Agent 47 has had the same actor for 25 years, and he says he's a "very, very close friend" of Hitman (2024)

Agent 47 has had the same actor for 25 years, and he says he's a "very, very close friend" of Hitman (1)

Hitman's protagonist Agent 47 has been switching disguises and targets for 25 years, but one thing has always remained constant: his voice actor. David Bateson has voiced Agent 47 since the beginning, and in a recent interview with Play Magazine, he outlined how it all started.

"I was in a studio doing a corporate thing. And that studio was also making the graphics for the first game. They actually interrupted my session. They opened the door and said 'David! Listen, if you get a minute afterwards, could you come in and have a look at the graphics of this computer game we're developing? We need a voice. We've got a character, but we don't know what he should sound like'. I went 'ok, yeah, sure'. I noticed a striking resemblance to myself right there. It was the look of that first game. Very kind of Film Noir, long shadows, like The Third Man. My favorite film is Blade Runner, and it had that kind of Blade Runner look, so I gave it a crack."

25 years is a long time to play the same role, and it's only natural to build a connection. It's hard not to become protective over the character, watching how they are received by the public with every new installment. Bateson goes on to say "I truly look upon Agent 47, Tobias Rieper, as a very, very close friend. I feel very protective of him. I feel like I really, really know this character. After so many years, both the writers and myself have kind of grown up with this character."

Of course, Agent 47 is not like many other characters. He was designed to be a blank slate, to fit into any role or disguise in broad daylight. The personality and funny dry delivery come from Bateson's familiarity with the character and the writers building him in tandem.

"So they're writing with a knowledge of how he would say things, and what he would say. And they're also hearing me, how I would probably give an interpretation. It's become a kind of synergy of my acting talent and their writing talent., which has just got tighter and tighter."

Developing a role isn't an easy feat. It requires each member of the team to bring their all, and in some cases, pull from old memories to find the inspiration for the next plot beat. With Agent 47, Bateson recalls an old childhood memory that helped him resonate with the character.

"I moved around a hell of a lot as a kid. I went to nine schools in 12 years of schooling. So I was always the new boy getting the shit kicked out of time. I always felt on the outside looking in, where everyone knew each other since they were at nursery school. They'd been through each others' everything. And I hadn't."

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

Bateson has spent almost half a lifetime with Agent 47, and that's not something you see very often. With some IP lying dormant for years, company restructuring, and voice actors coming and going, it's nice to know that wherever Agent 47 goes, Bateson is along for the ride.

For more information on Hitman, be sure to check out the state of its developer IO Interactive.

Agent 47 has had the same actor for 25 years, and he says he's a "very, very close friend" of Hitman (2)

Jesse Vitelli

Contributor

Jesse is a freelance games journalist with almost a decadeof experience. He was the AssociateEditor at Prima Games for three years and then moved into the world of freelancing where you might haveseen his work atthe likes of Game Informer, Kotaku, Inverse, and a few others. You can find him playing the critically acclaimedMMORPG Final Fantasy XIV or whatever hot new multiplayer game his friends are playing.

Latest

Black Ops 6 boiler puzzle solution furnace generatorBlindfolded Super Mario 64 speedrunner sets new world record in a disastrous attempt where he died 7 times and declared "this run sucks"Destiny 2 faces what could be one of the MMO's ugliest bugs ever as Bungie investigates a potential issue that may have given players rigged loot for months
See more latest►

See comments

Most Popular
It looks like Star Wars: Skeleton Crew has an intriguing connection to Ahsoka
The Girl with All the Gifts and Lucifer writer Mike Carey's new series Ghostbox is a horror story with a fantasy twist
"Many times it seemed the game would never get made": Alan Wake 2 is "finally complete" thanks to its new DLC, but even its director says "no one knows about the future"
The Last of Us and Death Stranding actor doesn't want to take his game roles to TV and film: "I'm more excited about the other version"
John Wick almost had an alternate ending where the puppy lived, but Keanu Reeves "stood up" for the original vision
Former PlayStation boss says Japan Studio's closure "wasn't necessarily" surprising: "When a studio hasn't had a hit for a while, then they forget how that feels"
One of Amazon's best animated shows is coming back for season 4
World of Warcraft celebrates its 20th anniversary by selling a $90 version of a mount that cost $475 around 6 years ago, knocking the MMO's economy sideways
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has been hands-on with Fable and the mysterious Rare survival game that's been AWOL for 4 years
Before Balatro took over the world, the roguelike's creator considered naming it Fool's Gambit - "obviously not a great name," but it had a killer main menu
Good Omens will conclude with one, feature-length episode rather than a full season 3
Agent 47 has had the same actor for 25 years, and he says he's a "very, very close friend" of Hitman (2024)

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Barbera Armstrong

Last Updated:

Views: 6194

Rating: 4.9 / 5 (59 voted)

Reviews: 90% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Barbera Armstrong

Birthday: 1992-09-12

Address: Suite 993 99852 Daugherty Causeway, Ritchiehaven, VT 49630

Phone: +5026838435397

Job: National Engineer

Hobby: Listening to music, Board games, Photography, Ice skating, LARPing, Kite flying, Rugby

Introduction: My name is Barbera Armstrong, I am a lovely, delightful, cooperative, funny, enchanting, vivacious, tender person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.