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If you’ve ever dreamed of being a video game actor, Christopher Judge has some sobering advice for you: Don't. Judge provided voice work and motion capture for Kratos in Sony’s God of War franchise, and while God of War’s success speaks for itself, Judge warns that achieving success as a voice is one thing, while maintaining it is something else.

“I’m just going to tell it like it is. Do something else,” Judge says during a panel at Florida Supercon. “It’s a shitty industry. It’s not a meritocracy. What you put into it is not what you get out of it. Make sure that you can’t do anything else, because it tries to take your soul. It tries to tell you that you’re nothing. It tries to tell you that you’re not worth anything."

Judge has been a professional actor since 1990, but as he puts it he's been through extreme highs and extreme lows, calling it "gut-wrenching."

"Make sure that in your heart, in your soul, this is what you want to do. This is the only thing you can do to be happy, because it literally is soul-wrenching," Judes continues. "It makes you doubt everything about yourself. And even when you do achieve some modicum of success, it continues.”

Judge went on to warn the audience that you could be an award-winning actor in a best-selling project, and still find yourself fighting for work the following year.

"You didn’t get this job because you were the best person for the job, it was happenstance, circumstance, and you should be happy that you’re working. Learn your craft, make sure you love it, because it’s very rare to get out of it what you put into it. I’ve got two children who are in the business, and my oldest won a BAFTA four years before I did. So, he thought his career was off and running.”

“In the subsequent four years, I think he got three jobs. Didn’t work for two years, and I could see what it was doing to him spiritually and mentally, because I went through it."

Judge joined the God of War franchise in 2016, replacing Terrence C. Carson as the voice of Kratos. At the time he was best known for his work on the long-running TV series Stargate SG-1 - but struggled for seven years before he became a success.

"The year before I got Stargate, I was ready to quit. I literally was ready to quit, and my mother said 'Give it one more year,'" says Judge. "So, I’ve been watching my son go through this, and it’s gut-wrenching, because anyone who has kids, the worst feeling ever is for your kids to be in pain and you can’t do a damn thing about it.”

“Honest to god, I would not wish this on anyone,” Judge concludes.

It might not be the most motivational speech ever, but it’s certainly an honest and heartfelt one.

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