Report: Gaming Actors Say Fan Support Has Grown During Strikes
Earlier this year, Persona 5 voice actor Erica Lindbeck deleted her Twitter after she asked fans to stop using her voice in AI-generated content. The fanbase was split, with many coming to her defence, while others claimed she was wrong to call out fans who are just having fun with AI. After all, they weren’t stealing her job or making money, so what’s the problem?
In July, we spoke to a range of actors in video games who told us that it isn’t just about the money.
Related: Report: Your Favourite Gaming Actors Want You To Stop AI Generating Their Voices
“The big deal is consent,” Spider-Man’s Yuri Lowenthal told me at the time. “You’re essentially appropriating someone’s identity and making them do something without their consent, and that’s not okay.”
Roger Clark, who played the lead in Red Dead Redemption 2, agreed. “It is at best defamatory and at worse theft.”
Since then, many actors across film and television have been on strike (video game work has not been struck), and public perception seems to be shifting. Rather than Lindbeck being run off Twitter for complaining about AI, we’ve seen social media users go after actors they feel aren’t supporting the strike enough. The Arrowverse's Stephen Amell is perhaps the most high-profile example, coming under fire following his criticism of the strike. He eventually walked back these comments, even appearing on the SAG-AFTRA picket line.
We recently saw a similar thing occur in the Star Trek fandom, after its biggest convention went ahead while trying to adhere to SAG-AFTRA rules. For the most part, it worked. However, Robert Beltran, who played Commander Chakotay in Star Trek: Voyager, then seemed to purposely break strike rules, name-dropping characters and TV shows
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