Snake Voice Actor David Hayter Forgives Kojima After Playing MGSV

David Hayter — who for many years gave Snake his voice — has finally “forgiven” the series’ creator, Hideo Kojima, for not casting him in 2015’s Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

At the time he was replaced by Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland, Hayter admitted that playing the game back then would have been like “60 hours of humiliation,” adding: “I don’t have any particular affection for Kojima. I don’t feel the need to go back and work with him again.”

Now, almost a decade later, Hayter told PC Gamer (via IGN): “Well, there was reluctance. I didn’t want to play because I thought it would hurt. Then, you know, 10 years passed and I thought, ‘Ah, to hell with my feelings. What do I care?’ […] I’m a screenwriter, so I’m fired for a living, like, literally, eventually, I get fired from every job I get, and I’m not a kid.”

“I thought, ‘Stop being a baby and play the game.’ So I played. It’s amazing.” Hayter also “forgave” Sutherland. After meeting him at a bar in Dallas, Hayter and Sutherland “drank a bunch of drinks.” “He’s a nice guy, you know? No, no hard feelings. All is forgiven,” said Hayter.

“The fact that you can enter the same scenario every time, and [the enemy] does the same thing, but you can take different routes or attack strategies, makes it feel like a time loop… So, yeah, that’s awesome. As far as I’m concerned, all is forgiven,” says Hayter of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.