Neil Newbon Wants More 'Baldur's Gate 3' Animated Shorts Just Like the Rest of Us

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The Big Picture

Neil Newbon discusses his audition process for Baldur's Gate 3 , and shares insights on the animated Baldur's Gate 3 shorts.
Newbon couldn't reveal details about GreedFall 2 but praised the studio.
He also discussed what inspired him to become an actor and how he enjoys mentoring the next generation via Performance Captured.

Collider was thrilled to welcome Neil Newbon to our New York Comic Con studio on the final day of the convention last weekend. After our lively conversation last year on the short-lived Collider Dailies, I was eager to sit down with him again to discuss not only Baldur’s Gate 3, but his new projects like Greedfall 2: The Dying World, and his company Performance Captured.

During our wide-ranging interview, Newbon spoke about the musical he saw as a child that inspired him to become an actor; his audition process for Baldur’s Gate 3; teased what little he’s allowed to say about Greedfall 2; spoke about mentoring actors through his company; and he discussed the animated Baldur’s Gate 3 shorts that everyone has fallen in love with. You can read the full transcript of the interview below, and watch it in the video player above.

COLLIDER: How has the con been going for you so far?

NEIL NEWBON: It's been delightful, actually. I've had a lot of fun. It's a little harder to move around conventions these days, which I'm very grateful for, in a way, but I do miss walking the floor. Apart from that, it's been amazing to meet so many wonderful people, and I've had a great time.

You should start doing what some of the folks do when they come in costume so they can stealthily walk around.

NEWBON: I might cosplay Heisenberg one day and just not tell anybody, heavily made up. [Laughs]

I've heard Charlie Cox shows up sometimes as Daredevil.

NEWBON: That's really fun!

How 'Dungeons & Dragons' Knowledge Helped Influence His 'Baldur's Gate 3' Audition

Astarion from 'Baldur's Gate 3' in a purple coat, in front of trees

Jumping right in, this is a question I don't think I've actually had the chance to ask you yet, which is about your audition process for Baldur's Gate . I've heard that you figured out pretty quickly on that it was something D&D-related, but I'm curious if that affected how your audition process went for sending in your self-tapes.

NEWBON: I'm very lucky that when I was a younger actor, I made a lot of mistakes, especially in auditions, so I learned a lot. That's what wisdom is; it’s knowing what doesn't work. [Laughs] So, I got very excited. My company was doing a coproduction with Square Enix to do the performance capture of Final Fantasy 16, so we were in Hungary at the time doing five months of shooting, which was amazing. During that time I heard about this audition that was coming out. It was a high-fantasy RPG, and I thought, “Okay, well, that's definitely my cup of tea.” I managed to get an audition, and they sent me the materials.

Josh Weeden at PitStop Productions, he's one of the lead directors there, he and I had already worked on the extra DLC for Resident Evil 3. It was the extra inverse game. He had asked me in, as well, and I saw all the pictures of the characters, of the different races you could go up for. You're supposed to pick three; I ended up doing 10 — I was just trying my luck. All the pictures and descriptions were very, very clearly D&D, like “devilkin” for tiefling. I was like, “Oh, wow, that's interesting,” because it's been about 25 years since Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2 or Icewind Dale. So I was like, “Well, it's going to be one of those two,” so I got very excited.

The problem with excitement is that you can then start getting into the narrative of, “Oh, I have to be really good now,” or, “I really want this really badly.” The craftwork and experience and industry really helps you maintain that professionalism, going, “Yes, I really want it, but let’s calm down and just focus on the moment and the job at hand.” So, I just focused on the auditions, and went, “I'm just gonna do a really good job with my craft, and whatever happens, happens. I'll play a goblin holding a pint of beer. I don't care.” So, that’s it, really. I maintain that no matter how exciting a project is, you have to step back and go, “Right. I'm a professional first and a fanboy second,” and just go, “How do I see the character? What am I going to bring to this?” It was my high elf audition that apparently sat very closely to where they wanted Astarion to be, or at least they liked the idea of it. So, after 10 different tapes, that was the one that got me in.

Did you find that that high elf audition helped you to start building the building blocks for Astarion?

NEWBON: Yeah, without thinking too much about it. I didn't know the characters at all. Originally, he was a tiefling. I remember the very first session we did there was a grayed-out, real-time model of the character, and he was a tiefling. I then thought, “Well, I'm not sure how to do that because I haven't done a tiefling before.” It's a very different kind of vibe. So, it was an interesting first demo. Then, very quickly it was changed to high elf because it makes more sense, and also, I think Karlach’s character had come forward at that point.

We didn't really change a huge amount of the demo to the actual work. A nice thing that happened, though, was that we started very tight with the character, which kind of works because he doesn't know who you are and he doesn't trust you, and then bit by bit, as I got to know the character better, and I started exploring the character with a lot of methodology, he started opening up. Actually, in the game, it feels like he's getting to know you, therefore, he's relaxing with you and letting his guard down a little bit. So, it was a happy accident, which is great.

I love that. Now I'm going to think about tiefling Astarion and more. Now that the mods are everywhere, I'm sure there's a mod.

NEWBON: [Laughs] Maybe! I don't know.

One of the things I'm really obsessed with lately is the animated shorts that Larian has been putting out.

NEWBON: So good!

What is that process like for you? Do you get to come back to the booth? Is it part of your original contract?

NEWBON: I can't talk about the contract, but it was definitely a thing that came after the whole game stuff, without going into contracts and things like that. But it was really fun. We were super excited when the first idea came about. We just thought, “That's genius. It's amazing. It's gonna be great.” The nice thing is, because it's animation, and it also has a certain tonality to it, we were allowed to go a lot further than we ever would do in the game to sort of heighten up the characteristics of each character because that works better in animation anyway. It was just a hoot. It was like, “We get to do that?” And then, of course, getting to do it successively and a number of times was just joyous. It was really fun.

It’s so great to have that chance to see the characters in a different situations.

NEWBON: And see the life beyond. Yeah, I hope they do more of it. I'd really be up for animation and doing an animated version of BG would be awesome.

I think fans would love that as well.

NEWBON: The response has been amazing. That's why I think they also kept on doing it because they realized people really got it and really loved it. It was a great companion piece to the actual game without being that serious.

Neil Newbon Can't Say Much About 'GreedFall 2'

Exactly. It’s confirmed that you're in GreedFall 2 [ The Dying World ]. What can you talk about that game? I know you can't say much. Is it just voice performance, or did you come in for mo-cap?

NEWBON: I actually don't even know what I'm allowed to talk about, so I have to be very careful with that one, sorry. I'm in the process with GreedFall 2. I really like working with the studio. It's really fun. I'm having a lot of fun with the two very different characters I'm playing, but I have been told not to talk about it, so I'm afraid I can't talk about any of it.

The trailer looked really cool.

NEWBON: The trailer looked very cool. It's really difficult because they've been very adamant about not talking about it. I'm really sorry.

We're just really excited for it. It's not a property I'm familiar with, so I'm very excited to see how 2 is and go back and play 1.

NEWBON: It’s had a very good reaction. The first one did very well, and I think that's the point. They wanted to expand the game. From my understanding, this is like a prequel to the original game — I believe. I might be wrong on that, but I'm pretty sure it happens before the game. I think that's been mentioned.

Something that I think is really cool with conventions is you get to see people bringing your characters to life — you have Astarions, Heisenberg's. Are there any conventions that you've been to where somebody has dressed up as a character that you were completely not expecting them to dress up from your catalog of characters?

NEWBON: No, not really.

Nobody's come as a fish in a fish bowl yet?

NEWBON: No, but I would love to see that! [Laughs] That would be a lot of craftiness. People would have to really make the bowl. That would be a lot of work. I would love to see that. That would be amazing. I've definitely had a lot of Gavin Reeds, Kamskis, and things like that. I'm very lucky to have a very wide range of different characters, which is cool. But the fish in the tank, I would love to see that.

Any Planet of the Apes characters yet?

NEWBON: No, not yet. But that's very involved, especially because it's arm extension work, as well. Again, I would love to see things like that. That would be great. I just love the creativity of people. I think conventions are so wonderful because people get to express themselves in a way that, certainly in the past, was frowned upon. Especially a lot of — I'm a card-carrying geek, so I can say the word “geek” — us geeks were ridiculed for a long time for being different and not really caring about popular opinions. So, conventions are always a really nice safe space for people to play, and I really like that a lot. I like seeing people express themselves and dress up in really wild, crazy gear that they would never do in real life, et cetera, et cetera. So, it's really nice to see them. But yeah, people, bring the fish. [Laughs] Hashtag bring the fish.

Did you ever get to go to conventions before you were attending conventions as talent?

NEWBON: Yeah, I did. Before we became very well known for Resident Evil, it was after the beginning of the pandemic, the first convention I went back to. I hadn't done a convention for a while, so people didn't really know my face that well still, which is good — that’s changed — and I went up to a guy who was in full Heisenberg gear and went, “Great cosplay, kid! Better watch out for them boulder-punching whats-its, no?” He went, “Oh, wow, that was really good.” I went, “Cheers, mate.” He said, “You did that really well.” I was like, “Thanks,” [laughs] and just wandered off.

Now he’s watching and he’ll know.

NEWBON: It was very funny.

I love that.

NEWBON: I love messing with people! [Laughs]

How 'Cats the Musical' Inspired Neil Newbon

It is great. Something I love talking about with actors is that exciting moment when you realize that you want to get into acting. Was there a performance or a theatre thing where you saw somebody on stage, and you were like, “I want to be that person?”

NEWBON: I was eight. This is going to sound strange, but I was excited by Brian Blessed, which is a weird statement to make, I realize. Brian Blessed played the old, trampy vagabond cat, [Old Deuteronomy].

In Cats , yes!

NEWBON: He's the alley cat, the street cat. He's old and he's massive and big, and he's covered in furs. He comes on towards the interval, I believe, and he sings his song, and then he just sits down. Brian Blessed, and this is the original version of Cats in London — I'm old — used to sit and wait for all the kids, to invite the kids to come and talk to him. So, I went down to the front, and I was, like, the first kid. Then, I started letting all the other kids — I thought it was weird — in front of me. My mum always brought me up to be quite polite, but my mum was sitting there going, “What is he doing? He's running out of time.” So then all the kids went past and I was the very last kid, having been the first kid, and then I went up and I talked to him. I can't even remember what I said, but he said something like, “You're a very polite young man!” I just wanted to talk to him. Mum asked me when I came back and said, “Why on earth did you do that? It was nice, thank you, and generous, but you shouldn't have done that. You should have just talked to him.” And I was like, “I wanted it to just be him and I on the stage.”

That was the first moment that it was something about theatre that just hooked me. Then I got into school plays. I was one of the few kids who actually did school plays, and then I got into a thing called Central Television Workshop, and that was my first taste of a semi-professional gig that I did. Then, I was hooked. I went to National Youth Theatre after that, and then I started training and started working.

I would love to know more about Performance Captured. What made you want to start your own company and become a mentor to other actors?

NEWBON: Our Performance Captured Limited has got two parts to it. One is a production company; we do production services. I'm a director, as well, and I'm also a producer. We run shoots for performance capture for games and Triple-A’s, Double-A’s, and indies. The other side of it is a bunch of workshops that we do, which are nonprofit. We run them at cost value because my ethos is, I had a career before performance capture, which got to a point which wasn't doing great, but I always had people champion me, take risks on me, give me an opportunity. I think it would be remiss of any artist or anybody in any kind of vocational work, not just a job because that's also a thing, but something that is meaningful to them in a fulfillment kind of way, to not pass on that kind of respect and generosity and care and love to the next generations of artists.

It doesn't stop you working. I've been up against people I've mentored who got the job ahead of me — that's great because it means that they're flying. They get the opportunities that I had. Without Brian Mitchell at Audiomotion, without Stacey Boysel, without Imaginary, and without Quantic Dream, without CapCom and Square Eniz, without all these kinds of people, Steve Connel, all these amazing people who have given me opportunities, I would not have a career. So, if I get to do that now, especially knowing a lot about the industry and feeling very competent in my craft to help other people lift up, then I have to do that. I also enjoy it. I really like doing it, raising up the people, the next generation.

Stay tuned to Collider for more New York Comic Con interviews and coverage.