Neil Newbon - Blog Posts
Just got Neil Newbons autograph! He was super nice and chill. Was definitely worth waiting almost 5 hours in line for 😅
Q: If you could be any DnD race and class what would you be?
Neil, with no hesitation: Rich.
Neil's acceptance speech at The Game Awards for Best Performance as Astarion 🩷
"You're not alone in this. None of us are."
[Astarion] is a cat. He's a black cat. There's a stray that comes into my house called Red... and he's quite feral. It took me three years before I could pick him up and hold him. He's totally cool with me now. Three fucking years. He gave me a lot of inspiration about Astarion.
- Neil Newbon, on developing Astarion's physicality and mannerisms
I don't even care, I'm making a post about retro game con 😌 I had SUCH an amazing time and can't wait to go to another ♡ also, Neil Newbon?!?!
Yes, roommate and I cosplayed peach and daisy. Yes, there were a million Astarion cosplayers and yet I only got pictures with two. Pictures under the cut!
Can you assure us that androids no longer pose a threat? Absolutely. There was an incident, but we’ve learned from our mistakes and we can assure you that androids will remain exactly what they were designed to be: obedient and efficient machines
Many science fiction books tell the story of how machines become more intelligent than us and end up confronting us. Aren’t you worried about that possibility?
Is there anything you can share there? He loves wool and socks or something.
Newbon: Yeah. There’s a thing where Astarion always checks his nails when he is trying to just dominate people. He dismisses them with a head turn, usually to the left. He does this to put people in their place, to make them acutely aware that he’s in control.
Actually, one thing I can tell you—the base pose that he has, which is this very upward movement, arms open—that was something that we experimented with. That was actually a combination of myself and Josh Weeden, who’s one of the directors on the game. We came up with that together. They wanted a unique base pose. The footing is different from everybody else’s. But then I added this sort of open arms up and his head up, looking down his nose at everybody.
So the reason that his head stands like this is a psychological thing. He thinks everybody else is beneath him, so he looks down his nose, which is why the head is slightly angular. That is a very particular habitual choice that we made to inform more about the character. Literally, I look down my nose, and that’s why his stance is like that.
I think there are a couple of other characters that have unique base poses, but most have the same base pose. He’s one of the unique ones.
