“Uncharted”Fans were delighted to see Nathan Drake appear onscreen at the end of the film. Yes, Nolan North was just as thrilled, but it was certainly a long road.
Based on the PlayStation video game from Naughty dog “Uncharted”This film has been in production for years. It’s seen several potential stars and more directors. North was in touch most of them.
“I had met with a couple of the past directors over time, and everybody always wanted to kind of have have me in there somewhere,”North explained. Both North and the directors were aware of the desire to see him.
For those who haven’t played the games, or maybe didn’t immediately spot him, North is the man who shows up on beach after Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) and Chloe Frazier (Sophia Ali) fall out of the cargo plane. He’s a guest at the resort that is unexpectedly on the beach, and when Nathan and Chloe tell him what happened, he cheekily remarks “Something like that happened to me once.”
He tries to make a joke as they wave him off and continue their journey. “good luck,”And almost breaks that fourth wall. The moment would be even bigger at first.
“I thought it’d be cool to do a role. Like, I’m one of the bad guys,”North claimed. “I think there were a couple directors who had ideas of me actually playing a role, like maybe playing Sam Drake, or doing somebody bigger. I think one director had an idea he pitched to me, thinking about like, you know, Sully and Nate have to go get their weapons from somebody or their passports, and maybe I’m that guy. But ultimately, I think those things were kind of like, ‘OK, that’s kind of cute, I guess.’”
North will admit though that, at one point, he wasn’t sure he wanted a part in the movie at all. It had to be right if he was to appear on the screen.
“I didn’t want to take away from the film,”He elaborated. “I think, you know, sometimes a cameo in the wrong place, done incorrectly, can kind of take you out of that moment of excitement.”
But eventually, “Uncharted”Ruben Fleischer, director, figured out exactly what he wanted and called North. The pandemic was taking place in October 2020. North had to take extra steps to get to Barcelona, where the moment was recorded.
In a matter of days, North was able to obtain a COVID test and an emergency visa. Because someone from the Los Angeles immigration office had already obtained COVID, North was able to fly to Houston to obtain his. Thanks to an unanticipated piece of his past work, the process was even faster.
“If I remember correctly, the woman that was helping me get the visa was a ‘Pretty Little Liars’ fan,”North remembered the incident with a grin. (North was Peter Hastings, Spencer Hastings’ father on Freeform, played by Troian Belisario).
“She didn’t know what we were doing, but she loved ‘Pretty Little Liars.’ And boy, thanks to that show, that got expedited even faster than we thought it could get,”He went on. “And then the next evening, I was in Barcelona.”
North went on the beach with Tom Holland, Sophia Ali and completed all his quarantine requirements. From there they had fun.
“They were open to us ad libbing the scene and working on different things,”North claimed. “And ultimately, what was on the page, we did something completely different for the cameo.”
North said that he tried to apologize for his actions to the writers but was not able to get any support.
“I remember I met the writers after, I said ‘I apologize we just kind of made it up,’ and they said ‘No, no, no, no, no nothing’s set in stone! It was great, we do this all the time,’”North claimed. “So you know, to be shown that kind of respect with somebody of Tom’s stature and Ruben Fleischer’s stature… It was great. It was nice to see some collaboration was not only welcomed, but they were enthusiastic about it.”
How did the cameo look before Holland and North improvised a little? According to North, it would’ve involved them being in a bar, and as North’s character goes to grab his drink, Holland’s Nathan Drake snatches it up. North was not happy with this idea.
“My note was like, I’m here because we’re passing the torch. And I don’t know if that’s going to look like he’s taking the torch, you know?”He elaborated. “And it was just this little thing. Then they said, ‘What do you think? What do you want to do?’ And I’m like, I don’t know. That line was written, [when] he said, ‘we fell out of a car, fell out of a plane.’ And I think I actually, like I did with the Uncharted games, I think I just went ‘Yeah, something like that happened to me once,’ and they loved it.”
The future is yet to come “Uncharted”North is aware that films are not his forte and fans would love to see him there if he was able. He mentions that his son was a great actor. “wants me to be the Stan Lee of ‘Uncharted’ movies.” And yes, if he’s asked, he’s happy to pop in — but he doesn’t think it needs to be a big push.
“You know what? I’m happy to have passed the keys to the kingdom over to Tom,”North claimed. “I think he did a great job. I really do.”