We’ve all been dumped, let’s face it. There’s a moment of heartbreak, then anger, then heartbreak again; all washed down with copious amounts of ice cream and bad Netflix shows. When Baldur’s Gate 3 was at its peak, my entire X (formerly Twitter) timeline was flooded with virtual tears – Astarion, once again, decided to break it off with yet another Tav, a tale as old as time (I’m not laughing, he dumped me, too). So, after speaking to myriad members of the gaming industry about our shared, world-ending experience, I decided to ask Astarion’s actor, Neil Newbon, whether or not he regrets the fact that he’s dumped millions of people.
This all stems from a conversation I had with Warframe creative director Rebecca Ford back at Tennocon in 2023. Her Baldur’s Gate 3 schmoozing went the exact same way as mine – we both romanced Astarion, and we both got dumped. Yet, a few months after Tennocon, Newbon announced that he’d be playing a rather huge, particularly unattractive fish in Warframe’s Whispers in the Walls update. Sure, I’d probably take Astarion back too, but even then, color me suspicious.
In a recent interview with PCGamesN, I took some time to jokingly ask Newbon how he felt about his vampiric persona dumping what now probably totals millions of RPG game fans around the world (he informs me that “apparently my character dumped 10,000 in five days”). I also ask whether or not he’s terrified of the wrath of a million heartbroken game developers and press representatives – hell hath no fury, after all.
“I feel no regret,” he says with a straight face, before bursting out laughing. “I sleep like a baby.” Swapping almost seamlessly into Astarion’s smooth, silky voice, he continues “It’s not my fault! They just didn’t do what I like to do! It’s give and take – I’m just going to take everything and give you whatever I feel.” When I empathize with “that’s a them problem,” he nods in agreement: “Exactly, they’re not for me.”
After some back and forth giggling, he clarifies “well, I didn’t do it, my character did it – as an option! And there’s options where he doesn’t do it. I definitely think it’s t-shirt worthy, though; there’s definitely a t-shirt or a pin badge in there.
“I’m not worried at all, I think it’s really funny – in fact, if somebody tells me that [Astarion dumped them] I usually laugh louder than anybody else. It’s a computer game character, it’s fine – it’s going to be okay, it’s heartbreaking, a little bit, maybe, but it’s going to be alright. You’re going to get through this; you can always reload.”
Newbon himself, though, prefers to play on ‘hardcore’ mode, which he dubs “iron-person,” eliciting a smile from this writer. While he doesn’t do so on-stream so that he and his guests can “show the best of the game,” he notes that “when I do a private [playthrough] – and I will do, probably playing Durge [Dark Urge] – that’s going to be an iron-person save. I used to play XCOM 1 and 2 in iron-person and I just love it – you’re locked in; that is the story, that is how it ends. I just think it’s really cool, the stakes are high.” Perhaps that’s what we all need to do to harden our emotions to the inevitable Astarion break-up.
Our full interview with Neil Newbon is something truly special, and dives into everything from his concerns that people “wouldn’t get” Baldur’s Gate 3 to whether or not he’s worried he’ll be pigeonholed into always playing Astarion. However, if you’ve still not managed to woo BG3’s resident vampire yet, we have a Baldur’s Gate 3 Astarion companion guide to help you win the Pale Elf’s heart.