FanExpo 2010 – Felicia Day

I am normally not one for celebrities, but The Guild creator Felicia Day is exactly the type of celebrity I love. I normally try not to gush, but if I was a teen girl, this article would have pink hearts all over it (but I’ll try not to get all Zaboo on her). She just seems like a really cool and decent person, and I would love to be friends with her in real life. Acting and singing talents aside (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog), Ms. Day is practical and pragmatic, as she discusses how various things are expensive or cheap – and when was the last time you heard a celebrity discuss money issues? Sure, people like to talk about budgets for projects, but I don’t see them setting up their own autograph booths like Felicia did with Guild co-star Amy Okuda (Tinkerballa). There is not even the slightest hint of arrogance to her, as we saw her walk around the convention several times without so much as a security guard along, instead relying on the muscles of (presumably) a female assistant and Ms. Okuda (in contrast, Summer Glau had security with her).

Felicia is genuine as well. When some celebrities say they play video games, I end up thinking that they said that just to win the geek vote or they only play very rarely. But when Felicia talks about games, you know she plays them like we do, going as far as to talk about her extreme addiction to World of Warcraft prior to starting work on The Guild and how an intervention was required to snap her out of it (she plays a Shadow/Holy Dwarven Priest, by the way). Adding to her gamer cred was the fact that she grew up on the Ultima series, humourously dismissing the eighth game as “not so great”. Her favourite games of all time include Planescape: Torment and Diablo, which are two of the most critically acclaimed PC games of all time as well as fan favourites, scoring 91 and 94 on Metacritic’s list. When asked about games she would like to be turned into shows or games that she would like to star in, she listed The Longest Journey, an obscure point and click adventure title that Richard and I both enjoyed.

But not only does she play hard, she works hard as well. In addition to starring in roles in various TV series such as Eureka, she does a large portion of the work for The Guild on her own. She explained that in the beginning it was just her and one other person who did all the marketing – the website, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. – in addition to the writing and producing, as they did not have funds to pay anyone. In fact, the entire first season subsisted on donations through Paypal, but eventually it became too much work and now she has a third person to help.

Don’t let her humility and down-to-earth demeanor fool you, either. Felicia Day can stand up to the Man. When asked about how she got involved with Microsoft and Xbox Live, she explained that a lot of studios wanted her show, but they also wanted the rights and to have major creative input – a proposition Ms. Day was not comfortable with. She knew she had a good thing that just needed a little funding so she held out. Microsoft eventually came in, riding gallantly on a white horse and offered her a perfect deal as they were searching for original content for Xbox Live.

I think what I really want to convey from my experience with this panel and everything I’ve heard or seen of her prior to this event is this: liking Felicia is easy for nerds, geeks, and gamers everywhere because it’s like liking yourself. She was on BBSes when she was young (Richard and I met on a BBS). She gets addicted to games. She is frugal. When people talk about celebrities being like you or me, they are referring to her. I’ve never been such a giddy fanboy over a celebrity, but Felicia deserves all the attention she gets.

Felicia Day stars as the voice of Veronica in the upcoming Fallout: New Vegas and is currently filming episodes of Eureka. She also has a secret project going on that she wouldn’t divulge, but she promises it will be awesome.