#even just contrasting how he and tim downie (gale) talk abt acting. it's so interesting

[anendtopursuit]

#theatrical vs operatic#thats exactly what it is!

@transparentkittenheart it may interest you to know (if you don't already, that is) that i got that directly from neil himself :D the direct quote:

yknow, i've always talked about astarion being very theatrical, so what if... astarion's- unascended, spawn is theatrical, and ascended astarion is operatic, and use that as a sort of launchpad? so that one is theatre, one is opera. so they're two of the same kind of things (...) i offered that up to the directors and they really liked it.

and about ascended astarion, and astarion's tendency to pretend:

with lord astarion, the facade - the cover - is now off completely. you see him at his most terrible, and it's completely honest, and he doesn't have to pretend anymore. so he loses- he loses a lot of the flamboyance and the fun of the theatricality, which is all a distraction anyway. that's all a distraction so you don't see how he's hurt and damaged and vulnerability. so lord astarion doesn't need that anymore.

from this stream clip (part 2 and 3)

generally just. i love seeing actors talk abt their roles and the thought behind them, and if you enjoy the performances in bg3 i highly recommend hunting down interviews and stream clips etc of all of them bc every single one of them has said something fascinating at some point

not to gush too much abt neil newbon's performance as astarion (and stephen rooney's writing for him) but like. he's discussed on streams before how conscious the decision to make him feel like he's constantly performing is (regardless of outcome; theatrical spawn astarion & operatic ascended astarion), and how stephen rooney leaned more into the whimsy and fun of the character based on things he saw in his portrayal (hence astarion progressively getting funnier and more charismatic through game development). but the thing that drives me absolutely mad tbh is the moments where all of it drops and he's suddenly so sincere, because it hits you like a truck to the face.

his voice going all soft and quiet and brittle when he describes cazador instructing his spawn to torture themselves. his mannerisms shifting from seductive and playful to a little more nervous. but the one that always gets me is in the graveyard romance scene, talking about what cazador has taken from him, how it was taken by force; "but he did take it," in this voice that's so full of sorrow that it almost sounds hollow, muffled by none of his usual pomp and theatricality, when even in cazador's palace his admissions of upset were sandwiched between attempts to brush it all off. dear god.