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GTA 4's Niko Bellic Voice Actor Wants More Money
by Aaron Linde, May 21, 2008 8:00pm PDTActor Michael Hollick, who voiced Grand Theft Auto IV protagonist Niko Bellic, revealed to the New York Times that he was paid just over $100,000 for roughly fifteen months of work, with no royalties or residuals from the $500M earned by the game in the first week of sales.
"Obviously I'm incredibly thankful to Rockstar... But it's tough, when you see Grand Theft Auto IV out there as the biggest thing going right now, when they're making hundreds of millions of dollars, and we don't see any of it," said Hollick.
"I don't blame Rockstar. I blame our union for not having the agreements in place to protect the creative people who drive the sales of these games."
Hollick noted that while his appearance in Rockstar's wildly successful opus has propelled him to new levels of notoriety, contracts between the actors' union and the entertainment industry offer no provisions for electronic media such as video games. As such, Hollick was paid the standard Screen Actors Guild day rate.
"Yes, the technology is important, but it's the human performances within them that people really connect to, and I hope actors will get more respect for the work they do within those technologies," Hollick added.
Prior to his breakout role as Niko Bellic, Hollick-based in New York-found acting work in soap operas and musicals, but aspired to Broadway and other top-shelf gigs.
Comments
Why wasn't a cut in his contract? It wouldn't have been impossible to negotiate.
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And seeing that some of that acclaim is why this game will likely turn 1 *billion* dollars by the end of it you can't blame a guy who's a bit sad his contribution doesn't have any part of that. Like another said, it doesn't have to be huge, could even be 100x less than the programmers. The guy may not even see work again for the next 13 months, suddenly 100k becomes less than 50k. And that's likely with no insurance, benefits, pre-taxes, no 401k, no agent fees etc. Taking all of that into account even with contracts like these, some of these guys are probably making the equivalent 40k or less per year for a full time worker if work is sporadic. A $15 check in the mail helps with that sort of thing.
Also voice acting isn't simply "talking into a microphone" - the last thing I'd want to see again is the days where the devs did it to save cash because "it's only talking into a microphone". Yeah and programming just typing on a keyboard.
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unless he [i]wrot/i] the character's dialog he was a [i]performe/i] not a [i]creato/i] and therefore NOT entitled to royalties. i can see his point though, even if the product wasn't hugely successful it would be nice to have some continued income for your work, but that should have been addressed during the initial contract negotiations. it would likely have resulted in a decreased wage, if not an entirely different actor being involved with the game.
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Royalties must exist because this is based on a performance, intrinsically unique. No performance is ever the same, a sum of ongoing creative decisions made by the performer. Actors and musicians are not robots and will always have a creative influence on the final product.
This is important because people audition for these parts. You don't hire an actor because they can read and speak, or you'd just take the first one with a completed application and put them to work, recording all the dialog in the game. When he's done he can move to QA.
An actor gets hired because they help create the character. This is why they deserve royalties on a product they helped create, as an artist. Movies, Television, Games, and Music are performance arts. All artists involved deserve royalties.
tldr; Actors get royalties for a reason, and there is no difference between the work they do on a game or on a movie.
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In the end, you're paid what you're worth..
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This implies some sort of demand, when it's clear in the article that he knew he wouldn't get residuals, and he just acknowledges that it sucks.
As an actor, it does suck for him, since actors are used to working on residuals. Working for hire like this is peculiar for him, and the article highlights that in a pretty level headed way.
Come on Shack, you can be better than this.
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As a game designer, I'd like to say F*** THIS GUY. We're the creative people that drive the sales of these games, not the idiots doing voice-overs, and most of us make less than this jackoff did.
And, for the record, I can do a better slavic accent than this retard. Be glad for the work, you talentless hack. It beats your regular gig waiting tables at a Denny's off the 5 in Inglewood.
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The Rockstar execs probably should take a pay cut from the GTA IV royalties to reward their entire team of employees, and not just the few at the top who think they are rockstars in real life.
I think this guy just ensured that he will never get any more work from Rockstar.
Of course, at 100k for 100 days, he got paid more for it per hour than almost every developer on the team.
It's wrong for Cameron Diaz to phone in four hours of work on Shrek and demand millions.
It is less wrong for this guy, who did work really hard, and made a meaningful contribution to GTA4, to question why he isn't getting a piece of the action.
If a dev works for 1000 days, three years or so, on a game, and gets a nice royalty check for it, that's awesome. If a guy works for 100 days, why couldn't he get a smaller check? 10x as small, perhaps. Is that fair?
Again, we're not talking about someone just doing 4 hours of VO work, we're talking about someone who really worked hard, for a long time, to make Niko Bellic into something special.
I don't know the specifics, maybe the guy was d-bag and everyone at Rockstar hated him. Or maybe he really did care and work hard for the title.
Can an actor ever really accept his place in a video game? He isn't more important than the programmers, animators, level designers, sound guys, QA, and production. In fact, the hard working guy/gal at the front desk probably has more to do with making a great game (via supporting the team and its logistics) than the mocap / VO actor. Regardless, he *is* important and does play a vital part.
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I KNOW how incredibly hard it is to work on a game for more than a year. I imagine that GTA IV was in production for over 3 years. The voice actor on the game did not have a tough job. Sorry. Talking into a microphone certainly takes some talent, but it doesn't take much hard work.
A programmer, scripter, designer, artist, animator, producer, etc, must have poured their heart and soul into this project to make it THIS amazing; and they were all paid significantly less then this "voice actor."
Until the other artists on video game projects see any residuals, neither should the "talent."
The asshole talks as if the people who actually MADE the game are worthless without him. Very wrong.
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Voice acting is as many of you point out not the most difficult thing in the world, but it is not the easiest...and since this game is basically printing money he as a person who is looking out for his own best interests should be trying to get more money.
NOTE: He is not blaming Rockstar nor does he hold ill will. I thnk what he wants is in line with common reasoining.
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Yes, sucky acting does get a few points deducted but thats it.
Now sucky game play is another story.
~D
he could've ask for it when he was signing a contract!
if he agreed to the terms there's no going back. the only thing he can do is beg rockstar for more money.
why he didn't ask for it then?
Because noone would have given it to him. And he knew it well.
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Fuck you, douchebag. Some balls on this guy griping about only making $100,000.
"But I want more money too. Boohoo, poor me."
OK, so he's trying to bring an issue to light. Fine. They could have found a guy that only made $20,000 for his work. Not some dude that made a $100,000. And really - compared to the work that everyone else at Rockstar did $100,000 is pretty generous percentage of 500 million for 1 guy that "read with emotion".
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Sometimes he sounds like 'normal' Niko, and other times he talks in a completely different voice/accent and you have trouble figuring out who the hell is speaking. I noticed it a lot in the earlier missions/cutscenes, but it still happens later on when Niko shouts out the same few phrases during gunfights.
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I see what this guy is saying, but seriously, it's $100,000 for "15 months" of work. I doubt he worked 40 hour weeks for 15 months straight to voice one character. It'd take me 3 to 4 years to even touch what this guy made in 1.25. yes. we're all sad for you whatever your name is. At least the guy who did the voice for Roman made a somewhat funny youtube video to go along with his bitching.
wtf is this shit
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So, yeah.
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