The Western epic Red Dead Redemption 2 is considered a flawless milestone in gaming. But it is not quite that perfect. This is revealed by actor Roger Clarke. He is upset because he had to do something wrong that, being a native Irishman, he actually shouldn’t be able to get wrong: mispronouncing an Irish first name.
What is the actor upset about?
- Roger Clarke (46) is the actor behind the charismatic main character of Red Dead Redemption 2, Arthur Morgan. Clarke is an Irish-American actor; although he was born in the USA, his mother is Irish, and his father is Irish-American.
- But Rockstar forced him to deliberately mispronounce the Irish first name “Colm” to show that Arthur Morgan is an ignorant cowboy who doesn’t care about how to pronounce Irish names correctly. Because the first name “Colm” is pronounced like “Colom” (via forvo), but Arthur Morgan doesn’t care.
- This still upsets the actor, as he states in an interview (via youtube). He pointed out to Rockstar that the name is pronounced incorrectly, but they simply didn’t care.
Rockstar made me say it wrong
This is what the actor says: In an interview with Gamology, Clark states that Rockstar wanted him to mispronounce the name “Colm O’Driscoll”:
The only thing I regret is that I mispronounced Colm O’Driscoll. Rockstar made me mispronounce it. I told them it was wrong, but they didn’t care. It’s pronounced ‘Colom’, not Colm.
“In Ireland, we say it differently”
Why does he have to do that? Obviously, Rockstar wanted to portray that Arthur Morgan simply doesn’t care how the name of the “human rat”, Colm O’Driscoll, is pronounced. Apparently, even Colm O’Driscoll himself doesn’t care; he prefers the “wrong pronunciation” of his name.
In the game itself, side characters address this very mispronunciation: The character Sean reproaches Kieran for also mispronouncing Colm: “We in Ireland say Colom,” he says.
In response to the remark that O’Driscoll himself prefers “Colm”, he replies: “And you prefer to keep breathing, right? So say Colom properly now, please.”
But when Arthur Morgan shows up, no one confronts him about his mispronunciation.
So it’s obviously a narrative trick to deliberately mispronounce the name to highlight a cultural divide between the USA and Ireland, the new world and the old world. Another major mystery in Red Dead Redemption 2 is the question of which ending is considered “canon”: The actor of Arthur Morgan believes that 2 endings of Red Dead Redemption 2 don’t make sense, revealing his official ending
