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Neil Newbon’s performance as Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3 is among the most memorable in the game, and that’s saying a lot given how many amazing actors are in there cooking. And Newbon’s rightfully proud of the good work he did as Astarion – but, inspired by David Bowie, he’s not interested in rehashing that performance again and again.
In an interview with FRVR, Newbon talks about how Bowie was one of his early childhood influences, along with Iggy Pop. “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,” he said, adding that he would “definitely play Jareth in Labyrinth if someone came at me with that.”
He says one of the lessons he’s taken from Bowie is that “repetition breeds stagnation”, and that it’s good as an actor to keep making yourself slightly uncomfortable if you want to grow your art. “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.”
He goes on, saying that he has been approached to play roles that were described to him as “just like Astarion.” But Newbon isn’t interested in just playing Astarion-like characters over and over.
“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 said “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 has, however, since picked up a number of roles that are quite different from Astarion’s character. Most recently, he’s been sapiant, dateable drying machine Drysdale in Date Everything!, umbrella-wielding Lumacchio in the Lies of P DLC, and main character Chase Lowry in Dead Take.
Newbon did indicate in the interview that he wouldn’t mind revisiting Astarion himself as a character, and it’s possible he may get the chance. Last month, HBO announced it was working on a Baldur’s Gate 3 TV series that would continue the story from the end of the IGN 10/10 game. At its helm is The Last of Us TV show’s Craig Manzin, who also said he was reaching out to the cast of the game to work out the best way to continue their characters. Whether or not that means we’ll actually see Newbon reprise Astarion is up in there, but a vampire lover can certainly dream.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
