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Of course each actor in Baldur's Gate 3 is magnetic – there must be a reason you can romance so many of them – but Karlach actor Samantha Béart tells GamesRadar+ video game cast members are still often undervalued by developers. That's disappointing, since fans feel so differently.
"There's a weird disconnect," Béart reflects during the Golden Joystick Awards 2025, "between, maybe, developers' attitude towards where we fit in the ecosystem – where we're not actually part of the team – versus the players, who very much see us as the forefront. More like film and TV."
"Interesting times we live in," Béart says. As Béart notes with her comparison to more traditional mediums for actors like film, story-driven games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – for which Baldur's Gate 3 alumna Jennifer English won Best Lead Performer at the Golden Joysticks – seem to have been increasing fans' loyalties to not only a game's characters, but also to their actors.
Even so, Béart says video game actors need to take their own initiative in capturing the momentum, because studios won't necessarily do it for them. "I feel like we weaponize social media and algorithms to do that," she tells us, "because I think we're still seen as outsources for a lot of the time."
On a similar note, Expedition 33 cast member Charlie Cox recently reminded the industry how many talented people it can take to make just one handsome hero in a game, crediting protagonist Gustave's appeal to his performance capture actor Maxence Cazorla.
"This is gracious of Cox and it helps shed light on some of the very specific challenges of video game performances," said voice of Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, Roger Clark. "It takes a village."
