Niko actor prepared for GTA "backlash"

By Robert Purchese Published 27 May, 2008

But is "honoured to be a part of it now".

Niko Bellic actor Michael Hollick has said he was "almost more ready for [critical] backlash than for anything else" in the run up to Grand Theft Auto IV release.

He was speaking on the Big O & Dukes radio show on WJFK-FM (spotted by Kotaku), and talked about the huge secrecy surrounding the project; apparently he only found out the name of his character two weeks after signing lengthy confidentiality agreements.

"When I first auditioned for [the game] I didn't even know what I was auditioning for. They said it was a game called Frozen," explained Hollick using his regular American accent in case you're wondering. "I forget what the character name was, but it wasn't Niko."

Hollick originally auditioned to do the motion-capture work for Niko, but having heard him speaking the lines, Rockstar decided to let him do the voice for the character as well.

In total, Hollick reckons it took around 18 months to record all of his speaking and movement for Niko. The game was tackled in chunks, with scripts sometimes hundreds of pages long per section.

The motion capture was be recorded first and with the other actors around. And then, sometimes months later, he went to a studio on his own to do facial animations and voice work.

The worst days were when he faced "50 pages of screaming", apparently, doing things like "Niko falling off a motorcycle into the ocean [and] drowning".

"I knew enough about videogames that [GTA IV] was different off the bat. There was a great sense while we were doing it that this was something special," added Hollick.

Apparently Hollick was never much of a gamer and so found it "thrilling and fascinating" to see how much went into GTA IV. He likes videogames now, but says he's rubbish at them and gets Niko killed fairly quickly when playing.

His popularity has increased, too - now that his name is correctly listed on IMDB.

"I'm getting crazy hits on my MySpace page," said Hollick, before adding that he and his wife - also an actor for the game - did some "interesting role-playing" when he got home from work.

He has few plans for Niko Bellic going forward, but one his friend has suggested doing a Christmas album in the style of the Serbian gangster, which should be interesting.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • captainrentboy #1 4 years ago

    Interesting Role Playing means having filthy fucking sex, yes?
    It's something I just didn't need to know.
    Edited by 1 at 27/05/08 @ 12:16

  • chrisjm #2 4 years ago

    personalised vip luxury ringtones?

  • BadBoyBonner #3 4 years ago

    So did his wife try extract information from him while doing the interesting role playing? lol

  • Mr_Dodger #4 4 years ago

    "Few plans for Niko"

    Hmm. So I wonder if the DLC is recorded already, or if it will focus on new characters? Or maybe it's in the "few plans" he's talking about.

  • Xerx3s #5 4 years ago

    "Tell me interesting things Niko Bellic!"

    XD

  • TheWretched #6 4 years ago

    She is a gooood listener!!

  • Jas315 #7 4 years ago

    He isn't Russian, Serbian, or Ukranian. Gosh sometimes video game journilists can be total idiots.

    Sam Houser - EGM - 2008. -

    "GTA3 had a main character with no name. GTA4's main character is a man with no country. Liberty City's residents label Niko with slanderous titles like "that Polack" or "that Slavic drug dealer." He just smirks or offers a noncomittal grunt. "He's from that gray part of broken-down Eastern Europe, a war-torn area," says Houser. "[He's] a guy like you and me who just did what he had to do to fend for himself."

    All Michael did was speak in the Serbian dialect, this however still doesn't make him serbian. As many countries around the land familiarize Serbian as one of their main languages.

    [link url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:G rand_Theft_Auto_IV#Conversation_conclusion
    ]http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Grand_...[/link]

    [link url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Grand_ Theft_Auto_IV#Case_closed_-_.22Eastern_European.22_.28unspec ified.29_-_from_the_horses_mouth
    ]http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Grand_...[/link]

    [link url=http://youtube .com/watch?v=FE4Pe447Sr0
    ]http://youtube .com/watch?v=FE4Pe447Sr0
    [/link]

    Gosh some people really need to get with the times.

  • bengray66 #8 4 years ago

    Quoting Wikipedia and YouTube is never a good idea...

  • bioreit #9 4 years ago

    "He has few plans for Niko Bellic going forward"

    SLAP

    Bad Rob. No cookie for you today.

    And don't even think about using terms like 'synergy' or 'paradigm' in your next piece, otherwise you shall find a distinct lack of baked confectionery goods in your future.

  • afghan_jones #10 4 years ago

    why is this gimp popping up all over the place?

  • BBIAJ #11 4 years ago

    "I think she understands me!"

  • Malazan #12 4 years ago

    Didn't Rockstar release a background biography on Niko on another website saying he was Croatian?

  • Artemis_Matsas #13 4 years ago

    "You're wearing my favorite outfiiiit!!!"

  • wattoo #14 4 years ago

    Cool! Are we listing our favourite quotes from GTA IV?

    How about...

    You have been signed out of the Playstation Network. Returning to Single Player.

  • chronom4n #15 4 years ago

    Just googled his name into images and man he looks nothing like i imagined. To think that it took 18 months to get his part completed shows how intense the making of a video game is.

  • Trigga_Tybalt #16 4 years ago

    i wonder if his wife writes a blog abo8ut her mysterious european...

  • Razorus #17 4 years ago

    "Hey Jacob. It's me, Niko. Do you and Badman have any packages you need delivered?"
    Or...."Don't fuck with my family!!"
    Or... "Are you going to invite me in....for some warm coffee?"


  • the_dudefather #18 4 years ago

    Niko falling off a motorcycle into the ocean [and] drowning".

    ARRRAAAGGHH......(splash)BLARRAGHGGbububububub.........YELLO W CAR!!bubububb.....

  • smelly #19 4 years ago

    Geesus this guy is milking this for all he can get isnt he?

  • GordonCaladan #20 4 years ago

    "But, I need money, this pays, and... I'm good at it. The creature that could do this, doesn't have a soul. "

  • mjhoward #21 4 years ago

    Gosh, Napoleon Dynamite is a commenter on Eurogamer now.

    Gosh!
    Edited by 2 at 27/05/08 @ 16:34

  • kangarootoo #22 4 years ago

    @Jas315

    Serious over-reaction dude.

  • squeakyg #23 4 years ago

    I want to hear an interview with the Burger Shot employee who says: "Welcome to Burger Shot, mo'fuckaaaa!"

    I bet he has a lot to say.

  • CAPTAINCHAOS #24 4 years ago

    "He has few plans for Niko Bellic going forward."

    Well, he certainly won't be playing him again in a video game, not after all the blabbing he's done about unfair pay etc. Didn't he see what Rockstar did with Ray Liotta's character after he mouthed off?

    Ha ha.

  • Netweb #25 4 years ago

    He wants more money... xD

  • Razz #26 4 years ago

    He's just some poxy voice and mocap actor. I love how in games the people making the games are more important than actors, unlike the movie industry. :/

  • RazorObsession #27 4 years ago

    Funny how he mouthed off about unfair pay on the dialogue, when they originally hadn't intended for him to voice Niko at all, just do the mo cap.

    I watched Behind Enemy Lines last night, the Hackman/Wilson flick, and I could not believe how much of Niko Bellics character was stolen from the tracker dude! I mean he was a serbian badass, who didn't just look like Niko, he WAS Niko, had the same fingerless gloves, the same tracksuit, the same ridiculous collar on his undershirt, all in the same colour. They pretty much just transferred the whole character over, backstory, look, dress sense, army training, everything. Should have got that Vladimir Mashkov to do it.

    Something tells me they don't pay as well over there as they do in the west, which would have meant he would have never had a pay cheque like it, the American dollars would have exchanged pretty damn well in his home country and lasted him a lot longer than if he had lived in the US and thus he would never have complained in a million years.

  • Emth #28 4 years ago

    I fail to see why (he thinks) the voice of Niko Bellic deserves any more royalties than the person/people who did the art, the programming or the writing for the character - never mind the rest of the game.

    But hey, you could say the same about just about every Hollywood film released nowadays.

  • Quine #29 4 years ago

    bioreit +1

    "going forward"

    /racks shotgun

    So what's his missus' special perk for fluffing her approval to 100%?

  • Razorus #30 4 years ago

    @RazorObsession
    Where's "over there"? The actor is American, lives there, and works there. He is not actually a Serbian immigrant or something.

  • Meho #31 4 years ago

    "All Michael did was speak in the Serbian dialect, this however still doesn't make him serbian."

    As pointed out in another thread, by me, his accent is actually Russian, not Serbian (I should know, I am Serbian myself and I also speak enoguh Russian to have this on good authority). Also, there is no 'serbian dialect', it's a language actully but I guess this is just a slip of the tongue.

    "As many countries around the land familiarize Serbian as one of their main languages. "

    Actually... no. Most of the ex-yugoslav countries now officially have other languages than Serbian in use: in Croatia it's Croatian, in Bosnia it's Bosnian, in Montenegro it's Montenegrin. This issues has been a sore point of dispute between nations here for a while, with some people claiming it's all one and the same language with different region-specific characteristics and other people claiming it's a bunch of different languages that sound alike. I am in a former camp myself since I am old enough to remember Yugoslavia as it was before the nineties so I am used to thinking of it all as one language.

    To illustrate my point: scandinavian languages (Swedish/ Danish/ Norwegian) are very similar and these people usually understand each other well when they talk their respective languages, but Serbian/ Croatian/ Bosnian and Motnenegrin are even closer than that. Yes, there are differences in accentation, in the use of words, and grammar differences as well, but you can find all of that within the confines of Serbian language spoken in different regions of Serbia.

  • chrisjm #32 4 years ago

    the burgershot employee is a legend.

  • SRB_83 #33 4 years ago

    "All Michael did was speak in the Serbian dialect, this however still doesn't make him serbian." thats not all he did hehe

    His nationality was confirmed many times during the game (for example, Vlad says: „Ah, that Serb!”; when Roman hears Niko's not that good at English, says: „Ah, it's better than my Serbian!”).

    you also get a email in second part of the city from Milica, Niko's mother. she wrote in serbian... hmm so I think the main character is Serbian but anyway who cares... whats important is that GTA 4 is a great game!

  • fanboy_Wutan #34 1 year ago

    Talking deeper isn't SERBIAN. Reading of of Google translate doesn't give you a Serbian accent. And Belić would be from the Balkans as was shown in the game countless times. Proof of this is Americans not having the brain capacity to spell "ć" and just saying Bellic. Like me saying so one of your presidents was George Wash a ting ton.