PaigeFTW: Famous Faces
The most ubiquitous image out of E3 last month was definitely a naked, crying Norman Reedus hugging a newborn baby in Hideo Kojima’s trailer for Dead Stranding. The story even got traction in mainstream outlets — that’s what a little star power will get you.
It raises the question, though: Do celebrity stars hurt or help (or have no effect) on video games?
I’m not thinking of celebrity voice actors specifically here (if we’re being quite frank, if anyone is going to scream at me like a Russian drill sergeant, I’m pleased to have it be Gary Oldman), but of celebrities offering their likenesses to a game.
The most famous example that I can think of offhand would probably be Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe in Beyond: Two Souls, which is a very … uneven game, to say the least. Page gave a great performance, though.
The primary problem as I see it is just that it is impossible to fully render every nuance of an actor’s face. Even considering how far technology has come, knowing what the real Page looks like and seeing the Page rendered in pixels just feels off. It looks weird! (And it doesn’t help that Beyond really emphasizes facial expressions.)
On the other hand, when the face is less photorealistic (or just less based on a real person), it’s easy to accept its imperfections. Cloud Strife never really looks uncanny to me because he’s so grounded in that fantasy world. Joel from The Last of Us looks fantastic and realistic, even if he is technically Troy Baker (an amazing actor) in disguise.
In a nutshell: I’m against it because the actor’s full performance gets lost in the uncanny valley.
I’m curious as to how Kojima will handled the uncanny valley with Reedus — though his unsettling trailer honestly seems aware of this problem and capitalized on it to create that surreal imagery. Reedus looks a little creepy because he is supposed to look creepy. It’s the medium embracing its limits, maybe.
