GTA 5 actor reveals ‘damaging’ injuries from playing Michael

Ned Luke, the actor behind Michael from Grand Theft Auto 5, says he’d play the iconic character again despite some of the injuries he picked up in the process.

Getting a role in a Grand Theft Auto game can be a big thing for many actors. Rockstar Games loves to use some well-known faces – Ray Liotta in Vice City, Danny Dyer had a small role in GTA: San Andreas, and, of course, Samuel L. Jackson was in San Andreas as well.

When it comes to GTA 5, the game has been pretty life-changing for the main three actors – Ned Luke, Steven Ogg, and Shawn Fonteno. They’ve become synonymous with their characters, even if Ogg doesn’t love to be known as Trevor in real life. 

So much so that Ned would be open to playing his character again – either in-game or in a movie – despite some of the vocal injuries he sustained.

Ned Luke has “damaged” vocal chords from GTA 5

The actor spoke to Dexerto’s Fall Damage series about his role and noted that his vocal chords are “damaged” because of playing Michael.

“The voice acting stuff, you know, you’re catching on fire, you’re falling off a building, you’re screaming over gunfire, you know, by the time you’re done you’re like this, literally,” he said, imitating having no voice. 

“I would come out of there and I’d be like this and I’d go like Jesus I need some honey tea. And then you get the honey tea and then you just suck it up and you just go ahhh. I don’t doubt that my vocal cords are damaged because of this game.”

Timestamp of 4:26

As noted, Ned also spoke about a possible movie or TV series based around GTA 5, suggesting Christian Bale as an option to replace him. 

“If I had to recast Michael with an actor, I think I would use the guy who was, who was that guy’s name that was Batman, Dark Knight,” he said. “But, I would beat him out for the part.”