Hellboy star Ron Perlman has expressed his bemusement at the Fallout franchise and his legendary status within it as narrator of all the video games, joking he was paid “$40 and a sandwich” to record his iconic “war never changes” line for Fallout 1.
Perlman first recorded the “war never changes” line as part of the intro for 1997’s Fallout video game. He’s played the narrator for pretty much every Fallout video game since, with the “war never changes” line becoming seared into the memories of a legion of fans. It’s a line that even made it into Amazon’s Fallout TV show, although Perlman didn’t say it himself.
Speaking on the Joe Vulpis Podcast, Perlman clarified that he’s not a gamer, so much so that “I wouldn’t know which game goes into which piece of hardware.” Perhaps more surprising, he says he’s never played a Fallout video game ever — not even for a minute. “This whole Fallout thing is like a mystery to me,” he added.
It’s worth noting that Perlman isn’t expressing anger at his paltry paycheck for Fallout 1 here (it was nearly 30 years ago after all). He’s not even necessarily saying he was actually paid $40. And it sounds like it was a throwaway encounter even in his mind back then, because he had forgot all about Fallout when he got the call to come in for Fallout 2 the following year.
“They invited me to do the very first Fallout back in the ’90s, I think,” Perlman said. “They gave me $40 and a sandwich. And a year and a half later, I get a call: ‘Hey, you remember Fallout?’ ‘No.’ ‘Well, there’s a second one.’ I go, ‘Why?’ ‘Because the first one went through the f***ing roof.’ I go, ‘Really? Cool.’ Do the second one, and then a year later the third, fourth, and now it’s like a whole brand. I didn’t see that coming.”
While Perlman is the narrator of Fallout, he’s never actually played a Fallout character before. At least, that’s what he says. “I’ve never been in the game,” he insisted. “I just did a couple lines and, you know, got my $40 and my sandwich and went home.” Did he forget he voiced Butch Harris, Far Go Traders caravan leader, in Fallout 1 as well as the intro?
Tim Cain, one of the chief creators of the original Fallout, has spoken about Perlman’s role in the games before. Posting on the Obsidian forums back in 2015, Cain said he wrote the intro to Fallout, including the “war never changes” line, and described Perlman as “a great narrator,” adding: “He managed to sound decisive and sad at the same time.”
$40 and a sandwich in hand, Perlman went on to play roles in a number of video games, including Lord Hood in Halo 2 and Halo 3. And the same year Fallout 1 came out, Alien Resurrection, in which he played mercenary Johner, hit theaters, helping Perlman reach new heights. Perhaps his most iconic film role, however, is the much-loved Hellboy, which came out in 2004.
Photo by Steve Granitz/FilmMagic.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
