Gen Con's D&D Live Cast Talks Finding Catharsis in Their Roles (Excsluive)

Anjali Bhimani, Neil Newbon, and Samantha Beárt share insights into their D&D performances and finding catharsis in their roles.

By Hannah Adkins

Gen Con's D&D Live took place during the later hours of the event on Saturday, August 3rd, and if you'd guessed that the surprise show would include performers from Baldur's Gate 3 to coincide with Larian Studios' 2023 Game of the Year celebrating its first anniversary, you were correct. As Neil Newbon and Samantha Beárt took to the stage in Indianapolis they were joined by Anjali Bhimani and Brennan Lee Mulligan to put on an entertaining showcase of flirting, talking badger consumption, bar fighting, and more, all of which will be available to view in the VOD uploaded to the official Dungeons & Dragons YouTube channel on Monday.

In addition to watching D&D Live, ComicBook was able to participate in a roundtable interview session with Bhimani, Beárt, and Newbon afterwards, where we first asked about a theme that seemed to parallel between the trio's former Dungeons & Dragons roles – including Astarion and Karlach in Baldur's Gate 3. Responding to our question about portraying a character that is breaking free from an abuser and all of the trauma that comes with it, Bhimani says any similarity between tonight's characters and any previous is coincidental – but it's not uncommon for former performances to circle back during tabletop gaming especially.

"I think as we are telling stories, anytime that we're doing something like this that is fully improvised and we're leaning into the story, we're also clocking things that we're picking up – little gems that our friends are dropping for us and getting the sense of the tone, getting the sense of, 'Oh, that's a piece of her history,' and 'Oh, that's a piece of his history,' and 'Oh, how can I weave that into this so that the entire story has things that are commonalities?' So I think it naturally happens a lot when you're playing at a table where everybody is coming together to tell a unified story, whether it's ridiculous or whether it's dramatic or whatever it is. You end up sitting back and being like, 'Oh look, yeah, we did pick that up, and you picked up that string and you picked up that string and look at what we wove together so that now this story could be written and you would still pick up those themes.'"

We followed by asking the three performers about potential feelings of catharsis in playing a role (or roles) where their character breaks free from a pattern of abuse and is able to face their trauma, which each of the three had their own experiences to share.

"I think the catharsis for an actor, speaking from my experience, is always doing a good job and feeling proud of what you've done to affect a change of one. Whatever the audience feels, whether somebody hates your character, loves your character, as long as it's not that grey dishwater middle ground," Newbon responds, using his experience as Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3 as reference. "We had four and a half years creating this game, and the whole thing was just a beautiful experience."

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"I'm going to contradict you to there just because it's just my personal experience. So for Karlach, everything was so rooted and inward – everything she did," Beárt adds, moving onto their own character in Baldur's Gate 3. "There's two types of Karlach enjoyers – those who say, 'Oh, she's fun despite everything she's been through, she's such a laugh,' and then other people say, 'Oh, I have PTSD as well.' That was a secret in her that she wants to be accepted, she needs people around her for her mission, so she lets loose that she's all kinds of messed up. They don't want her, so she got to cover it up – we know soldiers do it least do it, anyone that has a grim job really, they have a sense of humor. So it really tracked. There's a scene where she can get revenge – it doesn't quite go the way she expects and then the lid's blown off." 

"We don't do the recording chronologically, and it was relatively early in recording, but it had already sort of made me quite tense just holding onto this. The more she jokes, the more I know she's covering and so that was just – and I'm not method in any way – but I'm very empathetic. To begin that revenge scene and it's finally there – the truth is there – it's almost like we go back to the pain and then it's okay. You've had that moment, you're alright, I've got you," Beárt continues. "So, yes, personally very cathartic, but not because it was something that happened to me or anything. I'm highly empathetic to her situation." 

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