Hideo Kojima prefers casting actors he vibes with irl, and that's not going to change for his upcoming horror or spy games

OD screenshot which shows the Unreal Engine 5 sceen test for actor Sophia Lillis
(Image credit: Kojima Productions)

Hideo Kojima says he picks the actors whose films he likes to watch to star in his games, and that's not likely to change with his new projects like OD and Physint.

Speaking to IGN, he explained that the process of bringing an actor to life in a game like Death Stranding 2 is a complicated one. "It's not as if we can shoot everything in one three-month period like a film," he says, explaining that he looks for a "mutual bond" with the actors he wants to cast.

"I start with the people I like," he says, "the people who I like to see in films and the people I want to work with. I go and meet these people directly. We'll end up knowing each other for a while, and so over the course of having meals with them and such I'm able to decide whether or not I want to work with them."

Kojima says he does occasionally do auditions, but picking actors is "more about the connection." That's something that's been true of Death Stranding and its sequel, and isn't likely to change in future - "it's the same [process] for OD, Physint, and other projects too," he explains, referencing both his upcoming horror project with Jordan Peele, and his mysterious espionage project that sounds a little like a spiritual successor to Metal Gear Solid.

There's a host of upcoming Hideo Kojima games, but it sounds as though Death Stranding 3 won't be one of them.

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Ali Jones
News Editor

I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.

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