It’s video game awards season, which has now become synonymous with the annual reminder that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 star Ben Starr is an absolute gem. Not only is Starr once again being a total goofball for everyone else’s enjoyment, but he’s also using his voice to speak out against the industry’s inability to retain talent. Go off, anti-layoff king.
Though he’s been an actor for a while, Starr catapulted to gamer fame after playing Clive Rosfield in 2023’s Final Fantasy XVI and going viral during that year’s Game Awards. He then became the face of 2024’s breakout card battler Balatro, doing weird advertisements as Jimbo, its Joker mascot, proving once and for all that he commits to a bit. This year, he’s been nominated for several year-end awards for his role as Verso in Expedition 33, and is back on his delicious bullshit.
During the November 20 Golden Joystick Awards, the UK-based award ceremony that’s been around in some form since 1983, Starr walked up on-stage to present the award for Best Indie Game wearing a Golden Joystick-style Balatro card with a face hole cut out that placed him at the top of the trophy. “I am classically trained Golden Joystick-winning actor Ben Starr,” he said, standing there with just his face and legs showing behind the card. “Isn’t independence empowering? You can do whatever you want.”
Watch the entire presentation here, it’s worth it.
But Starr wasn’t satisfied with being silly. When it was announced that he’d won Best Supporting Performer for Sandfall Interactive’s Expedition 33, he spoke about Verso as a character, about his flaws, and how they make him a polarizing figure. “I think that is what this industry does best, it presents us with flawed characters that reflect the lives we have on the outside,” Starr said. “‘Cause life, guys, as we know—and I’m gonna be the first one to swear—is fucking hard.”
Starr also made sure to speak plainly about the video game industry’s deluge of layoffs over the last several years. “This industry is hard. We are celebrating today, astonishing video games, but there are many people who should be here who aren’t because they are laid off from the industry,” he began. (As he paused, someone in the audience shouted, “Well said, Ben.”) He continued:
Many people might criticize me for grandstanding right now, but the one thing that Sandfall do and have done is respect people that work for them. They respect the people that they are making games for, and they want to make them good. That is why this game is great, it’s because they wanted to make it good for the people they’re making it for. They didn’t want it to be popular. So they wrote characters that are flawed, they wrote characters that are broken, they wrote characters that, ultimately, you might hate. And I’m very very fortunate to potentially play one of them.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won seven Golden Joysticks and set a record for the most nominations at this year’s Game Awards with 12. Let Ben Starr give every winning speech.
