Felicia Day, geek mom came to the mile high city and answered audience questions at Denver Comic Con 2017. During her 45min panel at Denver Comic Con 2017, Felicia Day regaled audience members with stories of what it’s like being a mom, crazy fan encounters, details of being on sets, and other geeky stories. Below is a transcription of her panel from Saturday, July 1, 2017. Hope you guys enjoy!
Felicia Day: Hi, you guys! Thank you so much for being here! Thanks for coming out to the con! Everyone’s been so friendly! I’ve heard some good stories except for these one woman… I don’t know are these women here? Okay, they came in line for their friend who couldn’t come meet me because her husband was treasure hunting and I was like is that a real thing? I don’t know are these women here? I just thought that was the weirdest thing, I’m always going to remember that incident and I just felt sorry for this poor woman who’s digging for treasure unless she finds it…
[Audience Laughter]
And then maybe she can meet me on later in like furs and…I dunno…a Rolls! Who knows? Hi, how is everybody doing today?
[Audience Cheering]
Listen, I don’t have a moderator or anything, so I’m just going to take your questions because I’m just going to…[lays down] and this is an outfit to be doing this. I mean this is a sweet ride, you guys. It’s a chaise lounge…the chaise lounge [in a French accent] Les Chaise Lounges…that’s the worst French accent you’ve ever heard. Also, these socks don’t match my shirt. Okay here’s the true story I had a pink shirt on today and I was really happy because I fit in my pre-pregnancy clothes…
[Audience Cheering and Clapping]
Thank you. I have a minion.
[Audience Laughter]
It was this color, it was a silk shirt and I still had to wear it and I did it, I put it on and then the baby needed to eat and I fed her and then I realized that she’s a messy eater and I had all sorts of things on my shirt that I didn’t want to see and yet the silk showed every single spot. So…Neat people need to wear silk, I need to wear Forever 21 nylon!
[Audience Laughter]
That’s my kind of style, so I’m sorry about this dress. Anyway so there are three people in the audience, they’re question people and I’m going to be answering your questions. There’s one—I don’t have my glasses on so you might have to yell at me? That dude and middle person and then one other red person, bright red shirt, blue shirt, some other shir.
[Audience Laughter]
There’s a third person maybe, rumor has it. So I’m just going to keep going back and forth and you know, just yell at me if I can’t see anything. I’ve also am being blinded that’s my excuse for not wearing my glasses. Anyway, first question?
Audience: It’s actually a Dr. Horrible shirt.
Felicia Day: I like that question.
[Audience Laughter]
Audience: Actually, it’s the first I have my wife’s permission to say this but you’re my all-time celebrity crush actually so…
[Audience Cheering]
Felicia Day: Awwww…
Audience: My question is why didn’t your character wind up with Zaboo’s character at the end of The Guild, I was sort of looking forward to that it never quite came up to be?
Felicia Day: Okay, first of all, I thought it was a Dr. Horrible question but… and I like your wife.
Audience: It’s a Dr. Horrible shirt, I have a Dr. Horrible shirt.
Felicia Day: Oh! You have a Dr. Horrible Shirt I can’t see that. Okay so I thank your wife, I’m her celebrity crush?
Audience: You’re my celebrity crush.
Felicia Day: Okay, that’s better than… somebody told me I was in their top five and I’m like ‘’I guess that’s okay’’ and then I…
[Audience Laughter]
I was like what and then who is in my top five right now because you have to re-evaluate every couple of years right? Like I think Angelina Jolie was on the list before and I’m like dunno… I’m kind of over her.
[Audience Laughter]
Not that she’s not a lovely person but I think Eva Green’s on that list now.
[Audience Cheers]
Yeah, don’t you think, right? And Ryan Gosling, he’s like he’s grandfathered in.
[Audience Laughter]
True story, I saw him at a pancake house in Los Angeles and I didn’t know he was Ryan Gosling, I went up to him and I was like hey were we in acting class together? And he was like ‘’Nope’’
[Audience Laughter]
That’s a good story.
[Audience Laughter]
Okay, to answer your question, I deliberately didn’t get them together at the end because you know I felt like I loved the fact that you don’t have to necessarily get a guy and a girl together romantically even if there’s tension.
[Audience Cheering]
I really do believe that because I think reinforcing that men and women can be friends versus always having something romantic between them is important in this world. I actually think that that’s one of the things that we should work on as a society making sure that even little boys and little girls know that they can play with people of the opposite gender because I think that kind of integration…
[Audience Clapping and Cheering]
…helps with social values.
It was probably just a simple [inaudible] things we go for. So, that was one of the reasons although you know it’s one of the things where maybe in ten years that like you know will be a situation because one of my best friends, she was friends with a guy in high school, they were just platonic friends and then fifteen years later, they got married. So you don’t know in this world but I really like that idea of them just being friends and kind of coming to a turn of saying ‘’okay, we kissed and it was freaking awful’’, like that was an awful kiss when I wrote it in I was like it has to be the worst kiss ever and I looked at Sandeep (Parikh) and I was like it’s going to be a terrible kiss because I never wanted to kiss you ever and he was like ‘’mutual!’’
[Audience Laughter]
So there was no acting in that awkward kiss, it was just like kissing your brother…
[Audience Laughter]
…it was really funny. And the same thing with Wil Wheaton. Like that was it! There was more, you know, between the two characters, there was more tension but I… It was like kissing my older brother. It was awkward, we were both like Ewww!
[Audience Laughter]
Anyway, next question. Over here with the red shirt.
Audience: Uhm, on the stage of Supernatural on the set, it’s kind of legendary for pranks. What pranks have been played on you?
Felicia Day: Okay, I have to say that I didn’t even understand the legendary of the prank-ness because Jared (Padalecki) and Jensen (Ackles) were the best like they were the most gentlemanly gentleman to me over the years. So, and then one of the last episodes I did I met Misha (Collins) and he was…
[Audience Laughter]
I was on set with him and I was like holy moly dude, you are not happy, you should not be happy right now there are so pranking you! It was so funny… I think they’d given him a wedgie…
[Audience Roar]
…off camera and then there was one scene we were trying and then Jared came up with a wet willie and he’s like… And I’m trying to, like, act and he’s trying to act and then especially when they’re off camera, they just keep going like…
[Audience Laughter]
…and I say he’s supposed to be really serious and I almost cried and I’m like “How do you do this?” And he’s like [in a serious tone] ‘’I don’t know.’’
[Audience Laughter]
So for the record, they never pranked me although they did kind of like gently make fun of me when I was, like, a total dork which I do well, so that was more of our dynamic than being pranked because they are such gentlemen and just fantastic guys, I encourage anybody if you ever meet them that you do because they really are just gentlemen. Yes, thank you for that question. Mystery third person oh… another blue shirt, blue shirt lady. Are you a lady, I can’t see?
[Audience Laughter]
I’m sorry, I like you. Hi!
[Audience Laughter]
Audience: So besides the treasure hunter, what was your weirdest fan experience?
Felicia Day: Ever? Oh gosh, uh…
[Audience Laughter]
Wow! I wrote about this in my book a lot, I’ve had really strange experiences that people would have me write on their bodies and they would tattoo over them? Which to me a tattoo is like such… I have never had a tattoo but I’m jealous of everyone I see with tattoos because obviously I have commitment issues and they don’t.
[Audience Laughter]
But I’m always like one week I’m like I’ll get a butterfly then I’m like ‘’No, butterflies are stupid’’ death to all butterflies, then I’ll go like ‘’I want a ferret just because it’s funny’’ and then I’m like ‘’you want a joke tattoo, that’s a terrible idea! I want a fox because it’s my totem animal and I’m like ‘’totem animals are stupid, what are you doing’’ although I think I was reincarnated as a prey animal versus a predator, just as a personality…
[Audience Laughter]
…I don’t like it, but I just want to be honest about it.
[Audience Laughter]
So the only tattoo I would get will probably be my daughter’s name but then I’ve got several people who got tattoos of my signature on them and like I am honored, but I’m still nervous when I do it. I’m like you need to do a beautiful… you know swoop it more, swoop and then I’m terrified. It’s the most terrifying thing I do at cons and people always ask me to do it three or four times and what if they didn’t like it? And then I always am like ‘’well, if I draw it at this angle, if they want to back out, they can just paint over it and make it a heart.
[Audience Laughter]
So, I give them a little out, if they grow tired of me. They can spell my name wrong, no I scrawled it. It’s not a real signature, I mean my dad’s a doctor, I learned well how not to sign it.
[Audience Laughter]
Next question.
Audience: Hello!
Felicia Day: Hi, and your puppy what is your puppy’s name?
Audience: This is Leia. She’s a service dog.
Felicia Day: Leia, hi. She has buns like Princess Leia, great.
Audience: I’m actually asking what you suggest for somebody who wants to go into acting specifically, someone who might have a disability?
Felicia Day: That’s a really good question. You know acting is a really fun profession when you act, but then between the times when you don’t have a job it’s horrible [Felicia Laughs], so I guess my best advice would be to make sure you love it as a profession and as a business versus just as a hobby, because if you love just doing acting, I would recommend you just stay wherever you live and just do community theatre or do show booths or local things just as a hobby because making what you love into a business sometimes makes you lose your love of it and so just really evaluate honestly, like do I love this as a lifestyle or do I just want to make this my career and know that most of my time will not be acting, it’ll be trying to get work.
So that would be my first step and my second step would be “make sure you get really experienced and do something locally before you move to a big city” because yes it’s a lot more work in like Atlanta and L.A. and New York but it’s very competitive with people who have been doing it since they were children. So it’s harder to break-in, so getting more experience and tape on yourself before you move is probably my biggest advice.
And just always—don’t just be an actor, have different things you can draw from because even if my dad made me get a math degree when I was in college before I could move to LA to be an actress, I feel like doing things that were not acting related in college really helped me have things to draw up on and do different characters as I went forward because you know, like my favourite characters are computer programmer and part who plays the violin and those skills don’t have anything to do with being an actor.
So, that’s what I would recommend to you and as far as disabilities, you know it is tougher, you’ll have fewer opportunities but I think people are being a lot more progressive in casting now and being a little more open minded and ready for the part to be more diverse. Hopefully, the opportunities will be more now than what it was in the past.
So, good luck.
Audience: Thank you.
Felicia Day: You’re welcome.
[Audience Clapping]
Thank you. That’s really good. Okay, next question. Over here.
Audience: Hi there
Felicia Day: Hi
Audience: First of all, I just want to say I first heard of you from The Guild which was an amazing show.
Felicia Day: Thank you very much. It’s our tenth anniversary you guys!
[Audience Cheering]
Can you believe that? I still don’t believe that ten years have passed since I shot in my room… in my garage. I mean it’s crazy.
Audience: Definitely. I wanted to ask you a little bit about the creation process. That was the first show that I watched that had a really geek pulse to it. So how did you create it?
Felicia Day: I mean it was really interesting, the whole process never…. There’s a big section in my book where I wrote about it because I have never been a filmmaker, I was always an actor but I was really frustrated with my life because like I just told you about acting; you don’t necessarily get the perks you want, you get the perks you look like and you get told that you are a certain way when you don’t feel like that inside and you kind of have to conform to what other people see you as and you don’t work that much necessarily. You know it’s a very up and down career. So, I got very frustrated and decided to write something to make work for myself. I really thought it would be a TV show but I forced myself to quit WoW (World of Warcraft) because I was playing like twelve hours a day! Yay!
[Audience Laughter]
It’s a pretty good game, you guys! But I had to stop.
[Audience Clapping and Cheering]
Then I had a small support group of women that I joined. This women’s support group which sounds dorky but we met every week and kind of shared the things we were working on and our victories and our sort of failures and it really helped me get off my butt and get that script written. And from that from there our friend Camini who was part of that group, that encouraged me to make it as a web series because at the time, YouTube was just starting and she was like this seems like something—you know gamers are online so it seems like they might like this and it literally just happened then and yeah we had to invent a lot of things as we went along and there really weren’t any web series back there at the time and the one thing that kept us going through all the tough times because we shot at our house for six years you know– it’s always home grown was the fact that I really… that we were touching people’s lives in a way even if we were just making a comedy but it meant something to people. That, therefore, gave me validation and made me even want to make it even more. So actually, I owe it to all of you guys that I’m here and I kept going with the show because meeting people, especially at conventions, made me look at the hard problem and overcome it verses like getting discouraged because I knew you guys were out there to watch the show. So thank you very much!
[Audience Clapping and Cheering]
Middle question!
Audience: Hi, I had no idea you were going to be here!
Felicia Day: Were you just sitting for another prank panel?
[Audience Laughter]
Audience: For the convention, I never look at the website because I’m lazy, so I saw you here I was like ‘’Oh my God, this is going to be like the best weekend of my life.
Felicia Day: Okay, I like you but, you might need to plan ahead a little bit more!
[Audience Laughter]
Audience: I have two questions for you. First one is what’s your favorite scene to ever record for The Guild and my second one is “How on earth did you quit WoW, because I can’t click it…quit it!?”
Felicia Day: Hmmm… those are good questions. Okay, my favorite scenes for The Guild were the scenes where we were all in person together and I think there’s one in like season one where we are like in the booth at Cheesy Beards and we are just meeting each other, that would be my favorite… because when we sat down altogether and shot together, I felt like ‘’oh there’s something special here’’ we really getting along really well.
And I guess the other one… my favourite just inside in season five, that we did a whole season at a convention and there were a lot of Steam Punks scenes with the Steampunk and Doug Jones and my friend Maurissa Tancharoen who is a… show writer on Agents of Shield she wrote Dr. Horrible one of the writers in there and Jillian Armanante a friend of mine and Clara, so they had all this Steampunk like storyline that they did and that’s my favourite because I just love the aesthetic of Steampunk and they were a really snooty and they looked down upon her which you know not all Steampunk people do but I just imagined it would be funny.
[Audience Laughter]
They had their booth in the middle of the convention but they wouldn’t let me get in it…
[Audience Laughter]
It was really funny. So those were my favorite ones and as far as quitting WoW, you know I think people look at video game addiction and are like ‘’oh video games are terrible, online games are terrible’’ and I don’t believe that at all, I never want that to be represented. I wanted to represent gaming the way it meant to me which was; it enriched my life, it made me connect with people that meant a lot to me in my life. Codex’s struggle with that ultimately led to her getting out of the funk and meeting… because she met her friends in real life from online. I just… that was kind of a message to The Guild that I wanted to convey.
So if you can’t stop playing WoW, is it affecting your real life? Are there other things you would rather be doing and maybe you could do a little bit of soul searching about that like where do I want to work on that’s more long term? Like a long journey or becoming a writer or an alto singer, I don’t know, like do all those things at once and call me!
[Audience Laughter]
But I think sometimes we look to immediate gratification to delayed gratification. Do you know what I’m saying? It’s easier to play Wow for two hours than like maybe work on a drawing that you’re going to be bad at but in five years you’d be amazing and you might be like you know a professional artist or like a hobbyist. So, I would just like challenge you to maybe find that one thing that you want to become good at eventually and then you reward yourself with WoW if you do a little bit of it. So one hour for self-improvement, five hours for WoW! See?
[Audience Laughter and Clapping]
Question.
Audience: Hi.
Felicia Day: [In Deep Voice] Yo!
[Audience Laughter]
Audience: I know this is kind of a question you might not want to answer but who is the best singer on the Supernatural cast?
Felicia Day: That’s a really good question. I mean Jensen is an amazing singer so if you’ve ever heard him sing, right?
[Audience Cheering]
I’ve never heard Jared try to sing, I’ve never heard Misha try to sing, Mark Shepard…, I’ve never heard any of the other guys sing. I know Mark Shepherd is an amazing drummer and so they put a lot in the supernatural convention, they had like Saturday Night kind of band thing. So I would say Jensen probably because he’s just extraordinary…and me!
[Audience Laughter]
I’m a really good singer, I mean Jensen is better but I do sing. I sing on the new Mystery Science Theatre, did anyone see that song?
[Audience Cheering]
In episode four, I do a duet with Neil Patrick Harris so it was like a little Dr. Horrible reunion so if you have Netflix, check it out Episode Four. It’s really funny too. Thank you for your question. Okay, right again, right-hand person. Yes, you.
Audience: Hi Felicia, my name is Shannon.
Felicia Day: Hi.
Audience: The Guild was my favorite thing ever but…
Felicia Day: Thank you!
Audience: Then you brought Mystery Science Theatre back, so what’s your favorite awful movie?
Felicia Day: Thank you. Okay, first of all, I didn’t bring it back personally although he evolved in it and then… guys conventions are literally my favorite thing because they are so much a part of my life. I was at Salt Lake City, Utah at a convention…
[Audience Howling]
…and it was really good to be at that convention and I was in the Green Room and I saw Joel Hodgson back there at the Green Room and I got so… like I don’t get star struck by many people like if Chris Evans was there I’ll be like “oh it’s Chris Evans…”
[Audience Laughter]
…and when I saw Joel I was like oooooh because Mystery Science Theatre meant so much to me and my brother as kids. So I want—and my brother’s a superfan like a super super-fan, so I was like ‘’oh I’m going to go take a selfie and rub it in my brother’s face…’’
[Audience Laughter]
…like I wasn’t trying to be nice, I was being not.
[Audience Laughter]
Anyway, so I went to take a selfie with him and get to talk with him and he was like ‘’Oh yes, I heard about your show and cut to a month later he said you want to be in Mystery Science Theatre – The reboot? I was like [Inhales Deeply] “Ooooohh whaaat?”
[Audience Laughter]
Just like that guys, it was readable whaaaat… no, it was an email and I did that to the screen anyway.
[Audience Laughter]
So clearly it means a lot to me. It’s just—I got to write on the season too, and you know I love writing and acting I just don’t ever want to do only one so the fact that I get to write the show even though I had to watch Cry Wilderness ten to fifteen times which is one of the worst episodes I’ve ever seen, Episode two season [Bleh] you know, terrible.
It was such a great dream come true and my worst movie ever seen is called The Wraith and it has Charlie Sheen in it…
[Audience Laughter]
…has anyone seen this movie? Yes or no?
Audience: Yes
Felicia Day: That movie is butt. It is so bad, Charlie Sheen plays an aggressive car alien man who, like, instead of like… it’s just a sob story because they show this nude scene and it’s like ‘’why should I give…okay so wonderful, that’s natural’’
[Audience Laughter]
It’s terrible and it’s really extra traumatic because of the kind of male female dynamic there is like… it’s just terrible but such a bad film I keep pushing it on Joel and I pray one day he gets to it if we ever get to it. So it’s repugnant!
[Audience Laughter]
It’s a terrible terrible movie if you want to watch it anyway.
[Audience Laughter]
Next question, middle person. middle… yes, all the way up there. Still, don’t know if you’re a man or a woman. I can’t see you, you’re a blob, it’s not personal like you’re a human blob.
[Audience Laughter]
Mic Person: [Female Voice] We’ll talk when I’m on stage.
Audience: I’m a boy.
[Audience Laughter]
Congrats on your baby, I love Dr. Horrible!
Felicia Day: Thank you very much.
Audience: What was your most memorable part about filming part three in that?
Felicia Day: Part three? Okay, that’s really interesting. Part three was trying not to breathe when I was being carried out…
[Audience Laughter]
…or blink my eyes when I was dead… it’s really hard to be dead you guys. I challenge you… okay, have a friend take an iPhone and tell him okay pretend to play dead, and have him see if your eyes don’t twitch or not. They will twitch. I’m a twitchy person, I’m a twitchy lady, twitchy. So that was really challenging for me and then I think my favorite thing during that filming was, I think it was in episode two, the laundry scene was that episode two… I think. And so the laundry scene is a great awesome scene where we’re all singing together. It was a scene where Neil Patrick Harris is in episode one, he was singing about me but he’s not talked to me yet and there’s a whole sequence where everyone’s closing the dryer together in sequence? There was one extra who literally could not do it right. In fact, he was telling Joss ‘’that’s not the way you should do it’’ and I’m like ‘’what?’’ So it just became this crazy struggle to get everyone to close dryer doors and I was like this is show business…
[Audience Laughter]
…it was pretty fun, anyway. Next question. Over here… blue shirt, blue blob.
Audience: Thank you for being here with us I know we all really appreciate it.
Felicia Day: I can see you better. I can see you now. Sorry, I love you.
Mic Person: I love you too. Okay.
Audience: I want to ask you about your time you on Eureka
Felicia Day: Yes!
[Audience Cheering]
Thank you.
Audience: I know that show is a little crazy and a little out there but a lot of the times I think that at the heart, it’s just about the relationships that are built between the characters that were really meaningful, watch people grow and change and quick kind of spoiler alert just at the end of that in kind of some ways we did really like watch the town die and kind of fall apart there.
Felicia Day: Yeah!
Audience: So what was it like to be part of that thing and then kind of have to walk away from it? Kind of what were the relationships like on that set?
Felicia Day: I mean it’s always really sad when you end any participation in a show because unlike a movie where you know there’s a beginning, middle, and end, the show normally you don’t know when you’re going to stop and you create a family, all the best ones, some of them you’re like ‘’get me off this set, these people are terrible’’ but most of the time, I’m very lucky to have been on sets that are kind of families and that means a lot to me. I don’t want to just ever say that this is my job, I want to say it’s my passion and that this is my family and that’s in anything I do. So that particular family was an amazing one and I love Collin and Sally and Neil, Wil…Wil Wheaton, when he was on all the episodes with us. It just became… I think I was on almost two seasons for that show. It was really sad because they picked it up and they cancelled it so they had to like put six episodes into one to end the show, and I’m just grateful that they got an ending but yes you’re right it was kind of rushed to the point where it felt a little more down than it could and I think that was not the meaning it was just to give everybody a lot of closure and I really appreciate it when I hear people talk about that show because I think they were really smart, I think they had a lot of great characters who were scientist to represent other people that science is cool or every week it goes horribly wrong and you have to solve the problem. So either way…
[Audience Laughter]
…get on that science guys. Next question, right here. Oh okay, you’re far back enough that you’re a blob.
Audience: Hi, I was wondering what your favorite part of filming MST3K was.
Felicia Day: Oh my gosh, my favorite part was… I was still worried because I was pregnant at the time, I was six months pregnant. I was worried but then they made that great coat for me, guys you couldn’t tell at all, it was amazing. So that was one of my favorite parts, cause tailoring! My other favorite part was just being on set with Joel, if you’re a fan of Mystery Science Theatre, Joel’s voice is kind of like in your brain it’s such a like, “Bill hey” he’s very laid back and everything’s so… I, like, be on set have him come on like “Hey Felicia, what’s going on?”, I’ll be like [Inhale] he’s in my brain, he’s in my…[Felicia Laughs]
That was the weird part because his voice really meant a lot to me as a kid and having him be in your life is awesome and just seeing the new cast gel, you know it was big shoes to fill when you’re like continuing that show that’s so iconic for a lot of people and Joel really took it to heart to really recreate the show in the way that it was faithful to the old but like, really we re-invented the new. I think he really did a great job, I was just like knocking on leatherette that we get another season
[Audience Laughter]
Yeah, anyway.
[Audience Laughter]
Next question! hi.
Audience: Hi! You’re delightful by the way, you’re just a wonderful person
Felicia Day: Oh thank you.
Audience: More Mystery Science Theatre because it’s great. You’re working with one of the best comedians I think exists, Patton Oswalt.
Felicia Day: Oh, have you been to one of his shows?
Audience: Not live. I’ve seen him online.
Felicia Day: Yes, I’ve seen him online I guess I should probably ask him for a ticket or something.
[Audience Laughter]
I never pull strings you know even when the barista recognizes me I never ask for a free coffee even though I kind of want one inside [Felicia Laughs] Anyway finish your question.
Audience: Just what’re some of the best things that have happened with Patton on set or in writing? Just what’s it like?
Felicia Day: Well we didn’t write together, we wrote remotely but we did act together and that was really intimidating because as you said he is one of the most brilliant, insightful people I’ve ever met and just hilarious and his book is amazing and he’s just a great person and I was intimidated but when I got on set with him, BAM, there we just hit it off like sometimes like sometimes you just hit it off with somebody you’re like “Woah, I like this guy!” And we just started riffing and we used some improv and like… you know that’s when you feel like work isn’t work when you’re just having a lot of fun and that I think with him especially it was one of the easiest things to sort of transition into kind of work to play that I ever had. Yes, I would like to recommend watching his stand up because stand up is really hard and you have to be really brave and you also need to have a point of view that’s really solid of life and I really admire him, he’s one of my favorites. So, Thank you. Next question over here. Oh, I’m so… I’m going to have to buy coffee or a drink. Hi.
Audience: What’s your favorite part of supernatural?
Felicia Day: My favorite part of Supernatural is my novelty t-shirts.
[Audience Laughter]
‘Cause Charlie always had some great t-shirts and I loved going to Vancouver because they have amazing Sushi there. If you like Sushi, take a vacation to Vancouver. Then I also just loved being on set with the guys because they showed me that they are such gentlemen but they also are just kind people. They treat the set like a family like sometimes actors don’t talk as much to the crew who are on… you know making the show happen and they are friends with all the crew and everyone knows them and they hang out with them. Everyone’s equal on set which I think is really important because, on a set, everybody’s job is important. If you’re the craft service person you got to feed people, if you’re the clerk you have to like put a c-stand up and make sure it doesn’t fall on someone’s head, if you’re the DP, you got to make people look good so everybody on the film set has a very important role, but sometimes everyone doesn’t get treated equally and that’s what I love about Jared and Jensen because everyone is equal in their eyes. I think that’s awesome. Thank you, that’s a good question!
[Audience Clapping]
Next question over here on my right? Okay good.
Audience: Hi Felicia.
Felicia Day: Hello.
Audience: Thank you. I have a question and it is my duty as a Guild Master in World Warcraft to ask you this: “Do you support legacy servers?”
[Audience Laughter]
Felicia Day: Am I going to get in trouble if I say one thing or the other because [audience laughter] don’t worry about it? I mean I feel like, I understand the two sides of the coin you know… so I have to say I support the fans?
[Audience Laughter]
I’m like, I feel like tiptoeing through a death’s deal kind of situation here.
[Audience Laughter]
tut tut tut tukudukutuludukudu…
[Audience Laughter]
I feel like… oh yes, okay I’ll say yes, that’s fine.
I mean I don’t know. I don’t know enough about it but I think that the fans are… here’s the thing, your avatar is you. Like I feel so strongly about my character, like, I haven’t logged on in a couple of years, but if something happened to it, I’d cry.
So like that is a projection of me, so I’d understand why people would feel really really strongly about it and whatever you know doesn’t let that sense of identity go away is important. So don’t quote me on it.
Okay, next question.
[Audience Laughter]
du du du du du du du…
Audience: Hi, I was wondering if you really played video games on The Guild while you were recording?
Felicia Day: That’s a really good question. We didn’t really play games because the actors had to remember their dialogue, most often they had to dialogue taped up where the screen would be!
[Audience Laughter]
Audience: So I have another question.
Felicia Day: Okay.
Audience: So my mom is a teacher and I really love your autobiography…
Felicia Day: Thank you so much.
Audience: So I was wondering if you like being home schooled or if you didn’t.
Felicia Day: There’s a lot of home schooled people here, everybody show of hands…
[Audience Cheering]
Colorado has the most people who are homeschooled that I’ve ever met, I think it’s really awesome. I just had a baby, I think about that a lot; like was home schooling good for me or was it bad for me and I feel like you know I’m the person I am because of the way I was raised and I don’t look back at anything with regret anymore because you know, I know it’s cheesy but I actually used to regret everything I did and I realized that if you spend your time regretting things you can’t move forward and then reinvent what you want going forward. Also if I did anything different, then I wouldn’t have my baby. I wouldn’t have that specific baby. So everything I’ve ever done in my life is adding up to the right thing. But you know as far as school goes, I love the fact that I was free to sort of explore what I loved and if I found something I loved, I would just do that. I also loved the fact that I grew up not thinking there were any differences between me and anybody else as far as like abilities in certain subjects that people sometimes discourage girls in. And I didn’t ever think that science fiction or math or computer sciences were nerdy in the sense so sometimes when you get labeled as different you might not do that because your peers say it’s weird and then you stop doing it even though you really love it. So I never had that kind of peer pressure and I really appreciate that. But I also want to expose her to as many things as possible because in school they can expose you to more things and you can figure out… you know you might ever stumble across geology and that might be the thing you love more than anything. So I would love to maybe… I think if you’re in the right school, it’s perfect. But if you’re homeschooled, I think it’s kind of a great opportunity to really specialize in the thing you love and find the thing you love and read a lot. I used to read twenty hours, you know like two three books a week. So I guess I’m rambling.
[Audience Laughter]
…but I’m glad I was homeschooled because I think it made me weird and weird is your superpower. So whatever makes you a little bit different…
[Audience Cheering & Clapping]
Thank you for your question. Next question. Yeah, middle person.
Audience: Hi there, going off of what you were just saying, you mentioned a math degree, I have a degree in biology. What would you say as far as advice and encouragement on being role models in our fields and for girls interested in STEM?
Felicia Day: That’s a great question. You know I think a lot of emphases is placed upon girls… I think it goes back to that comment I made earlier I think it’s really important. And I read this great article on the New York Times about how do we raise feminist boys and it’s a really great article if you want to look it up and I think it applies to both genders because of a lot of times, it’s a lot of stereotypes that are put upon. You know children, they don’t know anything. If we all started floating in space, my daughter will think ‘’Oh, people float’’. So, you believe whatever is in front of you as a child and you’re literally forming their perception of life as they’re growing up and that’s why it’s so important I think what you expose them to and what thoughts and principles that you expose them to when they’re growing up because that will be things that they carry through in life.
And I think especially when you have… something in that article said that you know as early as preschool boys or girls start getting separated by gender. You know girls on the right and boys on the left and that simple act establishes in their mind that girls are different from boys. And I think it’s unnecessary because that’s why the geek culture is because as men and women we can come together and share a love of like you know…uh…Farscape [audience hooting] or Mystery Science Theatre or Fall Out, games, and we don’t care! All that stuff we’ve been told to perceive about the way somebody else looks compared to us it goes out of our head because we are loving something together.
And that really is I think the key to fostering you know interest in anything. So I think you’re just showing up and representing, going and advocating to girls and boys in an almost agnostic way, I think it goes a long way because you are a woman who is interested in biology but talking to boys and girls about biology will show either sex that that is a thing they can do. And I think that’s why it’s important in media to represent people of different races and the opposite sex in traditional roles that we want to break into so that people who think ‘’Oh, the scientists on TV are all men or you know all women are marketing people’’, there are certain clichés you see on TV that doesn’t need to be there and just by being exposed to them, there’s a possibility it might interest somebody in that field. So anyway, I can go on and on about this but I feel really passionately about it because you shouldn’t shame somebody, you should encourage them and I think that’s important.
Thank you!
[Audience Clapping]
Any questions?
Mic Person: [Male Voice] Top on the right.
Felicia Day: Yeah, which right?
Audience: Up here.
Mic Person: Your left.
Felicia Day: Yeah, you.. okay. Where?
Audience: Way over here, on the right.
Felicia Day: On my right or left?
Audience: You’re right? I’m on the left I think?
Felicia Day: I started sweating you guys. I was like you just talked for a really long time about gender issues and then you can’t see anything this is really getting boring.
[Audience Laughter]
Audience: Okay so my question actually has kind of a spoiler for season twelve of supernatural so if you haven’t watched it, plug your ears. Well in the very last episode they get into a kind of like the parallel universes and I know in another panel Jared and Jensen had mentioned they will like to maybe bring characters back? So I was wondering if you would be open to bringing Charlie back?
Felicia Day: I mean Yes! Of course!
[Audience Cheering and Clapping]
Felicia Day: I think it would be so fantastic to be part of that family again and I feel like I’m always part of that family which is great and that’s the kind of show I’d love to be on that you have a fan family, but I would love to revisit Charlie. I think you know whatever the writers may need to do with the season I totally, you know that’s what they need to do. I’m totally on board with that. If they need to bring me back in a parallel universe because she’s a badass and she has stories yet to be told. I would love to do that. If they call me, I’ll be there man!
[Audience Screaming]
You’re way in the back and I can’t see you I’m so sorry I’m going to wear my glasses next time I don’t care if it’s vain or not…stop it Felicia.
[Audience Laughter]
Next question. I can see you.
[Audience Laughter]
Yes, I just can’t see…anyway hi.
Audience: Hi, we have two questions for you. The first one is, of course, you’re a very impactful actress and writer and you play a very important LGBTQ character on a very famous show and join Misha on non-profits so if you could start a non-profit what would it be for?
Felicia Day: Oh wow, that’s a really good question. You know I guess…I mean I love animals. I think it’s really important to help animals because they can’t really help themselves but now that I’m a mom, I would like to start an organization that encourages girls to find their passions especially I guess I’ll just talk about gender roles but I do think sometimes girls need encouragement in certain areas like STEM. It would be nice to be able to encourage that or I’ll just with geek culture, I would like to be able to encourage girls who weren’t exposed to things like that to be exposed to them. Especially on the computer side, entrepreneurial things like that, I think it’s really important and then mix the animals.
[Audience Laughter]
Animals and entrepreneurship…
[Audience Clapping]
…clearly I haven’t thought this through you guys. I’m sweating more!
[Audience Laughter]
Next question.
Felicia Day: I see you, see I see everything up to the back okay? It was a trip of the eye that I couldn’t see all the people back there I thought it was just a sea of awesomeness.
[Audience Laughter]
Hi, back row!
Audience: Hi, my question to you since you were in Librarians, Supernatural, Eureka, is there any Sci-fi show you would like to get onto an episode of like Doctor Who, Star Trek, Discovery when it airs.
Felicia Day: Yes!
[Audience Laughter]
Well Doctor Who is a British show and I’m not British so that’s, like, a long shot guys let’s just not even talk about it.
[Audience Laughter]
You guys all want to be my agent, what’s going on?
[Audience Laughter]
There are a couple of shows that I really love. I’d love to be on The Magicians because I think it’s a great show!
[Audience Cheering and Clapping]
I love The Expanse actually I think Syfy is doing a better job lately because I think they’ve got some really good shows out there. I would love to be on Crazy Ex Girlfriend.
[Audience Cheering]
I mean I’d like to be on Game of Thrones but again British shows where I’ll just be a corpse!
[Audience Laughter]
I was bound to be a corpse someday!
[Audience Laughter]
And Star Trek: Discovery, I mean come on that trailer looks bonkers, I need to be on that show!
[Audience Laughter]
I’m not quite in unitard shape right now after my baby, but I can get there guys! Oh, I could get there!
[Audience Laughter and Clapping]
I’ll have to cut my daily cookie off and my daily cupcake and my daily you know Tres Leches (cake) and…
[Audience Laughter]
Okay, one more minute, we have one more question. Do I have to stop at the time? Okay hi.
Audience: Hi. In the back on your right.
[Audience Laughter]
Hi.
Felicia Day: Hi.
Audience: So my question…
Felicia Day: [In a deep voice] I see you.
[Audience Laughter]
Audience: I see you too.
Felicia Day: It’s the glare. Anyway, let’s not talk about… I’ll blog about it later.
Audience: Okay so my question is about Dragon Age 2. I know that you had your own elf character in a DLC, I want to know what that is even like. Like how cool is it to get an elf character in a game and just see yourself as an elf running around and…
[Audience Laughter]
Felicia Day: It was amazing, it was amazing!
[Audience Laughter]
Audience: Did you get to interact with all of the other characters in…
Felicia Day: Yes, that was a really interesting process. So they approached me to do a short film and of course I wrote a six episode part where I created Tallis as a character because she was my favourite character, she’s a rogue, she’s an elf, she has a chip on her shoulder and so that was always a dream for me to be able to play that kind of character. And so they loved her and I wrote the six episode web series on a very low budget unfortunately but I wrote that at the same time everybody at the DLC and I had to go to Vancouver to do motion capture to be Tallis. So I didn’t actually interact with any of the other actors when you do voice recording, you generally don’t interact with other actors live, you generally record your lines and they put them together later. So I didn’t actually interact with any of the other actors but it was so amazing to be a part of a franchise that I admire so much. I think the writing on that, it’s some of the best writing on video games and the whole process was really gratifying to be in something that was a web series and a DLC… I think nobody has even done that since. Take the characters from a web series and put them into a DLC so you know I love video games, I love being able to do artistic things in the world of video games as well as enjoy that I play them all the time.
[Audience Laughter]
Anyway do I have to stop? It says it’s 1:40. Can I do another one? Two minutes. Oh two minutes, okay. Hi
Audience: My question is about Supernatural, out of the whole Supernatural cast, who was your favorite person?
[Audience Laughter]
Felicia Day: Why would you ask me that? If I had four children be like what’s your favorite chold. Child? Chold? What is that?
[Audience Laughter]
Let me rephrase that, clearly I need some chocolate. It’s really hard man, honestly I’ve had so many good conversations with Jensen about just life and then Jared is so funny, I’ve had so many jokes and I laughed with him so much and Misha, I didn’t get to interact with as much as a person but I do love hanging out with him. You know, and we didn’t get to act on screen as much but just off camera his passion and he’s best wishes and the good thing he does… I’m going to figure out this charity thing guys and I’ll tweet this later because I would love to have a better answer than the way I answered that. The fact that he really set a bar for charity and fun and artistry all together, I think it’s brilliant and I love what he does and Mark Shepard just fun to hang out with something, I guess, I’m not going to spoil anything. Anyway, he’s amazing, I’ve known him for like ten years from my convention so I love all of them and you cannot quote me any other way.
[Audience Laughter and Clapping]
One more question because I think we have twelve more seconds. No more? Okay, thank you so… well, you’re waving. Okay
Audience: Hi, if you could write a second season for Dr. Horrible, how would you write Penny into it?
Felicia Day: Okay I could be a robot, I could be a zombie…
[Audience Laughter]
I could be my twin…
[Audience Laughing and Clapping]
…or I could be a shape shifting demon.
[Audience Laughter]
I would scan that one out, that’s not a good one, that was a bad pitch. Anyway, thank you guys for coming!
[Audience Cheering and Clapping]