Even over a year after its initial release date in August of 2023, the hit game “Baldur’s Gate 3” from Larian Studios has not lost its popularity. Alongside being named The Game Awards' 2023 “Game Of The Year,” Baldur’s Gate boasts a variety of other awards from BAFTA, Game Developers Choice, Golden Joystick, D.I.C.E., The Steam Awards, and, as of December 2024, The Game Awards’ “Best Community Support” for the second year in a row.
Sporting an expansive world based in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, with sprawling, rich narratives, and a multitude of opportunities for player customization, this party-based role-playing game has a little bit of something for nearly everyone. And, it is this degree of personalization that draws in players from across the globe and populations, including the queer community.
Editor-in-chief Fynn Grindle sat down with Jennifer English, the actor behind Shadowheart, one of the main seven Origin heroes in the game, at Anime Weekend Atlanta 2024. English discussed her perspective on the appeal “Baldur’s Gate 3” has to the LGBTQ+ community, speaking from her experience playing Shadowheart and from her experience being a queer woman.
[The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity and contains mild spoilers for “Baldur’s Gate 3.”]
Grindle: I am Fynn Grindle with The Stormy Petrel Newspaper at Oglethorpe University. I'm here today with Jennifer English, the face and actor for Shadowheart in “Baldur’s Gate 3.” First off, congratulations on being a BAFTA Breakthrough, that’s absolutely amazing.
English: Thank you very much.
Yeah! Have you been to Anime Weekend Atlanta before?
No, never. This is my second time in Atlanta, and when we were invited back, we were like, ‘Hell, yeah.’ Absolutely love it here.
I know you went to Dragon Con. Was that your first time in Atlanta?
Yeah, it was.
Awesome, perfect. We saw you there. [Laughing]. Okay, so I'd like to focus a little bit more on the kind of overlap of the queer community and the creative experience if that's all right with you.
Yeah, of course.
That's something that I'm super interested in.
Same.
Perfect, [it] worked out great. So just first off, why do you think there is such an overlap between “Baldur’s Gate 3” and other player-insert games and the queer community?
I think to play “Baldur’s Gate 3,” because it's Dungeons and Dragons, you have to have a certain intelligence and a certain level of creativity. I think to be queer you have a kind of a different kind of brain, anyway. You've got a creative brain because you have to live as a brave individual. Do you know what I mean? I feel that like creates a certain type of person. Also, I think the way that Larian created the game was incredibly inclusive. We re-recorded all of the lines with instances of player pronouns. And that must have cost them thousands. Probably 10s [of thousands] – I don't know how much, but a lot. And so I think it kind of started out as a very inclusive game, and I think there's not enough representation out there, yet, in the gaming community, we've still got really long way to go. I think obviously, as soon as you get a really beautiful, inclusive game, that is going to attract the queer community. But we need more of that. This needs to be like a baseline level for every game.
Absolutely, absolutely. I will say, especially as someone who uses they/them pronouns, the inclusion and the choice of getting to pick they/them pronouns as your Tav was so fun. It just made my heart warm.
I’m really glad to hear that.
So to me, Shadowheart’s evolution and development with her identity and her understanding of herself parallels some people's experiences with unearthing their own queer identity. What do you think about this?
Well, including mine.
Yeah, absolutely.
It’s something that I've had to kind of reckon with; it's not been an easy journey for me with my queerness, so it was something that I really, really related to. And therefore, I put a lot of myself into it. That's why I think there's big conversations to be had about authenticity and authentic representation. I know for me as a queer person, it means so much more when you find out that the actor playing the role is queer themselves because you just bring that layer of truth to it. And so I was really aware of that, and I was really aware of that in the story. And John [Corcoran] did a beautiful job. And considering he's not queer, he's not who you expect Shadowheart’s writer to be, but he just unearths something so beautifully sympathetic and genuine. I'm really grateful. I think it really does speak to a lot of people for a very good reason.
So over the course of the production of “Baldur’s Gate 3,” many years, would you say that your identity had evolved alongside Shadowheart’s identity?
Absolutely did, yeah. And, you know, I was lucky in that I got to fall in love with my performance director [laughing]. Yeah, so that and me coming to terms with realizing that I am lesbian. I mean, [production] was over the pandemic, like we all changed a lot; the world changed. And so I think, therefore, everyone that worked on “Baldur’s Gate 3” will have had some kind of evolution. I think that comes across in the writing and the creation of it. I feel like people put a different level of energy into the game as a result. I wonder if the game was made outside of that time period, would it be the same game? It's interesting what happens to art when you have a global pandemic.
Exactly, for better or for worse.
[Laughing].
So to me, Shadowheart’s story is very trans-coded; kind of the whole of shedding an old identity and name for a new one. Even though she herself isn't trans, how important is it do you think for players to be able to see themselves in parts of the narrative, even if it's not a part of the major narrative?
I mean, that's the kind of point of it. And the point of this game is that you do find yourself in it. It's not the writer’s story, it's not the actor’s story, it's the player’s story; you create that. But the trans allegory was totally something I was aware of, and the inclusion of Nocturne and even the detail of the diary [where] you find out that Shadowheart punches transphobes. And you’re like, ‘Fuck yeah.’ [Laughing].
We love that, we love that.
I mean, trans rights is something so dear to my heart, and I think is vital, and I don't understand why it's not more vital to more people. It makes me really fucking cross. And it's something that I want to kind of encourage. Especially the community that follows Shadowheart, but also Aliona and myself; there's a huge trans following that we've got, and I feel very responsible for that. I really want to work with more trans creators and more queer creators in general. We need to be telling more of their stories. Have you seen I Saw The TV Glow?
Yes.
I saw that on the plane, and I was like, ‘Yes, more of this please!’ I'm not seeing enough. It’s something that I think developers and future developers need to take note of and explore more of.
Like we've come so far, but there's always more work to do.
There’s so much more work to do.
So in the future, what are some kinds of roles that you're really hoping to get into?
I'm kind of very wary of going ‘I want to play this kind of part and that kind of part,’ because I think that kind of stops the universe from surprising me. I would never have expected for any of this to happen. I didn't expect to go into video games. I didn’t expect to play a main part in a video game. I think in general, it's just about exploring all depths of the human, or not human, psyche. But I'd like to do more TV and film, and I think we need to do more. I mean, the dream really is to combine that space like I feel like we're getting there with shows like “Fallout” and “The Last of Us.” Games’ audiences are really special and really important, and I feel like we need to honor them across all media, and we need to work together. There's generations of creators in games that are being overlooked outside of games, and there's so much more respect to be had for that beautiful writing and art and and acting. More collaboration is the way forward.
Absolutely fantastic. Just a question for funsies at the end. So you can answer this as either Shadowheart or yourself: Kiss, marry, kill, the origin characters.
Okay.
Oh, you’ve thought about this. [Laughing].
As Shadowheart, kiss, marry, kill Lae’zel. All three. [Laughing].
That's a valid answer.
You know what? No, I think Karlach has got to be in there. I feel like Astarion’s like [the] gay best friend.
Oh, perfect.
And Gale, no, although I do think Gale and Shadowheart would live happily ever after. Like the cottage-core style. For me though…kiss Lae’zel, marry Karlach, kill Astarion. [Laughing]. Sorry, babe.
Sometimes it has to happen.
Sorry, Neil.
It’s just a part of the decision.
He doesn’t mind. He knows it.
He knows it, it’s okay. Well, that’s all I have for you. Thank you so much for this, this has been wonderful!
What a good interview, what great questions.
I’m so glad!
More queer interviews please, for the love of God!
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