Video games have been telling stories since the very beginning of the medium, even if those stories were just about two competitors playing a form of digital tennis. Nowadays, though, the medium often draws comparisons to cinema with the way it can use visuals and audio to tell stories alongside the added element of gameplay. In some respects, this is a limiting way to think about how stories can be told and what video games are capable of, but that hasn’t stopped big studios and indies alike from leaning into the comparisons and recruiting some SAG-caliber talent.
More than ever before, there are video games that have Hollywood stars stepping in to contribute voice acting or even do full-on motion-capture performances. Some of them are great! Others, less so. But which are the best?
Updated September 23, 2021 by Theodore Yurevitch: As video games continue to push the boundaries of narrative, more and more developers are recruiting Hollywood actors to star in their games, so we’ve added some recent masterpieces featuring actors you could see on the silver screen as well.
15 Until Dawn - Rami Malek
Rami Malek is not just an actor beloved by fans, he’s also rightfully earned accolades as a critical darling for his performances in shows like Mr. Robot. But before he won an Oscar for his role in Bohemian Rhapsody, he acted in the horror video game, Until Dawn.
Released exclusively on the PS4, the game centers on a group of teenagers who choose to spend a weekend in an isolated cabin on a mountain. The teenagers soon find themselves under attack, and they have to survive until dawn. This might sound stale in a different medium, but as a video game, Until Dawn offers numerous different outcomes and gameplay experiences.
14 Rage - John Goodman
Since the 80s, John Goodman has acted in dozens of films and series. If you watch movies, chances are you’ve seen something with him in it. His highlights include Arachnophobia, Barton Fink, The Big Lebowski, 10 Cloverfield Lane, and Black Earth Rising. He has also done quite a bit of acting for video games.
Since 1996, he has appeared in Pyst, Monsters, Inc., Rage, and Lego The Incredibles, among others. In Rage, he voiced Dan Hagar, the first character who the protagonist meets. Hagar specifically bears a strong resemblance to Goodman’s character in The Big Lebowski.
13 Beyond: Two Souls - Elliot Page
Elliot Page rose to fame after starring in the award-winning film, Juno, in 2007. Since then, he has stolen the show in a number of films and TV shows, from X-Men to The Umbrella Academy. He has dabbled in video games, too, starring in the supernatural action-adventure game, Beyond: Two Souls.
Page worked on the video game for a whole year, performing motion-capture and voice acting. Interestingly — considering the cinema and video game comparisons — Beyond: Two Souls actually premiered at a film festival.
12 Hitman 2 - Sean Bean
If there’s one actor who’s famous for dying in his roles, it’s Sean Bean. From The Lord of the Rings to Game of Thrones, Equilibrium, Goldeneye, and more, he has made a career out of kicking the bucket.
This tradition continues in Hitman 2, where he plays an elusive target that you must assassinate. Poor Sean Bean can’t catch a break, even in a different medium. Even the character he plays in Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion dies!
11 Crackdown 3 - Terry Crews
Terry Crews is known for his comedy, whether that be in the show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, or films like Idiocracy, The Expendables, and White Chicks. He is also an adamant video game lover and starred in Crackdown 3, which he describes as a “Terry Crews simulator.” The game received mixed reviews, but one thing most critics agreed on was that Crews’ performance was praiseworthy.
10 Batman: Arkham Series - Mark Hammill
Thanks to his role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise, Mark Hammill is one of the most popular actors of the past few decades. But he has another iconic role, which a few people might be surprised to learn: The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series.
His performance was so iconic that, when Rocksteady Studios decided to make their own Batman video games, they got him to reprise the role. Hammill ended up in three Batman games: Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and Arkham Knight. His performance drew critical acclaim, and the games became instant bestsellers.
9 Broken Age - Elijah Wood
Elijah Wood is most famous for his portrayal of Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings films. But he has also starred in a range of movies like The Faculty, Maniac, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
He is also no stranger to video games. He has provided voice roles for the video game adaptations of The Lord of The Rings trilogy and Happy Feet. He also lent his vocal performance to Broken Age, a point-and-click indie game from developer Double Fine. This was the largest crowdfunded video game at the time, raising over 3.4 million dollars from 87,000 backers.
8 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Charles Dance
You might know Charles Dance from Game of Thrones, where he acted as Tywin Lannister, the head of the powerful Lannister house. He was also in two Underworld films, and he has starred in a wide range of movies and plays.
Most importantly, obviously, his first video game credit came through The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, where he played one of the many memorable characters, Emhyr van Emreis, the emperor of Nilfgaard. Like Tywin Lannister, Emperor Emhyr is a man of few words, incredibly powerful, and so ruthless that many fans tend to hate him.
7 Mass Effect 2 and 3 - Martin Sheen
Martin Sheen has had a glittering Hollywood career since the 1970s with films like Apocalypse Now and Badlands. More recently, he starred in The West Wing as President Josiah Bartlet, which won him an Emmy Award.
Proving that even award-winning actors are no strangers to video games, Sheen played the role of the Illusive Man in Mass Effect 2 and 3. The trilogy became a massive success, selling over 14 million copies, garnering critical acclaim, and encouraging plenty of devoted fans to cosplay as the characters. With a response like that, Sheen should definitely consider doing more video game roles.
6 Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - Keifer Sutherland
Most of us know Keifer Sutherland for his role in 24, where he plays Jack Bauer, a ruthless CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit) agent. His gritty persona seems to perform well in video games, too. This started with 24: The Game, but he later played parts in a couple of Call of Duty games as well. But the highlight of his video game career is certainly Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.
In this masterpiece, he plays Punished “Venom” Snake, a mercenary leader on a revenge mission against the people who decimated his forces and nearly killed him. Is he as good as the original voice of Solid Snake, David Hayter? Maybe not — but he is a Hollywood actor.
5 Cyberpunk 2077 - Keanu Reeves
Pretty much everyone loves Keanu Reeves. He has starred in numerous cult classics, from The Matrix series to the Bill & Ted series, as well as many, many more beloved films. Conversely, everyone did not love CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077.
Regardless, the game did feature Keanu Reeves pretty front and center as he did full motion-capture for his role as Johnny Silverhand, the punk rock revolutionary and digital ghost who haunts you throughout the game. Whether the acting is good or not is debatable, but at the very least, it is a lot of acting.
4 God of War - Christopher Judge
Christopher Judge might be more of a television actor than a Hollywood star — for a long time, he was best known for his role on Stargate SG-1 — but now he should mostly be known for his performance as Kratos in God of War.
The series of mythology-inspired action games had other actors play Kratos before the 2018 entry, but Judge brought weight and nuance to the role in what was a surprisingly mature turn for God of War. He really killed it with his performance — and killed plenty of draugrs along the way as well.
3 Control - Courtney Hope
Sometimes actors are brought on to play a role in a video game seemingly because they are known for working in a similar genre to that game. This is not the case with Courtney Hope. The soap opera characters she is most known for playing in long-running series like The Young and The Restless are a far cry from Jesse Faden, the hero of Control, but that just goes to show what an incredible actor she is.
Control is a stellar game for a number of reasons, but Courtney Hope’s performance is no small part of why it’s so good.
2 The Last of Us Part 2 - Shannon Woodward & Jeffrey Wright
The Last of Us and its sequel are both masterclasses in video game acting. These two games go a long way to show that the voice actors who have been around in video games for a long time — like Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker — are just as good at what they do as Hollywood actors.
Nevertheless, the Hollywood actors that developer Naughty Dog got for the sequel are stellar, as well. Jeffrey Wright might be the bigger name, but Shannon Woodward of Westworld-fame delivers a stunning performance as Dina.
1 Death Stranding - Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, & More
Death Stranding, like all Hideo Kojima games, is pretty idiosyncratic. It’s also pretty weird — it’s certainly not for everyone. But those who fell for the game’s unique approach to a traversal-based delivery and fetch quests fell hard, and this is due in no small part to the game’s characters.
Underneath the word soup of jargon around what a Death Stranding is are a number of stellar and stirring performances that bring some real humanity to this otherwise stark post-apocalyptic world. Everyone here is great — Mads Mikkelsen, Lea Seydoux, Margaret Qualley, Tommie Earl Jenkins, and more — but Norman Reedus takes the cake for just how much he had to do while playing the main character, Sam Bridges, the post-apocalyptic postman.
