Ashly Burch – Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet

By starrymag | February 10, 2020

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

 

A) I think they are all secret at the moment, unfortunately. [laughs]

 

Q) Please tell us the premise for the new series “Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet.”

 

A) So, “Mythic Quest” is about a video game development company. It’s more of a workplace comedy about a game development company. The game is sort of like a World of Warcraft-esque game. You follow the trials and tribulations of the development team as they are working on an expansion. We see how they work together and how people vie for power and stuff like that. Rob McElhenney and Charlotte Nicdao (who play Ian and Poppy respectively) are sort of like in a narcissist starring contest and they use the rest of the staff as pawns to their ends a little bit. As opposed to something like “Always Sunny,” where Rob and David [Hornsby] and Megan [Ganz] and Charlie [Day] all came from, it’s a hard comedy but also has a lot of heart. There is a sweetness to the characters and their relationships.

 

Q) How does your character Rachel fit into the series?

 

A) She wants to fit in more than she does. [laughs] She is a tester, which basically means she plays the game all day long and looks for bugs and glitches in the game and reports them. So, she is lower on the totem pole, but she has aspirations for greater things. She has some delusions of grandeur, so she’s constantly trying to insert herself in places that she shouldn’t be to try to get more influence the game. Kind of more than the game and her role with the game, her focus is on her coworker Dana (Imani Hakim) who is also a tester that she has feelings for.

 

Q) Since you have been a part of a number of video games did you have much of a hand in creating elements to the show?

 

A) I actually was originally brought on to “Mythic Quest” as a writer. I was cast as Rachel later and that was a big part of why I was brought on. It was having a knowledge of the gaming industry and that community and being able to bring that expertise into the room. That was always the goal of the EPs and the staff in general – to make a show that feels authentic and genuine to gamers. Obviously, if you don’t know anything about games you can drop into the show and get it. If you do know and love games, you feel yourself represented. We definitely weren’t trying to make a show that was poking fun at people who love games. It’s very much a love letter.

 

Q) What did you find challenging playing double duty as writer and actress?

 

A) So, I guess the line that I can definitely sometimes have trouble straddling is that I want to advocate for my character because I’m playing her, but also I’m not just the custodian of her character as the writer. I’m the custodian of everyone’s character. So, yeah, sort of finding the balance of how much should and can I talk about Rachel in terms of her arc. Obviously, I’m sort of the person who is most well equipped to do that, but you don’t want to be in the writers room asking, “Can we spend a tight three hours on my character?” [laughs] So, it’s finding the balance between advocating for her and making sure that her story makes sense, but at the same time prioritizing the season as a whole and all of the characters because I’m a writer. So, Rachel is not my only concern. I have to think of all the storylines for all of the characters.

 

Q) Talk about some of your favorite scenes to film and/or write.

 

A) I really loved all of our group scenes. There are a few scenes where everyone is together. Even though the testers are sort of irrelevant to the higher ups, that they are brought in for some specific reason and there is a lot of bouncing back and forth between all of the characters. I love those scenes because our cast is so talented and getting them all in the same room and seeing how their personalities bounce off each other was really fun to me. I also really love a scene I have (you see a bit of it in the trailer) with F. Murray Abraham. It’s very, very much about games. There is sort of a subplot in one of the episodes where I am teaching him about the experience of playing a game and how you can create stories for game play and he is teaching me about structured narrative and writing and that sort of thing. As a person who loves games, it’s a very…I couldn’t believe I was filming that scene. [giggles] The whole thing is pretty surreal to me. It’s a conversation I’ve had before with friends about games and we’re putting it into this TV show. So, it’s pretty surreal and was pretty awesome and fun to film.

 

Q) Were you hoping to share a scene with anyone in particular?

 

A) I know people say this a lot, but I genuinely love the whole cast. The women (Jesse Ennis, Imani, Charlotte and I) all became pretty close and we hang out a lot outside of work. Even just within the cast we just all get along really well. The great thing about that is that no matter who you are paired with you sort of feel like you’re playing with a friend – like playing make believe with a friend a little bit. So, that is the lovely thing about this show. We all really like each other and get along. Any scene you have with anyone is sort of a fun new permutation of that dynamic. I think what is also really fun is that Imani and I are the love story of the show. We spend a lot of time together. As I’m getting to know her and getting to do more scenes and sort of establishing that relationship, it’s really fun to see something grow in that way and see how over the course of filming that you can sort of settle into a groove and see a relationship evolve even over just a few episodes. It was really fun.

 

Q) What do you think it is about “Mythic Quest” that will make it a fast fan favorite show?

 

A) I think the really nice thing about “Mythic Quest” (like I kind of said earlier) is it is really funny, but it also has a lot of heart to it. It is often a sweet show. I think there is always (at least in my life and with my friend group) a soft spot for workplace comedies. “Parks and Recreation” is one of my favorite shows. My group of friends love “The Office.” I think there is something about that setting and that group dynamic of this sort of cobbled together family that really resonates and always feels like there is a coziness to it. So, I think that not only the show is funny, but it has that sweetness to it and that found family dynamic that (at least for me and my cohorts) we really respond to. I think that also it is the first of its kind and that it is a show about games, creating games, which we’ve never seen before. I think that’s also significant about that and that people who love games will be interested in seeing the show and how everything plays out.

 

Q) After being in a number of games yourself, what are some of your favorites to have been a part of?

 

A) That’s like asking me to choose from my children! I definitely have a real soft spot for my character Chloe Price in Life is Strange. She is one of my first big more dramatic roles and I think I took a little piece of me and put it in her and let her scurry off. [chuckles] I feel a bit of an umbilical cord tethered to that character a bit. Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn is also a really kind of seminal role for me because she is the lead of a…It’s an open world game and I think it is easily the biggest role that I’ve ever played. She is just such a great character and I sort of developed that character and find her over the course that we recorded. It just taught me a lot about acting and collaboration. I just have such a fondness for her and that game.

 

Q) What are some of your all-time favorite video games you love to play the most?

 

A) I think definitely my favorite game franchise is Mass Effect. I love sci-fi and it’s one of our best modern day epics I think. And I love the world and the characters and how gameplay in that game effects story. So, I think about it a lot in terms of how marrying narratives and gameplay can be really, really effective. I think about that franchise a lot and I really, really love it. And other games like Spelunky that I am obsessed with and I still play to this day. Also, probably my favorite game from my childhood was Harvest Moon 64. It sounds super boring, but for some reason it was very charming. It’s a farming simulator so you can have a farm and raise animals, plant crops and find a nice gal in the village and get married. [laughs] I loved it as a kid.

 

Q) You’re a writer, actress and director. Is there anything else you’d like to try your hand at?

 

A) [laughs] Hmm. I actually (and it’s not really for work, but my own personal interest) … I’ve done a little bit of fighting training and I kind of want to do more. I took some Krav Maga for a little bit, but I started climbing which I really love. I kind of want to get back into a martial art of some kind. That could have applications at work, but mostly I kind of just think it would be fun.

 

Q) What else do you want to be sure our readers know about “Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet?”

 

A) I’ve been in the game industry for a long time. That was always my goal…Since I was a kid, I always wanted to be a video game voice actress specifically. So, when that happened, I was sort of like, “Well, this is great. Let’s kind of just see what happens next.” Never in a million years would I have thought that this is what would happen next. [laughs] As a kid who grew up loving games, the fact that there is a television show being made about the development of games and that I’m not only writing, but acting in it is one of the more surreal things that I could have imagined. If I went back and told little Ashly that this would happen, I think her mind would explode. I’m just really excited for people to watch it. I’m really grateful. I hope that my peers in the industry see themselves reflected in a good way and that they really well to it. I’m really excited to see what people think of the show.