Baldur’s Gate 3’s fan-favorite vampire spawn Astarion lives on beyond the screen in actor Neil Newbon, who says playing the character imprinted some of its mannerisms upon his real life self.
In an interview with Luality, Newbon explained how his work as a method actor makes it hard not to adopt some of the same characteristics of the characters he’s portraying.
“You do get a bit of a come down where you’re trying to shake the character off a little bit,” he said. “There’s some things about certain characters that I’ve taken on a little too much. Some of my laughter turns into Astarion’s sometimes, which is a bit funny.”
Newbon also seemingly touched on his portrayal of Bryn, the lead ape from the animated movie Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier.
“I played an ape once,” he said. “There’s certain mannerisms that he had that had lingered when I get really pissed off about some things, which doesn’t happen very often. But I do find myself doing things that my ape used to do when I’m annoyed.”
For the uninitiated, in the simplest terms method acting is when an actor tries to fully immerse themselves in the world of the character they’re playing, sometimes by acting as that character even when they aren’t performing. And I can definitely see how that would make it harder to completely move on from a performance compared to more conventional acting techniques.
I’m nonetheless fascinated and scared in equal parts by the thought of Neil Newbon rampaging around the streets banging his fists to his chest.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Astarion actor says he “physically, mentally just shut down” while working on the RPG and “other projects simultaneously” – “I don’t know what you’re asking me to do”
