Everyone knows how busy the Not-E3 period is when developers and publishers host a myriad of events to showcase the current and upcoming slate of games. FromSummer Game Festand the Xbox Games Showcase to the Future Games Show and Wholesome Direct (and many more), it’s a busy celebration of everything this industry is capable of. Behind every game is a myriad of people grinding away to bring these games to life, and that list would be the longest ever created if ever compiled.
Game Rant recently spoke with BAFTA-nominated actor Samantha Béart about the various roles in games they’ve taken on, many of which appeared in these showcases. Not only does she playOne inFading Echoand Cider inAbsolum, both of which appeared at these events, but they also play Oracle in the recently releasedTron: Catalyst. But there’s certainly more on the horizon.The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Age of Wonders 3
From Baldur’s Gate 3 to Fading Echo (and More)
Q: With your roles like Fading Echo and Absolum, I was wondering if you could talk about your work schedule and juggling roles like these, ones you’ve taken on in recent years?
A:It wasn’t immediately after Baldur’s Gate. I feel that it took a BAFTA red carpet or presenting Future Games Show, something about being on-screen and being visible, to get the offers to come in. Yeah, there’s a ton of games that I’ve been doing, but unfortunately, some of them were affected bythe SAG-AFTRA strike. Hopefully that’s over soon, but I did sign on before the strike was announced. There are a lot and lots of things that have been delayed, I think, because of that.
Fading Echo was the most recent one to come along, and that was just a straight-up offer a couple of months ago. That’s with a company called New Tales who are former Blizzard employees from France. I’m playing the lead role, and I’m supported by Jasmine Bhullar,who’s also writing it,but alsoMatt Mercer and Laura Bailey of Critical Role. It all sort of feeds back into Dungeons and Dragon again. I suppose that’s beautiful. They’ve given me a lot of access in a way that game studios don’t normally. I didn’t sign an NDA and I somehow managed to keep their secrets without having to be threatened by legal action.[Laughs]
They’ve let me into their Discord. I can see what everyone’s doing. It kind of has that Lucasfilm vibe to it, those early days of Star Wars. You could see what everyone was doing, which is so wonderful for such a collaborative medium. They’ve given me a game key, so I actually know what I’m talking about in interviews. It plays beautifully, smoothly. You’ve seen that fluidity and adapting to the environment, which I think is a really unique selling point for it. I’m excited for that to come out.
Absolum, that is by another French company DotEmu. They’ve made Streets of Rage 4. I play Cider, one of four playable characters, who is a semi-robotic life form. There’s a demo available that’s doing very well nicely. It’s only gone up in the last 24 hours, but it seems to be doing really nicely. It just flows beautifully and is quite satisfying to play. I think what’s unique is it has some RPG elements and serious narrative arcs, which you don’t normally find in thebeat ‘em up genre. I’ve got no idea when that one’s coming out, but I’m fully recorded for it.
Tron: Catalyst with Bithell Gamesand published by Devolver, I play a fun character in that. There’s a demo as well. It’s satisfying but also has a fantastic soundtrack and the striking visual elements that Tron is known for.
Tron: Catalyst is available now.
It’s a really exciting time. I knew that they’d all sort of pop off on the same weekend, I’ve been ready for them to all announce themselves, and that’s exactly what happened. Then there’s some more in the pipeline as well, and they are actually quite far off. We’re doing this interview at the right time, I think, at least at the beginning of a deluge of things I’m going to be in.
Q: Can you tell me what attracted you to each of these roles?
A: Normally, you just get an offer of an audition. If it’s not terrible and they’re not terrible, you do it. You don’t get that movie star thing where you get to pick and choose where there’s a lot of back and forth. You get a little breakdown or something to see if you want to do it. My taste in video games is quite broad anyway, and as a performer, I like to be very versatile. That’s my thing. Over the next year or so, you’ll see me doing some really different things, and as an actor, that’s really, really satisfying for me.
I know Mike Bithell. I’ve worked with him a couple of times before. We didThe Solitaire Conspiracywhich, if you don’t know it, is Solitaire with a plotline that we did a green screen. Yeah, I’ve just known him for some time, and he’ll just ask me straight out. For Fading Echo, it was a straight-up offer. I didn’t audition for it. Jasmine Bhullar seemed to want me for the role, which is wonderful. And with Absolum, yeah, it just sounded fun, sounded great, and the script was really good. If you offer me a game and it’s nicely written, I’m going to say yes.
Q: You mentioned how you like to be versatile. Could you expand on that and how you deliver on different characters with that in mind? Fading Echo’s One and Karlach seem so different to me.
A:There’s a game that I played that kind of got me the role of Karlach calledThe Excavation of Hob’s Barrow, which is an indie gamefrom Cloak and Dagger Games. It’s a folk horror story set in Northern England in the Victorian era, and I played a very prim and proper Victorian woman. Very much not what Karlach is. It’d be quite interesting if I were typecast as Karlach because I’d say she’s probably the least like me, at least physically, and it turns out that, if you’re not actually seven foot tall, it’s quite hard to be physically intimidating to people. I have tried, you know, but it doesn’t go down well in a world that has, you know, laws.
The Tron gameis fun, it’s very camp. I think it’s probably something you haven’t seen me do before. With Absolum, I play a rogue character which is probably more my type, if I had a type. When I was inTwenty-Sided Tavern, I had a choice between playing archetypes of warrior, spellcaster, or rogue. I went straight for rogue because I thought I’d have the most fun with it. It’s how I play, but also, I just didn’t want to play Karlach on stage because it’s too easy and I wanted the challenge. There’s something in wanting to play all these different things, but also yeah, there’s the challenge of it. I really enjoy that. I don’t want to be on autopilot. I want to be discovering new bits and bobs. That’s where the exciting work is, I think.
Q: Have any of these current projects come with anything unique or something you haven’t encountered before?
A:There’s one that’s really far off, which I obviously can’t mention, but I did facial capture for that. I also worked with another actor, which was a first for me in video games. What else? I’ve got a project coming up where they’re doing the mocap separate from voice, which on Baldur’s Gate was done together. I feel like each one is a completely different experience to be quite honest with you—even the way they present the script to you or whether they show character art before or maybe during recording. With Absolum, they were showing me the character’s movement so when I was doing efforts and everything, you know, I had a well-informed take. In other jobs, you just have an Excel spreadsheet in front of you, and you just have to hope that the way your brain has populated that world matches closely with what the directors have in mind.
It’s always very interesting to hear how different everything from the casting process to performances can be.
Yeah, I mean, with Fading Echo, I had the CEO coming to London from France to take me and my agent out to dinner. It felt like I was going to be in a movie or something. You don’t get that. They were really pitching, and you could see that they loved and knew this world. They’ve been working on it for some years. It started off as aTTRPG, and they’ve made it into a video game. They were really passionate about it, and I really got to know who they were very quickly because of it. They didn’t even need to pitch me; I very much wanted to do it.
Usually in the industry, you have what I call the double NDA, which is you sign an NDA and they still don’t tell you what you’re in. With this lot, they didn’t even have an NDA. I’ve managed to keep all their secrets, and I have access to their Discover server so I can see where I fit in. I feel very much like part of the team rather than someone who is just plugged in at the end. They’ve invited me to parties and all sorts. They’ve been so very welcoming. We can all see each other, and that’s a first actually, I must say. I won’t know till it comes out, I suppose, and see how it’s received to be able to analyze if that made any difference in how I performed or how it was received. But it’s nice to feel like part of the team and to have such an open dialogue with them because no one does that. I’ve not experienced that before in this medium. I hope it catches on.
I’ve played a bit of Fading Echo, and it really does flow beautifully. It’s influenced by games I liked to play as a child and growing up, so it’s exciting to feel that I’m part of the team.
Genre Helps Actors Understand Their Character
It seems like it would be a lot easier for you to step into character when you’re more involved throughout instead of coming in at the end.
Particularly when it’s complex, the world of Fading Echo is amultiverse. They’ve put some promotions out about that, that this game is only a very small almost keyhole look at the world and what’s coming. It saves a lot of time and money once you’re in the studio recording because I won’t be going where am I? Who am I? What’s happening? What do I want? You know? Because I know the answer to those questions already, and coming from that informed place is so much more helpful than trying to work it out in the studio.
At the moment, we’re just asking to know what genre we’re playing because that will help with scope. Something like Baldur’s Gate, I would say is very stage or even operatic in a lot of cases. To know what the genre of the game is or even just what other games that company has worked on really helps actors give their best performances, particularly now. So many of us coming into the industry grew up on video games, and we actively enjoy the medium and participate in it. It’s just really helpful.
Q: How did the genres of Fading Echo and Absolum help you with those characters?
A:I feel very familiar with theRPG fantasy element, and with Absolum, it’s a fantasy RPG beat ‘em up from what I’ve seen. When I recorded it, there was a lot of branching narrative, dialogue, and all sorts of things you don’t normally get in a beat ‘em up, but if you’ve played Streets of Rage and Golden Axe, you can see immediately where that fits in.
With Fading Echo, the first thought I had when I saw it was Wind Waker. It’s something they described, but to actually see it and to understand the fun helps. The fact that she turns into water and uses elements adds more strategy than just going around hitting stuff. I’m really interested to see how that is received by players.
Q: Tron’s very different too because sci-fi, not fantasy. How did that impact your approach there?
A:Well, I knew it was Tron because I know Mike Bithell, so that was really helpful. That’s helpful because if someone says it’s sort of futuristic sci-fi, you just go, ‘Okay, yeah.’ But if someone says Tron, you know exactly what it’s going to be: the fluidity, the music, the visuals, all those sorts of things are immediately helpful. Let’s just say Michael Sheen in theTron moviewas a bit of an influence. It’s quite camp to play something very different with that, and yeah again, I am looking forward to what you guys think of that. He was really happy for me to go on my instinct with that character because you don’t want to repeat yourself. You want to be challenged. You want to put new things out there to surprise and delight players.
Samantha Béart’s Career
Q: How would you define the current era of your career over the past few years?
A:Oh, it’s very hard to be self-reflective in that way. I got very lucky with a game that was a lot bigger than, you know, we all thought it was going to be. I’d say myself and therest of the Baldur’s Gate 3 castabsolutely weaponized social media in a way with that BG3 hashtag. It got picked up by the algorithm and that was it. A lot of it was done for us, a ton of it, by the fandom.
I trained a long time ago, back in 2009, and you’re hoping something will land. You know, you’re always trying to be ready for this because no one sits you down and says, ‘This is how you deal with niche internet fame’ or anything like that. I like to think I’m old enough to handle it. I would say that anytime I do something visually, that’s when the jobs start to come in. I didn’t work immediately after Baldur’s Gate 3 came out. I don’t think anyone knew what I looked like or knew other things I’ve done, which, again, are quite varied. In Hob’s Barrow, I play a prim and proper Victorian protagonist who is very, very different from Karlach. I quite like that as a calling card, but it was doing BAFTA’s red carpet and presenting Future Games Show withBen Starrwhen the offers started to come in. People could see what I could do, and that’s quite interesting for a format that doesn’t typically require your face.
That was quite an interesting observation. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but I can’t predict what’s coming. I can’t predict solid work or anything. I can’t predict these games will be hits or anything. I’m just along for the ride, and I’m enjoying it as long as I’m on it.
Samantha Béart on The Pixel Pack’s Mission
For more details on the Pixel Pack, please readEntertainment Weekly’s Introducing the Pixel Pack articlefrom March 2025.
Q: You were involved with the Pixel Pack photoshoot as well, so I wanted your thoughts on the overall mission there?
A:I’m someone who believes in action as well. It was very lovely to be included in that. Again, it’s like I was talking about self-analysis earlier, but I guess, when you get endorsement from peers or from the industry, that’s when you go ‘This is where I fit in’ and ‘This is what I need to work on and pull back on.’ To me, it’s let’s do something and let’s do something cool. Talk is cheap. You know, I’m a person of action, and I would love to do something to make this industry more transparent for everyone. Devs have a hard time with it as well. Perfectly good games will be axed, and those devs will never be able to talk about them. Even on well-known successes, they’ll have NDAs and not be able to talk about things. I’d love for people to get their flowers.
The sad thing is, as actors in games particularly, we feel invisible. Compared to devs, we’re incredibly visible. Film, TV, theater, they push you with a lot of visibility. The mainstream media is interested in you, but then for video game actors, it’s rare that there’s any sort of feature on you. You don’t see mainstream chat shows or anything, so for such a lucrative industry, I’d still find it quite odd that it’s not getting that coverage or really any coverage. It was nice to be seen for the mission, and you know, let’s do something.
I’m with Equity, which is the UK acting union, and we’re so hamstrung because of the anti-union laws that have been in this country since Margaret Thatcher. We’ve got generations of people who’ve never been able to see someone speak truth to power with any sort of degree of success. The other option is a race to the bottom, to not know how to collectively bargain or be put off because they never see anybody succeeding with that. There’s a lot of work to do in the UK with that, and it was something I wanted to do. I wanted to stand up and go, ‘Look, I’m still getting minimums here. You think I’m on some big money, but all of a sudden, I’m getting minimums. There are people who aren’t quite at the level I am and can’t get a minimum. Let’s do something about it.
Equity’s advice was to not do that, or I might get blacklisted because people have done that very publicly before. It just goes nowhere, and it doesn’t work. I wish there were more folks who would put their money where their mouth is, stand up, and work together for it. I’m not necessarily calling for a strike, but just saying, this is how it is. Just in case you think we’re all super rich or comfortable, we have to fight on the minimum for everything.
I feel like Shelley Winters’ apocryphal story of her having to bring her Oscars out on the table at a casting—that’s kind of what I’m having to do. I have to say I’m BAFTA nominated. I have to say this ishow many units Baldur’s Gate 3 soldbecause my name alone doesn’t command any sort of fee. It’s an interesting place to be in, and I’m not seeing anything change, but I mean, we’re at a crossroads.SAG-AFTRA just said they’ve got a tentative agreement. I don’t know. I waffled on, but yeah, I’m very keen to do something. But if there’s no one with me, then it’s sort of futile, I suffer, and others might benefit from that suffering.
Yeah, the name-recognition thing is so weird to me. you’re able to see how fans are at events like LvL Up Expo. It’s very strange to me.
It just seems there’s a lack of interest from the mainstream media. I think if they played games and were interested, then they’d cover us. Genuinely, I think it’s a lack of interest. Really I don’t know, but I’ve just assumed these journalists don’t play them. Even if you go to a film casting director and say, ‘Hey, look at my achievements,’ they won’t even open the trailer. We’ve all had these experiences, not just Baldur’s Gate 3, but anyone I know who’s sort of known for games. It doesn’t open doors in other media. It’s really weird. It can go one way where you can be a film star and go into games for a bit, but it doesn’t seem we can go the other way. There’s this strange snobbery about it, and I think that’s just a lack of engagement in the art form to be honest.
I’m not sure how true it is, but I read this study once about how hard news journalists look down on entertainment journalists. Depending on what sort of media you cover, there are a lot of people who look down on it, which is crazy to think about given how big the industry is. It’s like, we’re bigger than you. Shut up.
That’s what I say to filmmakers. Because money talks, right? When you say how many billions per year it makes, which is more than film, TV, and music combined, that tends to teach them a lesson. It doesn’t mean they respect you in any way, but they respect the money. It is crazy. I really don’t get it, but then when games are covered in the mainstream media, it’s when someone’s done something terrible with gambling. Or it’s Fortnite. Or it will beGrand Theft Auto 6 just for existing. Call of Duty. It’s just the same sort of game and the angle that it’s really bad for you or it’s isolating, never about community. The whole cozy game genre never gets covered, you know, the very peaceful things or the fact that there’s a game for everything. It’s really odd that there’s always this one angle, the stereotype of the basement dweller, and that is still so prominent.
[END]
