As you may have heard, The Game Station’s Fistful of Rupees has debuted, and it is awesome. Essentially, the three part webseries is a hybrid of The Legend of Zelda and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly starring various internet celebrities. I was lucky enough to get the chance to pick the brain of Zelda herself, Lisa Foiles.

Lisa is an actress and blogger who is perhaps best known for her tenure on Nickolodeon’s comedy show All That. Lisa has appeared in episodes of Leverage and Malcolm in the Middle, and gamers might recognize her as the tutorial narrator from Ms. Splosion Man! Lisa is also a columnist with Kotaku and a host on The Game Station.

With all that being said, I’ll waste no more time getting to the interview.

How did you end up in the role of Zelda?

The first project I ever did with The Game Station was called Miyamoto’s Angels, where I got to play Princess Peach in the trio of Peach, Samus, and Zelda. I loved it so much that I told them to definitely keep me in mind for future projects in a similar vein. I don’t know if it’s obvious, but I LOVE dressing up. When they asked me to try the part of Zelda this time around in Fistful of Rupees, I jumped at the opportunity. I love The Legend of Zelda, I love dressing up, I love acting. Let’s do this!

What did you look to for inspiration, seeing as how Zelda characters are largely silent in most media, and how did you prepare for the role?

I didn’t prepare by looking at the character of Princess Zelda so much, but more so at the western genre of movies in general. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Cat Ballou, Butch Cassidy – I am in love with westerns. And, I wouldn’t exactly call it a classic, but for my character, I even kept Olivia Wilde in mind from Cowboys & Aliens. Don’t tell, but I secretly thought that movie was GREAT.

Do you have a favorite scene from Fistful of Rupees?

The very end of Part 3, with just Rawn, TJ, and I in a stand-off triangle. It very much reminds me of the end of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. I thought that section was particularly well-written and acted.

Do you have any good stories from filming?

I have a story that, at the time, was awful, but pretty funny thinking back. When I first arrived on set day one, I felt completely 100%, health-wise. However, as hours passed waiting for my scene, I started to feel a bit…odd. Nathan, the director, finally called me to set and I knew something was not right in my stomach region. In the middle of a scene with TJ, I ran off screen and puked my guts out! TJ kept going like a pro, but I can only imagine the editing team hearing my awful barfing sounds off-camera, haha!

Who did you enjoy working with the most?

Rawn and TJ, definitely. I had never met Rawn, and had only met TJ briefly once before. What fascinating and talented people those two guys are – not to mention easy on the eyes! 😉 Nathan and Aaron as directors were also fantastic. I always get nervous when I’m on a multiple-director project, since the two people in charge tend to argue quite often and hold up production. Not the case here! Nathan and Aaron worked together quite smoothly and complemented each other perfectly.

What was your biggest challenge while making Fistful of Rupees?

Aside from the aforementioned stomach flu? I’d say…nothing. It wasn’t really a challenge at all. Everyone knew their jobs and things ran smoothly! Well, okay, maybe staying out of the sun was a bit of a challenge. As such a pale person, I made sure I ducked into the shadows whenever possible. Darn you, Irish heritage.

Would you do another video game mashup movie?

In a heartbeat! I even have a few ideas of my own I’d love to pitch to the creative team. Video games come-to-life has always interested me.

The term “girl gamer” is thrown around a lot in the nerd community. How do you feel about that term, and furthermore, how do you feel about the way girls are treated in the video game community now? For instance, given your role and prominence in the gaming community, do you feel like you’re treated differently because you’re a woman?

Oh, boy. You caught me at a rough time with this question! My career in games actually got started with my argument about gamer girls – how I only wanted the term “gamer girl” to be applied to females who really, truly knew their stuff and loved gaming passionately, not applied to just any female who happens to own a pink DS and has a picture of herself licking a Wiimote.

But then, here comes the rest of the community bitching at me, saying, “That’s discrimination! Who are you to decide who deserves what labels? Every girl can be a gamer girl if she wants to be!” Fine. Okay. I give up.

At this point, I kind of hate having to be associated with “geek girls,” because frankly, they’ve gotten whinier and whinier through the years. Their relentless attempt to be recognized as “special” and “different” has been a real turn-off for me. How about we all just be “people with common interests,” Who cares if you’re a boy. Who cares if you’re a girl. Sure, immature boys tend to be jerks to girls online, but no matter how many articles you write or how much awareness you raise, that will never change. If you’re going to willingly play around in a male-dominated activity, you’ve got to accept that it’s a sausagefest.

In other words, if you can’t take the heat, go back to the kitchen.

I await your hate mail.

Aside from Fistful of Rupees, you’re involved in a number of other projects, including the lead in a musical web show called Malfalia. Do you have anything you’d like to say about your other projects, or any websites you’d like to mention before we conclude the interview?

Of course, thank you! I’d love to plug my video game news show REMAG on The Game Station every Wednesday – it’s a more fun way to get the scoop on games each week than just reading words on a webpage. Malfalia is certainly in the works, and big things are happening for that series. So, here’s hoping that’s going to make a big debut! As always, anyone can hit me up on Twitter (@LisaFoiles).

Thanks so much for the support! Share Fistful of Rupees with all your friends! 🙂