No matter the type of acting you’re talking about, if you don’t cast the right person for the role, you’ll get called out on it. Video games are no exception to this. If you think of some of the most iconic voice-acting performances, you’ll know exactly how that person sounds, acts, banters, etc. It doesn’t matter if it’s Solid Snake, Astarion, Lara Croft, Commander Shepard or another gaming legend, their voice matters when they are on screen. So, when Naughty Dog was casting for The Last Of Us Part 2, they almost made the biggest mistake by not casting one of the greatest legends in the voice-acting world.
If the picture above wasn’t a big enough clue, we’re talking about Laura Bailey, the legendary actress who has voiced far too many characters to name here. Seriously, it’d take up the entire article. However, despite her “pedigree,” Neil Druckmann admitted at GDC, as noted by PC Gamer, that she almost didn’t become Abby in The Last Of Us Part 2 simply because “she’s in everything.”
That might sound a bit callous, but Druckmann was already familiar with her because she was in a certain franchise with Nathan Drake, and when you think of all the other roles she’s done, it’s easy to think that “we should use someone else.” However, what changed was her audition tape.
When she portrayed Abby, she had a few key moments of vulnerability that no one else in the auditions before her had. Druckmann even said he watched it “frame-by-frame” and then showed it to the rest of the studio. When he did, it was clear she was the only choice for Abby.
The irony of this is many-fold. First, Laura Bailey won multiple awards for her performance as Abby, which speaks to just how much she nailed that performance. Second, she arguably did it “too well” because fans literally hate Abby, to the point that Bailey was actually getting hate mail and threats from fans. That is, of course, totally wrong and is not to be encouraged.
Third, a very similar thing happened recently when Bethesda cast Troy Baker to play Indiana Jones in their title. Todd Howard didn’t want to use Troy, and they even “cast with a wide net” to find someone other than him. Yet, not only did he crush the performance, but Harrison Ford himself praised Baker’s performance and blasted any idea of using AI to replicate his voice in the future.
Sometimes…people are just that good and deserve the roles they audition for.
