Nolan North Doesn't Play Uncharted But His Kids Do

Actor Nolan North is a household name amongst most PS3 owners…not so much with Xbox 360 and PC gamers. Still, any core gamers is familiar with the name Nolan North because he’s the voice and actor behind the incredibly popular Uncharted series, which is, by far, one of the best adventure entertainment properties in all of entertainment.

In a recent interview with Grantland Nolan North talked extensively about performing as Nathan Drake in the critically and financially successful Uncharted series, as well as not being any good at video games but his kids showing quite the skill as gamers. It’s kind of the complete opposite of how Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie raise their kids…you know, with Pitt wanting his kids playing in dirt instead of playing stuff like Brain Age.

North’s kids, 8 and 11, are better at the game he stars in than he is, according to the voice of Nathan Drake. North stated that…

You know, I don't get to see so much of the gameplay, so for me it's always fun to watch someone else play through it. And it's such a beautiful game. The 11-year-old's really getting into it. He'll be 12 in January, actually, and he loves the story. He writes and draws and has no interest in being an actor but thinks directing would be cool. Maybe he'll give me a job someday.

North also talks about a really interesting design aspect to the latest Uncharted, which included tons of adlibbing and how a certain scenario in the game actually formed around fellow voice actor Graham McTavish’s ad-lib for the loveably sarcastic character, Charlie Cutter. North mentioned in the interview that…

During one of the first days we were shooting, we had this alley scene, and he said, "Wouldn't it be kind of funny if Charlie was claustrophobic?" Amy started laughing and said, "Do that. What would that look like? Let's try it”…Then Amy ended up taking that and when they get to Syria, Charlie gets drugged and has to go through a tight space again and loses his mind. This turns into a big fight, which is unlike any type of fight anybody in a video game has ever done, because you're trying not to hurt the person you're fighting. This whole element that ended up in the game was the result of an ad-lib.

Pretty awesome. Seemed like a game like that wouldn’t have any room for that sort of adlibbing that might actually change the outcome of the game, but if it works it works, and Gaming Blend’s own Pete Haas certainly thought it worked in his review of Uncharted 3.

You can check out the rest of the Grantland interview with Nolan North, who talks about the casting process for Uncharted as well as Batman: Arkham City and a few other projects he’s worked on.