Valve’s documentary about the beloved Half-Life 2, which was released to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the title, contains many insights and interesting moments about the game’s creation. In the documentary, Voice Actor Michael Shapiro, who portrayed Barney Calhoun and G-Man, speaks about the two characters and shares his thoughts on their personalities.
Valve
“The moment where you see him makes you realize there must be a lot of moments where you didn’t know he was watching you,” Michael Shapiro said about G-Man. “He’s not Big Brother, that doesn’t make sense to me that he would be a Big Brother because that’s sort of industrial and bureaucratic, and this is much more intimate.” “He’s always over your shoulder, watching, waiting for the moment to speak,” Shapiro said, switching to the character’s distinct eerie manner.
Valve
The actor described his other character, Barney Calhoun, as an earthy, “fallible” person, a “good guy” who is “not necessarily the most capable, but just really there for you.”
Valve
Returning to G-Man, Shapiro said that he probably “knew a lot and was taking care of a lot that we didn’t quite understand.” He made an interesting observation about how the character might perceive reality, being capable of experiencing multiple time moments simultaneously:
“His relationship to time is very different than you or I would think. In my mind, he could literally be in two places at once. And so sometimes there was a kind of an implied hitch in his timing, or he’s experiencing two or three different moments at once, and that might be funny for a reason that you don’t know ’cause you’re only in one time with him in a moment.”
This specific perception of time by G-Man might have been a reason for choosing such a distinct way of portraying his voice, with multiple halts and pauses.
In the documentary, Valve also revealed the previously canceled Half-Life 2: Episode 3 for the first time and shared other insights concerning the development of Half-Life 2, for instance, how an intern undergoing a summer practice helped Valve in a legal case.
Don’t forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.
