Astarion is far from the only beloved character in Baldur’s Gate 3, but the high-pitched, trauma-filled vampire is certainly the most iconic of the cast. Often seen as the face of Larian Studios’ RPG, actor Neil Newbon has been approached numerous times to essentially replicate the character with a new face for different projects.
In an interview with us at FRVR, Newbon discussed his artistic inspirations from David Bowie. “I gotta say, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, were very early childhood influences, I think to some degree,” he said. “Yes, I think there’s definitely a Bowie rhythm in me. I’d love to play him in Labyrinth or love to do a biopic of him”, adding that he would “definitely play Jareth in Labyrinth if someone came at me with that”.
Newbon explained that Bowie’s existence as “a very beautiful artist, a very insightful human being as well” is a huge influence on him, but also in the way that he continued to evolve as an actor and artist in different roles. “Bowie is an artist that completely reinvented himself,” Newbon explained. “I think he understood that extreme repetition breeds stagnation as an artist”.
The actor explained that Bowie’s interviews taught him that “being slightly uncomfortable in a good way as an artist is actually where art lives” and that means moving into new roles, new characters, and new experiences. “I always liked that about him as an artist, that he was constantly trying out new things,” he continued. “Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn’t”.
As Astarion is Newbon’s most iconic role yet, the actor has been approached to play characters that are described as being “just like Astarion” with some wanting the exact same high-pitched, suave demeanour of the party member. While Newbon would love to play Astarion again, regurgitating his performance behind a different face isn’t interesting.
“I’ve definitely avoided a few roles recently not because they were bad projects or anything, just because they, for me, the character—they kinda want the Astarion thing,” he told us. “And it was just like, ‘Well, I don’t really want to do that again. It’s too close to the character I’ve already done, I don’t think I could offer anything necessarily that’s interesting to this particular character’”.
Newbon explained that it’s not just about the voice of the character, but the character’s story. “Not to say that the voice isn’t similar, that’s a different thing, I’m talking about when people say: ‘This character’s just like Astarion!’”
The actor revealed that he’s also been “very lucky” recently to be working on characters that are wildly different from Astarion. Recently, the actor starred in Bungie’s Marathon as the AI Darius, providing a fantastically theatrical, Shakespearian performance for the few voice logs the characters appear in, and that variety is key to the actor’s career.
“I’ve been doing a lot of work, and all of the jobs I’ve been doing have been wildly different from that in terms of character work,” he continued, explaining that he used to “get typecasted quite a lot as a lot of actors do”. After a successful character like Astarion, it’s easy to get funnelled into repetitive roles and very tempting to take them, but that wouldn’t be very Bowie.
While Newbon would love to continue the role of Astarion in an official capacity, developer Larian Studios has moved on from the world of The Forgotten Realms, and is instead focusing on its own IP: Divinity. Currently years from release, we have no idea if Newbon is involved in the upcoming project, although they would “love to work with Larian again”.
