Prince of Persia voice actor recounts survival of Mumbai attacks

8:20 AM on 12.03.2008   |   Samit Sarkar

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Last week, while Americans were celebrating Thanksgiving, a series of ten coordinated terrorist attacks hit Mumbai, India. Over 170 people have been confirmed dead thus far, and nearly 300 were injured in the tragic, brutal acts. One of the individuals lucky enough to escape with his life was Canadian actor Michael Rudder. The Montreal native has done voice work for a number of Ubisoft-published videogames, including Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Assassin’s Creed, and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, in which he voiced the Dark Prince.

Rudder was having dinner with friends at the Oberoi Hotel when terrorists opened fire, and as he lay in a hospital bed, he related his harrowing ordeal in an exclusive interview with CBC reporter Terry Milewski. I’ve put some choice quotes after the jump, since it’s a rather chilling account. (Text transcribed from video linked on interview page.)

[Via Kotaku]

I ... found myself in a Bruce Willis Die Hard moment where my arm -- you know, I had a lovely white shirt on -- it just exploded into red. And, um, while I was taking that in, I got a bullet in my leg, so I quickly got myself on the floor to get a bullet in the butt as I was going down. And then another bullet, still another bullet, grazed my head, so ... I just laid there in utter shock for quite a long time.

He had the presence of mind to play dead, at least until the attackers tossed in some grenades that filled the room with smoke. At that point, he decided it was no longer wise to stick around:

If I would’ve sat there and said, ‘Oh, I don’t feel well, I don’t think I’ll get up from the floor,’ and watched the smoke come in and suffocate me, I think I would’ve been kind of an idiot.

Thankfully, Rudder could still walk, so he was able to escape through a service exit -- he just “followed the bloodstains.” Once outside, he simply caught a cab to the hospital. He has even had some acting experience with being fired at:

I’ve shot those movies where the guy runs through the hail of bullets, so to actually run through a hail of bullets -- it’s close to acting, but ... nothing like it, you know?

According to the CBC story from Sunday, November 30th, Rudder was due to have surgery yesterday to remove a bullet from his abdomen. We here at Destructoid would like to send our most sincere condolences to him -- two of his American friends, a 13-year-old girl and her father, died in each other’s arms at the table -- and we also wish him a very speedy recovery.