“Maurissa Tancharoen Whedon is best known for co-writing the story for “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”. She also was a writer on “Dollhouse” and “Spartacus: Gods of the Arena”. Besides writing Maurissa is currently appearing in the web series “The Guild” and also just worked with her brother Kevin Tancharoen in “Mortal Kombat: Legacy”. Media Mikes had the privilege to chat with Maurissa on her various projects.
Mike Gencarelli: You have worked with your husband Jed Whedon on numerous projects, how is it always collaborating?
Maurissa Tancharoen Whedon: Fortunately it’s a very harmonious working relationship. We sort of balance each other out as far as our creative processes go. I tend to be very detail oriented and over think things at times. Jed is capable of thinking stuff up on the fly. He will often throw out some ideas and I will be the one to pick out which one works and then we massage it into something that we both feel comfortable with. It’s definitely a ying and yang situation. I’m glad it is because if it wasn’t we probably wouldn’t be working together. (Laughs)
MG: How do you feel about writing for such projects ranging from “Dollhouse” to “Spartacus: Gods of the Arena”?
MTW: We are very grateful to have the chance to work on all these great shows. Me personally, when I started to get into writing seriously I always imagined myself writing on “Sex in the City” or a CW show. I never thought I would be pulled into the sci-fi/fantasy genre. I love it and am happy that I have discovered it. Of course having Jed who has always liked those things worked out great. Going from “Dollhouse” to “Spartacus” is something I like because it allows us to change things up and we never get bored.
MG: What was it like working with your brother, Kevin Tancharoen, on “Mortal Kombat: Legacy”?
MTW: He is my younger brother but I have always looked up to him. He has just been incredible since he was born. I don’t understand. (Laughs) When we were kids he was always coming up to me wanting to show me what he had done on his computer. He hates when I talk about him being the little brother. Just seeing him on his set with the cast and crew and directing something that he also wrote was great. I was just happy to be a part of it. I would have been there bringing him his water just to get to see him working. Getting to work with him professionally was a great experience. That was the first time he directed me or told me what to do…in front of other people. (Laughs) I was happy to be in it saying lines my brother wrote.
MG: Can you tell us about your work on this season of “The Guild”?
MTW: I have been a fan of the show since season one. I had heard about it when we were looking at casting Felicia Day to play the Penny character for “Dr.Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”. Joss had worked with her on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and said she would be great and the part and that we should watch her series “The Guild”. I checked out the show and fell in love with it. The characters and cast are just great. When she asked me this year if I would like to play a part on the series I couldn’t believe it. I was over the moon! This season is really great and it’s much bigger than anything in the past. I feel all the cast are just shining. I can’t wait for everyone to see what happens.
MG: Out of all the songs on “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”, what is your favorite?
MTW: That’s hard. I really love “Everything You Ever”. That song gives me the chills. We actually recently watched on tape for a stage production done during Comic-Con for “Dr.Horrible”. Seeing people take something we had done and interpret it themselves and then adapt it to stage was very cool. The way they did the last song “Everything You Ever” was really great. It warms my heart that people love that project so much. It’s very exciting that it’s still alive years later.
MG: I love your song with Jed called “Remains”, any plans to release more music?
MTW: Yes in fact. We have been working on an album which has been really cool. I am not exactly sure as to when it’s going to be done but I think we might do a five song EP initially. We currently have three songs done and we are working on two more. I don’t know what’s going to become of it but we are just going to do it! “Remains” was a song Jed and I did strictly just for “Dollhouse”. We had no idea people would love it so much. A friend of ours came to us wanting to direct a video for the song. We basically shot it on the fly and people really responded well to it. The song has been out for two years but some people are just now discovering it which is great.
MG: Any top secret information you would like to leak to MediaMikes.com?
MTW: (Laughs) “The Avengers” is going to be a really cool movie! I really feel it’s going to knock people’s socks off. We have been privy to a lot of the stuff going on with the film and from what I hear it’s going really smooth and is going to be great.