Fighting Games Friday: Careful with Those Mortal Kombat Celebrities, Ed
It’s slightly old news at this point to say that Megan Fox’s performance as Nitara in Mortal Kombat 1 is not going over well with fans, but it’s still worth discussing. Whether the catalyst is Fox’s lack of voice acting experience, her overall acting skills, or whether the voice acting sessions were rushed is difficult to tell. It could have even been a combination of all three. But it’s not a great performance, and her acting sticks out terribly compared to the quality work from the other voice talent involved. It’s more damning that Fox couldn’t fully complete the job, with the beyond-qualified Cristina Valenzuela performing her in-game grunts.
Fox’s Nitara has since become the newest heavily criticized celebrity performance in a Mortal Kombat game, following Ronda Rousey’s dull performance as Sonya Blade in Mortal Kombat 11 (which, sorry, you can absolutely attribute to her acting). This is also a trend that won’t be stopping soon, if co-creator Ed Boon has anything to say about it.
Boon, during an interview with Rolling Stone, mentioned that he floated the idea of having a celebrity play every single character to the rest of the development staff at NetherRealm Studios. “One of the things that I entertained with this game… What if we made a game that had an actor, a famous, recognizable actor play every character?” he said. He noted that this was a fantasy on this part, as this extensive and expensive ordeal would have required days upon days of voice performance and motion capture work. “A lot of actors don’t realize just how sophisticated video games are,” he said. He mentioned his desire to have Keanu Reeves play Kenshi. It’s, uh, something else to want a Caucasian Canadian man to play a notably Japanese character, though it would have been cool to see Reeves as someone.
Boon likely won’t get his wish unless Warner Bros. is willing to foot the bill, something increasingly unlikely under David Zaslav’s penny-pinching regime. But it’s clear that he wants some celebrities for each installment, despite them not always putting in the best performances. In addition to the aforementioned examples: Jean Claude Van Damme’s performance as Johnny Cage might be even worse than Fox’s, and the character model does an imperfect job of capturing the actor from the Bloodsport-era appearance. It’s nice that he’s only an alternate option from the default iteration voiced by Andrew Bowen. It’s also nonetheless welcome considering Mortal Kombat’s origins as a Bloodsport game adaptation. But it’s interesting to see how far Boon would like to take this.
This isn’t me saying all celebrities are bad at this. Mortal Kombat, in fact, has several good ones. MK1 isn’t Kelly Hu’s first time voicing an MK character, after voicing D’Vorah in the previous timeline (and Ashrah in an animated movie). But she lends her voice and appearance to Li Mei in the newest game, and does a great job of it. I’m also certain that John Cena will do well as guest character Peacemaker, a man well adjusted to lending his performance to goofy stuff. The same goes for JK Simmons as Omni-Man from Invincible, who’s lent his voice to several video games, also including the recent Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m also sure that Dave Bautista would be a great performer if given the chance, considering his appearance in the TV ad.
But there’s high risk for this going awry. Just as this went amiss with the above-stated examples of Rousey as Sonya, Fox as Nitara, and, to a lesser extent, Van Damme as Johnny Cage, there’s potential for it going wrong with future celebrities chosen. The answer here isn’t to hire celebrities for the sake of having them, but to make sure they both have the skills to put in a good effort and are fully aware of the differences between acting and voice acting. Carryover exists between both professions, but ample preparation is still required.
Perhaps there’s a compromise here. If NetherRealm can’t always get or stay in contact with actors with voice acting experience like Kelly Hu, maybe those who typically provide voice acting and motion capture performance would work. It’s been known to happen. Infamous: Second Son utilized the likenesses of Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, and Travis Willingham, all of whom were primarily voice actors at the time the game released in 2014. Baker also lent his appearance to Higgs in Death Stranding, while Bailey lent hers to Olympia Vale in Halo 5: Guardians. This can happen more often. Those who largely provide voicework know how long the motion capture and voice recording sessions can be, and won’t come at as high a price.
Yet, something tells me that Boon won’t be satisfied with this compromise. In addition to guest characters, which could be horror-themed in the future (though Boon loves to troll on social media), absolutely expect some future MK1 characters to involve celebrities. It will be an extraordinarily risky move, but I’m also willing to see just how far Boon will take this.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
