Yes, that’s right. Rockstar Games’ Producer Lazlow Jones, who has also served as the series writer, recently spoke with the WGN Podcast (transcribed by Polygon) about how the upcoming Grand Theft Auto V uses voice overs from actual gangsters.
“In the game there’s these rival gangs. There’s Black gangs, Latino gangs. We recruited a guy who gets gang members, actual real gang members, like El Salvadoran gang dudes with amazing tattoos, one of which had literally gotten out of prison the day before.
“We get these guys in to record the gang characters because we don’t want a goofy LA actor who went to a fancy school trying to be a hard gang member. There’s nothing worse than that, so just go find the terrifying people and say ‘can you come in here please?’
Of course, for those times when the talent is being difficult to work with, Lazlow was perfectly fine with having them ad-lib their lines, stating that his own script was “irrelevant” when it came to capturing the real deal.
Grand Theft Auto V releases on September 17th for Xbox 360 and PS3.