Video games have featured famous faces for decades now, but they’ve often suffered from a stigma of providing subpar entertainment when compared to movies and TV. Things are changing lately, thanks to games like The Last of Us, and last year’s smash-hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 making a strong case for how actors can still deliver emotional performances through this digital medium. One of the Expedition 33’s stars, Andy Serkis, has spoken about how there has been a shift in attitudes from actors, with a new generation of thespians wanting to appear in video games.
“I don’t see any difference in that or acting in films, on stage, or TV,” Serkis said to Variety. “It’s exactly the same; you approach and build a character the same way. My first engagement with video games was with a company called Ninja Theory, and we made a game called Heavenly Sword for PS3. At that point, actors looked down on video games as like, ‘I wouldn’t get involved in a video game’. Now, young actors coming out of drama schools, and they’re like, I really want to be in a video game. There has always been that snobbery about video games not being anywhere near filmmaking. But that’s all changing and certainly looking into the future when we have more immersive storytelling, which is what’s happening.”
Serkis has had a long career in video games, starting in 2002’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers game, where he reprised his role as Gollum, and continuing through the official King Kong video game, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, several Lego games, and the aforementioned Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Like several of his fellow actors, Serkis’ performance as Renoir received high praise for being nuanced and charismatic.
Charlie Cox–who voiced Gustave–was surprised at how popular the game was and has remained modest about his performance in it, which he only recently started playing. The experience was a positive one for Cox, and he says he’ll be “much more involved” in a new video game project.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 recently celebrated its first anniversary and 8 million sales with a free game update that added some fashionable new hairstyles.