‘Mythic Quest’ Stars David Hornsby and Jessie Ennis on Their Characters’ Search for Power — or at Least Respect (INTERVIEW)

Any fan of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia who tuned into Mythic Quest’s first season were treated to more than the familiar sense of humor of co-creator Rob McElhenney. Actor David Hornsby, who plays the long-suffering Cricket on Always Sunny, also stars in Mythic Quest as David Brittlesbee.

As the executive producer of the eponymous in-world game, his character hasn’t been put through quite the level of abuse that Cricket has (yet, at least). However, as the show excels at showing the over-the-top dysfunction in the behind-the-scenes world of online gaming, he’s not exactly revered by his on-screen coworkers.

“It’s my own fault,” Hornsby admits in an interview ahead of the Season 2 premiere. “Although, I have to say, a lot of shows tend to want to [do this]. I also do something on Good Girls, and they were talking about disfiguring me at one point, and I’m just thinking, ‘What… what is it with me?’ But it’s such good fun to be there doing a show with friends and with people that you share those common sensibilities with. It’s worth, sometimes, possibly having to eventually wear a diaper on television. We’ll see. We don’t know. Metaphorically, I’m speaking.”

“It’s just so fun watching David do those things,” adds Jessie Ennis, who plays David’s assistant, Jo. “It’s just a blast getting to be in rooms with him while he’s completely embarrassing himself and being emasculated.”

“Yeah, it’s my own fault,” Hornsby interjects.

Jo, who Ennis describes as “a dark soul wrapped up in a cute little package,” spent much of Season 1 as David’s assistant. However, her insatiable lust for power draws her closer to Danny Pudi’s Brad Bakshi, the game’s head of monetization. “I really love watching Jo climb the ranks within the company,” she says. “She’ll stop at nothing to try to get closer to power. I like to joke that we know that she’s addicted to power. This season, she’s going to switch from the baby aspirin that is David Brittlesbee and get a taste of the hard stuff with Brad Bakshi.”

Ennis, who’s become a ubiquitous supporting player on the small screen, drew some stark comparisons of Jo to her run on Better Call Saul as the equally-ambitious Erin Brill. “On Saul, I played a goody two shoes and the main character is trying to do bad things, but you ended up hating my character, who’s just trying to make him do good things,” she explains. “Now on this show, everyone’s trying to be good and I’m just like tearing people’s hopes apart. It’s really fun. I really love it. It’s great to be friends with all my castmates and then be able to throw that away and just be rude to everybody once they call ‘action.'”

Though the second season was delayed by the pandemic, it did manage to inspire not one but two great stand-alone episodes. Once production was underway, Hornsby, who also serves as an executive producer, explains they were able to play to the first season’s strengths. “You know, you learn so much in Season 1. And Season 2, you learn from the actors, and take that and see what plays and what doesn’t play.”

“We bring Sue [Caitlin McGee] up from the basement office. We have more Carol [Naomi Ekperigin] this season. We really have more fun with the pairings,” he says. “So, we’re able to take what I think is fun about the characters and then start to discover new things about them, with who they’re working with. As we get into Season 2, we get to start to spread our wings a little bit.”

Similarly, Ennis was able to branch out creatively from her role in front of the camera as well. “In terms of the collaborative process, I keep likening it to being paid to take a Master’s class because Rob, David, and Megan [Ganz, co-creator] have all really welcomed us into every aspect of the filmmaking process. I was allowed to join the writers’ room this season, we were privy to watching the dailies and watching how the editing process unfolds. Ultimately, we got to shadow directors and direct some of the second unit stuff, which just is so unlike my experience as an actor on any other show. I feel really valued and I cherish this experience.”

Much like their Mythic Quest coworkers, both Hornsby and Ennis brought varying degrees of familiarity of gaming to their characters, which, in turn, helped the show strike the balance between industry homage and accessible workplace comedy. “I didn’t have much research. I just kind of took off my wedding ring and said let’s roll,” Hornsby jokes.

“No, but I’ve always played video games,” he adds. “I mean, I’m sure we all have to some degree, but I did not know much about the behind the scenes of the video game world, honestly. But it is such a huge phenomenon and industry. It really dwarves the movie industry, the entertainment industry, and it’s in everyone’s homes and pockets, et cetera. So it was interesting to learn about, as we worked with Ubisoft and we’re able to kind of learn about how the sausage is made and the good and bad of it all — like any industry.”

“Hopefully we’re able to have a fun office comedy, but also play with some of the storylines that could come from just being specifically in this world, some of the hypocrisies of this world, and just kind of keep exploring as we keep moving forward,” Hornsby says. “As well as have these separate episodes where we explore episodes without even our characters and just explore stories within the video gaming world. It’s sort of a fun aspect of our show.”

Ennis, meanwhile, says she grew up playing Sega Dreamcast, but didn’t really consider herself a gamer, though they’re still present in her day-to-day life. “I’m engaged to be married — not to brag — to a man who plays video games so much that I sometimes joke that video games are the other woman in our relationship,” Ennis explains.

“But I myself am no longer really a gamer. Or, at least I thought so until my phone started doing that screentime bullshit that’s telling me how many hours I was spending on mobile games,” she confesses. “I play a lot of Tetris. I play a lot of Two Dots. They have a really awesome scavenger hunt thing that I love playing. It’s really artistic and visually pleasing. Then I play a lot of this game that’s, like, organizing colors and I realized I’m on a level 800 and I was immediately shamed. I gave myself a lot of shame for that. So, I wouldn’t call myself a gamer, but I am spending a lot of time playing games.”

While Mythic Quest offers plenty of inside jokes for dedicated gamers, it still manages to appeal to a much broader audience. “It reminds me of this thing that happened with my Nana,” Ennis explains. “She decided to start watching the show and she was like, I don’t know, am I going to like it? I don’t really know video games. Last video game I played was a pinball machine and then half an episode in she was calling me and she was like, I love this show. You don’t need to know about video games at all. Conversely, I have friends who work in the video game industry who love watching this show because it feels like it real-life situations they’ve been in.”

Mythic Quest Season 2 premieres May 7 on Apple TV+. Season 1, along with its two stand-alone episodes, are available to stream now. 

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