According to a report today from VG 24/7, the trio of voice actors who portray the three protagonists in Grand Theft Auto 5 have come to the defense of Rockstar Games as critics after accusations that the title glamorizes violence.
In an interview with PC Advisor, actors Ned Luke, Steven Ogg, and Shawn Fonteno –– who voice the GTA 5 characters Michael De Santa, Trevor Phillips, and Franklin Clinton respectively –– refuted the fact that the game promotes violence, and that the title seems like scapegoat of sorts.
Luke said his character Michael not only doesn’t make violence look cool but also seems to demonstrate the miserable, harsh realities of a life of crime.
If you look at my character, Michael, he’s rich, but he’s a miserable man. Even in the commercials you see that. This is a guy who’s struggling with his life’s decisions,” Luke said.
“If you want to take something out the game, take out of it that here’s a guy who loves his family, who’s kind of lost. He’s trying to hold it together. He’s trying to become a good guy, but he can’t. He just has all these demons that he’s battling. It’s the struggle.”
Luke believes that gamers should think of GTA 5 as reality, but rather an experience they can’t have in any normal way in real life.
“As an actor, I got to go out and do all these crazy things and then go back home to my wife and my son and go out in the back yard and throw a baseball around like a normal all-American dad,” Luke said. “I think that’s what these games are. People who take them too seriously and go, ‘Oh, this is life.’ No, this isn’t life. This is imagination. It’s just fun.”
Luke said that parents shouldn’t let GTA 5 raise their children, and both Ogg and Fonteno championed the same sentiment.
“The hypocrisy drives me crazy. It just sets the wrong focus,” Ogg said. “Why not talk about gun control? Why not talk about parenting? Why not talk of lack of family values? There are so many other things to talk about. Look at what’s on TV.”
Fonteno said people treat GTA 5 differently because it’s a game, and children play games. If they treated it more like a movie, he said, then parents might pay more attention the “big as day” Mature rating stamped on the games cover.
“It’s not for the kids to go get. It’s for 'Mature' audiences only. If kids get it, then that’s on their parents,” Fonteno said.
