Right now, Fallout is one of the largest video game franchises around. Amazon’s highly successful TV show only took the series popularity to the next level. However, before Bethesda decided to take things in a different direction after acquiring the series from Black Isle Studios and Interplay Entertainment, the series wasn’t nearly as famous. In fact, veteran narrator Ron Perlman has revealed his first payment for work on the games was hilariously meager.
“They invited me to do the very first Fallout back in the 90s, I think. They gave me 40 dollars and a sandwich,” the actor revealed during an appearance in The Joe Vulpis Podcast. The renowned Hollywood actor was very specific about the sum of money offered, but we don’t know for sure if that was everything or just his way of saying he was paid very little, as the game had a notoriously difficult journey to completion and release and was generally seen as a big risk for the original developers.
In the end, the RPG became a critical hit and sold enough copies to warrant a sequel which came out in October 1998, a year later. “A year and a half” after recording his part for Fallout 1, Perlman had already forgotten about the gig (or so he says, now, in 2026), so he was shocked to hear a sequel was happening because the original had gone “through the f***ing roof.” Past that point, the actor’s voice became an essential part of the Fallout series, and we can only assume that the remuneration got better as the franchise grew larger.
“I didn’t see that coming,” he concluded before moving on to discuss other voice acting roles. And if you’re wondering whether he played any of the Fallout games, the answer is: no. It’s all about dollars and sandwiches for him. His last credit on the series is 2018’s Fallout 76 as the Speaker, so there are reasons to believe we’ll be hearing him again in the future (whenever that might be, for the game series).
Meanwhile, some fans are convinced Perlman has a surprise cameo in Fallout Season 2 based on his presence at the premiere and a suspicious deep voice in one of the trailers. We’ll find out soon enough.
