Summary
- Neil Newbon’s previous agents passed up many video game roles before he fired them.
- His first video game gig was Ghost Recon: Future Soldier in 2012.
- He also talked about the negative perception of motion-capture work that prevailed a few years ago.
Baldur’s Gate 3 has some of the well written and beloved companions in gaming, not counting Wyll. Of course, we all have our own favourites, but there’s no denying that Astarion ranks pretty high for most people. He may come across as just a sexy vampire at first, but once we explore his history, we see that he is more complex than he shows, with a heartbreaking past.
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Neil Newbon’s masterful performance in bringing the character to life is undoubtedly one of the best video game acting performances in a while, making him the darling of the video games industry, however, it seems we may have not seen his performance at all if he had listened to his agents.
Neil Newbon’s Agents Passed On A Number Of Video Game Roles
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in a showcase of gaming’s most popular actors, Newbon revealed that his first video game gig came with Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier in 2012, eventually leading to his most famous role as Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3. However, we may have not seen his performance at all if he had listened to his previous agents.
Newbon explained that the overall sentiment towards video game acting wasn’t very positive a few years ago. “I realized there was a disconnect between ‘motion-capture artists,’ which was the old technical term for us, and actors, which meant people still hadn’t quite got the idea of what an actor could do here,” he said.
“I’ve had agents turn down three-week mo-cap gigs that I didn’t even know about,” he revealed. “They just didn’t want me to do it, which is not cool. But this was a long time ago. I got rid of those agents.”
Newbon has previously stated that video game motion-capture work had saved his career. “It was games, that saved me,” he said in a previous interview. We’re thankful that he parted ways with those agents, and are grateful to the ones who pointed him towards Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s hard to imagine Astarion being played by any other actor.
- Released
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August 3, 2023
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence