Why did Kurt Russell refuse to voice Snake in Metal Gear Solid?

Kurt Russell's role as Snake Plissken in John Carpenter's film Escape from New York He is a major inspiration for Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid games. Series creator Hideo Kojima is a huge fan of Carpenter's films, and borrowed Special Forces agent Russell's name, eyepatch, and gruff demeanor for his video game hero. Kojima addressed the honor publicly Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Libertygave Snake the code name Iroquois Pliskin.

At one point, Kojima reportedly wanted Kurt Russell to voice Snake Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and replaces English voice artist David Hayter. (Russell could have filmed Naked Snake, not Solid Snake, for what it's worth.)

Russell apparently refused, with Hayter reprising the role in later games (until… Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes And the Phantom pain). In new GQ video interview with Russell About his famous movie characters, the actor explains why he doesn't voice Snake.

“Look, I'm very lazy by nature,” Russell explains. “There were different times when people wanted it [me] To do something. I don't know, I'm a movie guy. You have to understand that from my perspective, whether it was Elvis, Snake Plissken, Jack Burton, or RJ MacReady, it was Which project. It was this thing. Get into this mindset. You create it. You want to make this world happen.

“I was doing interviews when [1979 biopic] Elvis He'd come out and they'd say, 'Come on, do a little Elvis for us.' It doesn't work that way, you don't just slide in and out of Facebook. You go to work on it. You refine it, then you do it and get paid for it. I come from a different era. I wasn't interested in “expanding” financially with something we created or I created in terms of the character.

In addition to returning to a character out of context, Russell says he had another important reason for not resurrecting his character, in a slightly different video game form, for Carpenter's Snake Plissken films.

“I was looking [a script] “And say, ‘This isn’t written by John,’” Russell says, sniffing the air. “This doesn’t smell good. John's not here to do this, I won't do it. Let's do something new, let's do something new, let's go create another iconic character, instead of saying, “What can we get rid of this iconic character?”

Russell returned to the role of Snake Plissken Escape from New York sequel Escape from Los Angeles, so he's definitely not above recasting roles. The guy did two sequences for The computer was wearing tennis shoesAfter all, Santa Claus has been photographed many times.

The rest of Russell's interview with GQ is worth watching. He entertainingly splits his roles as John Carpenter The thingin a trilogy of Quentin Tarantino films, and in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. He also does some interesting talking on the box office battle between dueling Westerns Headstone And Wyatt Earp.