'GTA 5' Release Date News: Characters To Be Voiced By Real-Life Gang Members!

Grand Theft Auto V's gang members are voiced by real gang members. Um what?! I startled myself when I first came across this news, but it is true producer Lazlow Jones revealed that the games voice actors are in fact gang members during an interview with WGN, a Chicago radio station. Jones discussed the decision for "GTA V" to include real gang members and it's all about authenticity. "When we record all these ambient characters that are in the world we go towards authenticity," said Lazlow during his discussion with WGN host Nick Digilio. "So in the game, part of the element of the story is that there's these gangs, these rival gangs."

Lazlow also revealed that like the game, the actors were recruited from rival gangs. The members who are featured in the game, do not get along in real life and they draw lines due to ethnic and cultural backgrounds. "There's black gangs, there's Latino gangs, and we recruited a guy who gets gang members, like actual gang members, real gang members. I mean, El Salvadorian gang dudes with amazing tattoos and one of which literally had gotten out of prison the day before.

Lazlow discussed the dangerous and brutal life endured by these hardened gang members, they live it and they can act it. No one else can do that, "GTA V" sought out actual gang members instead of trained voice actors to ensure the dialogue was genuine. ""And we brought these guys in to record the gang characters because, you know, you don't want a goofy LA actor who went to a fancy school trying to be a hard gang member. There's nothing worse than that."

The producer also explained that it was a working relationship between the "GTA V" team and the gang members, "they look at the lines and they say, 'I wouldn't say that. If I was upset at another gang, I wouldn't say that.' So, well, then say what you would say. Authenticity, you know?" In addition, the gang members weighed in on scripts and gave advice if scenes would happen in their everyday life. Making "GTA V" as genuine and real as possible, "there's a lot of sessions that we would have where we would just throw the script on the floor and be, like, 'This thing we wrote is irrelevant, let's actually work out something real.'"

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