David Hayter, the renowned screenwriter who penned Hollywood blockbusters such as X-Men, X2: X-Men United and Watchmen, has recently been promoting his upcoming horror film Wolves, and during an interview with Cinelinx he spoke about one of his most iconic performances in gaming: voicing Solid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid franchise.
After being asked whether he has received more attention for his contribution to films (mainly X-Men and Watchmen) or his involvement in the MGS franchise, Hayter, adjusting his voice to Solid Snake’s, replied by saying, “No – it’s Metal Gear!”
“I get a certain level of appreciation for those movies I’ve worked on, but Metal Gear is a phenomenon that gives me fans worldwide,” he said. “It’s stunning, the impact. You know, it’s the difference between being an actor and a writer. There’s a great Simpsons episode in which they say “There’s a new film coming out, it’s directed by Steven Spielberg, it’s starring Julia Roberts, and it’s being written by the biggest screenwriter in the world, whoever that is.” And that sort of sums it up.
“People really don’t get what a screenwriter does, and normally they don’t get what a voice actor does either, but Snake is so iconic, Metal Gear has impacted millions of people around the world. I get recognized more by far for that.”
Hayter has no longer been involved with the Metal Gear Solid franchise since Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid creator and director, replaced him with 24 actor Kiefer Sutherland as the voice of Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes.
However, during the interview he was asked whether the Snake voice ever becomes “old” when people ask him to do it, but the voice actor compared it with Dan Castellaneta’s voice of Homer Simpson and how “You can do something with your voice that instantly makes people happy.”
“Because it’s so weird to see a voice you know coming out of a human being you’ve never seen before,” he explained. “It’s incredible the effect it has on people, and it’s something easy I can do that makes people happy so no, it never gets old. I appreciate having that run on those games. I’m glad it’s made so many people happy.”
Running on Kojima Productions’ Fox Engine, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the follow-up to Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, is rumoured to launch in Q1 of 2015 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.