Astarion Talks Romancing Bears & Being Baldur's Gate 3's Poster Boy! - Neil Newbon Interview!

my name's historian and you're watching the character sheets on comicbook.com gather your party and Venture thought Darlings welcome to the character sheet comicbook.com's official tabletop and fantasy YouTube channel I am Christian Hoffer and today I am joined by a very special guest Neil nubon who's uh uh you know has has been uh you know been been a voice actor for a while and is about to be uh basically in the years of just about everyone who listens to or watches our Channel because he is the voice of a steer asterian asterion sorry I'm darling uh in Baldur's Gate three and we're here to talk about uh Baldur Skate 3 and probably a lot of uh a lot of other stuff too here uh so first and foremost thank you very much for being on the show for you and pieces who asked me to understand the first place I really appreciate uh talking to you and yeah I'm just super excited about the game and be able to talk to people about our experience and and all the people have championed us as well throughout the whole the whole yeah so thanks very much yeah um so uh we we have to get the uh get the important question out of the way first uh when did larion first approach you with the idea of uh the bear sex scene uh straight to the T all right very good um so yeah so um how do I word this uh it wasn't quite as straightforward as that it was more I mean we Lauren are amazing company and I trusted him personally I've had an amazing experience on this and we've done some batshit crazy things along the way uh by the way can I use profanity I can't remember yeah we should be past the first minute so you're good to go yeah so uh we've done some about [ __ ] crazy things uh and I'm involved in like mocap stuff or stunt stuff in-game Locomotion as well as directing as well as uh playing Starion Etc et cetera so I've seen quite a lot of like interesting stuff that we've done so it didn't really phase me it was more like huh okay yeah I'm that's a DND thing I'm sure that will work out so they didn't really approach me it was more like we discovered the fact that obviously helson can do this with any of the players uh with the players themselves but also with any of the origin characters as well the interesting thing about that is I actually directed Dave and I are mates so I actually directed Dave for that session of the bear sex to then find out later that they used historian model to have sex while having sex consensually with Dave at character as a bear and I basically directed him in that so it was really weird it was like it was like huh I did that and yeah I'm in there and I'm responding to it's just really weird very man it's like the two meta I think meta squared it's very strange how how how do you direct a bear sex scene if you don't really start with the best acts what you say so so Dave Dave is a fantastic performer Jones is an amazing performer and he's he plays house and beautifully so um first and foremost I think the most important thing if we're going to be slightly serious about that I guess is there has to be some trust between the director and the actor you have to know boundaries you have to talk about boundaries uh we do have intimacy directives available uh which is amazing I think we're one of the first games to ever do that as well I might be wrong in that but I'm pretty sure that's actually well but maybe not the first but certainly uh not many I think games at this point have actually done that um but uh but Dave was very cool and we talked it through about the idea of it we basically approached it as a romance the bear sex thing was an aspect of that an element of that but it made sense because he's not a bear he's a druid that World Trade right so for him we talked about the idea well actually it was really led by David law because Dave knows the character so well we've all been playing our characters for so many years now about four years that we we intimately know these characters so for me director I was very much led by okay tell me about your take on house and tell me about his point of view about this his point of view about relationships about romance about vulnerability and we just basically started like that um and it was very straightforward in a way it was very funny um there was definitely moments where both of us looked at each other like what that was great you know so uh but but he's such a great performer to work with and obviously you know you know we did talk a lot we checked in with each other a lot um I checked in with him a lot to make sure that he was okay with the material that we're doing and and you know he was very very good at taking taking his character and playing this moment truthfully now stepping back from the moment it's you know it's kind of insane uh on one level but you still have to play as an actor and as a director directing an actor you still have to go for the truth of this situation in that way you have to play it seriously and took Dave's credit he's done a really beautiful job with his character and I'm very proud of it just I mean there's many directors um uh Pit Stop Productions who were doing the audio recording and the performance capture recording because we do all most of the group and there are many directors at work um that worked on Boulders Gate 3 for performance site amazing to be able to do that with Dave and have that have that experience uh but yeah I didn't realize we're going to use the starring as the model which is just weird I'd rather tickled me I'd rather fancy a fancy of fairy so you you touched on you touched on a really uh a thing that I was going to ask you about later um which is you know how you know Baldur's Gate 3 has been in development for years and uh steering has been you know a part of the game since you know early access so you know was was baldurscape 3 was the experience of like you know being involved with this game a little bit different because of the lengthy like Early Access period um how how did that like play out and how did the role kind of like evolve because you've been over you know you've been this character for the last four years it's it's been an incredibly extraordinary Journey um when I when I was cast Josh Whedon who's a pit stop is one of the lead direct uh really um heads there um he casts me as a Starion um and I was brought on which I didn't realize he was a main companion actually at the time I really I thought he was like a smaller role and I sort of guessed kind of what the project was so I knew it was going to be a reasonably long I don't think any of us realized how long it was going to be in how many sessions so what it did do like doing a TV series actually it allowed a lot more growth than maybe you might do on a three-week shoot where there is a very definite not always linear but sometimes a very linear start and middle and end to the story ours was ever expanding um lots of new things came into it that there hadn't been necessarily predicted at the time uh it developed in a way hadn't been written fully by the time we started so it was still being written the whole way through uh because for me I've got an amazing I work with an amazing writer Stephen Rooney and Stephen um uh he apparently I spoke to him you know my mates now so we had a conversation about it and he started listening to my rhythm of what I did with his lines and I he hadn't predicted with the lines based on the kind of character I was also developing because I really fully got the whole set Aryan was or it is um and so as I was sort of developing my idea of a story and he was listening to that and then writing towards a little bit of my rhythm that I'd find his rhythm in the words obviously and so I'd start you know leaning into his rhythm and it became this very beautiful symbiotic thing where something he'd liked I'd do some a word that he'd like or a phrase that he'd like in such a way that became sort of part of his habitual speech Rhythm you know darling and things like that it happened a bit more often than perhaps than it might have done you know [ __ ] like that so he started um creeping into it and I found very much that the Rhythm was so easy between the three of us that I could almost sort of not predict that's definitely sensed his intention of where he wanted the starring to go so it was a really beautiful experience for me it was great because we started we start with starring in Early Access in one place and actually throughout the course of the game you do see him develop quite substantially um and you really go very very deep and into his rather complex character and see many different facets and sides to him some positive some arguably morally negative um but it's been a [ __ ] joy to play it really has I don't think I've ever had quite as much fun with a character as I have with the Starion while still embedding in really serious heavy subjects that I think the audience are really gonna are really gonna get a kick out of them and maybe even identify with those so how had you played Dungeons and Dragons before Baldur's Gate 3 . I like in the 80s 90s when it was not a cool thing to be a geek I was a games master player um I think I started my very first role play game was done dragon Warriors which was back yeah yeah which is like it was really kind of [ __ ] knockoff of DnD basically and it's like that was um it's like five books or something and that's the entire thing um I started that in 80 my my notes and then progress to DND and Warhammer first edition role play um so yeah I've been a gamer and a geek for well since yeah uh so uh esterion he's um you know kind of become like one of the the faces of Baldur's Gate 3 he's he's even like graced his own collector's cover of PC Gamer magazine um you know and and you mentioned that this has been like one of your most like fulfilling uh roles where you know um as you you know stepped into this role and kind of you know got got to knowing this character were you anticipating there was going to be like such a fan favorite yeah I didn't really ever think in those terms um I'm I'm completely blown over and really humbled the community to star in his character and I'm glad that so many people like the work that I'm trying to present that I'm trying to create a character that is really fascinating and really interesting and it seems to have had some you know traction with people which is amazing um no I never really think in the terms of oh sorry by the way I'm on a rooftop somewhere in the middle of the Mediterranean in case you need a baby screaming and dogs it's not mine I don't know where that comes from a little snack uh sorry uh apology um so yeah no I didn't really anticipate anything I never really do to be honest um my only real goal is to try and make the best story I can for the character I'm given try and honor that story play it truthfully really try and create something Beyond um the script I'm given and and go beyond and really try to uh were you trying to entertain people so if people like my character or don't like my character that's great because actually they have a reaction either way the thing that I don't like very much is when people are kind of meh about characters do you know what I mean yeah if somebody goes oh you played this yeah it kind of kills me a little bit because it's like I want you to have a reaction you don't hate the person because whatever all love all love the character because I put a lot of work into it um but no I don't never really anticipated um a star in would be um quite as quite as well liked as I've heard I don't read um I try to avoid comments I think it's quite healthy for the ego and everything um but yes I've heard he's been quite he's been well digested but yeah it's been I know I have to say like the community are amazing um and I really think that this game reflects greatly on the passion that everybody's thrown into it from the directors a pit stop to the directors uh uh in in-house in larion um Greg lindstone I've been working with on the motion capture side I've been doing Bobby doubling and stuff and combat and Latino uh Kyrie van goosman and also um Alex Van uh Austin so their names are difficult to pronounced sorry um a sort of swan as well as the the whole team Josh Whedon as I mentioned before he literally passed me and starring I went without him I wouldn't have the role there are so many incredibly talented people that have thrown themselves at this game over well their Cycles were like something like six years or something I think um and it's it's hundreds of people hours over five different Studios and everybody's driving towards this one amazing experience and to be a part of that it's been 90 blessing but I feel I feel incredibly touched that people have not only taken me on as an actor but also got to direct I got to do motion capture for it I was consultant Theory actually invited my company to come and consult with the animators to get them to understand performance and motion capture better so we went from to Kuala Lumpur to Canada to Belgium to Guildford as well um I've just been embraced by and to see the way they treat people which is extraordinary by the way uh in-house like the developers and all the animators and the teams and audience Etc and how they support people living you know everybody's included regardless of your background uh gender preference sexuality preference it doesn't matter you're all part of the same team and it's really open like that and it's also reflective in the game you know there's um they added they them pronoun I I actually worked out roughly the ballpark of how much money that cost to add that in to be more inclusive it's staggering it's a staggering amount of money purely from just the voice and performance capture let alone the animating teams that haven't been add that into the cycles of all the dialogues they wanted to not because they had to necessarily you know there's lots of games that don't and which is fine you know it's very very very expensive to add it into the cycle but they did it because they really they really give a [ __ ] you know yeah and I've got to say throughout all the teams the stories the people I've met the stories I've heard about various situations which I'll talk about the the amount of support that comes from that company is incredible I've met 300 odd actors you know uh the main cast of [ __ ] awesome you know Deborah wild Jennifer English Tim Downey um Sam Burt uh Theo Solomon that we can now talk about who plays the new the new version of will which is amazing uh taking a new Direction uh which is really cool um you know we the sport characters Matt Mercer who's a [ __ ] Idol really as well as JK Simmons are you kidding yeah uh Maggie Robinson who's a mate of mine anyways it's just awesome to see and uh dog cockles in it it's like geez it's just really amazing huge amount of people really cool yeah um so my my producer mentioned uh to me that uh last month you mentioned that you wanted to do some like asterian cosplay yes I'm rather thinking of getting a bespoke outfit for him and taking him out for a walk in the sunshine um yeah I've never done cosplay before I'm slightly nervous as well say so you know have you found like the tailor or anything like that to like how far along is that project uh unwinding whining and dining some tailors at the moment nothing nothing specific darling I really have to capture the essence of me you know sort of evil but with Panache yeah uh so so yeah that's what I don't know not yet I'm talking to some people that's not that way yeah yeah well that'd be really fun to be able to do it I've never done cosplay before so it's a Brave New World but I'm gonna try and do it yeah I think that like a character like a Starion kind of serves it so you know I I was about to say if you're if you're going to do it I I think he's like you know he's the one to do it with other is apparently I Lia which is kind of a blast because he was created like the images before I was cast as a cat trip to sort of have somebody that's very similar and I think just I think it'd just be really funny yeah especially because especially because not everybody knows what I look like which is kind of nice so I'd like to go to like inventions and just freak people out well I always stress I once I have a carrots called Heisenberg and uh from Resident Evil Village and I once went up to somebody who's dressed as Heisenberg oh I am pretty good there kid I like the boxes they're all real Vibe going on he went oh that's a really good version that's a really good imitation device but I was like Oh thanks thank you very much you know ah glad I could end it to you and walked off because I was like it was really funny so I'd love to do that and Free People that'd be great oh man um so uh you know one one final question for you um you've had roles and sometimes I have time by the way I have a bit more time because I have I had something that shifted so I've got a bit more time I think okay uh well uh you know uh in that case actually I do have another I do have another kind of random question for you but uh uh you know let's let's talk about your your stream a little bit because you're a pretty prolific twitch streamer um and I know that yeah thank you uh I I know that uh Co Carnage joined you on the voice cast of Baldur's Gate three um are there any other famous streamers that you'd like to work with um you know the funny thing about the streaming stuff I did it as a way to keep in touch and see my friends during lockdown and I just kind of liked it I don't really view myself as a professional streamer it's more like uh more like a sort of amateur Like a Lover of streaming and therefore I kind of do it as a nice sideline really um and I got to interview people which is cool um I don't I don't really know I don't know it's a funny one with streamers like I don't know who whom I would like to do a stream with or that kind of stuff it's what I kind of like watching people lurking on channels and checking people out and like you know all that stuff I think Co was definitely somebody I did one for me and actually when somebody said um which was completely under wrapped at the time by the way this guy who's gonna do it's like [ __ ] hell it's like yeah I want to be in that day so I think definitely Co was somebody I was really looking forward to me and actually having met in knowing that he's he's literally lovely that um I don't know if I want to necessarily meet any other streamers to be disappointed by them uh but yeah I've definitely I've met Karen I've worked with code that's awesome that's great um the Roe guys the residents of the people I think they're cool okay are really lovely and I've actually done interviews with them they're really cool so uh they're people that I like uh like to see again um I actually uh north of Dan Allen is a mate as well and I do interviews with him and stuff like that don't own gaming but he's I don't think he streams I think he just does the interview stuff um but yes I don't know I'm a bit wary of meeting and streaming going oh not not quite as nice as you come across you know but code's great so I'm happy a lifetime I've done one lifetime coach great that's perfect I'm crazy Co is magnificent in that role by the way yeah I gotta say he's really really good we were we were all in the booth watching I was sort of giving a tiny tiny bit of input and we're watching him work and I was just really I was really blown away I was like [ __ ] it's really good so um so it was great they picked they picked the right one which is awesome um so oh um you've been you've had roles in some of like the biggest fantasy franchises ever you know Star Wars Final Fantasy you know Baldur's Gate now uh is is there a franchise that you're a part of now uh that would have just like absolutely blown your mind as a child I read like all the Forgotten Realms and uh d d books I can get my hands on we used to play D D um and I used to play a whole bunch of stuff like masquerade and werewolf and all those kind of things right yeah seriously all that stuff came out like just eight of that cyberpunk etc etc so to be in uh a story that is encapsulating the world from my childhood is quite a trip and I used to play ball Escape one and two but to death um and an interesting thing when I when I had the audition I was actually shooting uh Final Fantasy 16 performance capture stuff we're doing a lot of stuff cap stuff in Hungary for five months uh shooting there before they started as before The Voice work really got started um which I was very lucky to have also voiced some stuff and Final Fantasy as well but when we started that I got the audition for this and I very quickly worked out what it theoretically could be um I think they would they offered up like 15 different races you could play from like you know Dragon whatever the things Dragonborn and teeth fingernails and things I literally auditioned for everything I'm supposed to pick like three or four I sent in about 12 times I was just like I'd give a [ __ ] what it is and play anything in this because I realized yeah yeah so actually funny enough it's still it's still a weird thing I mean starring has been one of the greatest creative gifts I've been given I'm very fortunate to Josh Whedon to Savannah as well Jason Latino who signed off for me as well from Larry so would you like to know something from funny about Jason Latino I was going to add I was going to bring this up uh I'm I'm friends with his brother um he briefly my dungeon master uh yeah yeah um who's like map Crow on YouTube I guess I'm shouting him out here just absolutely fantastic like design work um but he's Jason's brother so he like I mentioned to him that I was like interviewing you like later this week and he's like he's like oh see if he brings up my brother at all Jason uh Latina is Tom Petty as well and Greg lindstone who basically of the main cinematics in in Dublin and also in Guildford and those cats have been more generous to me than like sorry people across my career that to thank have really supported me and have been an absolute [ __ ] dream to work with um there's even something in the game which I'm not going to talk to you about but it's something through the star in he's just it's very sensitive but I can thing around it it was something which they championed me it wasn't supposed to necessarily happen that way it was a complete moment in the volume it was just inspiring I was just inspired by the character by his story we're coming to the end of the cycle and something just happened I just had this idea to do something and Greg and Jason uh championed that moment because they really saw it they really gave me the space to just play and try something and for me it's one of the best moments of character and you may not see it because obviously there's so many different possibilities which is also awesome because then it allowed to play to do anything but this moment um if people find it I hope they might recognize that this was something that happened you know I mean so [ __ ] blessed on this job so it's unbelievable um so um one one final question you know one of the funny things about you know you mentioned playing Boulder State one Boulder skate two you know a lot of those characters have been like you know from those games have been like incorporated into like the d d like Mythos so to speak you know would you be surprised if like one day asterian like appears in an official d d Adventure or even like has his nickname like showed up you know show up on like the oh yeah I I would say I demand it not only demand it expecting you know expectation one would assume that would be the case uh yeah man I mean I hope so I hope he's I hope he's like Legacy character now you know um I gotta say of all the characters I've had to say goodbye to which you do at the end of a shoot and you do at the end of a project he he is definitely one of the hardest I've actually accidentally picked up his laugh um which isn't which isn't my normal laugh I robbed it from another actor I thought I'd admired um so this like that kind of thing which is his love which is when he gets completely giddy I now do that I don't do that as part of as part of my natural love which really is embarrassing around I hope people I also I like the fact that people make fan fiction and Fan Art about the characters they like I think it's deeply cool but you know fan fiction headcounters and stuff exists and I think it's really nice so hopefully you know if he doesn't live on through Beyond you know this at least he'll live on with with the players and with the invite me to one of your campaigns Darlings former cue though former cue well uh on that note um you know thank you once again for uh appearing on on our YouTube channel and uh Baldur Skate 3 comes out like like literally in like three days like right August 3rd August yeah like what it's like hiding on a rooftop somewhere well uh you know once again thank you very much uh can't wait to you know really really dig in uh to Baldur's Gate three here and I'm sure we will be talking about that game a lot over the coming weeks months and years on on this show and you know probably everywhere to be honest because I I cannot think of another game that people have been excited about like this in a while so um all right uh well thank you very much for uh watching and uh don't forget to hit those like And subscribe buttons [Music] please [Music]

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Id: lTjXceco4V0

Length: 25min 26sec (1526 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 02 2023