The actor behind Joel in The Last of Us (and too many other games to name, like Death Stranding) has no desire to play the same characters in TV and film adaptations.
Troy Baker has been a pretty unavoidable fixture in mainstream games for well over a decade since the actor has lent his voice and mocap performance to everything from Uncharted 4, Marvel's Avengers, and Final Fantasy 13 to Death Stranding, Tales of Vesperia, and Bioshock Infinite. But now, even though video game adaptations are booming on the big screen and streaming services, Baker says he's not too keen on making that same jump.
In an interview with Gamology, Baker explains that he gets "more excited now about seeing somebody step into that role in a different medium" who can depict "a different version of the same character" that he's already played in a video game. "I'm more excited about the other version of it than I am repeating my version of it." That was pretty much the case in HBO's The Last of Us show, where Pedro Pascal adopted the lead role while Baker slipped into the shoes of an all-new character.
Part of Baker's hesitation comes from his familiarity with the medium, too. "I really like games, I understand games," he continues. "That does not mean that film or TV has no appeal to me - clearly I loved working on the HBO show. But I think what this whole experience has taught me is that if I play a character in a game, I know how to do that economy [and] I know how to deal with those resources." Baker talks about how, in a game role, he might sometimes just be in a booth with a mic and a developer on Zoom. Compare that to an HBO production littered with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cameras and extras and elaborate sets and higher stakes, and you can't really blame him for having a preference.
