411 Movies Interview: David Hayter

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 07.24.2008

The voice of Solid Snake gives his true thoughts on the end of MGS4 in the blockbuster interview to end all interviews of 411mania this year!


Credit to the above photo from the official Anime Expo 2008 site

A while back during the 2008 Anime Expo, I was given the chance to sit down for 15 minutes for an exclusive, one on one interview with the one and only David Hayter. The actor-turned-screenwriter is currently penning the movie version for the Capcom XBOX 360 video game, Lost Planet. But before that, his most ambitious work, Watchmen, will make its highly anticipated cinema debut in the spring of 2009. Hayter first began work on the Watchmen movie eight years ago, long before superstar director Zach Snyder (300; Dawn of The Dead) picked up the slack to bring what is one of the few works sequential art acclaimed as high literature to the big screen. Despite not actively working during the production of the live action movie, Hayter will be credited as one of the screenwriters.

But even before Hayter was involved with some of the decade's most prolific comic book super hero movies like The Hulk, X-men, and X-men 2 he worked as a voice actor for animation, appearing as Captain America in the excellent 1990's Spider-man: The Animated Series. This was before his debut as the legendary video game hero Solid Snake in the famed Metal Gear Solid. Hayter would return as Snake in each game and all its renditions (save for the highly underrated GameBoy Color) version for over 10 years, including Snake's appearance in Nintendo Wii's Smash Bros. Brawl. According to Hayter in his appearances at AX, his recordings of Solid Snake for MGS1 took only 10 days, and for MGS2 they took 4 weeks. By the time Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots, the recording of the game took up to 8 months to finish.

The following interview took place between myself and Mr. Hayter at Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles the day before the Anime Expo had officially begun. Mr. Hayter who normally enjoys his privacy would be thoroughly amazed by the sheer amount of fan support he would receive at the convention where he was welcomed as one of AX 2008's official Guests of Honor. The sheer amount of adulation would've made Hayter's old idol, Tom Cruise, jealous. Be forewarned, this interview does contain spoilers for the end of MGS4.


Hayter, signing some MGS swag

The Vile One: You were part changing the playing field with comic book super hero movies eight years ago with X-men, so what do you think of the movies in this genre being released right now and how things have changed in the last eight years after X-men raised the bar in the eyes of many?

David Hayter: Well I think these past eight years have been a very good time for comic book fans, you know they've really gained mainstream legitimacy and the studios finally understood you have to take a comic book property seriously, and put money into it. And fortunately they've been doing that. Unfortunately, they [the studios] are still a little narrow in their interpretation of what these movies can do. You know a lot of fans have been pushing for crossover titles, and now Marvel Studios is going to be able to do that with The Avengers, so on and so forth. But it's real difficult to get a studio to understand how you market two different heroes at the same time or whatever, but obviously X-men helped that and all the other movies since then have helped define that and we've had some some really good movies like Iron Man.

TVO: Which you did work on briefly when it was at New Line.

DH: Well for about a year.

TVO: *Laughs* Yeah, about a year. I've been waiting years to ask you this: what do you think of the state of the X-men movies after you left, after Bryan Singer left, and after Tom DeSanto left. After everyone who pretty much protected the integrity of the material left, do you have any thoughts or feelings on that?

DH: Well . . . yeah. That was an internal, sort of political thing. I had my issues with the studio (Later on at another AX event, Hayter was said to be massively displeased with Rupert Murdoch and Newscorp taking the profits from X-2 and spending them on the war in Iraq), and Bryan had his issues with the studio. And . . . yeah I think in a way its kind of an example of a studio looking a gift horse in the mouth, we were really committed to not only keeping the movies true to the source material, but to make them great movies and making them work as big tentpole movies. And I think the studio got to a place where they felt they could do that without us, and they can obviously. And X-men 3 made it's money, but it lost a little bit of the voice that we had -- our collective voice which was really through myself -- well not in that order -- Bryan, myself, Tom DeSanto, and Kevin Feige who was really instrumental in the first two as well. That said, I think the filmmakers who took on X3 had a very difficult thing to take on. It's a big franchise with a lot of history, and I think Brett Ratner did a good job in replicating sort of the feeling of a Bryan Singer X-men movie, but storywise/characterwise, there were things that happened in it I would not have done, and I was a little put out over . . . like the treatment of Mystique for example.

TVO: I definitely agree, and the treatment of Cyclops.

DH: Well that's just ridiculous. I'm a big Cyclops fan, and I think people don't like him because he's straight-laced and he's the straight-up leader of the group, but without him the Wolverine/Jean Grey thing doesn't work. You need that other piece of the triangle, and I think in X3 it's pretty clear they didn't have a lot of respect for Cyclops or Jimmy Marsden who does a great job as Cyclops . . . he's a great actor, a great guy, and so committed to a very difficult part because you can't see his eyes through the whole thing. And yeah, he really got short-tripped and I wasn't thrilled about that.

TVO: I'm very excited about the Watchmen movie, and I'm sure you are as well. I believe you first started work on that movie in 2001, right?

DH: Uh-hmm.

TVO: Has it been difficult through all the years and changes in getting the movie developed? And how does it feel to now seeing its getting done with a very dedicated director who is really taking it very seriously?

DH: How does it feel? It feels great, I you know, everybody says, "Oh, it must've been so difficult to adapt Watchmen." It's easy to adapt Watchmen. It's amazing. It's all there on the page. And it's beautifully structured, beautifully told dialogue, the characters are amazing. What's difficult is to protect it from the money people who don't necessarily understand it in its full complexity, and so really all that time, all those studios, all those directors - that was really just a battle to hold true to what Watchmen really was. And it became clear along the way that what we really needed a super hot director who was going to stay completely dedicated to the book. And just wonder of wonders, that's what we got. It was just the most amazing timing for Zach to come in just before 300 came out, and take on that project allowed it to be done the way it needed to be done. So, I'm thrilled. I'd have been much had we made it and it turned out horrible, or nothing like the book you know? Because that was never my intention.

TVO: Considering your history with these movies, are you getting involved with Marvel Studios right now and working on a project with them?

DH: Not at the moment. I've done a lot at Marvel. So . . . if they had something that they wanted me to do, they're good friends of mine, and I would always do that. But at the moment, I'm looking at other things.

TVO: Before you played Solid Snake, you did indeed play Captain America.

DH: *In Cap's voice* Yes, I did.

TVO: What did you think of playing Cap, and what's your basic take on playing that character?

DH: Well you know Cap is to me, he's about purity. Purity of ideology, purity of identity, purity of citizenship. He represents the best of what America has to offer, and he's a great guy. I mean I personally prefer characters that are a little more twisted like Wolverine or Batman or whatever. But Captain America to me, that's like Marvel's Superman, you know? He's just the leader, if you want clarity, if you want ideological purity he's the one to go to, so I respect him for that. But at the same time, I don't respect him *Hayter laughs lightly* because you need to break the rules every now and again.

TVO: Do you think a character like Cap could still be relevant to maybe a global audience for a big budget, live action movie that Marvel Studios is very serious about making right now?

DH: Yeah, but I think that the vision -- I think that Captain America has to reflect where America is at any given time. And the vision of America right now is tarnished. And if I were involved in the movie, I would want to see the movie reflect those questions and him [Cap] questioning his own identity in that context . . . He could certainly be relevant. I would just hate to see the movie become an excuse for America over-reaching, torture, whatever. You know to have Captain America shilling for the phone companies spying on you would be pretty disgusting to me. But if its a maligned Captain America looking at himself and saying, "What have I become and how do I fix this?" . . . "How do I reconcile the negative things about my country with the positive things about my country?" That's a worthwhile movie.

TVO: How is your throat doing after playing Solid Snake for over 10 years?

DH: *In Snake's voice* Ah, pretty good. I got it to a point where I can do it now without tearing up my--

TVO: Some muscle memory?

DH: Yeah, I've figured out a technique it's just like rock n' roll singers -- throw that high pitch. I can drop it down to a point where my vocal cords start to quiver, and I don't have -- the first game *In Snake's voice again* "first game, you know I had to push it like this." That was tough. But, I've gotten used to it since then.

TVO: Do you have a favorite line as Solid Snake?

DH: *Snake again* "Well I never thought that an analyst of military equipment could be so cute."

TVO: Do you have a favorite Metal Gear babe?

DH: Well Mei Ling, Sniper Wolf . . . I like Meryl, but she has too many problems.

TVO: Yeah, her and Johnny Sasaki.

DH: I know, what's up with that?

TVO: I can't believe it.

DH: I was mad. Here's an exclusive from David Hayter. So we get to the end of the thing, and I was like, "She's marrying Johnny? The diarhea guy?" I get microwaved, I go through all this stuff, I'm deteriorating, everybody that I've ever cared about has turned on me, and she goes and marries Johnny Sasaki?! Bullshit.

TVO: Thank you so much for your time today David Hayter, it's been a pleasure speaking with you.

DH: You're quite welcome.



So there you have it folks. Hayter is not a Meryl/Sasaki shipper. MERYL/SNAKE REMAINS MY OTP!

NEXT UP: San Diego Comic Con 2008. Yours truly will hopefully be bringing the latest and greatest news to come out of the most important and premiere industry event of the entire year. Nerdtopia. Nerdvana. Nerdstock. Call it what you want, but The Vile One is invading SDCC 2008, and he is going to totally pwnag3 it!