Everyone who’s played GTA San Andreas remembers where they were and how they felt when they found out that Big Smoke and Ryder were the traitors to Grove Street. But if it was hard for us, imagine how it was for the man who voiced CJ.
You can check out my full interview with Young Maylay, the CJ of GTA San Andreas, in the player below:
During our conversation, Young Maylay confessed something surprising: he felt that pain firsthand, in real life.
Maylay told me that while playing GTA San Andreas, he was so immersed in the story that he ignored all the warning signs, just like CJ would. You know when Cesar Vialpando tries to open our eyes? Maylay went through the same denial.
He told me: “The whole time, Cesar was trying to tell me: ‘Hey man, it’s the homies, man.’ And I didn’t believe him because I was so blinded that I thought: ‘No, the Grove Street guys wouldn’t do that!’”
The pain of killing a “homie”
The revelation that his best childhood friends were involved in CJ’s mother’s murder was what hit him the hardest. For Maylay, Ryder wasn’t just a character—he was the “homie from the hood.”
He opened up about the moment of revenge: "It really hurt my feelings in real life when I was playing the game and had to kill Ryder. […] That really hurt me."
He admitted he was so emotionally invested that the betrayal left a scar, but confessed that, after the pain, he felt relief: "After I did [the mission], I was happy."
The Realism of GTA San Andreas
For Maylay, this is the greatest proof of Rockstar’s genius. The game doesn’t try to be a fairy tale; it shows the raw reality of the streets, where betrayal usually comes from those right beside you.
"But it happened. And it happens in real life. And that’s what makes that game so authentic, man," said the actor. That authenticity, coming from someone who lived the culture of Los Angeles, explains why San Andreas is still so many people’s favorite game after 20 years.
Check out: Exclusive: Interview with Young Maylay, the actor who played Carl Johnson (CJ) in GTA San Andreas
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