During Early Access, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur’s Gate 3 made convention appearances, but it was an odd little CRPG tucked in the corner, vying for our attention. Now, it’s returned to London’s ExCel Centre for EGX 2023 for a victory lap.

The game is out and has been met with widespread acclaim. It’s being heralded as a return to form for the RPG genre, particularly in the absence of recent sequels to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mass Effect and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon Age. But like any other RPG, it’s only as st🦹rong as its🔥 cast of characters.

On the first day of EGX, attendees packed into a theatre hall to meet the cast. Jennifer English as Shadowheart; Neil Newbon as Astarion; Samantha Béart as Karlach; Tracy Wiles as Jaheira; Dave Jones as Halsin; and Amelia Tyler, the voice of the narrator, all took♊ to the stage to give us more insight into how their performances were developed - sometimes over the course of years.

Many of them almost never made it into Baldur’s Gate 3

Amelia Tyler: “I got cast in Baldur’s Gate 3 when I thought I wasn’t goౠing to get cast in Baldur’s Gate 3. The Early Access version had come out and I saw all of these amazing people [gestures to other actors], and I was like, ‘Oh, never mind, better luck next time.’

“And then [Larian] changed the narration. I got brought in to audition for that and we tried all sorts of different things. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:I was a little bit snarkier [...] a bit more sort of, sitting back and watching you **** up and enjoying that thoroughly. But we decided maybe domming people for 100 plus hours wasn't a great idea.”

Samantha Béart was༺ in 👍a similar position, as they also missed out on the initial casting.

Samantha Béart: “I accepted that I wasn't going to be in Baldur’s Gate 3. I auditioned a few years ago and didn't get the role. Long story short, I did an indie game called The Excavation of Hob's Barrow. Michael Douse from Larian made his enthusiasm for the game’s performances known, and his DMs were open. I carefully worded a kind of, ‘If you have a significantly large role going, could I be considered?’ And that was it really. It’s not surprising to hear that many of them had to undergo multiple auditions - competition was fierce.

Neil Newbon: “We had a list of all of these different races like﷽ tieflings and dwarves. I looked at the races they were asking us to audition for, and I was like [...] ‘That’s D&D! I must now submit for every race of the 12 they’ve sent. I’ll just play anything.’

“I kiไnd of thought it could be this [Baldur’s Gate] or it could be Icewind Dale, or something like that. So I was like, ‘I need toꦡ get in that game.’”

For others, it was much more low-key.

Dave Jones: &ldꦗquo;It was just after the lockdown started. They needed a vid𝓡eo, but I don’t normally do that. So I’m there, in a Goonies T-shirt and just did… stuff? His original audition name was Galvin.

“‘One must treasure all of nature's beauty, but goblin guts are quite far down the list’ - that was an audition line. That encapsulates the character for me.”

Tracy Wiles was also given a fake name for her character, probably to av༺oid the spoiler that a significant character from the first two games was returning.

Tracy Wiles: I did three auditions for Jaheira, but she was called Yamya at that point. Like Dave said, I had some significant lines that are now in the game. And yeah, for😼 months and months, you just think ‘Oh, it’s gone’. And then they came back with a new direction.

There are some serious D&D fans in this cast

Recently, some of the Baldur’s Gate 3 cast got together to play their own characters in a campaign. But for a few on stage today, this was far from the first time they’ve play♊ed a tabletop game.

Amelia Tyler: “I'm on my second and third D&D campaigns at the moment. But I’ve played a bunch of different systems as well, like Vampire: The Masquerade and A Song of Ice and Fire. I love tabletop.“

Just like o♓ur own c✱ampaigns, theirs can get wildly chaotic too.

Neil Newbon: “My first D&D character was a swashbuckler, and it was supposed to be the beginning of a campaign. So the DM sets it on a pirate ship. I was breaking out of the pirate ship and trying to swim to shore. At the point of jumping into the water, I decided I wasn't going to. I tried to take on the entire ship. My character died. And that was the end of that.”

Karlach is lesbian coded, and Halsin is a beefcake

No, seriously, these were the character briefs for Kalrach and Halsin. Obviously, everything was much more fl✨eshed out in the final product, but Béart and Jones can still recall the first character traits that were shared with them.

Samantha Béart: “If [Baldur’s Gate 3] was set today, Karlach would be riding in on a Harley with a leather jacket and a cigar between her teeth, blaring Black Sabbath. So, lesbian coded. Chaotic good, that's what I went with.

“But the brief was always that same origin of or being enslaved, being held for ten years and getting out. In the auditions I’d find different scen𝓰es, anyway. Including a very Brian Blessed [inspired] delivery of, [Karlach voice] ‘Gods I want to ride you until you see stars!’ I really held on to that side of the horniness. We’d develop her, but s🔜he didn’t change that much.”

As for you Halsin fans out ther༺e, Larian seemed to design him with your thirstꦇ in mind.

Dave Jones: “They said he was a druid, but a bit more buff than your average druid. And he really is. His character took off from there, but the actual original brief was… he was just a buff guy. But if there's something bad out there, he will not be afraid to tear a **** apart.”

Others, like S♉hadowheart, are more guarded. Naturally, this meant more was kept🐽 from their actors at the beginning.

Jennifer English: “There isn’t an immediate bond [with Shadowheart], because there just wouldn't be. Oh, unless you’re Karlach. We all want to be Karlach’s best friend.”

The actors influenced their characters’ writing

The actors we’ve spoken to have been quick to praise their writers, and Neil Newbon was no exception. In fact, he recalls how the way he delivered Astarion’s lines influenced the direction of the character during development, as written by Larian's Stephen Rooney.

Neil Newbon: “They had a very brief summary of what happened to him, why he’s in the predicament he's in, without going into too much detail. [...] I started pushing the text a lot, like way further than maybe they'd expected me to do. Stephen Rooney is an amazing writer, he’s the main writer for Astarion. He heard my rhythm on things that he didn't expect me to do in a certain way. Because of that, he sort of said, ‘Okay, we'll push that a bit more’. And through that, I realized that okay, if they’re letting me do this, what else can I do?“

He's manipulative. He's a survivor, which is a big thing as well. And he's also up for fun. He's obsessed with freedom, the idea of being completely free. So that gave me loads of stuff to work with. We had so much time - four years to develop him with the story.”

Jaheira wears high heels 24/7

Tracy Wiles simply is Jaheira. We have an interview with her on the way, but in the meantime, here’s her shocking the entire panel by sharing her unique c💞hoice of footwear for mocap sessions.

Tracy Wiles: “Am I the only one who wore big wedges with the mocap suit? If you’ve got really short little legs, that suit is really unforgiving. I’d pull it up into an empire line, which I’d get toꦑld off about. Am I the only one? I feel more powerful in my wedges.”

Finding love in the recording studio

Jennifer English was the only actor to stick with the same performance director throughout the game’s lengthy development👍. There’s a good reason for this - she fell in love with hers. But that wasn’t the only benefit of the pair working together.

Jennifer English: “I have ADHD and it’s quite visible in my movements. The first day I worked with a performance director, Aliona Baranova, she came along and - she also has ADHD - and she goes, “Uh, hi. Do you have ADHD?” At this point I was not diagnosed. But I was like, ‘Okay, this woman gets my movements. This woman can rein in my tics. Great, you can be my performance director.’ And then we fell in love and now we've been going out for years.”

Yes, they have favourite lines

Just like the rest of us, many of the cast members have their own favourite lines. So, I’m going to pop them here without any context whatsoever. Well, aside from Dave Jones’, because his is made even better by t🅠he context.

Tracy Wiles: “[Loudly] Haha! What? Shut up!”

Jennifer English: “You’re as 🦂loyal as a pup, and twice as pretty.”

Neil Newbon: “Of course! What fun. [Whispers] I’m going to ****ng kill you.&r෴dqꦬuo;

Samantha Béart: “Mizora, I’ve taken more pleasan👍t shits than you, and at least those can be buried after.”

Amelia Tyler: “Tongs. A wide variety of tongs.”

And last, but by no means least - here’s Dave Jones’ favourite line. Yes, it is from that scene.

Dave Jones: “You… like it?”

Finally, who they’d want to play if they didn’t get their current role

Tracy Wiles: Min⭕thara. She even gives us an impression of the villainous drow, and loves it.

Jennifer English: Halsin, for a laugh. But also the narrator, so she could sit down💮꧂.

Neil Newbon: Background characters - he can’t imagine not being Astari🐟on.

Dave Jones: Ketheric Thorm, “Be🌼cause ✨I’d like to dress up in lycra.”

Samantha Béart: Astarion, so she could have a break from being “heroic and brave&rdquo🌳;. Everyone laughꦿs.

Amelia Tyler: Karlach. “I want to play someone who wants to punch the worldܫ in😼 the face.”