James McCaffery as Max Payne in Max Payne 3

James McCaffery, Max Payne

James McCaffery’s relationship with the Max Payne franchise is an interesting one. He’s always voiced the character, starting with the original Max Payne in 2001. And he’s done so despite the fact that the character model has changed three different times. Max was first based on Remedy co-founder Sam Lake, but for Max Payne 2, the team behind the game used actor Timothy Gibbs. Finally, in Max Payne 3, McCaffery was able to finally able to be the face as well as the voice.

And that’s not all he did. McCaffery worked with Rockstar Games to provide the motion capture work for Max, suiting up in the appropriate gear to act out scenes and — in some cases — perform many of the game’s stunts. According to Rockstar, he did not do any of the “Shootdodging” stunts — those were left to professional stuntmen. Otherwise, much of what you see Max doing in action-related sequences is actually James McCaffery’s movement, captured and recreated in the game.

So what’s McCaffery been up to since Max Payne 3? He appeared in a few episodes of TV’s Revenge, and also showed up in two episodes of the Netflix series Jessica Jones. And he’s acted in a few movies, as well, including Compliance and Blind.

But will we ever see him act as Max Payne again? The odds aren’t good. But there’s always a chance.

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