Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 devs "knew within seconds" that Baldur's Gate 3's Shadowheart actress was the perfect pick for Maelle

Jennifer English has had quite a busy few years, with her latest role being 16-year-old Maelle in the latest GOTY contender, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. According to a recent Twitch stream featuring English and her partner, Aliona Baranova – who has her own minor role in Clair Obscur and was a performance director on Baldur's Gate 3 – English was the immediate top contender for the role.

English is far from new to the voice-acting industry, with credits in Elden Ring and Divinity: Original Sin 2, but her performance as Shadowheart in the critically-acclaimed 2023 RPG, Baldur's Gate 3, stole fans' hearts. Subsequently, the voice of Shadowheart, lovingly dubbed "God's favorite princess," became widely recognizable. However, that seemingly wasn't true for the Clair Obscur devs.

English explains that when casting for the role of Maelle, blind auditions took place. This means those casting the role didn't know the names' of the actors in order to avoid any sort of bias.

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Furthermore, English claims that those at Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 studio Sandfall Interactive had even been playing Baldur's Gate 3, but apparently didn't notice that Shadowheart herself was the one auditioning.

According to Baranova, Clair Obscur's narrative lead, Jennifer Svedberg-Yen "knew within seconds that Jen's voice [...] was Maelle."

It's safe to say that regardless of a blind audition or not, fans will continue to hear English's voice in future roles that steal the show.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director found something that "makes the game feel 10 times better" mid-development, then painfully realized they had to apply it to "like 1,100" different attacks.