gamepolitics: GTA San Andreas Voice Actor Complains About Hot Coffee

Game Politics (

gamepolitics) wrote,
@ 2006-01-27 13:30:00

Entry tags:

gta san andreas, hot coffee, rockstar, take two, woods

GTA San Andreas Voice Actor Complains About Hot Coffee

Well-known actor James Woods, who voiced the character Mike Toreno in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, has joined the ranks of those expressing their displeasure with the Hot Coffee scandal surrounding the game.

Woods told the Associated Press that actors should have been made aware of the hidden sex animations.

"If someone said, 'We're going to have this in there, be aware of that,'" then Woods could have decided for himself whether or not to participate in the game's production. As it stands, the actor said he "just doesn't like to be sandbagged."

Woods, who has appeared in dozens of films, including Any Given Sunday, The Onion Field, and The Getaway, has in recent years increasingly been in demand for voice work in video games. He has contributed to several high-profile games, including Kingdom Hearts and the upcoming Scarface The World is Yours.

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	wimp enmitywithin 2006-01-27 08:05 pm UTC (link)
	people are stupid. and if your going to lend yourself to a game where you can have sex with prostitutes, then suck it up and shut up. (Reply to this)

	silver_derstin 2006-01-27 08:11 pm UTC (link)
	Seeing how it was NOT supposed to be in the game, he should shut up and keep on doing his horrible voice acting. Jeez, with his talents, its a wonder he still gets hired. (Reply to this)

	Ummmm jabrwock 2006-01-27 08:13 pm UTC (link)
	Dear Mr. Woods, Our game might have a "dry-humping" scene (fully clothed) that shows you what the player is doing to his girlfriend after she invites him in for 'hot coffee'. Please let us know if you find this offensive. If you are offended, we'll just revert back to the original orgasmic screaming soundclip instead. OK? R* (Reply to this)

I wonder.....

funnydale
2006-01-27 08:15 pm UTC (link)

If video games are being held to a different standard to R rated movies.(that was a rhetorical question, I know they are)

Compare the "hot Coffee" in GTA SA to any sex scene in your typical R rated movie. The "Hot coffee" scene is far less graphic than your typical sex scene in any R rated DVD movie. I think it's a little odd that the media calls "Hot coffee" pornography, but the media never calls the more explicit sex scene's in your typical Hollywood movie pornography.

(Reply to this)

	aww metoollhead 2006-01-27 08:16 pm UTC (link)
	Shucks, and Toreno was my fav character in the whole game. :( I actually think his complaint is well deserved. Silly, chunky, poligonal dry humping or not, they should've been notified about it somehow. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: aww andrew_eisen 2006-01-27 08:23 pm UTC (link)
	Why? Andrew Eisen (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Re: aww mandrakegeek 2006-01-27 08:26 pm UTC (link)
	I actually think his complaint is well deserved. Silly, chunky, poligonal dry humping or not, they should've been notified about it somehow. What? Notified for how badly it was animated? How bad the voice acting was for that "scene"? "ohhh... yeah... give it to me baby..." I think Jenna Jameson actually has better lines than "hot coffee" did. <_< (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: aww metoollhead 2006-01-27 08:54 pm UTC (link)
	Dude, most people won't even get a look at the scenes; They won't know how stupid they are; They'll only know about "that one guy who did the voice acting in that criminal-porn game" (Reply to this) (Parent)

evilrockstu
2006-01-27 08:20 pm UTC (link)

Err... he's right, you know.

You can't say 'oh, well in the game you can do this and that so suck it up', because if that was all there was to it - and bear in mind, that's what these actors signed up for - well, there wouldn't be any problem, would there?

I'm not saying the fuss over 'Hot Coffee' isn't stupid, because IMO it's the most stupid, idiotic, pointless, moronic thing for anyone to be making such a big deal about, and the sooner all these big shot lawyers in the US realise it the better... but the fact is, the big deal is being made, and guys like James Woods, they've got their names attached to something they didn't sign up for.

(Reply to this)

	This is the first time I've seen any of the actors talk about it. quartermaine 2006-01-27 08:23 pm UTC (link)
	Anyone else had any comment? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: This is the first time I've seen any of the actors talk about it. jindewinter 2006-01-27 08:43 pm UTC (link)
	Supprisingly not but then again most of those who would are too busy still complaining about the war and President Bush. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Maybe he hasn't seen some of his own movies lately... dog_welder 2006-01-27 08:37 pm UTC (link)
	And correct me if I'm wrong here, but I don't remember movies like "Vampires," "Scary Movie 2," and "Casino" being found in the "family" section at Blockbuster. On one hand, I can agree that it would be nice to be able to decide which projects you work on after reading the full script, but on the other hand Hot Coffee was quite a bit tamer than the movies I just listed. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: Maybe he hasn't seen some of his own movies lately... bigman_k 2006-01-27 08:42 pm UTC (link)
	Not to mention Videodrome. That's movie pretty explicit. And the stuff in it is way worse then you see in GTA:SA. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Re: Maybe he hasn't seen some of his own movies lately... sprngpilot 2006-01-27 08:44 pm UTC (link)
	I don't think he is complaining about being attached to something not "family friendly" but rather not being made aware of the entire content of the project. I doubt he's offended by the "Hot Coffee" content, just perturbed he wasn't given a warning about it beforehand. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	brucenstein 2006-01-27 08:41 pm UTC (link)
	James Woods doesn't get teabagged, he gets sandbagged. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	jabrwock 2006-01-27 08:47 pm UTC (link)
	That's a well endowed man that can sandbag someone... :P (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	squirrelofwrath 2006-01-27 09:02 pm UTC (link)
	Theres a chuck norris fact in here somewhere. (Reply to this) (Parent)

Thespians. Ugh!

andrew_eisen
2006-01-27 08:42 pm UTC (link)

Woods wouldn’t like working with George Lucas; he doesn’t even give his actors more that three pages of the script.

Woods is full of it. Number one, he’s not in the scene in question. Number two, the scene in question is not pornographic or sexually explicit. Number three, it is the actor’s obligation to inform the director of any types of scenes he/she may be uncomfortable with.

Besides, Hot Coffee may have been cut from the game by the time they recorded the voices.

Andrew Eisen

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Re: Thespians. Ugh!

illspirit
2006-01-28 08:14 am UTC (link)

Besides, Hot Coffee may have been cut from the game by the time they recorded the voices.

No, because the actors did record voices for the sex scenes. Not Woods' character, mind you, but seven people had voiceovers there. And then at least two actors for the motion capture. And who knows how many audio and mo-cap engineers to record it all. Maybe Woods didn't hear about it, but either way it was a far cry from being hidden from the cast...

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Re: Thespians. Ugh!

andrew_eisen
2006-01-28 08:32 am UTC (link)

I was always under the impression that the voice-overs in the Hot Coffee scenes were scratch tracks done by the developers. Even so, it’s not often I write a statement so completely devoid of logic. What I meant to convey (and failed miserably at) was that it’s possible that the scene was cut before Woods recorded his dialog. Thinking about it now, that’s pretty unlikely. I really should stop posting while I’m at work lest I make a bigger ass of myself in the future.

That said, I still don’t get why Woods feels the developers owed him full disclosure of every aspect of the game. That would be like me being angry with my landlord for letting me sign the lease without informing me that the occupants of the apartment on the other side of the complex shoot pornos.

Andrew Eisen

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Re: Thespians. Ugh!

illspirit
2006-01-28 01:53 pm UTC (link)

'Tis possible Woods might have never known even if it had made the final cut. Seeing as his character wasn't involved, and side missions/mini-games probably weren't in the main script. But even then, like you said about George Lucas, actors not knowing the whole script is par for the course.

Either way, I don't see how sex scenes in the game surprised him given the stuff that's already there. And I still don't see how it surprised anyone else for that matter.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	I wonder hilaryduffgta 2006-01-27 09:58 pm UTC (link)
	What samuel L Jackson Thinks of the whole hot coffee thing and this anti game crap.over all the voice actors for san andreas i thought chris penn Rip Chris and Samuel L Jackson were the best for the roles.Though woods was good i wonder if someone could of done Toreno Better (Reply to this)

kajex
2006-01-27 10:37 pm UTC (link)

The thing that gets me is that the content wasn't supposed to be user-accessible to begin with, something nobody seems to remember. That fact alone indicates that they were trying to cover it so that it wouldn't have to be viewed, possibly as protection for those who find such images offensive. The fact that they left it in there is an indication that they did drop the ball and made a mess of alot of things, but I do not believe it was their intention at ANY point to have anyone able to view the material, mostly on the basis that they might have felt it unnecessary and even offensive themselves. And anybody trying to distance themselves away from Take-Two on the incident has clearly forgotten that.

The second thing that gets me is that there's a huge Anne Hesh beef going on with people being unable to decide what the hell is more offensive- the violence that was the highlight of the game itself, or the fact that there was a hidden sex scene that wasn't supposed to be accessed in the first place.

(Reply to this)

	Wha? cowboybeboper42 2006-01-27 10:45 pm UTC (link)
	I love James Woods, but I really don't know why he is complaining. His character had nothing to do with the scenes, so why should he care? (Reply to this)

kynmore
2006-01-27 10:49 pm UTC (link)

I agree w/ Woods. If i were giving my voice talent to a project,and there was questionable material in it, I would want to know.

But, I think he's saying this more to protect his own name than anything else. Which he wouldn't really need to do if T2/Rockstar had just said from the start, "Yes, this was part of the game, but we disabled the featurew because we..." But they didn't do that, they lied about it, and tried to cover it up.

That's the real issue with all of this, is the lies that ccured when it was first found. The actual content is a moot point.

(Reply to this)

	Whatever... catch_33 2006-01-27 10:58 pm UTC (link)
	"If someone said, 'We're going to have this in there, be aware of that,'" Considering what else is in the game already, he should not be worried about Hot Coffee having any effect on his image or career. Purple dildos, anyone? (Reply to this)

	I can understand where James Woods is coming from jerico6 2006-01-27 10:58 pm UTC (link)
	I mean, if I was part of a production that had questionable content, I would want to know about it. I can understand Mr. Woods displeasure with the controversy. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	I too understand... cashcleaner 2006-01-27 11:32 pm UTC (link)
	...But why won't others? It only makes sense that as a part of the prouction team, Mr. Woods should have been given full disclosure with regards to the game's entire content. Like what Kynmore said, the content itself is a moot point, the real issue is that Rockstar LIED about it. I support James Woods on this issue. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	khy 2006-01-27 11:41 pm UTC (link)
	James Wood is the best friend a guy could ever have (Reply to this)

Woods is being absurd

andrew_eisen
2006-01-28 12:22 am UTC (link)

Instead of replying to several of you individually, I decided to make a new post.

I’m lazy.

Rockstar was under no obligation to tell Woods that there might be a soft-core sex mini-game in San Andreas that the character he was voicing was not involved with. If it was such a sticking point, Woods should have asked up front.

This is like a clothing model complaining that Fredrick’s of Hollywood didn’t tell her that there would be breast-barring underwear modeled on the other pages of the magazine.

Andrew Eisen

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: Woods is being absurd pyrrhus9588 2006-01-28 09:11 am UTC (link)
	I agree. The only people that were directly involved with "Hot Coffee" is the development team, Young Maylay (voice of CJ) and the women who voiced CJ's girlfriends. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	angry_man 2006-01-28 12:49 am UTC (link)
	I wonder if Mr. Woods would like to comment on his choice to voice act a game where you can shoot at cops for the hell of it... (Reply to this)

thenewsgeek
2006-01-28 02:00 am UTC (link)

I was going to mock Woods, whom I think is a fantastic actor, by saying something really silly on his behalf like "Oh sure, I'll be in this game about killing, sex and drugs, but OH NOES you can't have dry humping in there! The media doesn't like it!"

However, he has a point. It's not the content that bugs him; it's the being deceived. Seriously, this entire Hot Coffee issue is stupid, from the scene to the fallout that followed it.

How dare we have a dry humping scene in a game that's for adults anyway? Oh yeah, that's right. Idiot parents let their 12-year-olds play it. And remember, kids, violence good! Sex bad!

(Reply to this) (Thread)

andrew_eisen
2006-01-28 02:50 am UTC (link)

However, he has a point. It's not the content that bugs him; it's the being deceived.

The only way Woods could have been deceived is if he had asked Rockstar if there was sex in the game and they told him no. This is of course assuming that Hot Coffee was still a part of the game at that time they recorded his voice.

Woods is full of it. I do, however enjoy his work as an actor.

Andrew Eisen

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	Ironic trencher 2006-01-28 02:56 am UTC (link)
	Game you can kill cops and hookers in = Fine, sign me right up! Game where you can have sex = My god, the horror! WTF did he think he was signing up for? Care Bears Christmas? (Reply to this)

automancer
2006-01-28 04:03 am UTC (link)

I see where Mr. Woods is coming from, he isn't comlpaining about the scene itself but rather the fact that he was not told about it. I also think it is because these scenes are being made a big deal of that it concerns him. Almost as if saying, "If you guys knew this thing would be such a big deal why wasn't I told about it?" It may not have changed his mind about taking the job be he would have been able to "brace for it".

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	duff_mcwhalen 2006-01-28 08:15 am UTC (link)
	Well said. I'm happy to hear some people here have some freakin sense on whats`Woods was sayin. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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