The following is a video transcript

Todd Kenreck: You're known now for trying to start D&D groups.

Deborah Ann Woll: Yes.

Todd Kenreck: Along whatever like film set or television show you're on.

Deborah Ann Woll: Pretty much, yeah. Well, 'cause all I want to do is talk about Dungeons and Dragons, and everybody I meet, their first image is ... It's like Renfaire meets LARPing meets Magic The Gathering. It's all kind of D&D adjacent, but they don't have really clear idea of what exactly D&D is. I think everyone's really intimidated by the idea of what D&D is.

I like to be able to say, "It's so easy. Just show up tomorrow, and we'll play, and it'll go great." 'Cause it's just about imagination and solving problems creatively. I don't know. It's been really fun to bring movies into the fold. I'm a pusher. That's what I am.

Todd Kenreck: You're a pusher?

Deborah Ann Woll: I push D&D on people.

The really interesting thing about Dungeons & Dragons is that while it's the nerdiest game ever created, it requires friends, and I didn't really have very many friends when I was growing up, and none that played Dungeons & Dragons especially, so I couldn't play when I was kid, but I was always fascinated by it.

About seven, eight years ago, I was just asking people, "Do you guys know anybody?" And Alan was my manager at the time. He was like, "I've been playing my whole life." So he ran a campaign for me and my friends, and that's how I got into it. Seven years later, I'm obsessed. He changed my life.

I think for me, I'm a puzzle person, I'm a problem solver. That's my favorite thing to do is use my brain and creatively get around problems. That's sort of an interesting, fun thing. It's even, when I act, it's the same thing. It's this idea of like ... Even with Shakespeare, on the first page you'll say, "I hate that person", and then on page three you're like, "No, I love them." The problem is you have to figure out, well, how do you make that work?

I think, for me, the idea that you come across a door. It's locked. There are many ways you can solve that problem, and I think that kind of openness really appeals to me.

Todd Kenreck: Is there a type of character that you're drawn to?

Deborah Ann Woll: I tend to like fighters interestingly enough even though the problem solving and that is hit it. Hit it with something. But I've just actually, for my first time, played a Rogue Arcane Trickster, which I actually really, really loved.

Todd Kenreck: They're so great.

Deborah Ann Woll: It was a good mix for me of, "Oh, I can attack things with my blade, but I also have these little magic things that are more creative rather than evocation based or something."

That's part of, I think, why I'm interested in acting is I'm curious how people see the world. My job as an actor is to see the world through the character's eyes, sort of put myself, like Being John Malkovich, in their bodies and see the world and see how that changes and affects me. In a way, I don't have a favorite. I kind of wanna do all the people.

Even in theater, which is live, people are ... They're more passively watching. I remember one of my very first games with my main home brew group, which, today, my friends Tommy and Julie are from that group, they came and played with me. They were trying to rouse this girl who was in an enchanted sleep. She tried once. It didn't work. She tried again. She was like, "I can't. I'm running out of my stuff." They were like, "Just do it one more time." And it worked. Just 'cause I ... They were all looking at me, and I was like, "Her eyes flutter." They all jumped up out of their seats and went, "Yeah!" That never happens, not even in great live theater are people in the palm of your hand like that for storytelling. Something so visceral and exciting about that. It's more like live sports in many ways, I think.

But in terms of why it's popular now, I actually think it's 'cause it's more accessible. Since I didn't come to it 'til later in my life, there is an intimidation factor. There's a sense that either you're not smart enough or you don't belong to that club that the same kind of elitism that maybe kept people like myself out of the popular group, there was a weird elitism that I assumed existed around Dungeons & Dragons.

What's been great in the last 10 years is to discover that that's a misconception. That actually everyone in this Dungeons & Dragons community is so open-armed and just wants you to come and play. Be anyone you wanna be, experience whatever you wanna experience. I think what's happening now is that it's clearer how open and accessible this community is.

Todd Kenreck: Is it weird seeing Joe again? 

Deborah Ann Woll: It's not weird. It's wonderful. He's my comfort zone in these games.

Todd Kenreck: Did you guys ever play D&D on True Blood?

Deborah Ann Woll: No. We didn't even know that the other one was interested in it when we were on True Blood. We didn't work together.

Todd Kenreck: Yeah, yeah. You-

Deborah Ann Woll: We were on like-

Todd Kenreck: I can't think of any scene that you guys-

Deborah Ann Woll: We had one scene together, and he died.

Todd Kenreck: Oh, my God. That's right.

Deborah Ann Woll: So maybe we had another one where it was the same scene but I left before he came in. We had just never really worked together. I knew him, and we hung out a little bit, hung at table reads and things like that, but we had never really been social.

Then, when I was getting more vocal about my participation in Dungeons & Dragons, he sort of reached out. I think Wizards of the Coast used him a little bit to try to make me comfortable to come and join Force Grey. He guilted me into it.

But that was big part of it. I was really nervous to expose my life this way. You know? My whole life is exposed in some way because of my career, and D&D was this comfort zone where no one could judge me or say anything. I was really afraid of opening that up to the larger world.

Being able to do that with Joe my first time really made me feel safe with someone I could play off of, that I knew I could tease him a little and it would be okay. Going forward, I just ... Anytime I can play with Joe, I'm like, "Yes. Absolutely."

Todd Kenreck: What was it like playing with Jeremy Crawford?

Deborah Ann Woll: Oh, my God. He's go great. And it was really interesting 'cause I heard that this home brew group at the moment is very dark. It's a very sort of sinister, scary theme, and my OG group, my original group is ... We're very goofy. We like puns, and we like to talk about how our hair is blowing in the wind and things like that. He caught onto that flavor right away and was so facile with it. He just jumped in and tailored all of our interactions to this sort of goofy play. I would love to be that capable with the game.

I have this one module that ... It was like one of the first modules I ever wrote that I run with newbies all the time. I've probably run it more than 10 times at this point, and it has never been completed the same way twice. Every single group finds a different way to get into the castle. Some go up the stairs with shields. Others sneak up the stairs. Others go around the back and find a back entry. Another goes through the moat and climbs the walls to come in the window. Other people turn invisible. They just ... They all have a completely different strategy for getting through this adventure.

It is such a joy to watch them and be surprised by your players. Say, "Man, I never thought of climbing through the moat and climbing up the wall and going in the window. So, yes. That works 100% because you're brilliant."