Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been on everyone’s lips this year. Coming from a new studio with only a relatively small number of developers, on its release the game won scores of praise across the industry. It is fair to say it is a beloved title, and at this year’s The Game Awards, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 made history becoming the most awarded game of all time. It scooped up a record nine accolades, including the coveted Game of the Year.
One of the many reasons people fell in love with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is its characters. From Gustave and Maelle, and of course Esquie, each character brings a magnetism and warmth to the role, and even those with less noble goals are still an endearing addition to the cast. But, while each character is unique, many were brought to life by the same motion capture actors. One such actor is Maxence Cazorla, who performed the physical side of things for Clair Obscur’s Gustave, Renoir and Verso. He also voiced Esquie.
Cazorla grew up in the south-west of France, and always knew that he wanted to be an artist. Then, when he was 15, he watched Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio, and “something shifted” inside him. “I suddenly knew that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” Cazorla tells me. “From there, I bought my first camera and started making short films, putting myself in front of the camera alongside friends and family. That’s really how everything began.”
Cazorla first heard about Clair Obscur in summer 2023, thanks to his friend and fellow actor Estelle Darnault. Like Cazorla, Darnault also performed multiple roles in Clair Obscur, including Lune, Sciel and Sophie, as well as several other female characters. “She sent me an Instagram link to Sandfall’s casting call. They were looking for English-speaking actors based in Paris for a video game RPG project called ‘Project W’,” Cazorla recalls. “What’s funny is that Estelle and I both applied without mentioning that we knew each other, so Sandfall had absolutely no idea we were friends, and yet we both ended up being cast on the project. It was also the very first time we got to work together.”
Cazorla was asked to send in an audition tape, where he tried for the roles of Gustave, Verso and Renoir. Soon after his tape was recieved, he was then invited to Sandfall’s studio in Paris, where he was again asked to audition for the same three roles. It was here Cazorla first met Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s director and creator Guillaume Broche, along with Sandfall’s entire cinematic team.
“Just before the audition, they showed us an early trailer of the game. I immediately fell in love with the universe. Being a gamer myself, I instantly knew this was the kind of game I would have played anyway, and suddenly the idea of actually embodying one of the characters felt completely surreal,” Cazorla remembers. Three weeks later, he found out he had been cast as Gustave, little knowning how much his life was about to change.
Cazorla was initially only set to play Gustave in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and he wrapped up his side of the performance in “a few” months. “I really thought my journey in the game had come to an end. I remember feeling a bit sad, knowing that Estelle and Charlotte would continue working on the project,” the actor recalls. However, soon after he had finished his work with Gustave, Cazorla received another call from Clair Obscur’s director asking if he would be interested in returning to perform the role of Verso. Of course, Cazorla said yes, and that’s “when the real physical work began”.
“I had to clearly differentiate the characters, not just emotionally, but physically as well, their posture, their walk, the way they moved and occupied space. Even though the characters would later be voiced by other actors, it was essential that they were instantly distinct,” Cazorla tells me. “From that point on, everything changed. All my interactions with the other characters shifted completely. The way they looked at me as Gustave disappeared, and we had to rebuild everything from scratch. In the end, I spent most of my time on the project embodying Verso.”
Cazorla calls Verso “a very special” role for him, adding he was “by far the most difficult to crack” thanks to Verso’s many complexities. “Most of his performance lives in subtext, in what he doesn’t say,” the actor explains. “Guillaume and I spent a lot of time sitting down together so he could give me all the context I needed to truly understand the character and bring the necessary nuance, to convey all of his layers through a single look.”
Eventually, Cazorla finished Verso’s performance capture as well, but little did he know, his work was still not done. Clearly enamoured with the actor’s performances until now, Clair Obscur’s director soon asked him if he would consider performing the capture for Renoir. “That came with both excitement and a lot of pressure, knowing that Andy Serkis would be voicing the character,” Cazrola admits. “Still, I accepted without hesitation. It’s not every day you get to do performance capture for a character voiced by one of the most influential figures in motion capture.”
Looking back on his three performances, Cazorla says he “gave everything” he had to each character, and left “a small part” of himself in all of them.
“I owe a huge thank you to Guillaume Broche for the trust he placed in me throughout the entire adventure,” he says. “His vision and passion pushed all of us to give everything we had, and I’m incredibly happy that players can feel that heart and passion today when they play the game.”
.png?width=2048&height=2048&fit=bounds&quality=85&format=jpg&auto=webp)
2025 has obviously been an incredible year for everyone involved in bringing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to life. Along with those already mentioned awards wins, the game has sold over 5m copies worldwide across all formats as of October, but that number is now obviously going to be higher still. The success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has even been publicly acknowledged by French President Emmanuel Macron, who said its Game of the Year win was a source of “great pride for Montpellier and for France”.
Reflecting on the last year, Cazorla admits he “never imagined” this amount of attention and admiration. In fact, he believes everyone involved was “caught off guard by the success” of Clair Oscur. “We never approached the project thinking about success or awards,” he says. “Everyone simply gave the best of their craft in service of the story, and I believe players genuinely felt that.”
I ask Cazorla if there is one particular moment from filming for Clair Obscur that stands out to him. He tells me about his very first day of shooting. “Putting on the motion capture suit for the first time and discovering this entirely new way of acting and storytelling was unforgettable,” he says. “It was the scene where Gustave wakes up next to the waterfall at the beginning of Act One. That moment is forever engraved in me.
“Back then, I had no idea that this adventure would change my life so deeply.”
So, what’s next for Cazorla now? After what has no doubt been a whirlwind year, which has included flying over to LA for The Game Awards earlier this month, will he be taking a break? “For the first time in my career, I find myself at a crossroads where I actually have a choice about what comes next,” he smiles. “I do have upcoming projects that I can’t talk about yet due to NDAs, but after 18 years of not being able to fully live from my craft, I’m deeply aware of how fortunate I am to finally be able to look toward the horizon.
“Whether the future leads me back to video games or into cinema, we’ll see. At this point, nothing really surprises me anymore. As long as I get to act, I’ll be happy.”
Our time is coming to an end, but before he goes, Cazorla wants to thank everyone who has played Clair Obscur. “The love, the support, the messages, and the stories they share with us mean everything. More than ever, I realise that without them, none of this would be possible, and even speaking to you today is partly thanks to them,” he says.
“By watching and sharing the behind-the-scenes videos I posted on social media, they’ve allowed me to reach a wider audience and continue living my dream,” the Clair Obscur actor tells me, before closing warmly:
“For that, I’ll always be grateful.”
