Baldur's Gate 3 Shadowheart actor says "I really like doing morally questionable things in video games" as a performer, but Dark Urge is too challenging as a player: "I'm trying so hard to be evil"
When I wore black eyeliner and fingerless skeleton gloves as a middle schooler trying to understand this weird world, the idea of being a "bad girl" really appealed to me, but then I cried at the circus because I felt too awful for the elephants. So the chic, 13-year-old biker persona I'd hoped to cultivate didn't really work out.
Embarrassing. But at least now I know I'm not alone in having a tough time acting tough. After interviewer Todd Kenreck asks her and Final Fantasy 16 actor Ben Starr if they've ever questioned – ethically – a morally gray character they were playing, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Baldur's Gate 3 actress Jennifer English responds resolutely: "I haven't." Though, that doesn't make her current Dark Urge playthrough any more enjoyable.
"I really like doing morally questionable things in video games" as a performer, English explains. "There's an argument that our characters" in Baldur's Gate 3 "very much do that, but I think, like, as an actor, it's vital that we don't judge that, and we fully buy in to their choices."
But it feels like a different story "as a player," English continues. "I'm trying – I'm playing a Dark Urge run right now, and I'm trying so hard to be evil. And, whilst I like murdering [...], I really love murdering, but I don't like the choices."
"Your Honor," adds Starr.
"Your Honor," agrees English. Can a half-elf cleric like Shadowheart be tried in court for menacing?