Nolan North on redeeming the bad guy: from Dirt 5's biggest jerk to The Last of Us' cannibal

Nolan North in Dirt 5
(Image credit: Codemasters)

To some, the voice of Nolan North is synonymous with heroism, but he's been enjoying the art of redeeming the big bad in his video game roles of late. Notably, he stars as lead antagonist, but not quite bad guy Bruno Durand in Dirt 5, releasing November 6.

Though he's had roles of all types in games, TV, and film over a career spanning more than two decades, North's iconic portrayal of protagonist Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series made the actor's natural speaking voice famous. But Uncharted is over (for now), and North is all about moving forward. "I saved the day a lot for all the Uncharteds for over a decade and it was great, but there's something really fun about being the antagonist," he told me during a recent video chat.

"Like David, in The Last of Us, was a great role to play. And people say 'he's so horrible ... He ate people'. I'm like, 'it's an apocalyptic world, who knows if there's enough food for people, and they had to make due and make the hard decisions?'" North muses. "I mean if you walked down the street today, you'd lock 'em up and throw away the key, but…"

Of course, North is not saying it's OK to eat people depending on the circumstances. He goes on to explain that seeing the world from a character's perspective is crucial to his performance.

"People are like, 'how can you justify him?' Because that's what I have to do as an actor. Take that guy, put him in that world, and the rules of society are gone. So I just always look at [David], like, there's a bunch of people here that look to me for leadership and I have to take care of them. I have to clothe them, I have to feed them, I have to keep them safe. And how do I do that? So, in terms of the story, that's where I put my headspace." 

In Dirt 5, North plays a character that's a lot easier to redeem than people-eating David. Though he's definitely the main adversary to the player character, Nolan insists that Bruno "is the antagonist of the story, but not the bad guy-slash-villain. He's misunderstood."

With a character like David from The Last of Us, North can only hope to play a convincing villain that terrifies and incites rage, but with Bruno, the actor sees a chance to subvert player expectations. "You meet Bruno, you want to beat Bruno, but over the arc of his story is him being able to... my goal is like, I want you to love to hate him, and then hate that you love him by the end."

At this stage in North's career, he's enjoying the challenge of playing the bad guy  while finding ways to make players second-guess their feelings about the character. "I always try to find a way to try to redeem my character no matter what they're doing, and with a hero you don't have to do that… there's just more to do [playing the bad guy] ... Like Bruno, I always want the next challenge. I've never been the person that's content with, 'OK, I'll just do this every day'."

Dirt 5 launches on November 6 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC; on November 10 for Xbox Series X; and on November 13 for PS5.

Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

Latest in Racing
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Nintendo knows you're waiting for Mario Kart 9, but it still wants you to run a million laps in Mario Kart 8 first
Wheel World
The spirit of Burnout Paradise lives on in this fabulous bicycle racing game from the makers of my favorite indie fighting game – a true Steam Next Fest gem
Sonic Racing CrossWorlds
Sonic Racing CrossWorlds announcement trailer proves Sega is coming for Mario Kart 9's throne with transforming cars and a closed beta this month
Need For Speed Unbound
The Need For Speed series is pumping the brakes as "Criterion are joining their colleagues working on Battlefield" instead of tuning more cars
Forza Horizon 5 the real deal reasonably priced car seasonal championship volvo 850 R racing
Forza Horizon 5 is the latest Xbox game to make the leap to PS5, and it's launching this spring with all of the same content and DLC
Tokyo Xtreme Racer
Cult classic racing series returns 18 years after its once-final entry on Xbox 360 to 95% overwhelmingly positive Steam reviews
Latest in News
Jordan A. Mun looks at herself in a mirror in just a vest in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screenshot
5 years after starting development, Neil Druckmann says Naughty Dog's new game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "still evolving and changing as we're making it"
Silent Hill f
After 2 years of silence, the next mainline Silent Hill game is getting a dedicated stream this week with "the latest news"
Original Xbox console
Former Microsoft exec says the first Xbox was killed early in favor of 360 because it was "losing money left right and center," but luckily "we could afford to hemorrhage cash"
A Monster Hunter Wilds character holding binoculars.
Despite Monster Hunter Wilds suffering monstrous performance problems on PC, it still outsold the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions in the US
Jordan A. Mun looks at herself in a mirror in just a vest in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screenshot
The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann says Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will also be about "being lonely," as if his zombie apocalypse wasn’t isolating enough: "I really want you to be lost"
A screenshot of Jordan drinking a soda during the reveal trailer for Intergalactic: The Hertic Prophet.
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "a game about faith and religion," which Neil Druckmann jokes will surely get less hate than The Last of Us 2