‘We Didn’t Know We Were Working on GTA 5’: How Shawn Fonteno Almost QUIT the Role of Franklin Clinton

Grand Theft Auto 5 is one of the best-selling games ever made, and over the last decade, it has built an indelible impression on the gaming world. More than ten years later, the game’s cast still represents the brand to no end, appearing on stream and in-person at events that celebrate the franchise and the success of GTA 5.

Recently, Shawn Fonteno, the actor behind Franklin Clinton, one of GTA 5’s lead characters, appeared on-stream with Kai Cenat, and he divulged a few home truths about the development of Grand Theft Auto 5. In one segment, the actor revealed that he was inches away from quitting the role mid-production.

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‘I Was Facing Two Cases’

On Kai Cenat’s recent stream, Shawn Fonteno revealed that his portrayal of Franklin Clinton in GTA 5 rang very close to home. Before he landed the role with Rockstar Games, he was gangbanging, had been shot several times, and was facing ‘serious time’ before Rockstar scooped him up and offered him the job as Franklin Clinton.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing though.

Fonteno revealed that early on in the game’s development, he tried to storm out of the production as nobody knew they were working on Grand Theft Auto. At one point, the game’s director had to pull him aside and instruct him to trust the process – but it almost went a different way entirely:

They fought with me. I quit. I said, ‘I don’t want to do this shit, take this shit off of me’. They sat me down and the director said, ‘Just trust me’. They didn’t tell us it was Grand Theft Auto 5, they told us it was another game when we went there called Paradise, because they’re secretive.

We didn’t know we were working on GTA 5 until a whole year later.

He revealed that his character’s name, to maintain the cover, was ‘DaShawn.’

As the stream with Kai Cenat unravelled, Shawn Fonteno called his cousin, Young Maylay, the voice of San Andreas’ Carl Johnson, and requested he do some of his most iconic lines. It was a peak point for GTA fans, as Maylay is notoriously averse to interviews and performing anything related to San Andreas as he feels that over the last 20 years, the game has been covered to death.

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