I don’t usually pay attention to video game casts, but usually, from what I have paid attention to, the casts are populated by unrecognizable names/faces. The exception has been when a movie is made into a video game and the actor from the movie has reprised their role.

I’ve been steadily playing Rockstar’s L.A. Noire for the last few weeks and something I’m still tickled about and amazed by is the photo realistic technology used in the animations. Several times I’ve been able to name actors from other major shows/roles in traditional TV/film, recognizing them purely from their facial expressions in the game. Not only is this recognition from appearance, but from actual facial ticks that the actors use to play their game characters.

With the exception of Cole Phelps, played by Mad Men’s Aaron Staton, all of the actors I’ve included here have fairly minor roles (not shown, Mickey Cohen, played by Patrick Fischler is another one I recognized right away and who does have a recurring part). They only appear in one case as one person of interest (which amounts to maybe a couple minutes of screen time). The gig does not give an actor great exposure - both in amount of time they are seen and in regards to how niche a video game’s audience will be compared to other roles.

While I know that Noble and Grunberg have a big nerd following in their own rights, so potentially the cult status of being in a video game could be appealing on its own, I have to wonder if the ability of the game technology to more accurately represent their own skills and nuances as actors isn’t making the work more appealing across Hollywood.