Episode 142: Interview with Samantha Béart!

Joining me on the show today is Samantha Béart, the actor behind the likes of Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3, and of course, Darth Nul in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I’ll talk to her about what it was like bringing Darth Nul to life and some of her other projects, including It Takes a Village and a new game – Fading Echoes.

Transcript

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Ted (00:00.11)

Episode 142 of the State of the Old Republic podcast was originally recorded on April 1st, 2026.

Ted (00:19.136)

It's the state of the old Republic podcast.

Ted (00:33.326)

This week on the show, I'm recording this on April 1st, but this is no joke. Joining me on the show today is Samantha Bayard, the actor behind the legs of Carlock in Baldur's Gate 3, and of course, Darth Null in Star Wars The Old Republic.

Ted (00:54.36)

I'll talk to them about what it was like bringing Darth Null to life and some of their other projects including It Takes a Village and a new game, Fading Echoes.

Ted (01:08.01)

And with that, it's time to make the jump to light speed and cue the moron. Welcome to episode 142 of the state of the old Republic podcast. I'm your host Ted. And as you heard in the opening, I have another great show lined up for you today. Today's episode is going to be a little different. I have a wonderful guest joining me on the show. There will be spoilers for galactic threads and masters enigma. So let's get to it.

Ted (01:50.414)

Today's guest is someone I've been looking forward to speaking with ever since Galactic Threads was released. They are a BAFTA nominated, classically trained actor, the host of It Takes a Village. Many of you know them as Karlak from Baldur's Gate 3, and all of you know them from Star Wars The Old Republic as Darth Null. Or is it Renaya or is it just Null? Well, we'll explore that and more with Samantha Bayard. Welcome to the State of the Old Republic podcast.

Samantah Béart (02:17.826)

Thank you for having me. That was a beautifully read introduction. Thank you.

Ted (02:22.638)

My pleasure Well, I'm thrilled that you're here, you know now that players have finally seen galactic threads and Masters enigma We've seen a lot of Darth know so I'm really excited to talk about that Before we dive in I just want to say to everyone if you haven't played through the story yet first I hope you're okay and Second we will touch on some spoilers for both galactic threads and Masters enigmas So you've been warned but with that we can dive in now

And I'll just start at the beginning here, and I've heard you talk about this before, but it's worth hearing about again. Can you tell us how you got the part of Null and what it was like joining Star Wars and the Swartor family?

Samantah Béart (03:05.24)

So bearing in mind that Star Wars to me is like gravity, it's always been in my life, it's just the fact of existence on this planet, I'm a massive fan. Yeah, Jackie, who's the senior community manager for Broad Sword, who looks after Soto, posted a video of her...

reacting rather viscerally to certain scenes in Carlyle's Journey and Baldur's Gate 3 and I clocked where she works and she's a friend of a friend as well, which is it was sent to me and that's leading to her DMs and said if there's anything, anything I would love to be in a Star War and please think of me kindly and I didn't pitch for a big role or anything like that I'd be very grateful to play anything in Star Wars but she did pitch for a big role.

and here we are today.

Ted (03:57.135)

That's awesome. So it was like there a moment where it clicked that you weren't just joining swotor to play a Side character or random Jawa that you were actually becoming like a central figure in an entire storyline

Samantah Béart (04:11.574)

Yeah, when they gave me the character named Darth Null, I thought she sounds pretty important. And they're very open about her background and everything, and it's pretty epic. yeah, I thought, OK. And then also I was able to go back and look at old cinematics and things and go, they've been, you know, the Holocron and the Holocron has been talked about a lot, but the lightsaber's been available in the cartel for a while. So was like, OK, she's a pretty important person.

Ted (04:39.022)

Well that's sort of interesting too, right? Because as players, we first heard about Darth Null, I mean, it's been quite a few years now, it was before Legacy of the Sith even launched, and so you're kind of coming into this midstream, sort of mid-story, what was that like for you, or did that have an impact on, did you have to sort of get caught up on what was going on with her?

Samantah Béart (05:02.942)

Yeah, so the team were very good in giving me that background story. Well, in terms of starting out as R'Naya, and then, because we're going go straight to spoilers, aren't we? So, starting out as R'Naya, and then being expelled from the Jedi, and then being turned by the Emperor. Because, you know, we're seeing her after her life. So, we've got all this rich backstory before, but my god, she's been everywhere.

Ted (05:28.194)

Yeah, she has. And so when you sort of heard of that material for Darth Null, was there anything that sort of grabbed you about it? Was it that sort of Jedi to Sith arc or the fact that she's also a scientist? Anything that really, really intrigued you about the character?

Samantah Béart (05:43.02)

Yeah, so I normally play pretty heroic people. And I'm sure I'm sure Null sees herself as incredibly heroic because she's getting that work done. You know, she doesn't particularly care who is backing her work as long as that work gets done, which is fascinating and seems rather pressing. I've worked in tech before. And when you talk to folks about, you know, perhaps maybe the ethics of what they're doing, there is sometimes...

Yeah, sort of... They see it very differently than I do. I tend to look at who the paymaster is, but a lot of tech folks will go, well, you know what, it's getting made. It's getting made, and that's what matters. And, you know, it's pure, it's mathematical, so it can't be biased and it can't be political. And I've been exposed to that a lot, actually. So it was really interesting that they've put that into a character like this.

who seems to be quite anarchic in her attitude towards the Jedi and the Sith, which then aligns her with Malgus quite a bit, doesn't it? So I'll be interested to see where they take it from there.

Ted (06:46.862)

Well, it is interesting to see because, um, you know, she has a little bit of that ends justify the means sort of, sort of attitude. And she just has this work that she's been trying to complete for, guess, I don't know, centuries now. It's hard to know how long it's, it's truly been. Um, so in that regard, she's a bit of an antagonist, but do you think that she's sort of like this villain because of her, her goals, or is it just mainly her methods at this point that sort of.

put her on the bad side, or both perhaps.

Samantah Béart (07:19.502)

Depends who you ask. Again, spoilers guys, one of the reasons she's removed from the Jedi Council is because she's contacting people with very tenuous force connections and letting them know. The Jedi like to go and pick and choose who they choose to train and associate with and all of that.

well, that everyone could be gods if R'nai gets away, then that's really scary to them because they do like that control. The Sith also like control, but I imagine they won't let these new Force users use free choice. They're going to want them to recruit them to the dark side. And then there's the dark side. She works for the dark side. It's not probably, that's a hint. It's probably not apolitical and...

completely devoid of politics and all of that sort of stuff. yeah, she's an interesting, she doesn't see it that way. And there's a lot of people out there who very powerful who don't see their work is affecting things at a scale.

Ted (08:24.718)

Yeah, and it's interesting that you get the sense, because she's not the first character that we saw was a Jedi and then became a Sith or just fell to the dark side. I mean, her fall seems very different. I don't know if it was willing on her part or as he said, she just sort of had this work she wanted to do. And so this was a pathway to do that. not so much an embracing of.

Sith ideology and saying, this is who I am or who I want to be, but this is, well, she was kind of put into a corner a little bit because of the Sith emperor and who he was and what, but she was saying, well, I've got my work to do and this will get me to the end, hopefully get me across the finish line. So she was okay with it versus just a true sort of fall and embracing of the dark side, I guess.

Samantah Béart (09:16.11)

Yeah, I think her hand was very much turned. think in Master's Enigma we talk about the fact that he's, you the Emperor's killed her followers. But then, you know, sometimes the way she sees them they're a bit like guinea pigs. So it's interesting relationships he has with them.

Ted (09:31.481)

Well, I'm a big fan of some of the behind the scenes stuff, so I'd try to maybe dive into the, get into the booth a little bit with you, if that's okay. As players, we get the story, of course, in pieces, right? We do it sort of update by update. I assume that you don't necessarily work that way. So when you were cast, I mean, how much of an old story did you actually get? Were you given the entire trajectory upfront, or do you discover it in stages as these sessions come up?

Samantah Béart (09:59.566)

With a character like this because she's lived and died like we need to know before we start it's certainly not helpful to have it be a surprise later on Oh, by the way, you know, she wasn't that bothered to be tell whatever like that, know, cuz that completely changes a performance You know someone who's resisting dark side versus jumps into it willingly They gave I think this is a while ago now so bear with me They gave me a brief bones outline in emails before we did the session and then in the session itself It was explained to be fully so I had that fresh in my mind

Hey, at least we recorded in order. It's not like Bald Escape where it's completely out of order and then it's only when the game comes out and people are playing that you realise how it all fits together.

Ted (10:39.202)

Well, that's interesting. Well, I have some questions about that too, because even within a specific update, Null is, she is a complex character. Like she's almost like a constellation of selves. In these updates, we see hollow recordings. We see the mind trap versions, which include a young Null and then this sort of older witch. I don't know why they had to do that. I thought the...

character model they had looked so cool.

Samantah Béart (11:09.336)

They have to show she's a Sith, right? They have to show she's like a thousand years old and she's been in essentially isolation for a thousand years and it's gone a bit mad. I wasn't a fan.

Ted (11:23.822)

it's terrific character model, one of the better ones that I've seen in the game. Our team really did a nice job on that. And then of course we have these three different AI avatars as well. So it's a lot going on. So how did you approach differentiating all of these while still keeping them recognizably the same person?

Samantah Béart (11:50.05)

Yeah, with a lot of guidance from the narrative team, particularly Ashley Ruhl who was on calls, know, Caitlin and the director, Dara as well. Like there were a lot of people on those calls making sure because it relied on them being consistent within each strand, right? I think they said I ended up playing five different, yeah, it would be five different versions of her because you've got the original call, you've got the mind trap in the first update and then you've got those AIs in the next one.

But what was nice is because we started with the Sith version, like her angriest and most British sounding. We sort of went backwards. I think if I'd started with Renaya, I would have made her a lot softer and it would have been harder to make it sound like the same person going into that, well, the dark side version of herself. So really like for me going backwards, she was like your typical pompous Jedi.

Which totally makes sense that, you know, she was doing all this stuff on the side, outside of the rules of the Jedi Order at that time. Totally makes sense. She thought she knew better than them or she was just going to do her own thing anyway. Yeah, so that totally makes sense. That was a decision we made together because there's nothing to support that. in the text that we have, because we don't have that sort of time, but maybe in future that's something they'll go into a little bit more. But I think the timeline's pretty clear for her.

and she's spoken to, in Master's Enigma, she's spoken to that fall and what that was actually like experiencing it at the time.

Ted (13:21.998)

perform for this kind of game, I assume that you're in the booth alone, meaning that you don't have any seeing partners to go alongside. So how does that work? Like what kind of direction do you receive? I mean, and then do you record like, I say all of Rania's lines at once and then all of Mello's or they have you swapping back and forth.

Samantah Béart (13:42.89)

Yes, so in my experience it's normal to be alone in the booth. The director will read in the lines and you just do it in the blocks of character. So when we did Master's Enigma, I think, because I said it was a while ago, I think we did it as the different, let's call it AIs for argument's sake, just the different AIs and went from there. So it was consistent within that. They also, in the business, called a voice print. So it's basically what you sounded like last time you came in.

and there were some gaps between recording sessions. So they play that back to you and you go, okay, that's exactly what I was going for. So that's where the consistency is. But there's a lot, like I said, there's a lot of guidance for that.

Ted (14:19.416)

That's an interesting point too, when you say you're, you know, you're coming back for, for, for different sessions and you know, you're Samantha Bayard, you're not Darth Null per se. So you've got to remember what you did for that performance and it can't sound different. And is that a challenge or is it just so you hear it and then, okay, I know what I did. I'm good to go.

Samantah Béart (14:36.686)

the latter that one it's that one it's fine I've been doing this a while now it's all good yeah and I don't you know I don't that's why I don't describe myself as a voice actor no with me there's no real vocal gymnastics those people are incredible and that's what they do and I wouldn't want to be confused with people who can do that so yeah it's not so much of a stretch that oh my god how did I do it how do I get back into it it's pretty simple

Ted (15:02.818)

So how does your background and your training play into this? You're acting, right, but you're just without say a costume or props or something. There's not a physical element to it, but does that restrict you at all or does that really not matter?

Samantah Béart (15:15.63)

It doesn't matter for me, it's like, if I say black box theatre, do know what I mean? It's what it sounds like, right? You have no scenery, no costumes, no props. It's all your imagination and it's very much set there. It's a, you know, pretty standard humanoid character. It's not a creature that's going to require me to, again, do something really dramatic, try not to hyperventilate because that's what happens when you're breathing heavily. There's none of that sort of stuff. But yeah, sometimes you have to make the shape to find that vocal tone.

But again, I'm not doing anything extreme in this case. It was more consistency. And like I said, they've recorded everything. They can just play it back. Even between the biomes in Masters Enigma, if I'd got lost and gone, actually, yeah, we need to go re-record that line within the same session. They'll just play me back what I've done. But yeah, I think it's good to point it out because they were a more subtle. weren't different characters. They're different aspects of herself, but it's the same person.

So we just had to make sure it definitely sounds like the same person. But you know, if you're doing new writing in theatre, you're jumping around, you're changing things, lines are getting changed all the time, what you want from the other actor might change and that will be written in. There's that experimentation and I find that that's probably closest to what it's like doing this sort of thing.

Ted (16:27.822)

Do you have a chance to ad lib at all in this or is it pretty strictly just reading what's on the page or do you even think to do?

Samantah Béart (16:34.88)

I don't even think to do that. So in British actor training the word is God and you don't mess with it and especially if you've been. think in film and TV you're encouraged to change things because I mean there's so much going on in your eyes you know and you can see the actor struggling with lines they don't want that but in other formats you have to make that work. It's never been, I've never had a problem reading a line. Sometimes I don't understand the line or the context of the line and I'll ask for more but I've never gone, no don't get it or I'm not saying that, that's not my job.

And then you've got to bear in mind in the process of making games, the actors are often the last to come on board. So that would have been translated and localised. There's a lot of knock-on effects. Oh, true. So you can't do that. But as I said, it's a problem I like to have. It's my own little game I get to play. How do I justify that? But you know, they there's nothing glaring and I better say something because it doesn't work. We've got to change this line. All my experiences have been very well written.

So I've never had that situation.

Ted (17:35.754)

And as we all know, like Star Wars has its own vocabulary. And I think it was, you know, Harrison Ford who famously said, you know, you can write this stuff, but you can't say it. So where there's what were some of the terms or references that maybe made you stop and ask for greater context? there, did things like that come up at all?

Samantah Béart (17:54.862)

Yes, remember Harrison was on the front line, know, he's the one setting these words in this universe, so I totally feel for him because there's no reference, whereas I've grown up on it and not only that but books and the extended universe in general, TV shows, all of that, so I've grown in it. So fair play to him because it was brand new. I think, oh, a lot of the time because, you know, it's not her, it's a rendering of her and we're calling it AI.

for the purposes of brevity here. So you can ask it anything and it will try and work out what Renaya or Nal would say, but it's not her. So it doesn't always have such a strong opinion on maybe in the same way that living Nal or Renaya would, if that makes sense. So she can report the facts.

And she can be there vocally where she was, when you turn sith you start to sound like this. Very angry about everything because you're a sith. But really that's what I'm thinking. I'm just making sure I'm talking about the right thing, that I know what I'm talking about. There was a lot of relaying of facts because she's that scientist. It's been a while since I've played a very smart person, but that's...

As far as ever to be typecast, would be as a scientist. I've played a few in sci-fi over the years. And rattling off that stuff. think that, okay, so that's it. So a lot of the time you're sight reading or you've only received a portion of the script and sometimes, you know, they'll change it on the day and that's totally cool. But when it's, yeah, it's sci-fi and fantasy language and it's to be lived factually, like you know what you're talking about, that'll take a couple of runs and you chat with it and you chat with them about it and you make sure everybody's on the same page.

And you sound like the scientist who wrote this stuff, you know, and all of that, but that's familiarity and that's sight reading skills. And again, you know, for anyone listening who wants to do this sort of work, like this practice, that's all it is.

Ted (19:46.252)

But as you're going through and seeing some of these, whether it's a term or a planet or a place pop up, you stop and sort of, does the Star Wars sort of fan in you curiosity kick in and do you just sort of interrupt yourself and say, well, where is this place? Or what is this? I haven't heard of this or that kind of thing.

Samantah Béart (20:04.462)

I try and read ahead as much as I can. So I remember when Elom came up and I went, what's that? So they very quickly told me, you know, it's very quick. But my favourite moment was, you know, again, sight reading and right at the end I said, may the force be with you. And then I went, what? Ah, I said the thing. I said the thing. I'm in a Star War. And it was very exciting. It was very cool to be able to say that.

Ted (20:27.202)

And did you ever get any kind of like lore dumps from the writing team as you went about it or have those kinds of conversations with?

Samantah Béart (20:32.846)

Minimal because I know the universe a bit more I think it's much harder if well if it's a new if it's a new IP Then you're gonna have to sit Dave and you're lucky you get to sit down with someone and they'll explain it to you or they'll send you a document That's only starting to come into games more recently. You were just expected to get on with it But as a performer, I want to give you my best performance and I can only do that with context time is money in the booth So you need to do it before but in the room if it's a pronunciation of a name or all that planet is there relative to that one or

she's talking about a fallen impot. It's very quick to get that in there. just make sure, again, pronunciation is consistent. And that's what they're there for as well. They're there to make sure everything's cool.

Ted (21:12.16)

Now I know I watched some of the interview that you had done. We got with SWOTARista and she was doing a bit of a play through with you when you were online. So I know you've seen some of this, you know, with Galactic Threads and Masters Enigma both out there, have you had a chance to see all of the final scenes in the game? And if so, was there anything that maybe hit differently once you saw the visuals, the pacing, the music, all of it come together?

Samantah Béart (21:34.674)

I must confess I haven't had a chance to watch Master's Enigma. I'm normally on top of it but thank you for reminding me. I will go and do that immediately after this interview. we didn't have time to, you know, because it takes a while. And I didn't realise she hadn't played the first... She was playing on stream the very first introduction with the fight in the mine prison. Which I do know very well, I've seen that.

Yeah, I haven't had a chance to see it yet. So we just thought, I she was just catching up to Renai and everyone in chat was like, my God, it's Master Renai. And it was very cool.

Ted (22:08.462)

Well, that's good. I'm not trying to trying to put you on the, on the spot or anything, but I'm more curious to know is by watching that, is there feedback that you get from that that would help you in in future updates or anything like along those lines or just like, wow, I read this line in now to see it play out. That's, don't know it would influence what you might've done differently or if things came up better than, than what you had.

Samantah Béart (22:32.884)

Yes, so that's what I'm actually trying to avoid and that's why I ask so many questions in the booths. When I watch it back I go, that really works nicely. Earlier on in the career and that's not just video games. A film can be one where this happens because you're not in control of the edit they use and you go, you used that take, did you? That's interesting. Theatre is really the only format in which you have total control over that performance as it comes across the audience.

But yeah, I feel that I had the information I needed to give the performance they wanted. I thought they were incredibly clear about that and how these different aspects of this person fits together. So the little I saw on that stream was like, yeah, okay, that's exactly as I saw it. They described it to me very nicely. So I knew it was a hologram. I didn't know they were gonna be red and blue.

So I was like, okay, yeah, that's pretty cool. But no, it was not like the horror of going, I would have done that completely differently if I saw, yeah, there's none of that. So I'm really happy with it.

Ted (23:30.862)

Did you know they were gonna be fighting each other at the end there? of clashing with one another.

Samantah Béart (23:38.432)

It's like, how often does Noel go mad is the question. Poor thing. Yeah.

Ted (23:45.24)

Well, I thought it was a terrific performance and I think Master's Enigma really captures the heart of your work. Like I said, we get Renaya, who is this one personality, and then we get Darth Null, who is this other personality, and then the two merge together to become really just Null, who again is this third personality, and yet they're clearly one individual, and that does come across. And you don't think about this too much.

when you're playing the game, but I think getting a chance to talk to you about it kind of puts it in perspective for me, and I'm hoping the listeners out there can kind of start to see that a little bit. I we don't want to break the fourth wall too much when we're playing, it's, I don't know, but it's good to know that there, I always like to always think about that there are real people behind these games, whether they're writing it, putting the cinematics, or like you doing these performances. And so I never lose sight of that. I always sort of.

have that in my mind a little bit as I play through it. I'm always impressed by that.

Samantah Béart (24:43.566)

Yeah, and shout out to the narrative team and the director because you know it's a group of people that can keep me on track. It's a real collaborative process because they know it, they know this backwards because they wrote it and they know where it's going. Remember, they're not always going to tell me where it's going and what they've got planned or whatever. Only for what's in the room. You know, again, I knew her whole life story.

Ted (24:59.914)

So they don't. So they don't always fill you in.

Samantah Béart (25:06.05)

but I don't need to know if they're planning on bringing her back or not. That doesn't help me give the performance as written. So I'm just there to do that particular session and that's the life of an actor in video games. Obviously I always ask. I brought my little 3D printed lightsaber they did for me with me just to make them know I actually am aware of what I'm in. This a very cool team, they're very sweet. Yeah, it's the whole team.

Ted (25:26.764)

I saw you with that.

Samantah Béart (25:33.57)

that make these performances and then you think how many of them are in this game over the last coming up to 15 years. It's a phenomenal effort.

Ted (25:41.816)

So, Swator, I should say, has these characters that influence, whose influence echoes for centuries, Revan, Sith Emperor. So, without touching anything too spoiler sensitive, do you see Null as someone whose ideas or inventions could leave that kind of long-term mark on the galaxy? Are we opening a Pandora's box here, and do you think we'll be dealing with her for a while now?

Samantah Béart (26:04.206)

Rather selfishly, I hope so. I'd love to come back. But yeah, I mean, been a... I remember there was some feedback when, after the first update, where you fought her as her in the mind prism. And that ends, because otherwise the game ends if you die. And everyone went, oh, OK, that's a bit of an anti-climax. No, there's more. They're not going to build up this character for years and then there's one fight and it's over. But that...

That holocron has been in the plot for a while. There's some really big ideas about what could happen to the order of the universe if we enact the machine that the instructions lead to. And we know that Malgus is very sympathetic to Null's point of view as well. So I would assume that there's going to be certainly more debate about it. I hope someone doesn't go, well, that didn't work and chucks the holocron in a bin somewhere.

Ted (27:01.774)

That's what I'm wondering too, right? almost want it from like, well, I'm not sure I want to see, I'm not sure it's probably a good idea to activate this machine, but we have to find out, right? I'm just wondering, like, would they really do that? Like, we get to the point where that might happen and then, we destroy the holocron, destroy the machine, and kill everybody, and I don't think it'll.

Samantah Béart (27:22.626)

That's it. Yeah, I mean, can only speculate as a fan. That's it. As I said, don't deliberately don't tell me anything. So you can't get it out of me.

Ted (27:37.186)

But getting into Null's head again, do think she'd be okay with what these, what Malgus is doing, what Jadis is doing, whatever Hedda Cole is doing, letting these people touch her toys and use them, or is she be like, no, no, no, no, hands off, this is my stuff, and I'm not happy about this?

Samantah Béart (27:57.014)

I with her the ends justify the means a lot, which makes me and her very different. But there's a lot of people that behave like that in the world. It's very realistic. mean, you, again, spoilers, if you fight her in the mine prison, the last thing she says is, my work must be done. I don't think she cares who does it as long as it gets done.

Ted (28:20.568)

Well, if you created a player character in Suo Toor, and I believe you've done at least that, and we can talk about that in second, and were to reach that moment where you confront Darth Noll, what do you think that would be like for you? Or have you actually played games where you've been behind the scenes and voiced the characters? What's that sort of like?

Samantah Béart (28:40.042)

Yeah, I mean, as a gamer, it's cool. It's the ultimate game. It's you. You're in the world. You're immersed. Yeah, I created a character called Carrie-Anne Moss Isley. She looks exactly like Carrie-Anne Moss, right? That's the way around that happened. Hang on a sec, there's a pun to be made. And she's just a wide-eyed padawan at the moment. I haven't had time to catch up with her, but to be honest with you, Ted, I just stood in the middle of the...

a town square that listened to everything and watched everything and I was so fully immersed and this time I'm not on rails, I'm on a TV show, I'm telling the story and I just sat there immersed in it and then I experienced the Jedi Council and I god I'm not sure if I'm fully committed to this, they really are something else which I love about the, since the prequels really, the writing of the council is pretty flawed actually and single minded.

and that might be the reason why there's a lot of, well the Dark Side is able to prey on members of that council, because the Sith are no better. I love seeing couple Sith arguing amongst themselves, there's nothing quite like it. So I don't know what's going to happen with that character, that could go either way really, to be honest with you, I was getting quite annoyed being told I couldn't do anything. Maybe I wasn't really meant to be a Jedi, but yeah, I'd love to have more time to play.

When Baldur's Gate 3 came out I played as Karlak because you're able to play as the origin characters and that was pretty cool. These worlds are so immersive you forget that you played those characters sometimes which is that's whole thing. And in Demon's Souls I was one of Well that's a good thing Yeah, suppose, well it's a testament to the developers that you've... There's so much other... There's so many other things going on that you're fully immersed and then also Demon's Souls I was a player character in that. But it's mainly yelling and dying in many different ways because it's Demon's Souls.

And then The Excavation of Hobbs Barrow was the main character in that as well and that was fun. you know with that one they gave me the entire script, it's a much shorter micro indie game so I was able to see like absolutely how I fitted it into the world and everything like that. But that was still fun to play because it's, that was 2022 and it's not 2022 anymore so what's nice is over time you forget, you do forget a lot of the process so it does become fresh when you play. And you go, huh, didn't remember doing that, that's pretty cool.

Ted (30:57.022)

Well, after Galactic Threads came out, you sort of did this small series of videos of sort Darth Null visits Disneyland, which were fantastic. Have you thought about doing more of that?

Samantah Béart (31:11.288)

watching. Like maybe... I would love to do more. think I'd get kicked out of Disneyland if I tried that again because you're not supposed to dress up as characters but like what character was I? They didn't know because the game wasn't out yet.

Ted (31:22.936)

Well, maybe she do something maybe she do one by like Darth Null play swotor and do that series

Samantah Béart (31:29.038)

I think the idea of Darth Null dropped into different realities which seem familiar but aren't quite right and is quite angry about it.

I think that's the way to go in. I also did a parody of the 1987 British cult film called With Nail and I. It took me way too long to realise it sounds like With Nail and I. And so for the five Angerphiles out there in the States who also love Star Wars, that was for you. It's so much fun. very easy cosplay to do compared to some of the other characters I've played. And I got to walk around town in a little ratty black bathrobe.

and some cheap ski goggles. You're very kind.

Ted (32:08.682)

It totally works though, looks great. You know, there's a, go to like a Star Wars convention or something like that and just have some fun. But in fact, I think Star Wars Celebration next year in LA, the 50th anniversary, I can't believe I'm saying that, of Star Wars A New Hope. Jeez, still younger than I am.

Samantah Béart (32:31.956)

Exactly and yeah, remember I was there for the D &D 50 year celebrations as well so 50 seems to be the magic number. Yeah, I mean if I went to celebration I might wear a good cosplay rather than the really bad one though. But for every day for the little parody videos the worse the cosplay is the better I think.

Ted (32:53.57)

Well, before we wrap up, did want to talk about some of your other work. You have your own podcast called It Takes a Village. So you think you've built something really special with that. Can you tell us about what it is and what inspired you to do that?

Samantah Béart (33:07.598)

Yeah, so I prefer to call it a chat show. We film it and I really want you to see the guests. I know we call everything a podcast now, but for me podcast is always audio only, but that's fine. Yeah, so I'm an introvert and what happens is if you put spotlight on me, I want to share it with other people, I want to get it off me. But also I get way too much credit for what I'm doing in particular in games and I think that's because we have very little behind the scenes content and that gets super meta because I'm very influenced by

all those wonderful behind the scenes videos that Industrial Light and Magic did. And I know countless people who got into very specific roles in the film industry because they knew the roles existed. So I know a couple of prop makers who work at Shepperton and Pinewood and have worked on Star Wars films because they were kids growing up watching those. So that's really important. And then it's really important to document our industry. We keep calling it a young industry, but we're getting older.

We're not writing this stuff down and passing it on and I think it's a real shame to not do that. When a company goes under and in this day and age, know, AAAs particularly love to seem to close shop even when a game is a success. That information is lost. All that knowledge is lost. It's just tragic to me. And when Bordersgate 3 became a thing, I was being solely credited for Karlak, which was immensely annoying because we have whole departments. First of all, they'd say it's a voice role. It's not fully mo-capped. So you're erasing the work.

mocap engineers and our movement directors who use a lot of theatrical techniques to work with us, or in my case at least, a cinematic department, a cleanup department, the animators, the testers, there's so many people and myself and a few other artists just kept saying it takes a village, just kept saying it again and again and I was streaming Bordersgate 3 as Karlak because I thought I'd be hilarious and

Then got to a point where Twitch turned that into a money-making exercise and I wasn't comfortable doing that with that character or being that character forever or whatever that is. I did quite a few hours of it and then I think I did five full streams of that. And then I thought, want to find out what other people do in this industry. And if you go through my YouTube, I think right at the bottom, one of the first things I posted on my YouTube channel was a half-day convention called Game Voices Connect where in groups I interviewed

Samantah Béart (35:33.718)

Like we did panels, I hosted panels and we had writers, casting directors, a director's sort of workshop to see what it actually looks like in the booth. And then we also showed some post-production. So like, here's the mess you've made and these are the people that have to deal with it. So I've always been interested in how sausage is made, as it were. And I just, there's so many wonderful people who've also helped me. And in this game, in the video gaming industry, people wear so many different hats.

So for instance, in Soto the community manager was the first person to get me on the radar of the game and get me cast. That's interesting. Doesn't happen in different media. You go for a casting director. Composers, sound engineers, they might be directing you in the room. And I think the more understanding the actors have about how this works and to be a more patient with them, because it might be their first time directing or whatever, or the writer will be, you know, there's all of that sort of stuff and it works very differently.

to the formats we're trained in. So there's a bit of an education thing, there's a bit of a careers fair, but there's also giving people their flowers. It's really important for me to do that. I socialise with these people. a very flat hierarchy all the time. And I don't like the idea that I operate on a separate level to everyone else. I want to bring everyone with me. So it's my small contribution to that. And I was very lucky that GDC and Pax East allowed me to do that live. And we should be putting those videos up quite soon. So that's a very long answer, but it took me a while to get it.

Ted (36:54.062)

No, no, no, it was a terrific answer. It was great. And I love that too. Like I said, I love seeing how all this stuff works too. I mean, it's fun to play these games and obviously experience the final product, the end product, but to understand how it all comes about. I've always been fascinated by that, whether it's what goes into making the music or the writing and putting it all together. I just love peeling back the curtain as it were and seeing how it's all.

happens because it's usually not what you think it is in some ways.

Samantah Béart (37:31.496)

I mean what's telling is so many guests on that show have come in from different disciplines. I think all but one. Nobody grew up wanting to be a game dev because they didn't know what it was. Because it's not very documented. It's not documented. So yeah, I think that's just really important. Particularly as whatever's happening in the games industry right now, I can imagine it'd be very discouraging to get involved. But there are other ways in. You don't have to do AAA. You don't have to work in a silo, you know.

Ted (37:57.11)

And you also have another project you're working on. It's a game called Fading Echo that's coming up. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Samantah Béart (38:04.608)

Yeah, so we just exhibited that quite a bit at PAX East. again, unprecedented, in unprecedented moves. It's an indie. I have no NDA. The only thing I won't do is tell you story spoilers. But what's interesting again is like, you know, when they restricted the NDA, it's like, what exactly are you stopping me from saying? They gave me a key for the game. It's fun. I can say that. I can tell you it's a fun game. You should play it. It's out in demo. It's made by former Blizzard devs.

based out of Lyon in France, so we know they know how to ship a game. It's a small team. We seem to have half the OG cast from Critical Role in it. We have Matt, Laura, Sam and Liam. I hope we can get more in there. I met Ashley the other day and I was like...

Water's lovely, come in. But I mean, we've done this game now, so maybe if it's a success, we'll have some future opportunities. It's based on a TTRPG. And it's a first-person action adventure, desert punk shenanigan, setting the world of Echo. It's about our IP creator, Manu, says it's about 5 % of the world he's created. We're getting a little keyhole into that world. And like I said, play it on Steam at the moment. It will be coming to Xbox.

PlayStation 2 when it releases in Q3 later this year. But it's just fun, it's a short game and it's fluid. My character one can turn into an adorable blob of water. And then she reacts to elements, it's very fast. They call it systemic style of play. So if she encounters a lava monster, she throws water at it, it becomes petrified and weakened. So now you can hit it in a more satisfactory way.

or if she goes to a substance called waste, it's bright green, it looks like a certain soda, she can jump really high and there's a lot of puzzles within that as well. And it's just super fun. And I got to meet the team in Leon, that's never happened before, before the games come out, get to know them, hang out with them. It's been very open, again, reminding me of ILM.

Samantah Béart (40:13.26)

because I'm in that discord. I can see what everyone's doing, you know what I mean? And it's not like I'm gonna dip my oar in, but if I suddenly was an expert on something they were talking about, I'm allowed to go and chat to them about that and help them make that better, if that makes sense, collaborate. And I think that's what we should be looking at, is we've been doing it in film and TV and theatre for a long time. And that openness is just, it seems like a really lovely place to work. So yeah, we did panels, a let's play.

I interviewed Jasmine Bula, who's a bit of a TT RPG superstar. She's also writing it and she's playing my mother, because why not? That'll make sense when it comes out, it's all good. We have certain skills, let's just put it that way. In the family we're in, it will make sense, but you can play it right now. And it's a lovely community as well, it's a Discord for everyone to chat in. We got our first physical fan art this weekend.

Elise Moschubose, our producer, was signing things and taking pictures with fans and she was manning the booth all weekend. It was very satisfying for her to actually meet people and see people playing it in real life and getting that feedback in real time. know, fingers crossed it's a hit because this is a very precarious industry and you can't always tell. But I really hope people play it and enjoy it.

Ted (41:29.304)

It sounds very cool and I'm gonna get very nerdy here. It looks like you went from a character playing a character named null to playing a character named one So is that the goal is to play like numerically named characters in ascending order from here on out?

Samantah Béart (41:43.5)

That's a very good point and I hadn't seen that before but I will point out that that carlac is made of fire and one is made of water. to add the elemental side to it so I just got to hit a yeah maybe I'll just work my way through all the numbers and elements as well in a very systemic way.

Ted (41:49.184)

That way.

Ted (42:01.262)

Well, listen, Samantha, this has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for bringing Darth Null to life and joining me here today. And I don't know how much more of Null we'll see in this photo tour, but I sure hope we see much more of you in the galaxy far, far away. I really do appreciate you coming on. And for folks who want to follow your work, where can they find you online?

Samantah Béart (42:23.832)

Yeah, mainly Instagram and obviously I post on YouTube and on Blue Sky. That seems to where I exist at the moment. Thank you for having me on. It means a lot, you know, and it's incredible to live in a age where you get that feedback from fans and I would say it's your interest in Null is what's going to keep her in the game.

Samantah Béart (42:49.55)

Data merge complete. Hello, I am Darth Null's personality matrix, ready to assist in your research efforts.

Ted (42:59.714)

What was all that? What happened to the other protocol, the Jedi?

Samantah Béart (43:04.822)

It is here, along with its Sith counterpart. Put simply, I am Null. Her memories, her experiences, her knowledge, from all stages of her life, now contained within this Holocron. Null believed that by fragmenting the contradictory parts of her being, she could better understand the nature of the galaxy, of the Force, and of herself.

And now the inquiry is finally complete. It will take some time to process the collected data. Unfortunately, it appears the prolonged absence of Darth Null herself has created many unforeseen conditions on this ship. So we've noticed...

Ted (43:50.694)

Again, a huge thank you to Samantha for coming on the show. I really hope you enjoyed getting to hear them talk about their experience bringing Darth Null to life. Few things before I let you go today. Keith Kanig released his Q1 producers letter. As always, it's a good read and you should check it out. Also, BroadSword released an article with an update on DirectX 12 starting to take shape. I'll talk about that and the letter next episode.

The Spring Abundance Festival ends on April 7th. This year's new reward is the Egg Basket Hover Pet. And April 7th is also when the current Twitch Drop campaign ends. Watch five hours of SwoTOR content to earn the T2 26 Walker Mount. And if you want to hear more from Samantha Bayard talking about Darth Null, check out SwoTORista's YouTube channel. She sat down with Samantha and did a play through of some of Darth Null's story moments.

And that's the State of the Old Republic for today. Let me cut in the sublight engines and cue the music and congratulate you on surviving another half hour, give or take, listening to episode 142 of the State of the Old Republic podcast. I'm your host Ted, and I thank you for tuning in. You can find this podcast on Buzzsprout and iTunes and wherever else you find your podcasts. Also, I'm putting these back up on YouTube.

You can listen to the show directly from the show's site, is sotorpodcast.com. And there is an RSS feed where you can subscribe to the podcast directly. If you have a question for the show, can email me at sotorpodcast.gmail.com. As always, thank you so much for listening. And until next time, remember the Sith code, cake is a lie.