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Metal Gear Solid star David Hayter chooses his best performance, because war is hell on the voice (in a good way)

Which Metal Gear Solid performance is Solid Snake actor David Hayter's favorite?

Metal Gear Solid 4 Screenshot — Image credit: Konami

News by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Mon Nov 10 2025

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For many people, David Hayter is the definitive voice of the Metal Gear Solid series. He played Solid Snake in several entries and has put in some wonderfully varied performances. However, the actor is allowed to play favorites with his own roles, and he has a particular soft spot for Metal Gear Solid 4 simply because of how he had to change his voice depending on where he was in the game.

During the Metal Gear Solid cast panel at New York Comic Con 2025, David Hayter was asked which of his performances in the series he was most proud of. “I’m proud of them all because they’re all really unique and they’re all one of themselves, but I think I’m proudest of the Old Snake performance because I had to, you know, he’s aging. So I started him out as…” At this point, Hayter lowered the tone of his voice to emulate his classic Solid Snake voice. “’War has changed.’ And then by the end he was falling apart…”

Here, Hayter emulated the Old Snake voice he used for Metal Gear Solid 4, which features a Snake who has advanced aging and is physically closer to 70 than his natural age of mid-30s. “His throat was torn to pieces.”

Returning to his normal speaking voice, Hayter explained how the gradual process of Snake falling apart in front of us was achieved. “We recorded it out of order, so I had to, like, ask Kris [Zimmerman, Metal Gear Solid casting and voice director], ‘Okay, what percentage of the game are we in here?’ so I could get steadily more desiccated. And so, I think I’m proudest of that.”

You can watch the whole Metal Gear Solid cast reunion panel from NYCC 2025 here on Popverse starting on December 3, 2025, but you’ll have to be a Popverse Member to get access to it. Find out more about Popverse memberships here.

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