Game Awards Nominee Troy Baker on the Authentic Adventure of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Baker, nominated for Best Performance at the 2025 Game Awards, tells Lucasfilm.com — and Harrison Ford — why Indiana Jones was his hardest role yet.
What goes through your mind when you’re standing on stage in front of thousands of gamers and get the approval of Indiana Jones himself?
“‘Don’t pass out,’” Troy Baker says with a smile.
At the 2024 Game Awards, Harrison Ford praised the performance of his fellow Indiana Jones for his take on the iconic character in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. “I think this guy did a great job,” he said, gesturing at Baker. “If I’d known he was so good, I would have done it myself.”
Ford isn’t the only one recognizing Baker’s remarkable talent. He’s nominated for Best Performance at this year’s Game Awards for his work in the globetrotting adventure game. It was a role that Baker initially declined, recommending other actors until performance capture director Tom Keegan changed Baker’s mind – even though they hadn’t worked together before.
“Tom, to his credit, saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself and I had to trust him,” Baker tells Lucasfilm.com. “He said, ‘I think there’s a natural thing that you can bring to this. I’m not looking for someone who can just do a great impression.’”
“Just Be Authentic”
Along those lines, Baker never felt like he needed to put on the hat or find a trick to get into character as Indiana Jones. “If there’s a trick, then it feels false,” he says. “One of my favorite things that Tom Keegan said was ‘Look, none of this is real. We are going to do the heavy lifting of placing you inside the world. All you have to do is just be authentic in this moment.’
“So one of my favorite scenes was when we were in Thailand. [Alessandra Mastronardi] and I are on this balcony and we’re just having this conversation about what happened between Indy and Marion. And that, to me, was just a conversation between two people. For us [as actors], the ‘Gina’ and the Indy-isms kind of left. It felt the most lived in because it was just us.”
Baker is as big of a Harrison Ford fan as anyone, crediting the icon’s genuine responses to his scenes and the other actors he plays against as just one of the reasons audiences love to watch him.
“What I love is that [Ford’s] body and his face get to the idea before the words do,” Baker says. “There’s a level of comprehension that happens, and we get to watch in real time, as that manifests and erupts effusively out of him.”
To quote Ford as Indy in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, “I don’t know, I’m making this up as I go.”
“To me, that is the way that Harrison Ford is as an actor,” Baker says. “He’s just responding to everything that’s in front of him. And I think that’s the way that I like to be as an actor.”
After their moment onstage together last year, Baker spoke with Ford and admitted that the role was the most difficult one he’s performed so far.
“He asked, ‘Why?’ And I said, ‘Because I had to be you for three years!’ And he just flashed that smile and those blue eyes. The breadth of his work, the dedication that he has to it, but also just the love of doing it — it is really something remarkable.”
Baker has been a fan of Indiana Jones since he saw Raiders of the Lost Ark at a young age. (Probably too young, he often admits.) And as a fan of history as well, the actor appreciates the depth of Indiana’s knowledge the most out of all his trademark traits.
“The hat just makes him look cool. And the whip sure does come in handy, but at the end of the day, it’s really that knowledge that is his biggest weapon… He’s an academic, but he’s not like this erudite person who is just nothing but knowledge.”
The Game Awards 2025
Being nominated for the most challenging role he’s taken on isn’t an honor reserved for him alone, Baker says. The accolade shines a well-deserved spotlight on everyone who worked on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
“[Recognizing] people’s skills, talents, diligence, time, and being willing to go the extra mile to make sure that we ship a game that was received so well — that’s what I’m excited about. I get to look back at everybody at MachineGames, everybody at Bethesda, and go, ‘Hey guys, we did this.’ So, if I get to stand up and accept something in their stead, you better believe I’m going to also share the glory with them.”
Tune into The Game Awards on Thursday, December 11, 2025, at 7:30 PM Eastern / 4:30 PM Pacific.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is available now for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC, and Game Pass, and coming to the Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026.