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Voice acting can be a fickle business. Even industry veterans can be caught unaware with the challenges that come with booking roles, but just because they get a great role doesn’t always mean that they’re in the game at the end. As voice acting icon Jennifer Hale and the rest of the cast of Metal Gear Solid explained at New York Comic Con 2025, sometimes voice actors end up doing a lot of work only to not even show up in the final product.

During the Behind the Codec – The Cast of Metal Gear Solid panel at NYCC 2025, Jennifer Hale explained just how little voice actors usually have to go off of when recording video games. "I’ve done games where, like this one, it was recorded literally in a house. We had to stop when trucks went by. We had to stop for airplanes. We had to stop constantly. And it was just kind of wild and on the fly. Games were the wild west back then, and I never thought about sales. I have been in the business… I was in the business since I was a teenager, and I’ve been in long enough to know you can record an entire project and somebody on the other side can go, ‘You know? No,’ and replace you. And you never end up in the final product. That happens not infrequently. It’s kind of a thing you gotta prepare yourself for.”

Jennifer Hale, who is one of the most recognizable names in voice acting, says that her experiences have been varied throughout her storied career. “I’ve done games where they have spent insane amounts of money. Flown us to, like, other cities to do motion capture, steak dinners, fancy hotels. Game never came out. And then I’ve done games like [Metal Gear Solid] that was like a wild, sort of crazy new thing, and a tiny budget game that just blew up. You just don’t know what’s gonna hit.”

Hale would go on to explain that fans are the big difference in the industry, calling them the “other part of that circle” that can be the difference between a frustrating flop and a passive hit.

You can see the full Metal Gear Solid cast panel at NYCC 2025 on December 3, 2025 right here on Popverse, but you'll need to be a Popverse member to stream it. Find out about Popverse memberships here. 

Here's how to watch all the big panels from New York Comic Con 2025.