GTA 5's Steve Haines Actor Auditioned 60 Times for GTA 6 and Got Silence

Sixty Auditions, Zero Callbacks

Robert Bogue, the actor behind the slippery FIB agent Steve Haines in Grand Theft Auto 5, really wanted to be in GTA 6. He wanted it badly enough to audition for more than 60 roles. Big ones, small ones, anything. And then, according to Bogue himself, Rockstar Games said nothing.

The story surfaced through X user Burak, who reached out to Bogue via Instagram with questions about his potential involvement in the upcoming sequel. Bogue was candid in a way that feels almost refreshing given how locked down everything around GTA 6 tends to be.

“I’m a little bit down on Rockstar right now,” Bogue said, as reported by IGN. “I had such a great time working with them. I so badly wanted to work on GTA 6. I must’ve auditioned for over 60 characters. Some were big, some were small. I didn’t care. I just wanted to be in it. I didn’t get any of them, and they never called me about any of them.”

He went further, floating a theory about why the door kept closing. “I thought maybe they have an unofficial policy where they don’t reuse actors, because I thought, ‘You’re gonna say no to me 60 times? Even for a small character?’” He compared the whole experience to a romantic rejection: “I feel like someone who’s in love with a girl and then she just dumped me.”

After those comments spread online, Bogue followed up with a second message through Burak. “I’m sorry to throw Rockstar under the bus publicly about how many auditions I’ve had, but the truth is the truth. At the end of the day, the actor’s life is about rejection. It’s just, sometimes you need a victory once in a while.”

A Long History with Rockstar

Bogue is not some peripheral figure in the Rockstar universe. He was Red Harlow in Red Dead Revolver, Troy in Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony, and, of course, Steve Haines in GTA 5. That’s a meaningful body of work with one studio across more than a decade. Which is part of why the silence stings as much as it apparently does.

For what it’s worth, Rockstar has shown some willingness to bring back familiar voices in new contexts. Ned Luke, who played Michael De Santa in GTA 5, had a part in Red Dead Redemption 2, though he has said Rockstar ultimately cut his lines, reportedly to avoid pulling players out of the experience. So there is precedent for recycling talent, even if carefully.

As for Steve Haines specifically, his absence from GTA 6 is probably not shocking to longtime fans. One of GTA 5’s endings has players killing the character, and that ending is widely considered canonical. There’s not much of a comeback arc available there.

Rockstar’s Complicated Relationship With Its Performers

Bogue’s frustration sits within a longer, messier history between Rockstar and the actors who bring its worlds to life. Michael Hollick, who voiced Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto 4, told press he was paid $100,000 for 15 months of work. When GTA 4 became a massive commercial hit, Hollick made clear he felt that compensation was not in line with the game’s success. It’s widely believed that dispute is part of why Niko did not appear in GTA 5, even as other GTA 4 characters like Packie and Brucie showed up.

Ray Liotta, who voiced Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, also made comments about the pay being underwhelming relative to the film work he was used to.

What Bogue seems most bothered by is not simply the rejection itself. It’s the absence of any official acknowledgment across 60 attempts. For an actor who clearly has goodwill toward the franchise and a genuine history within it, that silence is its own kind of answer, just not the kind anyone wants to receive.