The actor behind Baldur's Gate 3's beloved vampire elf Astarion was once in "£34,000 worth of debt" until performance capture gave them a lifeline.
It's no secret that the cast members of Baldur's Gate 3 are passionate about their roles, both in the Dungeons & Dragons RPG and elsewhere. Neil Newbon, the iconic voice behind Astarion, is certainly no exception. During a recent TEDx Talk, which can now be viewed on YouTube (thanks, The Gamer), the actor explains as much.
First describing his role as a "mixture of motion capture and voice work in film, TV, animation, stage, and screen as well," Newbon admits it's "wonderful." He details how you need to "use your imagination" to truly shine – "a very beautiful way of working."
Although Newbon says, "I love my job and I love what I do," he also reveals that "getting to this point took a lot of pain, a lot of hard lessons." For a while, the actor felt like he was on top of the world. He was landing roles left and right, traveling, and "didn't have a care in the world." Soon, Newbon "realized something's wrong." He was "more desperate to be in the room, more desperate to do what I thought the directors were asking of me."
He continues: "I tried to play what I imagined they wanted as opposed to listening to my gut instinct that I've been riding on for so long. I also started realizing I was being typecast."
It all continued to go downhill from there, with Newbon unable to get new acting jobs and falling increasingly into debt. "I was in £34,000 worth of debt, living in a really ramshackled place," as the actor recalls. "Things were going really bad."
What was the push that saw Newbon once again successful and a prominent figure within the video game community? An article in a PC Gamer magazine, apparently – one he "happened to flip through… 18 years ago or something crazy like that." It was about voice work in games, and it "blew my mind," according to Newbon. "You can do that as a job. Of course, I'm a gamer. Why am I not doing this? I'm an actor."
Newbon then spotted a photo of motion capture work, and it inspired him to try it himself: "This guy looks like he's having the best time of life!" The actor ended up snagging his first video game role in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, with "so much work" coming afterward. "It was an amazing time because there were so many games out there with so few actors doing it," he states – and even though most folks didn't believe in it, he persevered.
"Nobody believed in it. Ex-friends, ex-lovers, ex-agents, even some family members," as Newbon puts it. "They just thought this was a bad idea. But my gut instinct, which I'd lost a long time ago, came back and told me this is the way forward."
It's safe to say that gut instinct was solid after all – various awards and a tough climb out of debt later, he plays some of the most beloved characters in gaming today, Astarion being just one.
As the actor concludes, "I would say that performance capture – without being glib – saved my life. But not only that, it also reinvigorated it."
