I’ve no doubt she’ll continue to do well, but I’m not sure BG3 directly helped her get the role, other than making her voice recognizable to people. I read an article that said that Sandfall did blind voice auditions for E33. They didn’t even know they’d chosen Charlie Cox until after the fact.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You can‘t deny it did boost Jennifer English‘s career to a high degree. You could say it‘s not all about her role as Shadowheart alone but it definitely helped kickstart her online presence. She went from voicing children side characters to being one of the most prolific and recognizable voices in gaming within two years and I doubt her role in Expedition 33 where she was heavily featured in promotional material was the last we‘ve heard of her.
Apeman42@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 3 weeks ago
Yeah, apparently the director and writer of E33 were actually playing BG3 at the time of the casting. But they didn’t recognise her voice at all. They just knew that they had found the right one for the role.
It’s also saying something that they cast Andy Serkis and didn’t use him for performance capture. That was all done before the voice recordings. Recording over already finished performance was an entirely new experience for him.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
She probably did more work on BG3 alone than all previous works combined though. The experience alone boosted their performance immensely. Neil Newbon compared his 4 years at the studio with 4 seasons of shooting a TV show and his role was about the same size as Jennifer‘s. BG3 wasn‘t just any job. Especially not for her. Anyone who actually follows her can attest to that. To say it didn‘t change the trajectory of her life and career takes some serious ignorance.
Stovetop@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Agreed, I think it’s more that Jennifer English is out there putting in the work to get as many solid gigs as she can, BG3 being just one of several.
NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Did it?
Checking www.imdb.com/name/nm10804818/ and it doesn’t look like she became particularly more popular than she was prior to BG3
Which is kind of the point. YOU recognize her and so do a lot of gamers. But… that doesn’t translate to getting cast by studios.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
This isn’t about me or my perception. I am saying this because she said so herself and the Imdb Page you linked tells the same story. She broke her mold with Shadowheart and now she is getting much bigger and more diverse roles. But feel free to tell me about a game prior to BG3 where she took center stage for marketing like she did for Expedition 33.
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 3 weeks ago
She literally talks all the time about how she doesn’t get any offers all of the sudden. She probably did at least once in one of her last four streams. She just has become pickier with what she auditions for. But she still has to audition like everyone else.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Most actors in gaming are certainly not becoming pickier with AI looming at the horizon so this is a strong sign that she is in fact doing very good. Certainly better than voicing Child #5 in Original Sin 2.
NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
What story do you think her imdb page tells? Because she has consistently done 2-3 roles per year since 2022. And a lot of those are games that have been in dev a long time.
Also… is she major marketing for E33? I don’t watch a lot of commercials these days but mostly if ANY VA is involved it is Cox or Starr. Like, I think Alice Duport-Percier (the singer of Alicia) has gotten more face time across the various youtube ads and what not than anyone else (and rightfully so. That song contributes so much to the Vibes of such a Vibes based game).
But either way: That doesn’t actually change the point. The BG3 VAs pretty much all knocked it out of the park. And that isn’t translating to meaningful increase in roles.
Which has come up a lot over the years. Very few VAs see major success even after bringing EVERYONE to tears with how good of a performance they gave. And the Troy Bakers (and Laura Baileys) of the world are a whole different argument.
Ashtear@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Hard to talk about it without getting into spoilers, but Gustave (Cox’s role) was very much a leading face of the game in marketing, and I strongly suspect that was solely because they thought the game would sell better with a male lead.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Those roles are tiny. Like I don‘t even know why you‘re so strongly against the idea that she wasn‘t that big before. You literally just have to look up her actual roles.