Typecasting: David Hayter vs Nolan North

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newmarcom

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#1  Edited By newmarcom

I got into a little debate with an unsatisfactory resolution. So I need some help, who gets typecasted the worst?
 
I said David Hayter since I can only picture him as Solid Snake. But Nolan North has a track record with three different-yet-similar characters that I eventually got used to.
 
What does everyone else think?

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CharlesAlanRatliff

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Well, all David Hayter really does IS Snake (nowadays anyways). He is mostly a screenplay writer (X-Men, X2, Watchmen etc.). Nolan North has a much heavier focus on voice acting for his career.
 
But to answer your question, I guess I would say David Hayter? Even though he doesn't seem to bother doing voice acting anymore unless there is a new Metal Gear game, I can't imagine him as anyone other than Snake, but again, that's all he really does and he probably has a much broader range that we just don't ever hear (he also has a history of playing Captain America). I have played a ton of games with Nolan North and not known it when he had smaller roles. Prince of Persia and Uncharted and Shadow Complex have made him more mainstream, and those characters all shared similarities in their attitudes, but Nolan North has had a HUGE amount of different roles.

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TwoOneFive

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#3  Edited By TwoOneFive

nolan north has an excellent voice and has a great sense of humor for good improv...or ad-lib. 
 
hayter is the kind of guy who inhabits a character. 

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#4  Edited By HandsomeDead

What has David Hayter done besides Solid Snake, a voice in Eternal Darkness and a hilarious live action Guyver movie? Nolan North was in at least 100 games this year, always being snarky.

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newmarcom

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#5  Edited By newmarcom
@Vito_Raliffe: The different career path is a pretty big factor we didn't account for. We just used John DiMaggio as the barometer.
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mordukai

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#6  Edited By mordukai
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Slippy

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#7  Edited By Slippy

Nolan North has voiced a lot more than just 3 characters... check his IMDB page, it's ridiculous..
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ryanwho

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#8  Edited By ryanwho

David isn't typecast, he doesn't go around playing Snake like characters in other IPs. Nolan plays the same dude in a bunch of games. When you're not the lead, that's called character acting, when you're the lead, its called typecasting. Cut and dry.

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newmarcom

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#9  Edited By newmarcom
@Slippy: True. At the time, we didn't have access to the net to check for info. I could only remember Nolan North's last three games off the top of my head. But looking at it now, it is indeed ridiculous.
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penguindust

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#10  Edited By penguindust
@Slippy:   Ha-ha, I only recalled hearing him in Prince of Persia and thinking, "Hey, that's Nathan Drake".  When I checked his Wikipedia page, I saw he was the male voice in Fable 2.  That surprised me.  I would have loved to have seen those recording sessions.  I didn't know he was in so much but like his female equivalent, Jennifer Hale, he's been around for a long time doing what he does without people even realizing it.  
 
It might be a bit premature adding him to your list, but I get the feeling that Keith David will turn out to be one of these "too recognizable" character actors.
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TonicBH

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#11  Edited By TonicBH

Here's a challenge for you guys: Name a video game Nolan North has done where he doesn't sound like Nathan Drake. I can't think of any except for his bit part in SWAT 4, and that was "Nolan North faking a New York accent."
 
To me, North is like Jen Taylor and Cam Clarke: They have only one style of voice, and it's so easily recognizable that it makes it hard to enjoy the character without thinking they're playing some other character.

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Griddler

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#12  Edited By Griddler

Although I love Nolan North and think he's a legend, whenever I hear him in a game that isn't Uncharted 2 it takes me out of the experience.
So it's gotta be Nolan

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#13  Edited By Jimbo

You can't be considered typecast from one (edit: game) role, so no to David Hayter, unless I am forgetting another Snake-esque character he has voiced?
 
Nolan North to some extent, though I wouldn't say Desmond Miles and Nathan Drake are that similar.  To be fair, it's kinda hard to avoid being typecast if you do a lot of voice work in the games industry, just because of the extreme lack of variety in video game characters, at least compared to other mediums.  If you're playing the lead role in a video game, chances are you're playing some variation of a badass.

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#14  Edited By Rhaknar

Nolan North is the videogame industry MVP.