Felicia Day

So last night my long awaited episode of “House” aired, and it was so exciting!  It’s so great to have so many tells and emails and Twitters from people who recorded the show and planned to watch, AND the ones who were caught completely off-guard.  Such a treat!   I love doing my web shows, but there’s something about being on a fancy network TV show that the family eats up:  My parents were impressed

I wanted to take a few moments to answer a few Tweet questions that people had about working on House.  There may be spoilers (If you haven’t already seen it).

How was working with Hugh Laurie?

In my experience, the most talented actors I’ve worked with are also the most professional and Hugh Laurie was no exception.  His commitment to his character is absolute, and there’s just no catching him acting: He IS the character.  Off-set he is charming and lovely, and incredibly humble.  It was such a treat to be able to act opposite him.  And yes, his eyes are that blue   Hard not to crush on him, admittedly, lol.

Did you shave your head?

Nope.  Movie magic!  I spent 3 hours in makeup getting a bald cap put on, Dahlia the makeup lady took great care of me.  It definitely gave me a stiff neck though, because you can’t twist your head that much or the bald cap will pop up.   Being stuck in the brain surgery device was uncomfortable and hard to crawl into as well.  Also I forgot to shave my legs that day of shooting, so I was worried it would show up in HD.  Luckily during my brain surgery there were no cutaways to my calves.  A glimpse into the vanity of actors.  LOL!

Did they really open your brain?

No one asked that really, haha, but I wanted to share how they did that.  I actually went in a week early to an FX shop where they had masks of EVERY celebrity known to man lined up high on the wall:  Deniro, Cruise, Kidman, Clooney, you name it, their face was in plaster looking down on me.  They had to match the shape of my skull, so the molded my hair to my head, put a cap on me, and poured plaster all over my skull and face.  It was actually pretty scary, getting cold goo spread over my nose, but I was doing a meditation exercise and got through it ok.  Then on set, they had the top of my skull perfectly matched!  And brain.  I didn’t see the brain part on set, it was gross to watch hah.  As for my corneal transplant, again I had to go in and get fitted with it. The contact itself actually had a perscription in it, so it was blurry to look out of.  I had an eyeball handler follow me around all day putting special drops in my eye so it wouldn’t irritate me.  They took good care of me

Will you return?

Sadly no.  I was just the POTW (Patient of the Week).  I was on the set for a while, 10 days or something, since we shot over Memorial Day, longest Guest Star in history!   It was such a nice set.  When you get to know everyone on a TV set as a co-star or guest star and then leave, gone forever, it’s kinda sad.  Most times you’re only acting on one episode the series regulars are a bit standoffish, because you’re really only there a few days.  This set really made me feel like I was part of the team, and it was a wonderful feeling.

If you have any other questions post them in comments and I’ll add to this post over the next few days!

ADDED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

How was the table read?

Table reads are always very nerve wracking for actors, unless you’re a regular, because people get fired at them.  They don’t feel like it’s working, they write the part out of the episode (Happened to me both ways) so you feel like you’re auditioning again. However, House was a very friendly environment, and I sat across from Hugh, so it was nice to formulate that connection with his character outside the actual hospital set.

Was your character really named Apple?  Was the character a math teacher in the script?  Did you audition?

Yes to both questions, it was in the script!  The math teacher role was quite a coincidence!  There was a bit at the top of the show where I actually wrote down a math equation (which I TOTALLY UNDERSTOOD! ) and was teaching the class, but they had to cut that for time I suppose.  The show opening was very cool, I had no idea they dropped that truckload like that!  Cool!  And yes, I was a blind architect.  Mmm, I guess it could happen? LOL.  Yes, I auditioned for the part through my agent.  I’ve read for House almost 10 times in the last 5 years, it’s lovely that I got a role, and such a good one at that!  I’m sure they read a lot of people.  Getting jobs in Hollywood is very difficult: It’s about access and timing and looks.  In that order, haha.

Did they make you look sick?

Well, they allowed no makeup on the patients, that was a trauma I had to get over, haha. I did notice the lighting accentuated my sickness, especially in the puking scene (pineapple juice and chunks, I swear!)  Puking to millions of people was awkward, but you do what the character needs to!  I think I got the direction “less heaving” once, that was weird.

RE:  Last moment with House “You look sad.”:

Yes, doing that line always gave me chills, and when I got to deliver them to House, it was a great acting moment.  It was like playing a harp, the dialogue I got as Apple was beautiful and it was a privilege to say those words.

TV shows I’d love to appear in:

Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Office, 30 Rock, Eureka, Heroes, Bones, Fringe, Big Bang Theory, anything Sci-Fi   I love doing comedy the most, I can’t take myself too seriously and get nervous if I’m supposed to be authoritative.  I’m working on that

OFF TOPIC:  The font is Blackjack.  I got it off a free font place, check my delicious.com/feliciaday bookmarks for font sites I frequent.

Did you watch House before?

On and off.  I’m very bad about my TV habits, but try to watch each show a few times (in case I get called in to read for it, you gotta know the style of the show!)  I did feel that this part had a deeper connection to House than others I’d seen.  I actually auditioned for the part from the premiere but didn’t get it.  Thank goodness they called me back the next episode!

Was anyone excited about my work on The Guild?

Actually, a few crew members were!  They came up and recognized me!  For the most part people don’t randomly know about the show, on set or in life.  It’s hard to realize that most people are kind of out of touch with the internet (or rather, their life doesn’t revolve around it like mine )  I did give bookmarks to the director and the writer, and they watched it and said they liked it!

Did Hugh keep his American accent?  How was Olivia?

Yes, and lovely!  I couldn’t stop staring at her, she’s beautiful!

I wanted to mention a few books I’ve read the past few weeks that I think are worth noting.

I collected quite a number of comics from ComiCon because me knowledge of that area of literature is woefully ignorant. I’ve read a few in my very spare time and wanted to mention them.

First, Scott Pilgrim was recommended to me by Joss Whedon himself, so I totally put that on the top of the stack. And I’ve already ordered all the rest of the series, it’s so great! Short description: “Scott Pilgrim is a 23-year-old guy living in the big city with his gay roommate, just trying to make his way in this crazy world.” It’s cool to have such a hip, regular-world venue and have it be so incredibly interesting. The characters are so engaging. I look forward to eating up all the rest of the series very quickly.

Next, I met the “Looking for Group” guys in their booth at Comicon and they traded my their lovely hardback for a signed headshot. Nice trade! I had read this comic before online, so to get a nice hardback copy to peruse (Nice, thick, luscious paper, oh and the comic is awesome too, hehe). If you’re a gamer or a WOW player, definitely check out their site. I’m partial to them because they have an actual page called “Codex”, thus they know where that name came from, rather than making “Kotex” jokes.

I have more comics to go through from Comicon, so stay tuned for more stuff I’ve glommed onto.

Other books: I also got a preview copy of the forthcoming novel “I CAN HAZ CHEEZBURGER”!!!!!

The testament to the power of LOL Cats is that any visitor I’ve have over in the last week who has seen the book, promptly squeals and then reads EVERY PAGE SLOWLY and giggles to themselves in the corner. It’s weird and creepy and fantastic. I read this book with my boyfriend together before bedtime. I might do it again tonight. When this book comes out I will be buying many copies and spreading the gospel of Kitteh Talk. Thanks for the preview!

Next, I finished the GREAT Duology “Hunter’s Oath” and “Hunter’s Death” by Michelle West. I love this author, she writes under the name Michelle Sagara too, her “Cast” series has a new one coming out at the end of the month and I’ve pre-ordered it for months. That series is more urban-fantasy-romancey, but this duology is thick, complicated Epic Fantasy at its finest. There are a lot of characters, and sometimes the lore gets a little heavy, but I really enjoyed the world and the plot twists. I will be reading the other books she has in this world focusing on one of the characters.

Last but never least, my blog readers know I’m crazy about Lisa Shearin’s Magic Lost, Trouble Found series. If you like adventure, romance, girl fighting action, a great sense of humor, definitely pick up this series. However, you know that I haven’t been a huge fan of the cover art. (I believe I referred to it as vaginal pink or something insulting, and Lisa commented and I was ashamed, haha). Well, the cover art for book #3 is out and….

YES! No pink in sight! Raine is finally bad-assed like she is in the book! She’s wearing leather, she has skinny thighs! She’s carrying a dagger, and her ears are attractive and pointy. I love orange, my favorite color, so I can’t tell you HOW EXCITED I AM ABOUT THIS BOOK! Finally it doesn’t scream 12 year old girl. It says there will be fighting and magic and sexy hunk elves and goblins galore. Yumz.

So Lisa and Lisa’s cover art maker, I salute you. I only ache inside I have to wait until next year to read this. Where can I pre-order?!!

I just realized this morning that I hadn’t updated in a while.  The reason being, I haven’t had a chance to breathe in a while!   Ever since we got back from Seattle, it’s been non-stop pre-production for Season 2 Guild.  We are STILL unfunded, have a few prospects, but we are going ahead on low-budget for now, seeing how things shake out in the next week or so.  I didn’t want to put the PayPal button up for donations on the off-chance we got a sponsor on board in the next few weeks and then had to give back the money, etc.  It’s all a big waiting game in this web video business   The only thing I have control of is actually getting the scripts done and shooting, and that’s what we’ve done!  Mantra:  Don’t wait for other people to make things happen.

Anyway, if you follow The Guild website you’ll know that the cast will be at Blizzcon Oct 10th and 11th, we’re thrilled to participate!  We will be doing a panel and previewing Season 2 exclusively, so it’s exciting all around.

Also, they’ve posted a few preview clips of my episode of House on Fox’s webpage. I’m in clips #1 and #4, definitely was hired for my awesome looks for this episode (haha).  Hugh Laurie was so amazing to work with, I can’t wait to watch the whole episode.  It’s next Tuesday the 23rd, so set your Tivos!  If you want, you don’t have to

Anyway, back to coordinating crew and finishing scripts and working on website stuff and emails!  I’ve read a lot of books in the last few weeks, only thing that’s kept me sane is bedtime reading, so I’m looking forward to a chance to review some stuff!

Oh also, evidently I’m in Geek Monthly this month, WOOT!  Sarah Kuhn, the writer of that article, also has a cool .pdf Geek Zine called “Alert Nerd” that has a blurb on me on page 18 too about my early gaming habits.  Cool!

Just got back from Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. In my small Convention experience, the last 3 days have topped all! We were crazy busy the whole convention, I didn’t get to participate in the many cool things going on which kinda sucked because there were so many awesome things on the schedule. I only got my hands briefly on the Warhammer demo and that’s it as far as games went.  On a show note though, it was SPECTACULAR! We had a huge demand for the DVD, especially during signing times.  Seeing a line formed for me and Zaboo down the length of the hall was so exciting! At the same time, we introduced a lot of gamers to our show, which was a huge boost for us, because PAX attendees are people who would like our show.  I gave out Bookmarks generously   Friday night we screened the show in front of 250 people I believe, they even had to turn people away. (I couldn’t believe that!)  Seeing The Guild episodes back to back in front of a live audience was such a thrilling experience because we’d never done it before.  Part of me couldn’t believe the crowd actually laughed in places I wanted them to when I wrote it!   It was phenomenal!  We’ll have an audio of the Q and A after the screening posted on The Guild site as soon as we get it.  All in all, the trip really helped the show and it was wonderful to meet fans in person.

A few highlights for me:

I can’t rave enough about the staff at PAX. The Enforcers, the VIP escorts, were pretty much the nicest most helpful volunteers I’d ever met. We were privileged to be working with Macca, Matt, Mari, Mojo, Klayton, Biran, Jason and especially our man Nels. You guys saved our butt so many times over, and we love you for it! Thanks especially to Gabe and Tycho, Penny Arcade creators, gurus and all around luscious human men. Tycho was especially nice and groomed me, something I’ve been waiting for since they posted this comic.   I’m not as frightened as I look.  It was an expert brushing.

Also, I was Bad Horse’d!  What an experience! During one of the signing sessions I was handed a letter and asked to stand in front of the booth. As I opened it, well…this happened:

Couldn’t have been more floored in my  life!  It was a total treat and surprise!  The Chorus was kind enough to pose for a picture with me later.   They said they were going to do it to a bunch more people at the Con, can’t wait until that video is uploaded as well!

Another treat was meeting Edgar Garcia, my co-opted webmaster of The Guild and this site   He helps me out so much, and getting to hang out, have him help us with the booth, it was so fun!  He also made that creepy shirt he’s wearing there.  I laughed so much when I saw it!  Sandeep was amused, but less so, HA!!   He gave me a shirt for myself, I haven’t worn it yet, but I promised him that I would upload a picture soon   Jamie Chambers, another champion volunteer of The Guild who has sold The Guild DVD and screened it at Gencon and Dragoncon, also made me a kick ass shirt, so I have so modelling to do in the near future!!!

And last but not least…well, if a musician you kind of are a fangirl of suddenly emailed you out of the blue and asked you to sing on stage with him, what would you do?   MMm, same thing I did when Joss emailed me and asked me to do “Horrible.”  Yes please!

Jonathan Coulton, brilliant singer-songwriter, hero to geeks and musicians everywhere, asked me the week before PAX to sing “Still Alive”, the song from the end of “Portal”.  Coincidentally I had just played the song at a Rock Band party the week before, so the universe was trying to tell me something.  I was pretty nervous because I’d never sung on stage live with a mic, it was quite a learning experience.  But the minute I walked out on stage, 3000 people or so cheered and instantly I knew why people become rock stars!  I had so much fun, the crowd basically sang along with me, and standing next to JoCo was a thrill beyond compare.  I can’t claim to have done justice to the song (one of my faves), and in fact performing with a monitor and a mic was totally new to me.  It’s on my list to have that skill set prepared for the next time someone cool asks me to sing   Still, this was an amazing experience. Here’s video:

Couldn’t have been more spectacular!  Hmm, now I want to join a band…lol.