Neil Newbon and Will De Renzy-Martin have compared notes on playing vampires, performance and the strange business of making a dark fantasy role-playing game feel human. The official The Blood of Dawnwalker conversation brings together two actors whose characters sit on opposite sides of the game’s blood-soaked power struggle.
Newbon is best known to game players as Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3, while De Renzy-Martin voices Coen, the young man at the centre of Rebel Wolves’ new RPG. Their discussion is framed around vampire roles and acting, making it a neat meeting between a performer associated with one of gaming’s most famous modern vampires and the actor leading a brand-new one.
Two very different vampire performances
The appeal of the video is the contrast. Astarion is theatrical, flirtatious and spectacularly untrustworthy; Coen is a reluctant dawnwalker, human by day and vampire by night, trying to save his family while resisting the people who turned him.
That gives the conversation a useful hook beyond a standard promotional interview. The actors are talking about how a performer finds the line between charm and menace, and how a vampire character can remain recognisable when the fantasy begins to take over.
Coen’s performance has a lot riding on it
The Blood of Dawnwalker is built around a pressure cooker. The official game site describes a 14th-century European setting where vampires have seized power during the chaos of war and plague. Coen has 30 days before Brencis, the valley’s ruler, executes his family and village as part of his coronation.
Day and night bring different abilities, mysteries and ways to approach the world. As Coen’s human side and supernatural side pull against each other, De Renzy-Martin’s performance has to carry both the ordinary young man and the creature he is becoming.
The timing is perfect for a vampire chat
The Blood of Dawnwalker is now available on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, according to Bandai Namco’s official site. The conversation arrives when players can immediately follow the talk with the game itself, rather than filing it away as another pre-release promise.
Two actors, two vampires, one very good excuse to talk about why we keep inviting monsters into our stories. Frankly, the night shift has never sounded busier.
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