The North Star: Nolan North receives a BAFTA Special Award

With more than two decades in the business and performances in 180-plus games, actor and voice actor Nolan North is one of the true greats of the games industry. In June, just before this year’s E3, North was presented with a BAFTA Special Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to performance in games. Words by Toby Weidmann.

When celebrating the esteemed career of someone, convention dictates that you should always eulogise a few highlights from said career. But with some people that’s easier said than done, especially when that person’s list of credits is into triple figures. Nolan North, actor, performer and voice actor, is one of those people.

North’s probably best known for Nathan Drake, the lead character of the Uncharted series of games, a performance for which he was thrice nominated for a BAFTA. But ask any gamer for their favourite North voiced character and you could receive dozens of suggestions, including Desmond Miles, Martin Walker, the guardian’s Ghost, the Prince of Persia, Deadpool, Superman, Alberto Clemente, Doctor N Gin, the Penguin, David the cannibal, the Black Hand of Sauron and the list really does go on and on. And this is just his gameography; he has plenty of notable credits in live action film, television and animation, too.

Given this pedigree, it is perhaps a surprise to learn that North has never won a BAFTA. This was rectified on 11 June at a special event in West Hollywood, on the eve of the start of this year’s E3, when North was honoured with a BAFTA Special Award. An interview was helmed by Amy Hennig, the head writer and creative director of the Uncharted series (who herself had received a Special Award in 2016), before North was given the trophy by BAFTA’s Chair of the Games Committee, Nick Button-Brown. The award was presented in recognition of North’s outstanding contribution to games, having helped set the standard as a pioneer for exceptional performances in the medium.

Button-Brown said: “We are thrilled to present our first Special Award in games performance to Nolan North. His singular talents, in both voice and mocap performance, help to tell incredible stories and make our game worlds so much more interesting. He has created some of the most beloved characters in games for almost 20 years, setting the standard as a pioneer of the range of exceptional performances we enjoy in the medium today. BAFTA is committed to celebrating and promoting the very best in games artistry, therefore I’m especially glad that BAFTA is taking this moment to honour Nolan, and through him the essential role that performance plays in games.”

The moment left North somewhat lost for words – ironic for someone whose biggest talent is his voice. He said: “I’ve never received anything like this. I’m actually speechless, for once. This means a great deal to me. My dad raised me on BBC TV and I know this will mean a lot to him, and that means something to me… I don’t know why it’s me, but I sincerely appreciate it. I just hope that we all get to continue working together. This is not the end – I’ve got miles to go before I sleep. I look forward to sitting out there and seeing some of my other friends receive such an honour. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.”

And yet it could all have been very different. North’s acting career started in 1997, when he landed a series regular role on daytime soap Port Charles, but he turned to acting only because injury forced him to give up on his dream of playing baseball professionally. Asked about those early years, he explained how disappointed he was when his team released him from his contract. “I didn’t think acting was a job. My dad raised me on the BBC, so I didn’t think Americans were actors until I was 12 or 13. It was all [Richard] Burton and [Alec] Guinness, those were the actors. We watched Doctor Who, Fawlty Towers, Benny Hill, The Prisoner, that was my favourite.”

He did feel that there were certainly parallels between team sports and acting though, adding: “You do what your coach says. When the coach says run up that hill 10 times then you do it or you’re not gonna play. The director is the coach, and the producers might be the management of the team or college. I was a pitcher and I always wanted to improve in every game I played… and I think actors always try to outdo themselves in the next performance, to bring something new, something different to their performance. I try to do that.”

From Port Charles, North landed several other roles but it was working in games that he seemed to enjoy the most success – the 180-plus games under his belt to date would certainly back that up. Just as Andy Serkis has done much to popularise motion capture (mocap)/performance capture in films, North has been at the forefront of this technology in games. He recalled the first time he ever experienced working in mocap, heading to San Diego, almost on a whim, to take on the role of a sports agent in NBA ‘06’s ‘The List’, a forerunner of the career mode that is so prevalent in modern sports sims.

“Everybody thought I was nuts, driving to San Diego, for scale, to wear a stupid suit,” he laughed. “I thought it sounded pretty cool and that it might work. It sounded like the theatre I’d done in New York. It’s the only thing I’ve ever gambled on and won. I remember thinking, ‘This is going to be cool.’ When they were casting for Uncharted, I didn’t have a big résumé, other than Port Charles, but I did have a bunch of mocap experience.”

And about that iconic role, he said: “I wasn’t the most talented actor who auditioned for the part, but I was just the right fit for the role. People always ask actors how they deal with rejection and I always say, ‘There is no rejection.’… It’s not that you were bad [in the audition], you were just not right for the role.”

Hennig and North’s Q&A is full of little nuggets and advice, including some about serendipity – “Sometimes if you take the oars out of the water and let the current take you it’s amazing where you’ll go” – and about his approach to work – “If you’re self-conscious about anything as an actor, you’re going to be in trouble. I always embrace that sense of play.”

Nolan North’s wonderful sense of play has entertained and elicited heartfelt emotion in gamers for decades, and long may this continue. Nathan Drake may well have hung up his adventurer’s hat for the last time (please say it ain’t so, Naughty Dog!), but we have a feeling there’s plenty more exhilarating performances to come from his real-life counterpart.

Watch the full Q&A with Amy Hennig and Nolan North here.