By Todd Russell
In a world of AI seemingly taking over, it’s good to spotlight real human voice talent. Add to that an asterisk, because I’m liking rich, entitled actors and actresses less and less after reading about what follows herein.
We’re going to talk about workplaces in this article and, unfortunately, celebrities and acting talent, because whether or not some want to admit it, real actors voicing games, including pinball can make games more exciting and fun to play. Well known and/or really good human voice talent can improve games. Some of them, anyway.
Like Michael Dorn voicing the dragon in the new Stern Pinball Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye (see: Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye (0.85 code) Stern Pinball Pro 2025 Detailed First Thoughts After Flipping on Location). Kevin Smith also does some voice work in there.
This topic might seem more TMZ than PGM, but the reality is more and more games are having levels of production like or even more involved than Hollywood movies with production budgets into the hundreds of millions. AAA games, as they are known, are produced with professional voice actors. It’s a reality that these large budget games do have a very real workplace.
Sadly, unfortunately, sexual harassment in the workplace happens. I wish this topic wasn’t game-related, but when it comes down to the workplace, making games and making them with men and women in a safe, professional environment is not only important but vital to review and discuss.
But … is any of this fun? No.
When we think of Hollywood, there are just more and more disconcerting stories about the state of the workplace. Keep in mind what follows are allegations, complaints and what, if any of it is true, remains to be determined in — or at least weighed in on — by the legal system.
Maybe you’ve heard by now about the movie “It Ends With Us” starting Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively. It’s based on the bestselling novel by Colleen Hoover. The story deals with emotional abuse and domestic violence between a couple. There was physical abuse from the main character’s father with her mother and the cycle has continued with her relationship.
The movie was a financial success, on a budget of $25 million grossing $351 million. This success did not come without drama during the promotion of the film between the director and actor Justin Baldoni and main female lead Blake Lively. The media and publicity surrounding this made it seem like Lively was some kind of diva and promoting her personal line of products more than the movie.
Fast forward months later and Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni and PR agency for a wide range of alleged behavior that occurred during the making of the film.
“Alleging the violation of physical boundaries, sexual and inappropriate comments and the absence of intimacy coordination, the court filing is an astonishing read. It claims that Heath showed Lively unsolicited footage of his wife giving birth as they filmed a scene where her character does so; that Baldoni’s “best friend” was drafted in to play the obstetrician-gynaecologist in that scene, in which Lively was “nearly nude” in front of dozens of crew; that Baldoni talked to her about non-consensual sexual encounters; that he wept in her trailer over reactions to paparazzi photos from shooting that called her old and unattractive, prompting her to remind him that in those scenes her character had just been abused by her husband, and that she should look authentically distressed, not “hot”.” – I’m ashamed of what I said about Blake Lively. Her allegations should shock us all | Laura Snapes | The Guardian
Baldoni strongly refutes these allegations and responded, first by suing the New York Times for only portraying part of the story, alleging intentionally misleading with only parts of the text messages to support Lively’s narrative of harassment by Baldoni. Then Baldoni’s lawyer is out there saying it was largely a case of Baldoni being bullied by Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds taking over the movie from him, the director. A power struggle for creative control of the film, with Lively’s allegations of harassment part of the way she seized control of his director duties.
She didn’t read the book — allegedly
The attorney also mentions that Lively never has read the book the movie is based on, yet she’s inserting her own perspective into the movie? She has a producer credit, but she even lobbied to get her final cut of the movie over Baldoni’s — the director.
That’s an outrageous accusation.
Regardless, what the truth is here, this sort of creative dysfunction and workplace conflict is overpowering the movie, the creative work itself. Even me that does not look for this type of news content is literally experiencing multiple stories on this every single day in my newsreader. It’s blowing up and invading my gaming news.
It’s been happening for months now. Months and months of this garbage filtering over into my attention stream.
So much to unpack here, but from a purely creative standpoint, the biggest issue to me is Lively as a lead actress in the film not even reading the source material. How can this be if she feels like she wants to change the movie for the better? I would think actors and actresses would want to understand all the dimensions of the character in the original source material. Sure, movies take liberties — some think too many — with the book, but the book has spent a lot of time on the bestseller list and a lot of readers enjoy the book. Probably important to understand what the fans think of the material and if you’re portraying a main character in the book, to embody that character as best as possible.
I think of Renee Zellwegger and what she did with the icon, Judy Garland in the film Judy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_(2019_film)). Renee sought to be Judy Garland, even singing in the movie — and doing a great job, in my opinion.
And yet as a professional, Blake Lively, if true, doesn’t even bother to read the book the movie is based on? This, from a creative standpoint, is patently offensive.
But then I go back to Blake’s complaints of harassment during the making of the movie. If any of that is true, it’s worse that she had to endure this in the workplace. No matter what creative indiscretions she might have had, she didn’t deserve abuse in the workplace, if that occurred.
Whatever is true, I sure hope none of this comes to gaming, and yet I’m sharing this here because I think games more and more are using Hollywood type production. Voice actors, real actors, are being used for many games and it’s a part of the job. Given that voice acting isn’t as involved as what happened in the film we’re discussing here.
Keep this garbage away from games, please. Yeah, I know, then why write about this here? Because I’m worried it will come here! It will be drama outside of the games that more energy and wasted $$ legal $$ money is spent than energy on the games themselves.
The drama may already be impacting future projects for both, but Baldoni in particular was working on a live action Pac-Man movie that might now not see the light of day.
“But Pac-Man, which Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios were developing since 2022, may no longer be in his future. It is among at least a trio of projects that are now in doubt as friction with Lively turned from internet curiosity into a full-fledged legal war.” Justin Baldoni’s ‘Pac-Man’ Movie in Doubt Amid Blake Lively Battle
My vote is for the energy to go toward the creative work. Always. Put the maximum effort there. Please. I like Pac-Man and am disappointed that we might be missing out on a Pac-Man movie. Still, I guess there is that possible Ryan Reynolds led Dragon’s Lair movie (see: Dragon’s Lair Live Action Movie on Netflix Still Under Development). Ironically, Blake Lively’s husband? Ryan Reynolds.
Do we need more gaming people making movies instead of mega rich Hollywood types? Perhaps that is the underlying question here. Sound off, readers.