Actor Kurt Russell recently acknowledged the rumor about the actor turning down the job of voicing Solid Snake in Hideo Kojima’s stealth video game series Metal Gear. The character in the video game was reportedly inspired by Russell’s character, Snake Plissken, in 1981’s Escape from New York. The first game in the series, Metal Gear, was released in 1987.
The main reason why Russell turned down the role is because he wasn’t interested in making money off the character. Since he is a “movie guy,” he was interested in finding something new to work on rather than accepting an offer that “expands” the character. On top of that, Russell wasn’t ready to work without Escape from New York’s director John Carpenter.
Kurt Russell wasn’t interested in voicing Solid Snake
In a recent interview with GQ, actor Kurt Russell talked about his most iconic characters. While talking about his character, Snake Plissken, in 1981’s Escape from New York, the actor was asked about a rumor that claimed he was asked to voice Solid Snake in the Metal Gear video game series since Snake Plissken inspired the character. The actor said,
“There have been many different times when people wanted to do something. I don’t know. I’m a movie guy – You’ve got to understand that, from my point of view, whether it’s Elvis, or Snake Plissken, or Jack Burton, or R.J. MacReady, that was that project. That was that thing. You get into that mindset. You create that. You want to make that world happen.”
Russell further explained that he “wasn’t interested in expanding financially off of something that we had created” in terms of a character. The actor was more keen on working on something else, particularly on playing another iconic character.
Kurt Russell was not ready to work without John Carpenter
Since the director of Escape from New York, John Carpenter had no involvement in the video game project, Russell wasn’t interested in it,
“Then I look at it and go, that’s not written by John. That doesn’t smell right. John’s not here to do this with, why am I? I’m not gonna do that. Let’s go do something new, let’s go do something fresh. Let’s go create another iconic character.”
Hideo Kojima wanted Russell to replace David Hayter in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater but since Russell declined, Hayter continued to voice the character. Although Russell says he’s always looking to work in something new, he reprised the role of Snake Plissken in Escape from New York sequel Escape from LA (1996).
