With past Grand Theft Auto games, Rockstar went all out to bring in big-name voice actors for its characters, including Burt Reynolds, Dennis Hopper and Samuel L. Jackson. However, that isn’t the case with the upcoming Grand Theft Auto V.
For the latest chapter, Rockstar stuck with non-popular actors to fill the roles – and in this particular case, it went a step further with its authenticity.
“Lazlow” Jones, contributing writer and producer for the game, stopped by the WGN radio station and explained that the team actually recorded with real gang members to get the true nature of the in-game characters down.
“When we record all these ambient characters we go towards authenticity,” he said. “In the game there’s these rival gangs. There’s Black gangs, Latino gangs…we recruited a guy who gets gang members, actual real gang members, like El Salvadoran gang dudes with amazing tattoos, one of which had literally gotten out of prison the day before.”
“We get these guys in to record the gang characters because we don’t want a goofy L.A actor who went to a fancy school trying to be a hard gang member. There’s nothing worse than that, so just go find the terrifying people and say ‘can you come in here please?'”
According to Lazlow, the contributors also checked the script, to assure what their characters would and wouldn’t say over the course of the game.
Grand Theft Auto V releases on September 17th for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
