Samantha Béart is obviously not a seven-foot-tall Barbarian in real life, but the actor says they do share some personality traits with one.
Béart is perhaps best known for their role as Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3 — the flammable, lovable Tiefling who became one of the most-romanced characters in the game. The UK-based actor voiced Karlach and provided more than 260 hours of motion-capture footage for the game, a performance that earned them a BAFTA nomination and a Game Audio Network Guild award for best voice performance. The similarities between Béart and Karlach heavily informed that performance.
“We both have red buttons for injustice, as a lot of people do,” Béart told Polygon in a June video interview. “There’s a lot to be very upset about [in the world] right now, but Karlach’s allowed to do vigilante justice, so I’m a bit jealous about that. Of course, that vigilante justice never goes wrong, and people never pick the wrong target, so I’ll end that statement there.”
The actors in Baldur’s Gate 3 all liked to try to picture themselves in their character’s shoes, while of course not letting themselves get too lost in the fantastical elements — or the plainly criminal ones. (“I’m not sure Neil [Newbon, who plays Astarion] went around killing people, and I don’t think he’s 200 years old either,” Béart quipped.) But the goal was to wonder how they’d act in similar circumstances, and for Béart, a lot of what they imagined tallied up with Karlach.
”Obviously, the actual circumstances of [Karlach’s] life are a weenie bit different from mine. Didn’t serve 10 years in the Blood Wars myself, but I can imagine myself in her situation,” Béart said, adding that Karlach is “loyal to a fault, unfortunately.”
That loyalty especially shines through in Dark Urge playthroughs, which provide players with a unique plotline in which they find themselves compelled to commit violent acts. One of those violent acts (which players can attempt to resist, or simply give in to) is a sudden urge to kill their lover. If a Dark Urge player is romancing Karlach and tells her about this urge, she’ll be flattered as opposed to put off, because she’s happy to hear the player loves her.
“[If] you do some evil stuff early in the game, she nopes out of the rest of it, but by [the time Dark Urge is instructed to kill their lover], she’s ride or die,” Béart explained. “I’m not as ride or die. I like to see what the circumstances are before committing.”
But despite her generally happy-go-lucky demeanor, Karlach’s storyline is ultimately pretty bittersweet — she’s got a ticking timebomb for a heart, and knows her days are numbered. She’s also lost friends and family to the Blood Wars. Béart says they drew from personal experience when it came to some of Karlach’s more emotional scenes, especially those regarding her limited lifespan and lost loved ones.
“You know, she loves life,” Béart said. “She’s very aware of her mortality. I’m very aware of my mortality. That’s something that was present. I mean, I had a few friends when I was growing up [who] died as children. So by the time I was, I want to say 18, yeah, three of my childhood friends had died. So I’m very, very aware. You go to that many funerals, and [lose] relatives as well, you just question what you’re doing with yourself a lot. And I think the universal message of Karlach is to examine our lives and say, ‘Are we making the most of this?’ We all have a limited time, some more than others, but I just think it’s a really beautiful message: to live life to the fullest and not let it slip by.”
Karlach certainly tries to live life to the fullest. When a blacksmith tells Karlach that the damaged Infernal Engine she has for a heart cannot fully be fixed, she chooses to focus on the good news: It’s fixed enough that she’s no longer on fire, meaning she can physically touch other people for the first time in years. When asked who they prefer Karlach to romance in Baldur’s Gate 3 Origin playthroughs (which allows players to step into the shoes of one of the game’s companion characters rather than creating their own), Béart said they’re open-minded.
“It’s whoever’s up for it because everyone’s gorgeous, as long as they behave themselves and they’re not evil people,” Béart said. “Although, to play Karlach, you can romance Minthara. You can totally do it, because you can go around being a school bully and going, ‘Right, well, I work for Zariel, give me your lunch money,’ essentially. And there’s a whole evil ending to go with that. But of course, you only get that [ending] playing Origin Karlach. I like to think that Tav [the default player-character] is a very good influence on her, and without Tav, you get Origin Karlach, who’s terrifying.”
As for playing as Tav and romancing Karlach, Béart says that’s impossible for them in their current playthrough due to their fondness for a certain Drow.
“Do you know what? I can’t [romance Karlach] in mine because it’s a darker run,” Béart said. “I’m playing a female Drow Bard. I shall sing the world into chaos in the hopes of romancing Minthara. So I think about half the team [of companion characters] are out of this picture in the version that I’m doing.”
There is one thing Béart wants to make absolutely clear when it comes to romance. Karlach — like all of Baldur’s Gate 3’s romanceable companions — is pansexual, and she identifies as female.
“I’ve said this before, and I hope I’ll be very clear, because it’s been sort of quoted out of context quite a bit,” Béart explained. “So I’m non-binary. I played Karlach in a very free way. I’m not thinking about gender, but a certain girly[-ness] would have been weird for her. I think that might have been why I got the role, because I bring a sort of masculine energy to it, right? But that doesn’t mean Karlach is non-binary. It’s like, ‘Oh, no, Karlach’s non-binary because the actor is.’ Nah. Karlach might not have a word for it, if she is [non-binary]. But what we used to call it was ‘gender non-conforming woman,’ right? And the wonderful thing about female characters in video games — protagonists — is they’re pretty much gender non-conforming [already] because they’re taking an action role. So it’s always been a very comfortable space for me.”
Béart says the overwhelmingly positive fan response to their performance as Karlach was an incredibly pleasant surprise.
“I felt kind of vindicated,” Béart said of the way players responded to their performance as Karlach. “Because — particularly in the UK, in the theatre world — my experience has been, if you’re not an English rose, if you’re not a fragile white woman, they don’t know what to do with you. So I was being told I was ‘butch.’”
“But to play Karlach the way I wanted, and the way the devs wanted, and to be rewarded with the fact that people just adore her? I feel vindicated,” they added.“I don’t have to be a super girly, fragile white lady, [an] English rose. There are other types of lovable femmes. And that’s made me very happy.”
But despite the game’s massive success, developer Larian Studios is not making Baldur’s Gate 4, and its next project has nothing to do with D&D. When asked if they’d be interested in reprising their role as Karlach (either in a future game, or another medium), Béart said “it depends,” noting, for instance, that they don’t always rejoice when a novel is adapted for the big screen.
“This idea that some forms of media are better than others, it sort of sickens me, to be honest,” Béart said. “I think they made a bloody good video game. They got a whole bunch of people into video games you’ve never played before. They’ve got people into 5e who’ve never played before, and that’s a hard ask for a CRPG with 5e rules, with [players] controlling up to four characters. And they did it because they really wanted to. It shows you if it’s good enough, they will come.”
As for the future of the franchise itself, Béart thinks time may be the key.
“Maybe in 20 years, they’ll do BG4,” they told Polygon. “Because it was 20 years [between Baldur’s Gate 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3], and maybe that’s what it needs. They’re such big games. Maybe that’s what it needs, that time with new people.”
Larian Studios may be done with Baldur’s Gate for now, and Béart is currently focused on other projects, like their role as Fading Echo’s aquatic, shapeshifting protagonist, One, and their role as Cider in Absolum. But Karlach clearly remains close to their heart. Near the end of our interview, they happily shared one of their favorite Karlach quotes with Polygon.
“Ahh, I love this time of year,” Béart said, reciting from memory. “The dickheads start popping up wherever you look.”
