They have to treat this the same as they treat the movies.
You see all the same stuff that’s happening in these games in comic books and TV shows. It has to be treated the same way as the movies. **Shawn Fonteno (Franklin): **Nah, not at all. GQ: Were there any concerns about working on game that’s gotten some criticism about its violence and treatment of women? There’s a lot of talk nowadays about how “acting is you, you are who you are” but no, it’s acting. It’s one of those forgotten arts in this culture. **Steven Ogg (Trevor): **I like to call it a crazy little thing called… acting. GQ: What about you, Steven? You’re not crazy, right? You’re not totally Trevor, are you?
I know what it feels like to be on both sides of the gun, go to jail, et cetera. I don’t want to put myself out there on blast, but I’ve done it. I feel like changing my name to Franklin. **Shawn Fonteno (Franklin): ** We relate tremendously, man. GQ: Shawn, in your TMZ interview you mentioned that Franklin is you and you are Franklin. I’m like, “Really? Street cred in Alberta? What the fuck is that? What does that get you? A great Alberta Beef Burger or a twelve pack of maple donuts?” The funny thing is, I’m from western Canada and my nephew is old enough to play it and he now has street cred. We’ve got copies of it and he wants to play it, but he’s just too young. I let him do a few missions with the sound off. **Ned Luke (Michael): **Yeah, he knows it. **Ned Luke (Michael): **He’s not going to play the game until he’s in college. Did he flip out when you told him you were going to be in Grand Theft Auto V? That’s when the magnitude of this game started to sink in. Even before the financial end of it, which I can’t grasp, seeing trucks in Tokyo with my face on them or the billboards in Brooklyn that were being hand-painted with Trevor’s face. Obviously, doing it for three years I got to learn more about it, and I understand how huge it could be, but honestly it wasn’t until the release that I really got it. I’m not a gamer and I’m not into that world, so I don’t know much about it. **Steven Ogg (Trevor): **Yeah, it’s pretty wild. As great as their performances are in GTAV, it’s still all just an act. “Solo” Fonteno might tell you that he is Franklin and Franklin is him, but if you see these guys on the street, Ned Luke really isn’t Michael, and Steven Ogg isn’t, in fact, crazy Trevor. Rather, over a three-year period they became their characters, lived and breathed in their skin, and through extensive motion capture, real-life interaction, and lengthy voice acting sessions in that very booth, Fonteno, Luke, and Ogg crafted performances that bring little bits of data to stunningly realistic video game life. They didn’t just spend time sitting in a recording booth talking into a microphone. Grand-theft-auto-voiceover-interviews-blog.jpgĭuring GQ.com’s recent chat with the stars of Grand Theft Auto V, they all agreed on one thing: they’re actors and not “just voice actors.” For better or worse, Shawn “Solo” Fonteno, Ned Luke, and Steven Ogg are Franklin, Michael, and Trevor, the characters they play in this smash-hit installment.