‘There Isn’t Much Sway Held by Past Success’: Baldur’s Gate 3 actors reveal it hasn’t boosted their careers
Third-party casting studios “don’t engage in the culture” as much as with film and TV, it’s claimed
Three major cast members of Baldur’s Gate 3 have explained how the huge success of the game hasn’t resulted in a direct increase in job offers.
During an interview with All in the Game at Heroes Dutch Comic Con in the Netherlands, Samantha Béart (who plays Karlach in the game), Theo Solomon (Wyll) and Dave Jones (Halsin) were asked how the success of the game had changed their lives and careers.
The trio initially explained that when it comes to the fanbase of the game, they will always be associated with their respective Baldur’s Gate 3 characters.
“We had no idea that this game was going to blow up in this kind of way, so travelling and doing these conventions is amazing,” Solomon said. “People flying around the world to meet us and things, it’s amazing, so I’m just very humbled.
“[It’s been] two years in the running, and the lines aren’t getting shorter, which terrifies me,” Béart joked. “Because when this first came out, we thought ‘okay, it’s good, it’ll do well’, not ‘it’ll do exceptionally well’.
“I remember at EGX, that was our first time out and I was like ‘oh, this is bigger than we thought, isn’t it’. But we still didn’t quite grasp it until maybe Comic-Con that year, and then we were like ‘wow’. But it’s not gone away, it’s wonderful and terrifying. We wouldn’t be here without that outpouring of affection.”
However, when asked how the game’s success has affected their professional careers, all three said the amount of work they have been getting has essentially been unaffected by it.
Béart suggested that one of the reasons for this is that the casting and recording companies, who aren’t always associated with the developers creating the games, have less knowledge of the video game industry than the film and TV industries, meaning an actor’s success in a video game role has less importance.
“I think there’s an assumption that we’re all super busy, and sorted, and rich, and none of these things are true,” she explained. “In the UK it’s an interesting one, we work through third-party studios a lot of the time and a lot of the time they don’t really engage in this culture. A lot of the time they go ‘sure, you’re a big shot, of course you are’, and you have to put the award nominations on the table and they go ‘oh, I know what THAT is, so I’ll give you a chance’.
“So there is a disconnect, whereas I think with developers and fans… it’s an odd one, because there’s a whole bit in the middle, the people who record us in the middle, who aren’t maybe so au fait with all of this, how popular [it is]. But the fans and devs very much want us in their work, I think, but it’s NDA’ed up to the eyeballs, this industry, so it’s very hard to get the transparency you get in film and TV. And you don’t see our faces a lot of the time.”
Solomon added: “Yeah, it’s kind of like Sam said, you do a game which is as big as this and everyone’s like ‘oh, you made it man, you must be getting all the huge jobs’, but no, it’s still the life of an actor, you’re still going up for jobs, you’re still doing jobs here and there, you’re still building. So yes, profile-wise, it’s been incredible for all of us, but you know, actors, we’re in and out of work constantly, that’s the kind of career it is.”
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Jones also noted that even if an actor delivers a performance in a video game that leads to award wins, they could still go without work.
“I think especially in video games, there isn’t much sway held by your past experience and success,” he explained. “It all hinges just on your audition, and seeing as they’re all ‘blind’ auditions as well, generally, it will just be based on your performance. Which is what it should be.
“So yeah, it’s just different, and I know there’s been many winners of performance awards where the phones just haven’t rung for months afterwards. It can be quite surprising to some people, that, but us actors, we’re used to rejection and bouts of periods where we’re just not working.”
