Broken father in The Last of UsIndiana Jones rejuvenated in The Ancient Circle : American actor Troy Baker, a great voice in video game dubbing, spoke for AFP about his role in Screamer and the future of a profession shaken up by the arrival of artificial intelligence.
At just 50 years old, the actor with the thin beard and piercing blue eyes is credited on more than 430 productions in video games and animation, according to the IMDb site.
An activity which, as with cinema, is threatened by the wave of AI tools capable of reproducing the voices and images of actors.
“We create art, by nature a human expression that only humans can create, so I’m not afraid” that AI “replaces artists”, declared Troy Baker, on the occasion of the release at the end of March on PC and consoles of the game Screamer.
He takes on the role of Mister A., the tournament organizer at the center of the highly scripted car racing game punctuated with animated sequences.
“History has shown us that technology creates more opportunities than it destroys,” but “I can understand that people are afraid for their jobs,” added the actor.
He himself was criticized online in early 2022 for having partnered with a company specializing in NFTs (non-fungible tokens, unique digital objects to collect, Editor’s note), before quickly ending this partnership.
“I miss Joel”
Entering the world of dubbing somewhat by chance at the start of the 2000s, when he began a career as a musician in a rock group, he broke through in 2013 thanks to the role of Joel in the adventure game The Last of Uswhich tells the story of the survival of a man and a young girl in a postapocalyptic world.
Naughty Dog
He lends his voice, but also his gestures to the gruff father via “motion capture”, technology which allows the movements of real actors to be recorded to apply them to virtual characters.
The international success of the title from American studio Naughty Dog is such that a sequel was released in 2020, then a series adaptation on HBO from 2023, in which Baker himself makes a short appearance, in the skin of another character.
“I love Joel. I miss him every day. But I think there is nothing more to tell about his story,” confesses the actor, while rumors about a third game regularly stir up the Web.
Unlike the “multi-million dollar film sets” of cinema, dubbing games sometimes comes down to “a microphone, a script and a Zoom call”, explains the man who also played the brother of the adventurer Nathan Drake in Uncharted 4 (2016) and the antagonist of the two opuses of Death Stranding (2019 et 2025).
Finding the right tone
In 2024, he delivered a remarkable performance by dubbing a young Harrison Ford recreated in 3D in Indiana Jones and the Ancient Circlea unique adventure in video game form.
If he admits to having initially “prepared in the worst way” by trying to reproduce the voice and gestures of the actor, he says he “had the click” by focusing more on the way of embodying the character.
A performance praised by Harrison Ford himself in 2024 on the stage of the Game Awards in Los Angeles, the sector’s annual ceremony.
To find the right tone, “there is no miracle recipe,” confesses Troy Baker. For Screamer“I asked a lot of questions” to the development team and “we spent a lot of time polishing each character.”
This year, Baker is also in the cast of the film Iron Lungscience fiction thriller directed by YouTube star Mark Fischbach (Markiplier).
However, “I never considered video games as a simple springboard. “That’s where I like to be,” he says.
