After a decade of portraying some of our favorite gaming characters, esteemed video game voice actor Nolan North is now garnering attention in the other entertainment fields – notably the big screen.
According to Eurogamer, director J.J. Abrams has asked North to appear in his upcoming film Star Trek 2.
"I just worked on Star Trek 2 with J. J. Abrams," North revealed. "The reason I did that movie – it's a very small role – but it's because he and his son are huge fans of Uncharted. I met him doing some work on Super 8 and he said 'We're doing Start Trek, you wanna do it?' And I said I'd love to."
"He's a huge fan of gaming and he was telling me how people just don't understand [the medium] yet, but they're going to catch up. They don't understand how amazing this technology is and it doesn't get the respect it deserves, but if it keeps making the money it makes you're going to see more and more people converted," he added. "I mean, Gary Oldman, one of the greatest actors on the planet, did Call of Duty. He wouldn't have done it 10 years ago. It's a new age dawning, and I'm just really proud to be part of it."
Although it's just a "very small role", this is no doubt a huge accomplishment for voice actors in the video game industry. There is no doubt that gaming actors like North are talented. Hopefully this opens the door for more voice actors to appear in future films. And hopefully they are the ones playing the roles of our favorite video game characters in the film remakes instead of Mark Wahlberg in Max Payne.
"Gaming is being held to a new standard," North said. "I really think Naughty Dog and Uncharted have really set the bar – the cinematic quality and story quality."
"I think it's a very difficult thing to write for a game. You have to think of your story structure but also how that is incorporated into gameplay to make it a fun game. For instance, what [Naughty Dog creative director] Amy Hennig does – it's pretty amazing how she can so seamlessly have her story narrative lead into gameplay," he concluded. "Over the last decade gaming has just grown by leaps and bounds and I think it's still going up."
You can see North in his latest role as Captain Martin Walker in upcoming shooter Spec Ops: The Line when it releases in June.
