Arthur Morgan’s actor, Roger Clark, sat down and reacted to some of the best (and worst) moments in Red Dead Redemption 2. The interview with Gamology (via GamesRadar) gave us a glimpse into what it was like on set and also the thought process behind some of the most gut-wrenching scenes (spoilers ahead for those who still don’t know).
“People often ask me what was the hardest thing about Red Dead Redemption 2, and I’ll tell them it was crouch running,” Clark says. “We crouch-ran for, I think, a couple of days. Because you gotta crouch run, walk, stealth, run with one gun, run with two guns, then you gotta crouch-run with a rifle. Like, three days later, my thighs were absolutely killing me.”
But as the old adage goes, no pain, no gain. Clark accepts that the only reason he was forced to do these grueling tasks was that Rockstar was so set on paying attention to details and finding ways for Arthur to really come to life.
“Not a lot of studios do it that way, but I was very, very grateful that Rockstar Games gave me so much ownership over Arthur,” Clark says. “Arthur walks like me, he rubs his nose like me. The immersion is so important. I feel really blessed.”
But that amount of creative ownership also comes with some drawbacks, as Clark reflects on how much pressure he placed on himself during Red Dead Redemption 2: “As an actor, so often, we second-guess ourselves. And very often, I’ll dwell on something a week or two afterward, thinking, ‘Gosh, you know, maybe I should have done it that way.’ And I remember thinking that with Arthur’s death.”
If you do end up watching the entire reaction video with Clark (which you defintely should), towards the end of the video rewatches Arthur’s death scene and reflects on what he was feeling in that very moment and what he tried to do (somehow watching this scene never gets any easier).
“Oh no, oh, the shit really hits the fan,” Clark says. “Everyone’s button mashing so hard right now. I know I was, and I knew what was going to happen.” Clark also mentions that because there’s barely any player control in this fight (it’s all sadly predetermined), Clark actually acted out this scene in Mocap. Some of the action bits you see are stunt performers, but a lot of them are actually Clark, which actually somehow makes this even sadder.
Using mocap also meant that Clark was really able to make Arthur’s last moments as personal and tragic as he’d always wanted to. “I chose to make it a little bit more peaceful,” Clark says. “Some people may remember that there’s a point in one of the camps when people are talking about how they would want to die—if you hang around long enough in the conversation, Hosea will chime in and ask ‘What do you think, Arthur?’ and Arthur says something along the lines of ‘Just face me to the West so I can think about all the good times I had along the way’ and so that’s what he gets to do here. I tried to give him some semblance of peace in his last few moments. We need to give the player some solace because, at this point, most people are balling their eyes out.”
I am that player. But despite how much it hurts to watch this scene again, hearing Clark’s thought process behind every little action may count towards some sort of closure, even if it is a bit too much to bear for a random Wednesday afternoon.
