Neil Newbon, the actor behind the devilishly enchanting vampire Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3, doesn't want to be typecast in future projects.
Newbon was a well-known actor before playing Astarion, having previously played major roles in Resident Evil 3 Remake, Resident Evil Village, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3, but you could argue his major breakout role was in Baldur's Gate 3. That seems to be Newbon's perception, anyway, as he says he's been avoiding roles that are too similar to Astarion.
"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 tells FRVR. "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.'"
One reason for Newbon's stance is a fondness for the late David Bowie. An early childhood influence, Newbon says "there's definitely a Bowie rhythm in me" that remains to this day. "Bowie is an artist that completely reinvented himself," Newbon shares. "I think he understood that extreme repetition breeds stagnation as an artist."
Of course, like it or not, Newbon will always have the same vocal cords as Astarion; it's when studios are looking for an actor to play a character with a similar personality and mannerisms to Astarion that he declines.
"Not to say that the voice isn’t similar, that’s a different thing, I’m talking about when people say: ‘This character’s just like Astarion!'", he explains, adding that he's since done "a lot of work, and all of the jobs I’ve been doing have been wildly different from that in terms of character work."
Looking at the actor's filmography, he isn't lying. Outside of playing Dracula in Vampire Survivors' Ode to Castlevania DLC, he's since taken on a variety of roles, including Lieutenant Viktor Vodyanoi in Warframe, Lumacchio in Lies of P's Overture DLC, and protagonist Chase Lowry in the psychological horror game Dead Take. They may not all be strictly human roles, but I'm pretty sure none of them drink blood.
