and directs weird videos like this in his spare time.

[view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-bcnVU_NAU:610:343]

He’s a comedian, writer, actor, and director, and also one of the most outspoken Dark Souls fans on the Internet. In interviews promoting his role in the game he calls it, which he describes as Zelda in hell, the best game ever made, and talks about his own sexual arousal at the announcement of Dark Souls II. Before gaining a role in the game – one he actively pursued – he says twitter followers would often accuse him of being paid to promote the game.

It’s an odd cast choice because Serafinowicz is typically not a dramatic actor. His character Pate, and the general tone of Dark Souls, is a solemn one. Along with Pate, Serafinowicz also provided all the assorted exertion noises for players who play as a male character.

Matthew Perry in Fallout: New Vegas
Perry is known as Chandler Bing from the show Friends, whether he wants to be or not. He’s the sarcastic funny guy from one of the most popular network sitcoms of all time, but as it turns out, he’s also a big fan of video games. He plays Benny, the leader of the Chairmen, who tries to murder the New Vegas’ protagonist in the game’s opening moments. In promotional interview videos for the game, he shows a genuine appreciation for the Fallout games saying, “Fallout is just bigger and smarter than any game I've ever played before.”

Perry is not the first actor you think of when you think gang leader in post-apocalyptic casino, but he seems to know his stuff when it comes to Fallout.