Brad Dourif and Mark Hamill, but who played the role better? Sometimes a character becomes so closely identified with a particular actor, it's almost impossible to imagine anyone else ever taking over the part. That's more often associated with live-action roles, but in the case of Chucky, it's also true. It's a bit odd that Dourif's career trajectory took him from an Oscar-nomination for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to voicing a foul-mouthed doll, but either way, he's terrific at it.
Of course, successful franchises tend to last forever nowadays, and individual people don't. People die, people retire, people get sick of playing the same role, it happens. What makes the fact that Hamill played Chucky in 2019's Child's Play remake especially odd is that Dourif has done none of those three things. He most recently voiced Chucky in 2017's Cult of Chucky, and is set to return for Syfy's Chucky TV series. Yet, due to a quirk in the franchise's rights situation, MGM was able to move ahead with a remake anyway, complete with a new actor playing Chucky.
Still, that shouldn't be held against Hamill, as Dourif wasn't interested in being part of the remake, since creator Don Mancini's original franchise is continuing. Hamill was offered a cool role, took it, and even expressed nervousness publicly about taking over such an iconic horror villain after Dourif made the character his own. That all said, did Hamill manage to best his predecessor?
Child's Play's Chucky: Who Played the Role Better, Dourif or Hamill
While it may not seem fair to judge Brad Dourif's entire run as Chucky against Mark Hamill's one film, one kind of has to do that, as Dourif doesn't get a ton of lines in the original movie. For most of Child's Play 1988's running time, Chucky actually isn't shown coming to life, as an attempt to leave it a bit unclear if what Andy is saying is real. With that caveat out of the way, it's time to get down to business.
Hamill's Chucky voice is a lot less sinister and human-sounding than Dourif's, but that's by design, as the new Chucky is a doll controlled by a malevolent AI, while the classic version is a doll possessed by a serial killer. Dourif's Chucky voice is also much more high-pitched and squeaky, while Hamill's is softer and kinder, even when doing evil things. Hamill's Chucky is probably creepier for that reason, as most of the time, it sounds deceptively friendly, while Dourif's Chucky doesn't usually attempt to hide his murderous intentions.
On the other hand, the fact that Chucky's voice is human makes him far more capable of expressing extreme emotions like rage and pain, leading to a much more dynamic delivery. He's also more sadistic, as while Hamill's Chucky will kill people, Dourif's might torture them first. Chucky seems more like his own character when played by Dourif, while Hamill's can sometimes feel more like a plot device, but again, that's partly the result of the Child's Play remake's writing. At the end of the day, both actors excel at the particular version of Chucky they're given to play, but Dourif's version is simply more memorable, funny, and menacing. Therefore, Dourif gets the victory.
