Behind the Roll- The people of Critical Role

foreign [Music] [Music] foreign right now we have our show Spooks and like uh you know one of the guys in the crew or one of the cast keeps talking about how he keeps trying to get one of our other cast mates Ashley to get her get into her DND game and I'm like actually Johnson yeah no she's in the game like oh my God it's a question for you guys like oh so you're getting into the family I had not really known Liam or Laura or Travis or Sam before this game I mean I I still still feel like I don't belong in a lot of ways and so like at the time especially all these interactions I kept thinking you know it's I'm wearing it on my face everyone knows this kid's the fraud why is he here and Lima Brian I didn't meet and thought again working on Resident Evil 6 and even we were talking one day between like on our break I mentioned that I was playing d d the night before for for a session he's like put engines and dragons and so we got in this conversation where all of a sudden he opened up about like his off of Dragon Lance as a kid and now he you know he wanted to play again it's been so long and that was like our first real friendship connection that way he was just my director but that moment we became friends yeah something you could connect on and so we kept talking about d d over and over again at our break time during this game and uh you know his birthday was coming up and I was like dude I like I'll be happy to run a game for you sometime you know like like free birthday and it's kind of like I'll run I'll run you one shot how about that he's like and I I don't know if I can do that you know just things busy I got kids the whole thing but thank you I appreciate that I'm like all right fine um and so it wasn't until a while later that he and Sam had this this did their podcast I didn't know anything about he didn't tell me this was the reason they were doing it right he just called me up and was like Hey you know a while back you said you did me one shot for my birthday then let's do it I don't know I I just expect it to be a lark right it just has to have some beers and laugh at each other which did happen um but I remember the way it looked and smelled that night I also remember how instantly how much fun we were having and and looking around at the the people uh in the room with me and going like I can't believe that these cool people agreed to come here and do this ridiculous thing and holy that guy is is good at this uh there was some magic to it I don't know if it was the collection of people or the characters that we were playing it was probably Matt it was probably Matt was just so good yeah that we were like imagine if Matt Mercer was your first dungeon master ever but I didn't know anything about it and then being around Yuri lowenthal and Matt Mercer and other people and hearing you know Zach Hanks and and um just other folks that had played I was like so you you play like now he's like yeah it's like what do you do he's like we show up for a few hours we have some food we have some drinks and we roll some dice and we play D D and I was like could I could I come like watch yeah he's like oh you don't want to watch it nobody watches DD and I was like oh okay he's like you want to come play the very first game that they played or because I I didn't know about the first game yeah and then I think Travis or Laura had talked to me and they were like you've got to come you gotta come play and I was like okay and then I ended up going to the second game that they played and I just remember Matt I talked to Matt before and I was I was emailing with him and he's like here's what's left I'll play a cleric because I don't know I'll just give this a try and um he's like I'll be a gnome I don't know because that's kind of funny yeah and I went to the game and everybody was like doing voices of character and I was like and [Laughter] I was hooked the ringing of the blast Echoes from the chamber it blends with another Lurch as you have another piece of rock come slamming into the platform as the turquoise crystal shatters the platform just drops into free fall it was magic I could not have predicted the end result but it was magic and I went home that night going on my own like where everyone else how tight we are we're close friends but we weren't the family that we are now and I remember going home going man that's the most fun I thought that's the most fun I've had in a long time I want to do that again so we did another session then Ashley came in I'd never met Ashley before either and I was a fan of her work on Last of Us and was like oh yeah sure okay I'll make a character don't make it for yourself not you know right um and and it just kind of went from there and we just kept playing we kept scheduling the next session kept scheduling the next session and it kept kind of expanding the world and it was exciting to consider that these people that were that I looked up to that were so fresh to this experience wanted to keep playing I just fell in love with each then like maybe they went from being these these strangers that I hoped to provide a good time for to becoming my family like we became so close and I'm so thankful for all the time that we got to build up in this and have our Mimosa Sundays playing in Lord Travis's house or rushing everyone over to our tiny apartment again to play and just just watching all the pretenses of industry and business fall away and in this space we were just a bunch of goofy people making things up rolling Dice and and just enjoying a good you know six eight hour weekend day together before going back to the rest of our responsibilities hey oh is everything okay we're back at the house just wondering where you are let me know we're all curious yeah Donuts [Music] you have too much power it's the last six words that are always it was a good fit I mean these people are all my best friends now but at the time I was so intimidated I bet because it was like soon to be bafta award-winning Ashley Johnson and Laura Bailey queen of VO and video games and and Liam O'Brien voice of Illidan so part of the reason that I made keylith kind of in troverted fumbly put her foot in her mouth type of character was because I was like well I might just do that a few times I am sure that in finding flaws in the characters that I am portraying I am so looking at my own flaws and trying to figure them out um you know scanlin it was like a a character that was very uh life of the party also but had a lot of demons and a lot of insecurities and stuff and there's definitely some of that in me and the character I'm playing now not is um uh is really timid and shy and skittish and nervous about things and there's definitely a lot of that you know buried beneath my super handsome uh ripped facade Percy definitely has a lot of me in him but then with like Molly Molly was Molly was never going to change that was that was not a character looking for anything that was a character who that was that was uh Percy Percy was Iron Man he's like I'm a up I need to find some resolution to myself was Captain America which was that the world is going to have to resolve itself around me right right I'm never going to change this is not what Captain America does Captain America forces the world to contort around him Until It Breaks can can you can you not walk without it or something that's a really bad limb I just you know sometimes like I get like a little twinge like I was a little disc issue can can you hand me your stuff so I can watch this I want to see this this limp of yours purely for my own entertainment are you patronizing me uh no I'm hoping that you're going to patronize us for me coming from um you know a background of not playing it very much pick something or choose something that's going to be slightly comfortable in the beginning um I didn't know about d d when I looked at the magic classes for that first campaign I couldn't think of anything more terrifying than all those spells yeah so give me an X make me big let me be dumb so that when I make a mistake it's not as obvious and I'll just hit and I'll be there like we need a tank that goes in and takes the damage you're going to get hit a lot and I was like fine great yeah cool I'm not precious with that character and that was a very simple rigid skeleton what was important to you about Vex what were the important sort of temples for you of going like I kind of want her to be obviously you said you wanted her to be hot you know obviously yeah but I mean personality wise I want her to be strong and snarky and confident and hot and really that was pretty much it when we started were those the characteristics you identified with and in characters that you played in video games yeah that's how it was like the options that I would always choose like like I said the anti-hero I owned that like Renegade sort of option where you know you say something shitty but you do the right thing you know that's what I wanted her to be like because I think false won't make people interesting and the reason why I love acting so much is because it's just such a deep study of The Human Condition right and d and d Almost tops that in a weird way what's been fascinating me seeing the difference between Bo and Keith are the people some people who loved keyless can't stand Beau and vice versa hmm much more of the latter I think much more people hated keyless but love Beau and I actually do find that fascinating because Bo is arguably more of a kicker and more of a selfish person whereas Keith was just trying to do the best that she thought she could she was Earnest yes she was very Earnest so Earnest but just trying to do good under the worst circumstances Beau has a little bit more confidence a little bit more of that cocky Surefire attitude but it's kind of way more of a shittier person and people can love that about Bo it's interesting isn't it I love that and and that's why I think the game and and art um and storytelling is so important because we are processing Our Lives people have always wanted stories people need stories it's essential to understand themselves it's when you're reading a story you're really just considering how it reflects back on you how you're how is that similar to my experience as we played and you start seeing what the other characters are and how they relate to you then you start like slapping more clay and even I mean I don't think anybody was more surprised than I was at the sort of like characteristics that he would start to show like loyalty and protective you know qualities and really having the sense of Honor even though he's a complete and that was really I I loved him so much because it was so freeing just to turn off all those filters that you've accumulated over 30 plus years and just be like this raw exposed nerve that you know can affect and be affected by so many things it's such an intense feeling of gratitude for the people that have watched and have been with us along the way and have been responsible for getting us to this place and just all the hard work that like everybody here does I I can't wait to see even even more where this goes and I can't wait to sort of jump in and and be even more part of it because it's been weird watching it a little bit from afar just being involved but also leaving is happening and yeah and jumping back into the table it's weird it's hard it's hard it's harder than a lot of people think because this is It's a a group of people that play every week and they are fine-tuning their role-playing skills and then I hop in and I'm like I don't know what the I'm doing her hair dark and fading to White last scene fleeing into the distant Fields you see in Chains as well Yasha being pulled into the courtroom [Applause] stepping into the light you see the familiar and somewhat surprised face of Yasha [Music] all right playing a character over that long amount of time how do you still create arcs and and bring out more of their personality doesn't it feel like after two years you sort of explored everything you can how do you how do you feel like after two years of being you that you've explored every aspect of yourself I felt that way around four I feel sorry about four years old and I felt that way since [Laughter] no I feel like no but that's an interesting perspective it's just you it's just your person right yeah there's always something new that's why if somebody says this is out of character that's not something you would do I don't believe that because I do spontaneous things that somebody wouldn't expect yeah and it just all it does is introduce a different aspect of myself and go oh my God I can do that life is long and strange and I keep saying yes to things I don't know it's and like it's but you seem happy with those choices they're choices yeah choices choices are way better than not choosing not choosing just means that you're at the you're at the the whims of circumstance maybe I'm playing it too safe like half of the game could really be exploring like the risk and the emotions of that so I put in a little bit more stuff that that has to do with me and it's going to lean into things that do require more of a of a risk and I don't know how it's going to go make it comfortable in the beginning so that when the opportunity to roll the dice comes around I can go for it yeah like the only thing that I don't like in sports and in DED is when people can play it safe it's so boring right yeah boring to be a part of boring to watch yeah especially in a game where let's let's be honest if a character dies it's going to it's going to sum things up for you and for other people as we've seen yeah but it is it is a game right and if the opposite side of that coin is something that you will never forget isn't it worth that chance right because in life it's so hard life is precious right and you it there are a different set of rules and standards Reckless [Applause] natural twins oh my God that's ridiculous look at that [Applause] how do you want to do this I am it's just such a deep believer in what dungeons dragons and at the end of the day is storytelling can be and that's why I love this little show it's the stories behind the storytellers like what everyone is still doing on the show is still just telling stories and those stories can deeply impact people there are certain shows that I call that we watch all the time that I like to call cheese whiz for the brain where it's just it's not meant don't think too deep right about it right it ain't that deep in that can totally change someone's life who's maybe had a terrible day or a terrible week to just be like oh thank God this is something that's not gonna weigh on my brain lead balloon [Music] [Laughter] no but one of the guards is looking at you flailing the air and it's like the ruby of the seat [Laughter] [Applause] only person that sees it is you watch his kids no and just like it's it's this it's a scatter of red mess and you just see her floating in the water [Laughter] oh my God it filled something in me that I feel like nothing has been able to sort of fill that whatever that is and it's crazy to say that it's Dungeons and Dragons yeah and everybody said the same thing in your chair yeah it's it's the the I think because it's commune Community Based and I feel like a lot of people in this community and even people that we meet at cons or things like that where yeah like we're all people that are kind of like have a lot of that you know we're all like a little introverted and a little weird and we get in this world and we're like oh this is where we're comfortable we're very conscious that we have an audience now there's no denying it and it's part of the energy that makes it such a thrill to do but we're still playing this game for ourselves and I'm not tailoring what I'm doing for anybody I'm playing in this game the way that I want to play this game and do things if I find it interesting and gratifying and challenging to myself so it was a great surprise and humbling to hear people from people having the reaction they did to it it's much easier to to react in character when you're you know but you know that's I don't know that might be a lie because that was always one of my favorite things anyway about theater or anything is is the reaction you know so I know a lot of actors that just it's that joke of my line my line and they don't ever have anything going on outside of this is my motivation and this is why I'm doing something and they don't think about you know we're having a conversation and you've got to react to that if you do something spontaneous I'm going to do something to react to that it's going to change my performance and if it doesn't change your performance then you're doing it wrong yeah in my opinion people who I could be friends with who get me and who also perform an opportunity to make people laugh to play different characters to tell a weird cool story like it's it's everything all at the same time it's it's the best drug you couldn't have known going into it that it was going to scratch all of those itches and cover all those bases of the stuff that you really loved until you experienced it no no it was it was uh it was an epiphany it was one of those light bulb moments where where like at least for me you know there's no going back right I've had that experience I I want more of that forever so it was it was great it was a great night and it was and it's led to so many more weird great sad nights and happy nights and that's why I love being the GM you know the DM for me it's it's a gift like it's it's it's in my small way that I can say thank you for putting your time into this thank you for putting your your interest in in whatever I'm capable of doing and give you know being respectful of of this thing that we're doing together um let me try and provide something that's long lasting and important to you and that to me is a very a very deeply like soulfully fulfilling experience let's do it again from the top yeah thank you so much for joining us we love you very much and is it Thursday I'm just a bystander I was walking down here and I saw these these two these two Ruffians and I was going to go get help making deception actually true she wasn't with us zero take them by the cheeks can you feel this yeah you can you feel this does it taste good [Music] do you recommend it um 87 9. we lost two in the sewers [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you have a good memory well you know not all crabgrass is as close to me what's your name by the way I'm Jester do you have a name I don't think so you want to give me one yeah Henry I'm Henry Henry crabgrass crabgrass Henry oh consent please oh may I pet you yes you may I mean just stick around it's nice to have someone to talk oh okay tell you what we'll stick around for at least 10 more minutes I'll take it all right

Channel: Monique Rene

Views: 122,418

Keywords: Criticalrole, documentary, betweenthesheets, behindthescenes, nerdyvoactors, ashleyjohnson, mattmercer, marisharay, traviswillingham, laurabailey, samriegel, liamo'brien, taliesinjaffe, brianwfoster, geekandsundry, dungeonsanddragons, roleplayinggame, comedy, critrole, critters, shortform, dnd, informational

Id: yZrZG5sawlc

Length: 24min 39sec (1479 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 03 2022