Troy Baker obviously isn’t doing a pitch perfect Harrison Ford impression for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, but apparently that wasn’t really the point.
Impressions are hard things to do, and they can be pretty intimidating too, especially when you’re trying to fill in the shoes of both an iconic actor and character such as Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones. That’s exactly what prolific voice actor Troy Baker was faced with in taking on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and in an interview with GamesRadar, he shared that the role “scared” him enough that he almost didn’t take it on. “I originally passed [on the Indiana Jones role] because, truth be told, I was so scared that I would not be able to pull it off,” Baker said. “And fortunately, [voice acting director] Tom Keegan saw past my insecurities and encouraged me to put myself on tape for this still.”
Baker is obviously a big name in video games these days, best known for his role as Joel in The Last of Us, but even still it doesn’t mean the auditioning process was an easy one. “We saw over 1000 people for this role, and so not only am I in competition with all those truly talented people, but I’m also in competition with myself,” Baker explained. “And the beauty of this is that it’s not about ‘can you make a bang-on impression?’, it’s ‘can you help us feel like this is an authentic Indiana Jones?’ Because that’s what the core of all this is: does this feel like it’s an authentic Indiana Jones?”
Over time though, the actor was eventually convinced to take it on. “And then finally, there was a Zoom call with the MachineGames team, and also Tom Keegan and Todd Howard, and they said ‘we want to walk you through the story’ – and where I was nervous and insecure before, by the time they were done walking me through the story, I was beyond excited. I went from ‘I hope I get this job’ to ‘I really, really wanted it'”.
Funnily enough, Bethesda head Todd Howard didn’t actually want Baker in the game at first, with the voice actor noting that his “favorite part of that story is how Todd Howard, when they originally brought my name to him, rolled his eyes like, ‘No, I’m not putting Troy Baker in my game.’ And I never thought that I would be [in it either].” Well, clearly Howard was won over in the end, and we’ve not got long to wait to see how Baker shapes up, as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is due out next week, December 9.