Charlie Cox Praises Maxence Cazorla As Clair Obscur Accolades Continue To Climb

Charlie Cox’s growing recognition for his work in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has reached a new peak this week, yet his response to the attention remains grounded. His nomination for Best Performance at The Game Awards marks a notable moment for the game, which has swept through this year’s awards circuit with striking consistency. It also places Cox among the few actors who became central talking points in a project they contributed to only briefly. Still, he quickly passed the spotlight to someone he believes shaped much more of Gustave than he ever could.

Clair Obscur arrived early in the year and immediately signaled its position as one of 2025’s dominant releases. The momentum held through every ceremony, helped along by three nominations in The Game Awards’ performance category alone. Cox, who plays the game’s opening protagonist Gustave, secured one of those spots, though he spent only a handful of hours in the studio. His performance resonated quickly with players, creating the impression of a role built over long sessions rather than a single recording window.

When Cox addressed his nomination during a recent panel, he expressed real appreciation, then redirected the credit in a way that surprised no one who has followed his public comments this year.

“There’s an amazing French actor, by the name of Maxence Cazorla, who did almost all of the motion capture for that role in that game. Any nomination or credit I get, I really have to give to him — I believe that the performance of that character is really down to him, and my voice is just part of that process.” — Charlie Cox

Cox has maintained that distinction since Expedition 33 launched. Earlier in the summer, while speaking at Washington State Summer Con, he described the unusual circumstances behind his involvement. He emphasized that he is not a gamer and had little sense of the game’s eventual impact. His agent simply offered a chance to record lines for a new project, and he accepted. Four hours later, the work was done. He left the studio without any expectation that the character would attract extensive praise or become a fan favorite.

“I don’t mean to minimise it in any way, and it’s so cool. Apparently, the game is awesome. I’m not a gamer. I have no idea, I haven’t played it,” he said at the time, adding that the continued attention has left him feeling “like a total fraud.”

The contrast between the brief recording time and the depth fans found in his performance has become part of the story. Comparisons with other productions have reinforced that point. Some voice actors spend hundreds of hours in the booth to build a leading role. Yet Cox’s version of Gustave gained the same level of traction in a fraction of that time. His explanation for the disconnect remains consistent: the emotional weight and physical nuance came from Maxence Cazorla.

Cazorla’s contribution extends well beyond Gustave. He also provided motion capture for Renoir and Verso, and voiced Esquie, one of the characters most often cited in discussions about the game’s identity. Cox has repeatedly said that Cazorla shaped the core of how those characters move, behave, and command the screen. His own role, he argues, slots into an existing performance rather than shaping it from the ground up.

Even so, Cox has also expressed admiration for developer Sandfall Interactive. As he described it, the studio managed to turn a brief collaboration into a role that players connected with throughout the year. He has voiced genuine excitement for the team’s success and acknowledged the scale of what they achieved with Expedition 33. His modest view of his own contribution has not stopped him from celebrating the project as a whole.

“I’m so thrilled for the company,” he said earlier. “I’m thrilled it did really well.”

The game’s awards presence suggests that momentum will continue through the end of the season. Cox’s nomination adds another layer to the discussion around performance work in modern RPGs, where acting styles increasingly depend on collaboration between voice actors, motion performers, and animation teams. His insistence on sharing recognition with Cazorla highlights that shift more clearly than any award speech could.

Read also: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 recently crossed the five-million sales mark, prompting Sandfall Interactive to announce a free “Thank You” update. Game director Guillaume Broche described it as “a bit of whee, and a bit of whoo,” with new content and quality-of-life additions shaped by community feedback.