Kiefer Sutherland vs David Hayter - Who put in the better performance? Spoilers for whole MGS saga

[NTGYK]

Who put in the better performance? Hayter obviously has the edge in terms of content, being in so many games since the beginning of the MGS saga, but Kiefer IMP is the better actor in his one game (when he can finally voice Snake on the tapes) vs Hayter's gravely monotone ever since Snake Eater.

A couple selections of their performance for your judgment:

 

[Linus815]

Kiefer, but he was not given nearly enough material.

 

[Lashley]

Both were good

 

[Patitoloco]

Kiefer is underrated. The only thing is has is that it's barely in it, but he's good for the few lines he delivers.

 

[Deleted member 29939]

Kiefer

Hayter's MGS 3 and 4 performance was garbage

 

[NTGYK]

Who put in the better performance? Hayter obviously has the edge in terms of content, being in so many games since the beginning of the MGS saga, but Kiefer IMP is the better actor in his one game (when he can finally voice Snake on the tapes) vs Hayter's gravely monotone ever since Snake Eater.

A couple selections of their performance for your judgment:

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Note, while Big Boss and Solid Snake are totally different characters, my gut feeling is that Hayter performs both characters pretty much the exact same in all the games but if you've got clips of really good stuff from Hayter, feel free to play it.

 

[Richietto]

Hayter obviously. No amount of lines would make Kiefers performance any better. Dude sounded bored the entire time.

 

[Imran]

Sutherland was fine when he got more than 10 words. Good even, though it's impossible to tell.

Hayter chewed up and spit out the dogshit dialogue Kojima put in Snake's mouth with an appropriate amount of camp that we all thought was intentional until we realized Kojima meant most of it seriously.

 

[FRS1987]

Interestingly enough, i showed several non gamers the character and the voice and they think keifer suits him better. I personally prefer Hayter but that might just be because i grew up with the voice.

 

[JuicyPlayer]

Hayter for life!

 

[NTGYK]

Hayter obviously. No amount of lines would make Kiefers performance any better. Dude sounded bored the entire time.

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I find it insane that they buried most of Kiefer's stuff in optional tapes really late in the game. Well, there's also Ishmael.

 

[Siggy-P]

It was Kiefer. Every word out of his mouth was sexy liquid gold. He just suffered from having like ten lines in a 40-50 hour game so it stood out as jarringly different than what we were used to.

Not that Hayter was bad but his games were campy. Just actually imagine Hayters voice during the more serious parts of MGSV.

 

[Damien1928]

Hayter.

 

[Knight in Shining Armani]

Snake in MGSV was shit and dumping Hayter didn't exactly lessen the blow.

 

[Karthane]

Hayter. But MGSV snake is basically a completely different character so they are not really comparable.

 

[Taker34]

Hayter is Snake and Snake is Hayter to me. In a certain way I grew up with it so anything else than that just doesn't fit from my point of view.

 

[Deleted member 8561]

Nothing has compared to MGS1's voice acting and dialogue.

 

[Magneto]

Kiefer is obviously the best Big Boss, but it's a shame that MGSV wasn't good enough.

Nothing has compared to MGS1's voice acting and dialogue.

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Yeah but MGS3/4 Hayter is way, way worse than MGS1 Hayter.

 

[Alienous]

...but Kiefer IMP is the better actor in his one game (when he can finally voice Snake on the tapes) vs Hayter's gravely monotone ever since Snake Eater.

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I agree, but it isn't an option in the poll.

More nuanced than that I would say David Hayter is unchallenged as the voice of Solid Snake.

 

[Lifejumper]

If you listen to the audio tapes in mgs5 then you know its Kiefer.

 

[Masterspeed]

Hayter as MGS4 Snake is his best performance of the character.

 

[jelly]

Kiefer is Kiefer so for me Hayter easily.

 

[Kuro]

I would have said Hayter if not for the later games where he becomes a damn caricature. Sutherland did amazing with what little material he had and actually made Big Boss sound like a real person as ironic as that is.

 

[WinFonda]

Kiefer is clearly a more accomplished actor, that said, I don't think MGS5's script showed us even a fraction of what he can do as an actor

Hayter is Snake. He created an iconic character (and voice) along with Kojima and it's still his. Kiefer being a better actor doesn't change that.

 

[Jangowuzhere]

I simply cannot see Hayter doing this scene with that campy growly voice. Kiefer nails it down perfectly.

 

[NTGYK]

I think trying to make Snake the Man with No Name (and No Dialogue) was a poor directorial/writer choice. I never felt like I was Big Boss, just that Big Boss was fucking brain damaged.

 

[Prolepro]

What little Kiefer did was really really good.

 

[MegaXZero]

Kiefer was a better Big Boss.

 

[GameBuddy]

Keifer had hours and hours of lines in those tapes and he never sounded like anyone but Keifer Sutherland behind a microphone. He brought no character to either of the roles (Venom or Big Boss) and it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth that Kojima was likely just popping his Hollywood boner when he cast him.

It's embarrassing to listen to him up against the returning and professional voice actors in the cast.

I would have forgiven it if they'd just done some post processing and disguised Hayter as the "true" Big Boss in the revisit of the first mission, or even a cameo as Solid Snake, but we know that wasn't in the cards.

I know people are torn on the literal "whiskey voice" of Old Snake, but MGS4's tone is about as self-serious as V and Hayter did fine with that gravitas.

 

[Deleted member 4869]

Hayter is the absolute best. Followed by Richard Doyle.

Sutherland just mumbled, had an annoying lisp and was not cartoony. And he sounded like he just didn't want to be there.

If they were going to replace Hayter in MGSV, Doyle would've been perfect. Also John Cygan (may he rest in peace).

 

[saladdays]

Kiefer is a better actor by far. Hayter is fun and campy but not all that competent as an actual actor.

 

[Inugami]

Is this a joke thread? Sutherland phoned in 95% of the performance. You can hate on gravelly Hayter, but that was entirely the voice director's doing. Hayter's voice was iconic and completely WAS snake's voice for 15 years.

 

[Spine Crawler]

hayter. one of the issues i have with v is the voice acting. and its not even sutherlands fault. its just that snake is hayter for me.

 

[Dice]

lol time stamp that stuff OP.
Skip ahead a minute for voice samples (both clips).

I always thought Hayder sounded so much like he was putting on the voice.
Kiefer wins. Not by much, I like Hayder.

 

[Alienous]

Is this a joke thread? Sutherland phoned in 95% of the performance. You can hate on gravelly Hayter, but that was entirely the voice director's doing. Hayter's voice was iconic and completely WAS snake's voice for 15 years.

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But his performance in Peace Walker is awful. He's just growling every syllable.

 

[bluexy]

Who knows what Kiefer would have been capable of across multiple games (or even a single complete game), but Hayter put out one of the industry's most iconic performances as Snake. Shit's legendary. Kiefer was hardly even given the opportunity.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Sutherland was fucking horrible and made MGS V nearly unplayable for me.

 

[Rotobit]

When Keifer was allowed to register a blip on the emotion monitor he was pretty good, but Hayter put his all into it constantly. He eventually made Solid Snake, Big Boss, and Old Snake all sound different in subtle ways, and I really feel he strained his vocal cords for the latter two in Peace Walker and MGS4.

I don't exactly mind Keifer though, I actually think it would have been pretty cool if Hayter handled Ground Zeroes and Keifer did TPP, both trying to mimic each other's voice so it's a natural progression. It makes sense to think that Snake's vocal cords got messed up after a 9 year coma, so I don't think it'd give too much away in regards to the final twist. Hell, it makes less sense the way it is now (did they massage Venom's throat to make his vocal cords match EXACTLY?)

 

[MrDoctor]

no akio otsuka poll option smh

 

[Kalamoj]

Sutherland was awful.

 

[texni]

Hayter sounds like a cartoon character to me. so i'll go Kiefer.

 

[Inugami]

But his performance in Peace Walker is awful. He's just growling every syllable.

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Again, this was the voice director telling him to do it.



This came out AFTER MGS5, and as you can see he can still do the regular voice fine.

 

[Cliff Steele]

Sutherland.

Hayter always sounds like he has to take a shit real bad.

 

[DOBERMAN INC]

Hayter was great most of the time,4 and Peace Walker started to shift in quality I feel.

 

[Deimos]

They fucked up the voice direction in PW and MGS3, but Hayter's performance was top-tier otherwise. Sutherland was shit from the start.

 

[Deleted member 1102]

I would've liked it if Sutherland was Big Boss from the start (i.e MGS3) and Hayter stayed as Solid Snake. It never made sense to me how David and Eli were twin clones yet Solid both looked and sounded like Big Boss, despite Solidus being created to be an exact duplicate of BB.

 

[The-Demon]

Voted Hayter because he's the OG but also other reasons. If Kiefer had more games, hell even more dialogue then I prob would have picked him. But Hayter gets the nod.

 

[Twiz]

Kiefer was incredibly forgettable. If you told me snake didn't talk in MGSV I'd believe you.

 

[Jangowuzhere]

Is this a joke thread? Sutherland phoned in 95% of the performance. You can hate on gravelly Hayter, but that was entirely the voice director's doing. Hayter's voice was iconic and completely WAS snake's voice for 15 years.

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He's a good Solid Snake, but not a good Big Boss.

His gravely voice in MGS3 and especially PW showed the limited range he had.

I don't exactly mind Keifer though, I actually think it would have been pretty cool if Hayter handled Ground Zeroes and Keifer did TPP, both trying to mimic each other's voice so it's a natural progression. It makes sense to think that Snake's vocal cords got messed up after a 9 year coma, so I don't think it'd give too much away in regards to the final twist. Hell, it makes less sense the way it is now (did they massage Venom's throat to make his vocal cords match EXACTLY?)

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People were already hard at theorizing the twist in TPP well before the game's release. Changing his voice between games would just make everything waaay more obvious.

 

[Zojirushi]

Sutherland was bad because MGS5 was bad in that regard but let's be honest Hayter was always corny as fuck.