Alec Baldwin, he of 30 Rock, Hunt For Red October and Beetlejuice fame, was once offered an “incomprehensible amount of money” to lend his voice to a Grand Theft Auto game. And he said… no.
“[The makers of] ‘Grand Theft Auto’ came to me to do a voice of some mobster, many years ago, for ‘Grand Theft Auto 2’…and they offered this incomprehensible amount of money for one day’s work”, Baldwin told IndieWire. “And they offered me a pile of money, this ridiculous amount of money to just come in a record this voice for one or two days.”
“And I turned them down because [the character] was a cop killer. And I didn’t want to get near that [because] of my reputation; I have enough problems with the press as it is. I said no.”
Presumably he means the part of Vice City’s Tommy Vercetti, a role which ultimately went to Ray Liotta, who did one hell of a job. Ah well! Not to worry. Those looking for Alec Baldwin’s caramel tones in a video game need look no further than PC strategy game World in Conflict, which he narrated, channelling Jack Donaghy the whole way through (go to 3:20 if it doesn’t autoplay at that point for you).
Comments
6 responses to “Alec Baldwin Turned Down The Chance To Be In Grand Theft Auto”
It makes sense from his perspective and at the time. GTA is not as much of a problem these days as it was in the past. Also, he has his movie and TV career to think about, so he probably thought he’d lose more than he’d gain from being in GTA.
Of course, the press no longer really cares about GTA anymore. So if I were him, I’d take up another offer to be in GTA.
“the press no longer really cares about GTA anymore”
what?
I think maybe he meant the press no longer cares about persecuting it so much, maybe? Probably because half of them are probably playing it, if the sales figures are anything to go by.
I’d absolutely agree the the persecution of GTA has declined significantly with each new iteration of the series.
That’s a fair reason I suppose. I’d love for them to find some other sort of role though.
I like Baldwin, but I’m so glad they ended up getting Liotta. He was perfect as Vercetti.