Metro Interview: Felicia Day Talks Buffy, Joss and Her New Podcast

She’s forging her own path (Picture: Gabriel Olsen/Getty Images

From starring in Buffy the Vampire Slayer to being one of the earliest web video stars and pushing the boundaries of every medium she tries, Felicia Day has never been one to play by the rules.

Despite already being an established actress as Vi in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, back in the good ‘ol days of the noughties, way before YouTube took over the internet, she was drawn to web video because if the creative control it afforded her.

‘I was drawn to doing internet content because what I wanted to do had no other outlet at the time,’ she explained to Metro.co.uk. ‘I was an actor [but] I wasn’t really creatively fulfilled because I was always waiting for the next job.’

Felicia was enthralled by ‘geek’culture’ and gaming – and there wasn’t really a place of that in Hollywood at the time.

Nevertheless, ‘I had faith in myself and I had friends who had faith in what I wanted to say,’ she recalled.

‘So in the very beginning of YouTube, we started filming my scripts and putting them online and that really was the beginning of digital media in a way.’

She fell in love with being ‘one click away from our community’ and, not long after Felicia’s love affair with the internet began, she joined forces with Joss Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion to create the 2008 online sensation Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, a web video musical that saw an aspiring super-villain try to win over his love interest.

Felicia’s starring alongside Colton Dunn, Steve Berg and Janet Varney in new podcast Voyage To The Stars (Picture Voyage to the Stars).

‘There are some things in your life that you do, and when you do them, you know they’re going to last,’ Felicia reflect. ‘And I think Dr Horrible is just as relevant today as it was back then… Musicals when you do them right, can last forever.

‘Having people like Joss Whedon and Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion doing a web series when really it was just people picking up cameras in their houses and making videos for the web… It was ground-breaking in a sene,’ she marveled. ‘I think it really hinted at what would happen with Hollywood essentially becoming all digital.’

While news of a sequel has been floating around the internet for some time, the actress confessed: ‘I wold love to live in that world again but it’s not really my project.’

Nevertheless, she’s certainly not ruling it out, as she explained: ‘The great thing is when you create a universe that’s that robus it’s simple to go back and reboot it or rebvisit it.’

And Dr Horrible was just the beginning for her love for pushing the boundaries of every medium she’s involved in.

Even her new podcast, Voyage to the Stars, isn’t just a podcast – would you expect anything different from Felicia?

She describes Joss Whedon as her mentor (Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

The story follows a group of wayfaring misfits in space as they try to get home to Earth, ‘essentially leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.’

However, even the cast can’t tell us much more than that as it’s all improvised.

‘We know the outline of where the story needs to go, but we don’t have any dialogue, we improvise everything,’ she explained. ‘[It’s like] improv comedy within the confines of story, which gives it more of a spontaneous feel.’

Count us in.

While the internet can be fickle, fuelling fears about YouTubers and online video stars losing relevancy, Felicia’s evolved with the times and is still going strong years after she started out.

So what is her secret?

‘I think relevancy is relative, I’ve jad bigger fan bases in the past,’ she admits.

‘Authenticity is really important on the web and really being true to who you are and as you grow older you change and hopefully let go of who you were and become a different person.


She’s certainly not playing the numbers game like many out there: ‘No matter how big my fan base is, I will keep making things, as long as there’s a few people out there!’

And she puts her love for pushing the boundaries and forging her own path largely down to one man – Joss Whedon.

The pair have collaborated on a whole host of successful shows, including Dr Horrible, Buffy, and Dollhouse, and Felicia’s hopeful their story will continue.

‘I’m always inspired by him taking a left turn and doing something like Dr Horrible at the same time as doing Marvel movies,’ she confessed.

‘I was really blessed to be part of Buffy in the last year of the show. I came into it not really understanding what the show was, but honestly it changed the whole trajectory of my career and I’m really lucky that Joss Whedon really likes what I do.

‘He kept using me in different projects like Dr Horrible and Dollhouse, and he also inspired me to be true to myself as an outsider, and that’s why I do the things I do even today.

‘Joss as a person, as a creator, as a mentor to me, told me to follow that path, rather than trying to shove my way into a pre-made outline that would make me more accepted or successful in Hollywood,’ she recalled.

‘I love doing things outside of the box, I love being that square kid that can’t fit in the round Hollywood hole.’

And, while she’s keeping tight-lipped about her upcoming projects, she assured us she’s staying true to her love for ‘experimentation, trying different things.’

Her plan is simple: ‘I’m forging a path that’s new and hopefully other people will be inspired and tell their stories in the same way.’

Original article at Metro

Author: Cider

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