Baldurs Gate 3's recent launch on PC is enjoying massive success, breaking records, and causing quite a genre-defining stir in the game industry. Currently, Baldur's Gate 3 is 2023's highest-rated game yet. That's even before its reached other consoles, with its PlayStation 5 debut just around the corner and, hopefully, Xbox Series X/S joining in time. Many see its success as extremely well-deserved, with so much that has gone into the game's development, thanks to the range of story and character dialogue permutations and so much more.
Game ZXC recently spoke with Baldur's Gate 3's Astarion actor Neil Newbon about playing a character with so many story and dialogue possibilities and creating who he truly was underneath all of that. Newbon also talked more about the development of Astarion as a character and romance in Baldur's Gate 3. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: With how big of a game this is, how much of it have you managed to play?
So, not only do I play Astarion, but I am also involved in the motion capture, body doubling, creature work, some combat, stunt, and the action stuff on the mocap side, and directing, I decided to play up to as far as I could get in early access. That way I understood the mechanics of how the system was going to work.
Having said that, I decided I had to ban myself from playing further because I got into a thing where I was like a junkie, I was like justifying playing a bit more. Like oh, no, no, I already saw that mechanic, but I should probably just test it quite a bit more. Then, it was more and more and more. Toward the end of EA, I was just like 'Neil, stop. Just put it down. What are you doing? You want to play the game when it comes out, you junkie.' Yeah, I got a little addicted.
Q: For Astarion, could you talk about your process and getting into the mind of this beloved vampire Elf?
Yeah, sure. I'm very lucky that Stephen Rooney and Larian are such an amazing team. Stephen Rooney, the main writer of Astarion, is so talented and so good.
Initially, when I auditioned for the character, I didn't know who I was auditioning for. They just gave us 12 races to do an audition with, like Halfling or Dwarf, just very generic characters with kind of generic texts. I sort of worked out what I thought this game might be. I was really excited and decided to do 10 out of 12 auditions, even for the stuff I'm not appropriate for, just to be able to just get in the game. Then, they asked me to come do a demo for Astarion's character, which again, they didn't tell me it was a companion. They just told me it was a vampire character. I thought, 'okay, it's just some dude, probably a villain who gets killed. That tracks with my career, that's fine.'
We just got into it and the demo was really fun. During it, they gave me the bio on the character, a lot of background info, and some initial ideas and text that we were allowed to use for recall. I saw a lot of great, strong facets to his character - super intelligent, can be highly manipulative, erudite, very charming, very charismatic, very smooth, very wily, a born survivor, and also very incredibly funny. He tickled me straight away. The accent was very vague RP, so we decided to do high inflection. So you get his voice, which is all up and down as opposed to RP, which is very flat - received pronunciations is RP. That was just the baseline for all of it, that he's rather posh. It's like, he's noble, he's a magistrate, and all this kind of stuff. I also knew he was a vampire on the run.
Through those details, I started piecing together who I thought the character was, and the big thing for me was the sense that "to be free" is his objective: to be free, to maintain his freedom, to be free of the tadpole, to be free of his master that he's on the run from, and to be free in the world to do whatever he wants because he spent all these years as a slave. You know, he's been traumatized by that, so it was a very interesting starting point with a lot of information, different layers, and stuff to come out. Especially because we're not starting not at the trauma part of his story, but the bit where he's just left the traumatic part of his life, and he's trying to almost baby step his way to freedom.
What does that mean, and how does that work? Who are these people? Exploring not only this new possible start, but then trying to flesh out the character's movements based on who I thought he was before the trauma 200 years ago or whatever. There was so much to get on with, which was great actually because it gave me a lot of give me a real fire in terms of creativity. I was up to try lots of tools, to expand on his ideas, to work on his movement to represent this vampiric bestial side of him, as well as the noble side of him.
There was so much stuff that we were developing, it was almost like every session was just like push this bit here, why don't we do this, and why don't we try that. I'm very diligent about my work, so I got all the scripts beforehand for the sessions that we were recording— not the entire script because it's just too big. It was also still being written as we along with it. But essentially, when I read all the lines, we might only do this bit, but these scenes could have been anywhere as well. Depending on the dialogue, some scenes could be anywhere in the world.
Through these lines, I started creating what I thought his life was and how he acted. Like, it's all different angles and flow, like a harlequin, and I thought 'okay, well that's interesting. Let's incorporate a bit of that.' There's also a stray cat that comes into my house, it took a whole recording period for it to trust me, but I can pick it up in my arms now. A lot of the ways this cat would act, it would let you touch it and then immediately bite you, is very similar to how Astarion can like you but then just turn on you over a small slight, over nothing. All these little things came into play, like I can use this, use feline animal work, use method acting, and all this kind of stuff. Loads of stuff we threw in, and I had four years to really hone in on him like that—four years, not that we knew it at the time.
It really whittled down to what kind of character possibilities there were and then really exploring those character possibilities, along with great directors and great writers. We had many great directors at PitStop Productions, too many to mention in the time that we got, and Larian as well. Jason Latino is an amazing cinematic director there. Terry on animation, Greg who does motion capture, and Tom, many more. All the directors at PitStop were incredible. They just allowed me to carry on. They all went 'That's mad. Okay, if you can justify it, you can do it.' There's a wonderful director there, Kirsty Gilmore, who I will mention, actually. She was very tough on me in a good way, but also very fair with me in the same way that Josh Weeden was as well.
They really let me play, and they knew why I was doing it. Their job was to sort of allow the chaos to happen and just funnel the chaos this way or that way. Just in case I went too far, which is just like Astarion. Yeah, there's definitely a rhythm there. There are a lot of things that are very similar between him and me, in some ways. We're both lovers of creative chaos, I think.
Yeah, that's kind of how we developed him, pushing certain things more and more on different days. I had constant conversations with the directors about him. I mean, Josh Weeden was instrumental for getting me in the first place. He was the guy that got me cast, brought me in for that character. Obviously, Josh knew me as an actor before we worked on Resident Evil Resistance doing VO stuff at PitStop before. It was nice to have somebody in your corner. Like, I think you fit that rhythm, so let's what see you can do with it. Just come.
Q: You mentioned his pursuit of freedom, and near the end, there's this whole storyline with vampires and a pursuit of power that he can embrace or reject. Obviously, this is a game of choice, so it's different for everyone, but is there any particular path you think fits Astarion best?
Oh, it really depends. I think it really depends on the story you're telling. I think the reason that I like the branching narrative, the ridiculous number of permutations, combinations, and story options so much is that there is no definitive canon story. It's whatever you find that works for you and what you feel is the story. I have my opinion, I haven't played it all the way through yet, so I think my opinion may change a little bit as I play it. I have what I like as his definitive story ending. However, I would never impose that on somebody else. I wouldn't say that's the definitive story so much as it's I know which one I'd pick, and I know which one I really want to see. When I do a playthrough, because I know the story and history of Astarion very well obviously, I might push him that way, but I would never say there's a definitive story for any of them.
Really, it's what the player experiences. That's the beauty of this game is, this piece of the story that Larian and Swen have envisioned and created is that you can do what you want in it. It's not infinite, but it's unbelievably wide, the range of choices you have. If you want to kill every single person you meet, including major quest-givers, you can do it. It's crazy. You can literally kill every single person you meet, including companions, quest givers, everybody. If you can physically do that in the game, then you can do that and you can skip entire sections. I believe there are sections that most people won't ever see, depending on the choices because the choices might be obscure. You know, there's so much stuff in this game that there is no definitive version of what the story is. Every version of Astarion that I recorded is a definitive version of what he would do, given the right circumstances. I think that's about as close to an answer to that as possible.
Yeah, I had him in my party for a while and I thought about removing him because I was just waiting for him to be good. I was like, well, maybe I can't turn him good, but by the end, it really clicked that he had these darker tendencies but also a heart of gold.
Yeah, he's a real antihero because, deep down, he has the possibility of having a heart of gold under that nightmarish immorality and manipulation. You can find a version of him that genuinely cares for the player and his party. Equally, you can have the opposite which is just completely the self-gratifying, power-hungry, mad Uber version of himself. I'm glad you found that side of him, I think that's the one I like most. I enjoy the other sides to him as well, but I think that's one aspect I really like him: despite everything, you can have a version of Astarion that actually has a heart of gold.
Q: It's no secret that the script for Baldur's Gate 3 is huge, and I am sure there was stuff like constant revisions and changes. How did that impact you as an actor compared to other games you've acted in?
Sure. Well, I directed Deliver Us Mars, as well as being a supporting lead actor in that. I also did things like Resident Evil Village as well, RE3. Final Fantasy 16, I was doing performance capture cinematics for that, which was cool. Those are the more traditional storytelling of here's a set, these are the characters involved in the scene, here's the scene, play it, maybe some blending motion into the gameplay at the end of it or start of it. That's the traditional setup for performance capture.
Whereas here, we're dealing with thousands upon thousands upon thousands of lines with permutations, thousands of permutations and combinations of what could be happening, who's present, who's not, who's alive, who's dead, and what you've just done before. It's a very different mindset. You have to come into it in a way that really expands on the idea of there being no set story. You have to focus and hone on the character, so you know what the character is going to do, regardless of the given circumstances, and then be malleable enough as an actor to completely flip circumstances depending on what the director is telling you. Now it's this, now it's that, or now you've just done these things, but this happened.
You have to be incredibly flexible as a creative to then go, "okay, I'm just going to forget what I knew about the last thing we did." This is now a situation where I'm acting in this universe, this multiverse...this Multistarionverse where he's done something different instead. Now, how would my character react, what are his wants, needs, and obstacles under these circumstances? It's really a cool acting exercise because you are just constantly flipping around, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was incredibly interesting. I've done branching stuff before with Detroit: Become Human, Planet of the Apes, and stuff like that, so it's not like it's new to me. It's something I am comfortable with, but I'm curious to see how a new actor and actors who have not done games like this before, let alone mocap and voice work, did on this game. I'm curious about their experiences because it must have been a hell of a trip.
I can only imagine. It's so big.
It's a testament to how well Larian and PitStop worked so together on this incredibly huge spider web-like script and managed to get it all done in time, especially with so many different actors and so many different amazing directors as well. I think it's a testament to everybody that works there, the cast, the crew, the developers, the writers, and all their passion for this to work in the first place.
Q: Out of curiosity, do you have any favorite lines? Is that even possible with all the dialogue you've delivered? I think mine is when you leave Astarion in the camp, and he gets sort of pouty.
Oh, yeah, "I thought we had something special." [Astarion voice]
I remember that one cause I'm pretty sure that, I don't know if they kept it in the motion capture or not, but I'm pretty sure I look at my nails as I dismiss you. "I thought we had something special" as I look away and look at my nails. I'm pretty sure that was the choice I made. Not sure if that's in there or not, but check it out again. I might be just looking at my nails and dismissing you.
Yeah, things like that were great. There were some great lines, man. There's another one where a player can threaten somebody and then let them go. And Astarion goes, "You're not going to eviscerate them? Pity, I was hoping for a show." [Astarion Voice]
There's loads of shit like that in there. Just these little funny quips that I can sink my teeth into, pardon the pun. Wait, no, don't. Don't pardon the pun.
Okay, I fully understand it's appalling. I completely stand by the pun. F*ck you for making me think smaller of myself. Yeah, it's funny, "sink my teeth into," why not? I'm a vampire, f*ck it. [Astarion Voice]
Just every day, there would be lines in every session where I would just go speak to one of the directors and say "Oh, I love line 116, or I am going to have a lot of fun with this one." Often, I would start a conversation with a director by saying, "I've got an idea for this next line, you're going to absolutely hate it," just to offer up something really weird. Man, what a joyous experience. The last four years have been wild.
It sounds so fun.
It was. I had two challenging, physical-losing-my-voice days, but no days that were difficult or bad. No bad days. All good days, so much fun. A lot of love to the crew, the audio crew, the mocap crew, PitStop, Larian, working with all those guys—amazing. It has just been a dream job. I know people say that about the work they do, but this has truly been a dream f*cking job for me. It's been absolutely extraordinary from start to finish.
Q: So, at the last Panel of Hell before release, there was a specific scene between Astarion and Halsin that made waves in the fanbase. What was it like performing that scene but also seeing the fan reaction to it?
I thought it was hysterical. I really liked the fan reaction. Obviously, they were going to push for that. [Editor's note: referring to the chat/player choice given at the Panel of Hell during the scene to pursue the bear-related option.]
It was like putting some candy in front of your child saying, "Don't eat that" and then leaving the room. What do you think is going to happen to that candy? I thought it was great. Also, as a D&D player and roleplayer myself, we're always doing shit like that. That's the industry standard for roleplay is you do something crazy, do some crazy batshit stuff, throw some furryism in there, why not? Of course, it's in there. Of course.
You know, that's cool. I think it's absolutely fine. I think the main thing to note is that I actually directed Dave Jones in that scene, funnily enough, not knowing that we were going to use Astarion as the model, ironically, which was really funny. But Dave's a consummate professional, I hope I am as well. We just approached it as any other scene with intimacy and, you know, talked about and made sure he was comfortable about the subject matter. He knows his character brilliantly, he plays Halsin brilliantly, and I think he was just like, 'Okay, well, this is an intimate scene with somebody that you're falling in love with, who you're having a moment with, and that's how we're going to play it.'
The fact that he turned into a massive bear is kind of almost beside the point. That's not really the driving force of the scene, you know? We just have to play it honestly, truthfully, with professionalism, and enjoy it, have fun, and make sure that everybody, including the crew, are comfortable with the material we're doing. We had intimacy directors on standby that Larian and PitStop both got, which is incredible and very cool of them for doing that, making sure everyone is in a safe space, which they were and they were looked after. I feel that every...certainly every actor I've spoken to, which is a majority of the cast of over 300 people, everybody had a good time working on this.
As far as I'm aware, everybody felt safe. I think that's an awesome achievement for this number of actors, with this number of lines, with this subject matter like yeah, you can wild shape into a bear and then have sex with somebody. It's pretty awesome that people felt safe and secure with this kind of stuff.
I feel sorry for the squirrel. That's the one I want to check in on. Is the squirrel okay?
Q: Yeah, and obviously romance is a big part of Baldur's Gate 3. It's everywhere, it's lovely, it's awesome. Just generally speaking, could you talk about how the intimacy directors worked with actors on these scenes?
I don't think it's actually as common as you may think in games. I don't think it's unique. I definitely think people have been using intimacy directors, but I don't think it's common though as far as I'm aware.
I think it's very cool that they included intimacy directors and that they were there on standby for people. Actors could request them, and there was no issue at all. The way it usually works for intimacy is that you talk to the actors about what it is you're going to shoot, you go through it, and you flag anything that they find uncomfortable or potentially triggering. It doesn't have to be sex either. It can be things like torture, it can be trauma, you flag anything they have difficulty with. The intimacy director works with the narrative director, performance director, or voice director to find a way to make the space safe. They make sure the actor feels supported and secure, that if they get into a place where they are getting overwhelmed by something, there is someone to help them, to guide them through that. It makes sure people don't cross a boundary when the actor is not comfortable doing something. That boundary is honored.
It's also so people don't, accidentally or otherwise, ask an actor to do something that they've established that they are not okay with. That's really what an intimacy director does, as well as also informing how to go about certain movements, how to do certain things like sex scenes, what could look well and be representational of everybody in a positive light, etcetera. It depends on what you're doing.
Ultimately, that's what the importance of an intimacy director is: to make people feel safe and heard, as well as make people be heard if they have trouble or if they want to flag something. Making sure that it's a really positive, good creative experience, as opposed to people potentially being in situations where they felt exploited and not in a safe space.
Yeah, that's awesome. I know I've heard the term intimacy director more and more in the past few years than, you know, a decade ago, so the insight is just incredible.
Here's the thing: anybody can be triggered by anything. You could be the toughest badass on the planet, suddenly do something about torture or loss, and that might trigger something that nobody knows about. You could be in a really bad place, and I've seen it happen to all kinds of people from all kinds of different situations where they just get accidentally triggered, or they don't realize something affects them, they get affected, and they're in a bad place. It can be quite damaging for people, you know. That's why I think it should always be available. I mean, personally, I've done a lot of sex scenes, torture scenes, and violence and stuff. I've never needed one yet.
However, I really appreciate the fact that it's there, that the facilities are there. If I ever felt like something about the character's story was way too close to something about me, or it's been to somebody that I love or something, and I would need one, then I'm really glad that that was there offered all the time. We were constantly flagged with the script, like, "Please note these lines." They would always flag them as potentially triggering.
On top of the intimacy directors, they also made sure it was a closed set. I should have mentioned this in other interviews I've done, but we had closed sets. The door was closed, the sound was dampened outside the studio that we were filming in, and so only the people involved in it were actually involved in it. Nobody else could hear or be there. It's something important to say that they closed sets, and they made it very clear when this was a set people couldn't enter. It was a very good experience in that way.
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Baldur's Gate 3 is available now on PC.
