Posted in: Movies, TV, YouTube | Tagged: kickstarter, the guild

The Guild: Felicia Day Reflects on Series, Talks Reunion & Much More

The Guild creator and star Felicia Day spoke with us about not looking back, the series's legacy, the reunion movie Kickstarter, and more.

No one can ever accuse Felicia Day of putting anything less than 110 percent in everything she's done as an unconventional success story, doing her part to help make gaming and fantasy into the mainstream as a creator, actor, writer, and author, thanks in large part to her web series The Guild. Even when she hits the occasional brick wall creatively, her reach has been undeniable through the mainstream success she's achieved with memorable roles on the CW's Supernatural, SYFY's Eureka, and Cartoon Network's Adventure Time. Things have come full circle for Day (Codex) and her The Guild castmates, Sandeep Parikh (Zaboo), Jeff Lewis (Vork), Robin Thorsen (Clara), Amy Okuda (Tink), and Vincent Caso (Bladezz), who achieved their own respective success as they gear up to film their reunion film to mark the series' 20th anniversary. Day spoke with Bleeding Cool about if there was any scene during the original run of The Guild she struggled with, if there will be a dedicated HD release of the series on Blu-ray, if she takes credit helping to pave way for other shows like the Netflix D&D-centric Stranger Things and Apple TV video game-centric Mythic Quest, why she loves doing voiceover work like Adventure Time, and the timing of her book tour for The Lost Daughter of Sparta.

The Guild Creator and Star Felicia Day on Series Grind, HD, Knowing Limits within Hollywood & More

Bleeding Cool: Looking back on when you were making the show, and I'm going to dig deep here. Was there, like at any point, like a scene of the show during its original run, did you think that you had initial doubts, but you're glad that you went through with it anyway?

Day: Wow, all of life is I try to release all regret around my life, because everything you live through makes you stronger. Everything you create, even if it's not a success, doesn't hit, make your name or finances super big, all those things are worth going through. I certainly have had a big learning lesson, and jumping back into this Kickstarter, trying to do what I did back then, when I didn't have a family, there were no rules, and I was willing to work like 21 hours a day to the detriment of my mental and physical health.

I certainly have a lot more people helping me now to be able to not fall into those traps of sacrificing myself for the work. I'm self-funding everything, but I believe in it, and when I believe in something, if you know my work and my passion, I will bust down every door to get the word out, so that's what we're doing right now. I would say that if I could visit Felicia from 2007, I wouldn't tell her anything, because I don't know if I would have ventured down those really tough roads, but look where it got me. I'm so happy, and I'm in a place where I'm creatively inspired. I'm really excited for people to be as excited as I am about this movie.

From a logistical standpoint, I always wondered, did the series ever get a release on HD, and is it something as you think about, "Hey, giving some fans a physical release, getting to watch this?"

I can't speak to all the offerings for our Kickstarter, but I will say that there are very interesting things we're offering that I think will be very exciting to fans of the show, but also just nerds, geeks, and gamers in general.

When you look upon a project like 'Stranger Things' or 'Mythic Quest' putting themselves out there, was there any point in something like, "Hey, I could have done that?" Do you think about taking some credit, the way 'The Guild' helped pave that way, making that more accessible and mainstream to have that kind of culture in the world?

I would love to imagine that 'The Guild' had a big impact on just creators being excited about nerd stuff. I think it probably was just a zeitgeist having the internet intersect entertainment. I know that I've inspired a lot of women and gamers, because they told me to my face, and also a lot of the roles that I got in 'Supernatural,' 'Eureka,' and all the other TV and games and animation that I voice. For the most part, most of those parts were offered to me based on creators being inspired and admiring my own work as a creator.

My connection to mainstream Hollywood has always been creator-driven versus institute-driven. I can't tell you how many pilots I have shot for, pitched, and written. I can't tell you how many ideas I've had tossed in the trash can [laughs] that I knew in my heart were great. It just didn't fit the business model or the sensibility of the people behind the desk, and that's fine. What has been the great liberating factor is that, for me from day one, I was always driven to make things outside the system, but I still always was sort of drawn back into the system in one way or another, kind of hoping that someone would make my journey easier. Now, I've written it all off.

It's either the fans and me, or it's just me in my house writing novels; that's it. There's no agenda for me to go on some mainstream TV show, necessarily, to make 'The Guild' into something bigger. Although I certainly wouldn't shoot it down immediately. For me, I make things for the fans. I make it so we can go around the door that's shut, and we just drill a hole in the wall to get through. That's my passion, and again, I feel like this is the time to do it. There are avenues available to us that I could not imagine in 2007. I funded the start of season two of 'The Guild' with a PayPal button on a website that I created myself. That was a couple of years before Kickstarter even started. There were no companies I could make a T-shirt with. There was nobody who even thought that gamers could play online with each other or that it was possible to reach fans with a video on the internet. That's how early we were, and so now that I'm entering back into the world, it's just so exciting to be like, "Oh, I have tools at my disposal." Everything's much more expensive, but there are people who know more than me in online areas, and I'm so excited to be inspired by them, learn from younger creators, and just wrap it all up in a beautiful bow that is 'The Guild' at its heart.

What is your favorite voiceover role?

Oh wow. I have to say Betty from 'Adventure Time' is one of the best voiceover roles that I've done. I replaced another actor after they did one or two episodes, and then I did all of it, including Fiona and Cake. A few times in my career, I have cried during a voiceover session, and Betty from 'Adventure Time' and Zoja from 'Guild Wars 2: The Expansion' are the two times I've cried while delivering my lines because the writing was so good. I love voiceover. It really was a wonderful gift to me, especially through COVID, to keep active as an artist. Whenever I get the opportunity to bring something to life that I don't look like, including a ginger root or a small Asuran. Those are the delightful things in my life.

You have 'The Lost Daughter of Sparta' out now, and you're doing that book tour; how's that coming along for you?

Yeah, thank you for asking. 'The Lost Daughter of Sparta' graphic novel has reached so many people. I can't tell you how many 12-year-olds I've encountered who cried for my own work, which is the ultimate compliment. This month has been pretty exciting for it because it's Pride Month, and [Christopher Nolan's] 'The Odyssey' is coming out very soon, mid-July, and since it is a romance between the youngest little sister of Helen of Troy and the goddess Artemis, we have all this excitement around Greek mythology in general. I'm finding that more people are discovering in loving this book, and so it was a side project that really got my feet on the ground as a creator and renewed my faith in myself that even though my stories might not be embraced by the mainstream. There are so many people out there who are not mainstream like me who will allow me to keep creating, and that really gave me the strength to go into this Kickstarter with confidence and start planning the shoot already [laughs].

The Guild reunion movie Kickstarter campaign will launch on July 20th, with details to come on tier offerings for contributors. All six seasons are available on YouTube.

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