Just two years ago, Rockstar Games came out with yet another generation-defining open world in its western universe. Red Dead Redemption 2 took a lot of risks, introducing ambitious gameplay conventions to the revered western series, even when it didn’t necessarily need them. Through nearly every facet of the experience, Rockstar Games strived to evoke a realistic simulation of the old American West as best as it could. Now, as one of the top 20 best-selling video games of all time, Red Dead Redemption 2 certainly succeeded in that regard. A pivotal pillar of that success was the game’s impressive protagonist, Arthur Morgan.
In an interview with Game Rant, Arthur Morgan’s actor Roger Clark reminisced on the impact Red Dead Redemption 2 had on himself as an actor, as well as how Rockstar’s storytelling approach had evolved or changed during his experience on the game. Clark alone spent five years working on the game as Arthur Morgan, not to mention any of the other actors and developers who may have worked even longer on the game. Two years later, Red Dead Redemption 2 has had a profound impact on Roger Clark’s life and his work, something he believes may stay with him for life.
Players first stepped into the shoes of Arthur Morgan back in 2018, a completely new protagonist who plays a very formative role during the disbanding of Dutch’s gang. Fans who’d played the original Red Dead Redemption were fully aware of the fate of Dutch’s gang, but they had no knowledge of Arthur Morgan’s actions and how he would shape John Marston’s future journey. This goes all the way back to, of course, deciding who should be Arthur. “The audition process took a while,” remembered Clark. “I first went in for an ‘untitled video game project’ sometime in January or February of 2013. I had done performance capture for video games before and really enjoyed it so I was excited to go in.” Of course, Clark would soon find out that he was being cast for Red Dead Redemption 2 as the protagonist.
“I didn’t appreciate how excited I should have been until the second audition months later. I was asked to wear cowboy boots and go to Rockstar games’ head office in New York. They had asked me to wear the boots so they could properly look at my walk, my gait!”
As if that wasn’t hint enough for Clark, he would soon learn in December of 2013 that he had officially landed the lead role as Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption‘s prequel story. From there began five years of work on Red Dead Redemption 2, an incredibly ambitious follow-up that took Rockstar Games around eight years and reportedly cost over $200 million.
That time and dedication delivered an open world experience that emphasized realism more than many other games before it. While the usual Rockstar Games gameplay conventions were certainly present, Red Dead Redemption 2 also made several efforts to lean heavily into immersion. Characters had to eat, drink, and rest to restore health and stamina, horses needed to be brushed and cared for (something Clark apparently enjoyed too much, as it turns out), among other insane details of realism. That same care and attention to detail was put into the game’s narrative as well, which ended up evolving and changing alongside the game’s characters as development continued.
During his five years, Roger Clark witnessed the formation of Red Dead Redemption 2‘s story in real-time. “We started out with a very skeletal structure of the narrative. We fleshed it out as we went along, which was good I think,” Clark told us. “It gave us the freedom to stick with all the good bits we discovered along the way, and put on the shelf the stuff that wasn’t so good.” Arthur Morgan evolves and changes significantly over the course of the game’s story, of which some of that evolution is dictated by player’s actions. The subtle morality system does allow players to influence Arthur’s character arc, but much of that was also dictated by Clark’s nuanced performance and impact on the game’s narrative evolution:
“Time gave us the luxury of discovering, along with the writers, the complexity of [Arthur Morgan] and his relationships.”
Of course, spending five years embodying the same character in any medium has to be deeply impactful on an actor’s life, but it was especially so for Roger Clark. By the end, the hard work and ultimate success of Red Dead Redemption 2 ended up becoming a huge cornerstone in Clark’s life and career. Red Dead Redemption‘s John Marston was already considered one of the most beloved and nuanced characters ever written for a video game, and yet Arthur Morgan ended up being just as beloved in Red Dead Redemption 2. “It was a privilege in more ways than one,” Clark reminisced. “I still have Arthur on my desktop’s screen saver. I feel me and him are probably intertwined for life now, you know?”
Clark is especially receptive to fan interaction as well, whether it’s been on Twitter or at past in-person events. Fans of Arthur and the game still jump on to interact with Clark’s social media presence, even if it’s not even remotely related to Red Dead Redemption in any capacity. Arthur’s character work still continues to impact fans to this day, most of which continue to express kindness and joy to the man behind Arthur Morgan: “Most of the references I get now are stuff that Arthur doesn’t even say in the game,” he jokes. “Like I’ll tweet something that is totally unrelated to Red Dead and the comments will be a massive verbal collage of ‘Tahiti,’ mangoes, plans, ‘muneh,’ ‘lumbago,’ and ‘boahs.'” In regards to his relationship with his fans, Clark also stated,
“I’ll be happy when this Covid-19 is behind us so I can get back to meeting all the great fans at conventions, and also get working on new challenges and projects.”
Red Dead Redemption 2 released on November 26, 2018.
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