It’s been an exciting time for Critical Role. Their new campaign features a new setting, a new DM (Brennan Lee Mulligan), and a new approach to play that makes Campaign 4 a totally different experience from the past. Part of that change has been new players like Whitney Moore, who made a big splash as part of the Soldiers Table with her character Tyranny. Thanks to a combination of adorable looks, brutal honesty, and an often unhinged energy barely contained by her religious aspirations (as well as some spicy tension with Wicander Halovar), she’s become a fan favorite in a show famous for making basically every character beloved. I sat down with Whitney to learn a bit more about what it’s been like at the Critical Role table and how her experience on the indie side of filmmaking has helped shape her play.
Dan: Had you played much D&D before?
WM: I mean not lately, I have definitely I have played D&D and had a campaign that never finished. Unfortunately, it’s so hard to get adults in the same room on a regular schedule. I definitely I would say I have more experience in like the broader world of actual play than D&D itself. So this has been really interesting for me.
Dan: How’d it feel to get the call up to join the Critical Role roster?
WM: My friend Marisha Ray texted me at 10:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night while I was washing my face. She was like, “Hey, do have a quick sec to talk about Critical Role?” And I was like. So she called me and asked “do you want to be in the new campaign?”
I said “What? Huh? Yeah, of course I do.” But like what? I was so taken by surprise. Not that I didn’t think that I could do a good job, but that’s not something that you expect when your friends have built this empire for themselves. You don’t really expect to be invited on because that would make you a shitty friend. I was really honored and really surprised and really excited because at the end of the day, you’re playing D&D with your friends. You want sit at a table with people that you enjoy hanging out with. So I was over the moon. I was in their Avowed game, which I now realize they were kind of soft auditioning me, which I was like, very happy that I didn’t know about at the time. I’m having the time of my life.
Dan: What’s it been like being part of this big new relaunch for the show, with a new setting, new DM, etc.?
WM: It’s been kind of a relief that we’re not jumping into Exandria and I don’t have to keep all of the lore that Mercer has built in his head in my dome. It kind of evens the playing ground a little bit because everybody’s new. I think it’s a great way to introduce new cast members because everybody’s kind of new to it.
I know it can be scary to have things change when they’ve done such an incredible job so far, but I am so happy about what we’re building and about how it’s being received. The “Critter Hug” is so real. When I was at New York Comic-Con and I got to go to the Radio City show, I met so many amazing people and I just love saying, hey, we share the same interests. So many Critters are also into metal like I am, also into horror. They’re people who could possibly be my friends. And not to mention so many are insanely talented artists.
DA: There were a lot of posts going around surprised you were sharing fanart. Even the more…adult stuff.
WM: Think I know the posts you’re referencing. I love it all. I’ve seen some of the best art I’ve ever seen and it’s of my character, of like the rest of the cast and it’s so crazy to see. I love the theories. I love the smut. Ashley (Johnson), we have a group chat where we talk about all of the smut. I am up on AO3. I am reading the stories.
We love the smut.
DA: Is this level of fandom sort of new for you?
WM: I think it definitely is. I’ve seen fan art in the past of some things that I’ve done (Birdemic has had its fair share of fan art, which is so funny), but nothing to this extent. It is truly a wild experience. They’re quick with it too; I saw cosplays hours after the character art was announced. It’s really impressive.
DA: Tell me a little bit about how Tyranny came to be?
WM: You know, it’s so interesting because I am also a writer and I wrote all of this stuff about Tyranny and her feelings and her background. But once you get to the table you run into these opportunities to really have your character take shape. I wasn’t really planning on it, but she’s become so much more of a teenager in the way she behaves than I was intending. It’s just the way that she reacts naturally to this stimuli and to being thrown into this situation where she has to be a protector, but also wants to party and see the big wide world. It’s really just been so much fun to reconcile what I thought she was going to be with how it develops because of everybody else sitting at the table.
DA: Has that affected your performance too?
WM: It’s funny from sort of a meta perspective because it makes it easier on me. I have less lore to memorize. But I think from a character perspective, Tyranny is and is going to continue to be immediately shaped by the people that she spends time with. You look at the soldiers table and you have these people who were both a part of and really, really directly affected by these wars and by Thjazi Fang’s death. And she’s a character who is here having a human experience and developing a moral compass in real time outside of their religion. I think that the way she fits in is by being molded by the people that she develops relationships with. And so he stakes are gonna reveal themselves just cause they have to, you know?
DA: What was it like going from the “all together” Overture to the separate tables? How’d that affect your approach to the story?
WM: Doing The Overture was so much fun because we were all standing just off camera trying to not scream and holler and whoop every time there was a roll or a cool moment. It just felt so good to be all in the same room together. But then when we were shooting the soldiers table, we were like, “oh my gosh, we have to stop, we have to stop eventually. We have to give everybody else a chance to play.” But we didn’t want to stop! So we’ve had such a fun time with our table. And it’s both the blessing and also the hard part of doing such a big cast is we get these breaks where we don’t get to see each other. It makes the time all the more precious.
I will be watching all of the tables. We’re loving what everybody’s doing, so when people doing their shoots, we’re tuning in, we’re watching. I wish I could be there in person though. I might just start showing up.
Dan: You’ve done a lot of work, from your famous turn in Birdemic: Shock & Terror, to your burlesque rendition of John Carpenter’s The Thing, to now your time with Critical Role. Is there anything that think links your projects together?
WM: I think the thing that marries all of the projects is just a love of the game, a love of the medium. That’s why I’m really proud of my friends who started Critical Role because it’s just a pure love for telling stories and entertaining people. That’s the core of who I am. It’s what I need in order to feel good. I can make that work on a movie like Birdemic…and I can make it work when there’s more funds and better writers. I think that at the end of the day, it’s just like, I get to play and that’s the thing that I need the most.
That’s why I love DIY creative media because you don’t need to wait for permission. You don’t need to wait for money. I’m such a big proponent in telling the story you want to tell now, not waiting. That’s why I will never really leave the indie movie scene. I’m working on stuff on my own because I need to, because it’s the thing that makes me happy. The the resources certainly make things easier, but at the end of the day you’re lucky whenever you get to do the thing you want to do.
“Hey, are you down to get covered in blood? You are? Cool.”
Yeah, I actually do. just wrote and produced and star and then co-directed a short film starring myself and one of my best buds, Steve Zaragoza. It’s called See You Next Tuesday. That will hopefully be out in 2026. And it’s about a horrible woman.
Dan: Was that your first time directing?
WM: I directed a music video for Dave Heatwave, who is Matt Mercer’s brother, is an incredible musician. And the song is called “Stay With Me Tonight”. That was my first time directing, but it’s good to be well-rounded. You grow more empathy for everybody’s jobs. I think that’s always a good thing.
You can catch Tyranny, Whitney, and the rest ofCritical Role Campaign 4 every Thursday at 7pm Pacific on YouTube & Twitch (@CriticalRole).Beacon members will also get exclusive access to all episodes of Critical Role Cooldown for Campaign 4, where the cameras keep rolling and you get a front row seat to the cast’s post-show reactions.
Visit Critical Role’s website or follow along on Instagram at @Critical_Role, TikTok at @CriticalRole, and Critical Role’s newsletter to stay up-to-date.
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