PopCultHQ

Oftentimes there are particular individuals in the world of Hollywood and entertainment who strive to not only create to entertain, but to inspire people as well. Felicia Day is one such person.

Felicia is on the front lines of creativity as both an actor and author, putting out all manner of content to bring joy into the lives of fans all over the world.

PopCultHQ had the chance to chat with Felicia about the upcoming second season of the sci-fi comedy series Voyage to the Stars, her upcoming book Embrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity, and what she hopes people will take away from both.

PopCultHQ Interviews:
Felicia Day

PopCultHQ: Voyage to the Stars Season 2 starts very soon. The first episode comes out September 17^th, so in just a few days. I’ve got to ask, how did you become involved with this project and what has been it like to be a part of a weekly sci-fi comedy audio series?

Felicia Day: I got involved because one of my best friends and business partner actually Ryan Copple created the show. He has been my friend for a very long time. He did Westbury back when I did The Guild. He later ran the production at my company Geek and Sundry. And then ran the company for a bit before he left to do his own creative stuff. This is one of the first things we’ve been able to work on in a couple years and I’m so thrilled to be a part of the cast. I have so much fun, it really stretches my performance in an amazing way and my cast members are so funny. It doesn’t feel like work to go to work.

PopCultHQ: With Season 1, it was all about you and everyone else getting used to one another, being on the ship, and going through some crazy adventures throughout the galaxy. Now, Season 2 is going to have you all trying to get back to Earth and stop The Nothing. Is there going to be more of a dramatic element to these episodes or a melding of drama and comedy?

Felicia: It is going to have the same tone. To describe this show I always say Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It’s sort of irreverent, it’s funny, kind of meets The Office in a sense. It’s about five really, four really funny characters. We have a new cast member coming on this season, Kirsten Vangsness from Criminal Minds. And she plays a lesbian cat alien person who is super funny. So the dynamic between the five of us this season is the structure, but also The Nothing is pursuing us and maybe we’re trying to beat it to get to Earth. So there’s a lot of different layers here as far as like pure lore things, but also personal stories. Romance and hilarity ensues for sure.

PopCultHQ: You’ve got some really awesome guest stars coming up this season. Angela Kinsey, Paul F. Tompkins, Erinn Hayes, Jesse Cox, Phil LaMarr. What’s it like knowing you’re going to get to work with some of these people as guests on the show?

Felicia: Well, like you said, we have amazing guest stars this year. I loved doing Season 1 so much, but Season 2 has just cracked me up in a way that I’ve…I’ve never laughed so hard as when I record this show. The set-ups are amazing, the story is really personal but also hilarious. And our guest stars come in and just mix things up in the most delicious way. Angela Kinsey, in particular, was so funny I can’t even tell you that episode. I might be embarrassed about what I said. The good thing is when you do improv, I don’t remember what I say during the improv so when I’m listening to an episode, I’m like, “Oh I said that? That was really funny!” So the guest stars are really mixing it up in a great cool way. Going to Earth has a really cool twist. And so you’re going to have the weekly shenanigans of seeing different aliens and stuff like that, but then it gets more personal and more personal the closer to Earth we get.

PopCultHQ: Final question before we jump onto the next of the fun projects you’ve got coming out. What are your hopes for the Second Season of Voyage to the Stars and as it continues to move forward?

Felicia: There are so many seasons that we could do in the future. I know that Ryan has many, many seasons in his head. I know there’s going to be a comic book coming out next year sometime. But as other live performance opportunities that we’re gonna have because I really really love it when we perform live. It’s so much exactly the way we do it behind the mic, just in front of an audience, which kind of makes it even funnier. And I know that there’s other plans to go a million places from here. What I love is just keeping the characters together and being able to bring this world to life that Ryan created.

PopCultHQ: Your second project is your book Embrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity. It comes out October 1^st. Where did you get an idea to do a project whose purpose is to embrace their inner creative and find themselves through their passion?

Felicia: I was inspired to write this book because I wrote a memoir a couple years ago called You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost). And it told about my journey of being this weird homeschooled girl who went to college way too early, who turned into an actor, and then started making videos in her garage. I got a lot of feedback from readers that they loved the book, but they also were inspired to create because of my story and also get help for anxiety/depression because of my story. And I just felt like that’s so much more important than just making jokes that I wanted to dig more into that. So this book is designed to give the keys to the reader to kind of help tell their own journey and discover their own journey in a creative way. So it’s an exercise interactive book, there’s lots of writing. But also there’s exercises. After I write about procrastination, there’ll be some exercises to kind of illustrate and make it personal for the reader, like “How does this apply to my life?” and “How can I kind of use these tools that I’m talking about, that I’ve read about, to put them into my own life to improve my creative output?”

PopCultHQ: Now you talked about giving readers keys. One of the keys that is mentioned in the description of the book is helping to form communities, helping creative individuals to find like-mind individuals and build a community from that. Now in an age where so many different communities pop up daily for arts and artistic endeavors, how will Embrace Your Weird guide readers into finding others who love what they love?

Felicia: You know there is a section on allies to reach out to help support creativity. I think it’s really important. The only reason I am where I am now is because I was a member of a sort of self-help group of women who were kind of supporting each other through our Hollywood journeys. And I talk about that in detail in my memoir, but also mentioned it again here as an example of how you can’t really do creativity as a lonely art. It can be good to do things alone but it can also be hard to get on that train, ride it to the end, seeing things through. It’s very difficult because when you’re in the middle of a creative work, it’s really easy to kind of abandon it for something more shiny. So I definitely encourage people in the book to reach out and create that group around them that can help them see through the peaks in the valleys of making something. Because really the most important thing with creativity is figuring out what you want to say, figuring a venue, a creative outlet, and how to say that to the world. And just seeing it through to the end. Finishing things is so important that it’s something I’ve had to learn a lot in life because I’m a very creative person, but I’ll have a million ideas but only two or three get seen through to the end. I think the only way you get better is to really complete something and then be able to step back and learn from that journey that you went through. That’s a big part of the book.

PopCultHQ: A quick final question before we wrap up. In the other description of the book, it talks about how you “thread personal anecdotes” and it is also, like you said, sort of a journal or guide-book of sorts. What sort of anecdotes and journal-esque content can readers expect alongside these tips and techniques?

Felicia: I definitely tell personal stories about my struggles with anxiety and perfectionism, my struggle to sort of find out who I am over and over in my life. I encourage people to doodle all over this book, to draw in it, to you know either cross things out or highlight them. I want to see these books be a total mess if you bring them in person to me. And so that’s why I’m most excited for my book tour. I’ll be going on tour October 1st and I’ll be on tour for two weeks going around the country and hopefully meeting a lot of people to get this book in their hands in a physical way.

PopCultHQ: That sounds wonderful. It sounds like the ideal thing for any creative individual. Thank you taking time to chat with me about Voyage to the Stars Season 2, which episode 1 releases September 17th, and your upcoming book Embrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity which comes out October 1st. Felicia, thank you so much.

Felicia: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

---

Be sure to check out the Voyage to the Stars podcast.
You can get it at the links below:

`

`

`

Embrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity Overview:

In Embrace Your Weird, New York Times bestselling author, producer, actress, TV writer, and award-winning web series creator, Felicia Day takes you on a journey to find, rekindle, or expand your creative passions.

Including Felicia’s personal stories and hard-won wisdom, Embrace Your Weird offers:

—Entertaining and revelatory exercises that empower you to be fearless, so you can rediscover the things that bring you joy, and crack your imagination wide open

—Unique techniques to vanquish enemies of creativity like: anxiety, fear, procrastination, perfectionism, criticism, and jealousy

—Tips to cultivate a creative community

—Space to explore and get your neurons firing

Whether you enjoy writing, baking, painting, podcasting, playing music, or have yet to uncover your favorite creative outlet, Embrace Your Weird will help you unlock the power of self-expression. Get motivated. Get creative. Get weird.

Pre-order NOW at the following online locations:

`

`

`

Felicia Day’s Embrace Your Weird Book Tour

#EmbraceYourWeird

---

Felicia Day

Felicia Day is a professional actress who has appeared in numerous television shows and films. She is currently recurring on the CW show “Supernatural”, and the SyFy series “The Magicians”. Her IMDB can be found here. 

However, Felicia is best known for her work in the web video world, behind and in front of the camera. She co-starred in Joss Whedon’s Internet musical “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” which was ranked in the “Top 10 Best TV of 2008” by Time Magazine, Entertainment Weekly and People Magazine and won an Emmy in 2009. She also created and starred in the seminal web series “The Guild,” which ran for six seasons. “The Guild” won numerous awards for web video excellence,  garnering a PGA nomination for best web series in 2011. She expanded the brand into numerous merchandizing opportunities, including a hit comic book series with Dark Horse Comics. Recently, costume and props from the show were admitted to the Smithsonian American History collection as examples of early web media pioneering.

In 2012 Felicia created a funded YouTube channel and production company called Geek & Sundry. Since launching in April 2012, the channel has garnered over 1.7 million subscribers on YouTube, and over 30k on the livestreaming platform Twitch. In 2014, the company was sold to Legendary Entertainment.

FOLLOW FELICIA ONLINE:

`

`

`

`