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‘There Isn’t Much Sway Held by Past Success’: Baldur’s Gate 3 actors reveal it hasn’t boosted their careers (www.videogameschronicle.com)
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[-] Coelacanth@aggregatet.org 18 points 3 weeks ago

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.

Okay listen I don't want to sound rude, but I'm not that surprised. Maybe Karlach deserves a bit more recognition but while both Wyll and Halsin were both fine and perfectly adequate, I can't say that either was the kind of memorable performance that gets you tons of new roles. Though it's also in part due to the script and direction of course.

[-] TheLowestStone@lemmy.world 14 points 3 weeks ago

Got to agree. The voice work that really stood out in my opinion was done by Amelia Tyler (narrator) and Devora Wilde (Lae'zel). Everyone else was good and I REALLY enjoyed Karlach. I even did a play through with her as the origin character but it was because of the character design and writing more than the voice acting.

[-] scops@reddthat.com 8 points 3 weeks ago

I would add Neil Newbon to the list that really stood out. I thought his acting through the end of Astarion's quest line was the best in the game.

[-] moakley@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

It's been over a year and I still think about him pleading with himself, trying to decide what to do.

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

And not because you want to marry Karlach

[-] themoonisacheese@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

Would they want to marry her if her voice acting was shit though?

[-] TheLowestStone@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

Definitely not shit but nothing special either.

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

The way she says "fuck yes" does it for me

[-] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

The game had a huge cast with many memorable characters and moments. Not everyone was going to shine through especially with some fantastic performances like you mentioned.

I think the title of the post is just deceiving and should be changed to the title of the actual article. And perhaps the article title was changed too but it is a more accurate title of the situation.

[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

The industry rather wants to hire Troy Baker for every project. Also voice actors, even in animation, rarely get a career boost after a single popular project. Even for live action actors it’s rare. Like how many actors that played in Lost still play in high profile projects.

[-] Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works -1 points 2 weeks ago

Lost is a notable exception BECAUSE it’s an exception. The latter half of your comment is nonsense

[-] inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

That's honestly heart breaking, all three gave exceptional performances. I hope in time people will understand the artistic merit in both voice acting and video games as a medium, but these people deserved to skyrocket into their own franchises.

[-] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

You can‘t deny it did boost Jennifer English‘s career to a high degree. You could say it‘s not all about her role as Shadowheart alone but it definitely helped kickstart her online presence. She went from voicing children side characters to being one of the most prolific and recognizable voices in gaming within two years and I doubt her role in Expedition 33 where she was heavily featured in promotional material was the last we‘ve heard of her.

[-] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 weeks ago

Did it?

Checking https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10804818/ and it doesn't look like she became particularly more popular than she was prior to BG3

Which is kind of the point. YOU recognize her and so do a lot of gamers. But... that doesn't translate to getting cast by studios.

[-] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

This isn’t about me or my perception. I am saying this because she said so herself and the Imdb Page you linked tells the same story. She broke her mold with Shadowheart and now she is getting much bigger and more diverse roles. But feel free to tell me about a game prior to BG3 where she took center stage for marketing like she did for Expedition 33.

[-] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

What story do you think her imdb page tells? Because she has consistently done 2-3 roles per year since 2022. And a lot of those are games that have been in dev a long time. Like, that covid stretch is likely what led to consistently getting 2-3 releases each year since '22.

Also... is she major marketing for E33? I don't watch a lot of commercials these days but mostly if ANY VA is involved it is Cox or Starr. Like, I think Alice Duport-Percier (the singer of Alicia) has gotten more face time across the various youtube ads and what not than anyone else (and rightfully so. That song contributes so much to the Vibes of such a Vibes based game).

But either way: That doesn't actually change the point. The BG3 VAs pretty much all knocked it out of the park. And that isn't translating to meaningful increase in roles.

Which has come up a lot over the years. Very few VAs see major success even after bringing EVERYONE to tears with how good of a performance they gave. And the Troy Bakers (and Laura Baileys) of the world are a whole different argument.

Just to add on. A twitch streamer I semi-regularly watch is also a pretty successful VA and she has talked about this in the past. People might say that she MADE a game with her performance but that doesn't translate to future castings. So she can be in mobile trash one year and a GOTY contender the next and still get roughly the same bookings and checks per year.

Which is probably why so much of the BG3 cast were super eager to work with Digital Extremes. Partially because DE and Reb are awesome. But mostly because live service games area potentially a great source of stable income since they'll need a few lines every year for N years.

[-] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 0 points 3 weeks ago

She literally talks all the time about how she doesn't get any offers all of the sudden. She probably did at least once in one of her last four streams. She just has become pickier with what she auditions for. But she still has to audition like everyone else.

[-] CosmoNova@lemmy.world -1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

She just has become pickier with what she auditions for.

Most actors in gaming are certainly not becoming pickier with AI looming at the horizon so this is a strong sign that she is in fact doing very good. Certainly better than voicing Child #5 in Original Sin 2. And that's literally the entire point I'm trying to get across here.

[-] Apeman42@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

I've no doubt she'll continue to do well, but I'm not sure BG3 directly helped her get the role, other than making her voice recognizable to people. I read an article that said that Sandfall did blind voice auditions for E33. They didn't even know they'd chosen Charlie Cox until after the fact.

[-] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 1 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, apparently the director and writer of E33 were actually playing BG3 at the time of the casting. But they didn't recognise her voice at all. They just knew that they had found the right one for the role.

It's also saying something that they cast Andy Serkis and didn't use him for performance capture. That was all done before the voice recordings. Recording over already finished performance was an entirely new experience for him.

[-] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

She probably did more work on BG3 alone than all previous works combined though. The experience alone boosted their performance immensely. Neil Newbon compared his 4 years at the studio with 4 seasons of shooting a TV show and his role was about the same size as Jennifer‘s. BG3 wasn‘t just any job. Especially not for her. Anyone who actually follows her can attest to that. To say it didn‘t change the trajectory of her life and career takes some serious ignorance.

[-] Pistcow@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

I mean, the video game industry is about as good as the record industry for its treatment of talent. "You should want to do this for free" seems to be the motto of 8-figure executives.

this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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