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Black Video Game Characters Are Still Often Voiced by White Actors- Motherboard

The response from both Laura and ND is incredibly well handled and I certainly feel that they're being genuine but the situation still kind of sucks. that specific example though is a weird one - but there are situations which aren't as unclear as that one which are really bad and need to be addressed. Although I guess in part it also comes down to the lack of notable PoC roles in the first place.
 

zsynqx

Member
I don't get how the author found Druckmann's statement about Nadine yet asks how Laura got the job, as he explained how she did when he made the statement. Which is that Nadine didn't start out as a black character. They had her general character down, but not the design. Laura won the role and afterwards the final design was decided on.

I listened to the podcast yesterday and when that came up it was quite infuriating tbh.
 

Abriael

Banned
No. Why would I be?

Are you perchance arguing that it's not ok for white actors to voice black characters, but the other way around is perfectly ok (or that it's all right to protest the fact that white actors voice black characters, while completely omitting the fact that it goes both ways)?

It seems strange, so I'm just making sure.
 

Ridley327

Member
I always did find it a bit odd that Cam Clarke voiced Andrei Ulmeyda in Killer7, but it somehow fit all the same.

If we're talking about a historical example of a black man voicing a white one, we can go back to the MGS1 where Greg Eagles pulled double duty on Donald Anderson and Grey Fox/Cyborg Ninja.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
As much as it would be nice for more voice actors to be the same race as the characters they voice, in reality this isn't a big of an issue as whitewashing in live action works. Voice actors, unlike screen actors, aren't the face of their characters. Unless you are a much more than a causal watcher you won't see Batman and think Kevin Conroy. It matters more how the character is written and how they appear in-game/in animation than who voices them.
So long as black voice actors are not losing jobs over this, then yeah, I really don't see the problem.

If black characters are given to white VAs and denying black VAs job opportunities, then that sucks. But then if black VAs get to voice non-black characters in return then at least there's no real equality.

Of course those are all "ifs", I don't actually know the state of the VA work industry.
 
My perspective on this is, and this might be an unfair assumption, that the industry probably does have a problem wrt roles for black actors. The reason is because so many VAs just kind of get role after role and are always gone to, regardless of if they are right for that role or not, because hey people know who Laura Bailey or Nolan North are! And because the people everyone knows are white, it means that big, good non-white roles are often given to the most popular people instead of the right actors.

Tom Servo's new voice actor is black.

Not sure if gumball machines count.

You might want to check yourself given that you defaulted Tom Servo to being white. :p
 
Ashley was a very controversial character because of the xenophobia, but I dug the character. Kimberly Brooks was great.
Non-VA related but I actually thought Ashley was an interesting character because of that. I didn't agree with her opinions at all and frequently argued with her but it made her feel more real.
 

xRaizen

Member
I was surprised to learn that my player in NBA 2K15 was voiced a white person, a Mark something iirc.

Similarly, TC Carson as Kratos really shocked me as did Phil LaMarr as Vamp.

However, their performances took nothing away from my experience and I have fond memories because of them.

I suppose I do understand why some people feel there's a misrepresentation when VAs of a certain race voice characters of another but I feel that the talent is what is really important.

Give a role to the person best suited for it in terms of their skill. That's what I think.
This is exactly how I think. I think very highly of LaMarr due to his work on the many voices he's done. Met the dude once too!

Voice actors should be just that, the voice.. If they're extremely talented (like Bailey) then what's the difference? Kratos's voice was spot on and I LOVED how the voice actor yells and grunts, it matched the character perfectly.

And yes, Kratos is closer to white but he is Greek. You can see him with his normal skin tone in Ascension.
 
Anyone knows examples of Black actors voicing white characters ?

The closest I can think is Kratos ....
The Emerald Herald from Dark Souls II is voiced by Ruth Negga. (Eileen the Crow from Bloodborne is also voiced by a woman of color, but since she never removes her mask, I don't want to make assumptions.)
 
Anything on Barret's voice actor?

No, but Beau Billingslea has been his voice so far (for AC and Dirge)

beau_billingslea_01wmbf4.jpg
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
The Emerald Herald from Dark Souls II is voiced by Ruth Negga.
Oh good one. Ruth has a lovely voice. And though I am iffy about the Preacher adaptation in general, I'm still looking forward to see how she plays Tulip (who was white in the comic).

And we don't know Eileen the Crow's skin colour, since she always wear a mask, but she is voiced by a black VA too. Edit: missed your edit haha.
 

Eusis

Member
He was Greek .... closer to white than black I guess... but this was the reason "the CLOSEST I CAN THINK"
His parents were both white, his dad being the very model of typical white gods. As a man constantly warring he was probably very, VERY deeply tanned, and all dark skinned people are likely that way from a long lineage of people with constant sun exposure versus those who saw relatively little of it for millennia going pale.

It seems men have better luck there with the inverse happening frequently enough (James Earl Jones as Vader anyone?) but I don't doubt someone's slotted Nolan North or Troy Baker as a black man.
 

Roufianos

Member
Did you guys read the article before responding?

Absolutely I did and I think it's a non-issue, just a load of politically correct bullshit.

If I were Naughtey Dog, I wouldn't even dignify this controversy with a response.

Who gets riled up by stuff like this? It's absolutely pathetic. I'm Greek, I couldn't give a crap that Kratos is voiced by a black man.

Find a voice who suits the vision of the character, it's as simple as that.
 

Mr. X

Member
I don't think race of character should determine who gets the part or who can audition. The lack of black voice actors getting roles period should be the concern.

When you draw a line like who can voice who, then we get the lack of diversity of game characters creating an employment issue for VAs. Also, we wouldn't have Kratos, Vamp, dope SF4 M. Bison, English Strider Hiryu, and so on.
 
Are you perchance arguing that it's not ok for white actors to voice black characters, but the other way around is perfectly ok (or that it's all right to protest the fact that white actors voice black characters, while completely omitting the fact that it goes both ways)?

It seems strange, so I'm just making sure.
You do know that there is a very distinct difference people of color have been treated to white people in history. Along with the fact that most characters in fiction are white. So no its not really ok.

Absolutely I did and I think it's a non-issue, just a load of politically correct bullshit.

If I were Naughtey Dog, I wouldn't even dignify this controversy with a response.

Who gets riled up by stuff like this? It's absolutely pathetic. I'm Greek, I couldn't give a crap that Kratos is voiced by a black man.

Find a voice who suits the vision of the character, it's as simple as that.
Oh. No wonder you don't understand why its a issue.
 
Absolutely I did and I think it's a non-issue, just a load of politically correct bullshit.

If I were Naughtey Dog, I wouldn't even dignify this controversy with a response.

Who gets riled up by stuff like this? It's absolutely pathetic. I'm Greek, I couldn't give a crap that Kratos is voiced by a black man.

Find a voice who suits the vision of the character, it's as simple as that.
The fact that Naughty Dog "bothered" to respond just shows awareness that it is a subject worth talking about, and they should be commended for being open.
 
Oh good one. Ruth has a lovely voice. And though I am iffy about the Preacher adaptation in general, I'm still looking forward to see how she plays Tulip (who was white in the comic).

And we don't know Eileen the Crow's skin colour, since she always wear a mask, but she is voiced by a black VA too. Edit: missed your edit haha.
I was hesitant about listing Eileen for that reason, but I couldn't resist. I'm glad we both had her in mind. :) They are two of my favorite VAs in the series.
 
No. Why would I be?



Did you miss this:


I didn't. I was reacting to this. As I said, It shouldn't be an excuse to exclude people from diverse ethnicity. I also agree about the lack of representation of ethnicities in movie industry but also on this new trend with Holywood which consists of replacing characters which weren't white to make them white. But I also think this shouldn't apply to voice acting. An actor is a voice, an act, but also a physic. You hear an actor, but first and foremost, you see him. So while talent is important, physic is also important.

But a voice actor is nothing but a voice and a talent. SO I'm for more diversities in voice actors, but I'm against the thinking that a white voice actor should voice a white character or that a black voice actor should voice a black character. And that applies to skin color, to age, to gender.
 
I'm not really ok with this. Why can't they have gotten a black actor to do this? It's frustrating that black people are so widely underrepresented in entertainment. How many black VAs would have been better suited to this character then someone like Laura Bailey? We don't know but, i'm sure theres quite a few and it's a shame we'll never know.
 

AyanFaust

Banned
You do know that there is a very distinct difference people of color have been treated to white people in history. Along with the fact that most characters in fiction are white. So no its not really ok.


Oh. No wonder you don't understand why its a issue.


Are you really going to start this?

No, the job should go to the best person available. The great thing about voice acting is seeing different people wearing different voices and personas for the role.
 
I'm not really ok with this. Why can't they have gotten a black actor to do this? It's frustrating that black people are so widely underrepresented in entertainment. How many black VAs would have been better suited to this character then someone like Laura Bailey? We don't know but, i'm sure theres quite a few and it's a shame we'll never know.


I disagree here. Yes, black people (or different colors) MUST be more represented in entertainement. But I disagree with the thinking to say that VA should be tied to physic characteristics. What it means is that more black VA should voice black/white/male/female/old/young characters.
 

Famassu

Member
Why does anyone give a crap about the skin color of the actor or the character? It doesn't matter whatsoever - Laura Bailey's a fantastic actress, and if they found her to be the best choice for the role, then I trust and respect their decision.
It wouldn't be a problem if black voice actors got cast as white people as much as white people get cast as black people (because there are sure as hell some really talented black voice actors), relative to the number of black voice actors that are available of course, but IF the situation is skewed in a way that white actors take the majority of white roles AS WELL AS black (& other ethnicities') roles, then THAT is a bit of a problem and a pretty clear sign of some systematic issues still lingering in how the actors are chosen for roles. The whole "white people are just generally so much better that they get all the roles" argument is a horrible one, since it's fairly certain that black people aren't somehow just shittier actors on average and white actors reign supreme. At that point there is certainly something there blocking black actors from getting work. Maybe black people just don't get into auditions because there's some bias against them even before they get to that point. Whatever the reason, to try to argue that it's normal & there's no problem with, for example, 90% of black characters (a number I ripped straight from my ass, just to use as an example) being voice acted by white people is kinda ludicrous. At that point the whole "they just chose the BEST OF THE BEST actors" argument crumbles down completely, especially given that a lot of games don't have anywhere near Pixar level voice acting, so there's a lot of room for improvement.
 
Some good responses all around in those write-ups. It's a complex problem that wouldn't even be an issue in a better world. The best you can do is support people you believe to be acting genuinely in the best interests of the people they employ and work with to make something everyone can be proud of. I don't think anyone in the article falls outside that description.

Last year was a good year for diversity for in-game performances even in some of the biggest-budget titles of the year. I hope that trend continues regardless of these kinds of decisions.
 
I didn't. I was reacting to this. As I said, It shouldn't be an excuse to exclude people from diverse ethnicity. I also agree about the lack of representation of ethnicities in movie industry but also on this new trend with Holywood which consists of replacing characters which weren't white to make them white. But I also think this shouldn't apply to voice acting. An actor is a voice, an act, but also a physic. You hear an actor, but first and foremost, you see him. So while talent is important, physic is also important.

But a voice actor is nothing but a voice and a talent. SO I'm for more diversities in voice actors, but I'm against the thinking that a white voice actor should voice a white character or that a black voice actor should voice a black character. And that applies to skin color, to age, to gender.

Then I'm confused as to how that's going to happen without doing things like that. These industries aren't going naturally do this.
 

Megatron

Member
You do know that there is a very distinct difference people of color have been treated to white people in history. Along with the fact that most characters in fiction are white. So no its not really ok.


Oh. No wonder you don't understand why its a issue.

How does how black people were treated in 1816 possibly matter when it comes to voice acting video game characters in 2016? No double standards. If its not okay for a white person to voice a black person then its not okay for a black person to voice a white person.
 

Lime

Member
One thing is for certain in regards to the diversity of voice acting talent in the games industry: The insane prevalence of Nolan North and Troy Baker highlights how disastrously uncreative the video games industry is at character diversity.

Troy Baker + Nolan North = Hegemony of the 20-30 year old White Dude
 

zsynqx

Member
I'm not really ok with this. Why can't they have gotten a black actor to do this? It's frustrating that black people are so widely underrepresented in entertainment. How many black VAs would have been better suited to this character then someone like Laura Bailey? We don't know but, i'm sure theres quite a few and it's a shame we'll never know.

Because, if you read the OP, Laura didn't audition for a black character. She auditioned for someone who's race had yet to be defined, alongside people of multiple ethnicities and ended up getting the part.

Then I'm confused as to how that's going to happen without doing things like that. These industries aren't going naturally do this.

There must be an alternative to help push representation, without placing restrictions on who can play certain characters.
 
A VA should get a job because of their skill to voice act, and how well they fit the character. Race does not matter in my opinion. If a white person performs better than the competition for a black character, they should get the job.
 

Pompadour

Member
I'm not really ok with this. Why can't they have gotten a black actor to do this? It's frustrating that black people are so widely underrepresented in entertainment. How many black VAs would have been better suited to this character then someone like Laura Bailey? We don't know but, i'm sure theres quite a few and it's a shame we'll never know.

The solution for this particular situation is one of two options:

1) Laura Bailey gets the part through the audition, they decide the character is black after she is cast, and Laura Bailey gets fired.

2) Laura Bailey gets the part through the audition, they want to make the character black but feel that since they've already cast the part that the character will have to be white to match the voice actress, and gaming loses another character that is a person of color.

I don't really know how often white people voice non-white characters but as far as voice acting goes, there's numerous instances of people playing characters that aren't the same race as them. And it's definitely not just white people playing PoCs. Phil LaMarr was brought up as an example in this thread already. I know M. Bison is portrayed by a black man and although Bison's race is kind of ambiguous I don't believe anyone would say he's black.
 
Absolutely I did and I think it's a non-issue, just a load of politically correct bullshit.

If I were Naughtey Dog, I wouldn't even dignify this controversy with a response.

Who gets riled up by stuff like this? It's absolutely pathetic. I'm Greek, I couldn't give a crap that Kratos is voiced by a black man.

Find a voice who suits the vision of the character, it's as simple as that.

It's an issue because

1. The "voice who suits the vision of the character" is very often white, because the most popular and well-known VAs are usually white

2. White roles usually get white actors, whereas non-white rules fairly often get white actors. Non-white actors get a bum rap in video game voice acting.
 

Mr. X

Member
I'm not really ok with this. Why can't they have gotten a black actor to do this? It's frustrating that black people are so widely underrepresented in entertainment. How many black VAs would have been better suited to this character then someone like Laura Bailey? We don't know but, i'm sure theres quite a few and it's a shame we'll never know.
The character appearance came after the voice was picked. Basically they had everything but her look and picked her to be black.
 
Yeah. White people voice Asian characters all the time, and the only complain I hear of that is "The dub is shit." And that's not even about racism. Why should it be different from White-Black
 
Then I'm confused as to how that's going to happen without doing things like that. These industries aren't going naturally do this.


I'll tell you something: I think that giving black roles to black voice actors is just going to serve as an excuse for this industry. Some would basically say "Well, we would love to give more work to black actors but... eh ! There's not many black characters :p"

You're taking the problem in the wrong way imo. In fact, I believe that the fact voice acting involve talent and not physic, and by that, not linking a voice actor skin color to the skin color of the character he/she's dubbing should be an argument to open this industry to more diversity, because you don't need to be white to voice a white character or black to voice a black character.
 
Are you really going to start this?

No, the job should go to the best person available. The great thing about voice acting is seeing different people wearing different voices and personas for the role.

How does how black people were treated in 1816 possibly matter when it comes to voice acting video game characters in 2016? No double standards. If its not okay for a white person to voice a black person then its not okay for a black person to voice a white person.

You guys do understand that black people are minorities while white people are not, right?
 

Neiteio

Member
I think it's cool and kind of poetic when people of one race/culture play characters of another race/culture. White playing black, black playing white — whatever. Helps break down barriers in its own way, one side walking in the shoes of the other. Plus, they should always hire the best actor or actress who auditions. Sometimes, that person may not look like the character they're playing, especially in the world of VA and mocap.
 

Abriael

Banned
You do know that there is a very distinct difference people of color have been treated to white people in history. Along with the fact that most characters in fiction are white. So no its not really ok.

We're not talking about people of color have been treated in history. We're talking about voice acting.

You guys do understand that black people are minorities while white people are not, right?

And how exactly does this have any bearing on who should be given a voice acting role?
 
How does how black people were treated in 1816 possibly matter when it comes to voice acting video game characters in 2016? No double standards. If its not okay for a white person to voice a black person then its not okay for a black person to voice a white person.

You really think that the playing field for white actors and everybody else is entirely level just because it's not the 1800s anymore? There aren't any systematic biases that still affect the world and thus the entertainment business and casting processes today? Come on man. It's not the same at all.

We're not talking about people of color have been treated in history. We're talking about voice acting.

The history is what made the present what it is.
 
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