Voice Actors ave recently went on strike against 11 video game publishing companies following a contractual disagreement between major publishers and the performers’ union SAG-AFTRA. David Hayter and Jennifer Hale—who you may recognise as Metal Gear Solid‘s original Solid Snake and FemShep from the Mass Effect series, among other roles—have now spoken out about some of the hardships which in part led to the strike action.
In conversation with CBC News, both Hale and Hayter recount unfortunate tales of actors damaging their vocal chords, which offer insights into why videogame voice actors are on strike. Hayter even suggests he was physically sick over a microphone due to consecutive “vomiting” recordings for one of his parts.
“It’s the equivalent of a four-hour one-person show,” says Hale. “So that’s very demanding, especially when a lot of it is battle-oriented, and IT’S ALL SCREAMING AND YOU GO LIKE THIS! I’ve got a friend right now who’s undergoing [vocal] surgery and will not be able to work for months.
According to CBC, Hayter describes the worst sessions as those crammed into “one horrific day”. While he’s used to “facing the pain” for such endurance sessions, he admits some occasions are more testing than others. “One time, I actually threw up on the mic because I had to make a bunch of vomiting sounds in a row,” he says.
Voice actor Elias Toufexis provides the voice of Deus Ex’s Adam Jensen and points out “if the character’s throwing something, you have to make a sound for throwing something a short distance, a long distance and a really long distance.” As a result of these focused solo sessions “your voice is dead,” he adds.
