Recently we had the privilege to sit down with Valkyrae about her upcoming role in Apple TV+’s The Family Plan. What better way to represent the gaming community than having Valkyrae play herself at a Valorant Tournament?
Starting off the interview, she had this to say regarding the feeling of playing herself in the film. Valkyrae collects achievements in life like a true gamer. Best known as one of the leading females in the streaming genre and on YouTube, she has collected such titles as “Content Creator of the Year”, “Best Live Streamer”, and “Gaming Creator of the Year,” and now she can add her first movie credit.
Releasing December 15th is Apple’s latest original film, The Family Plan, starring Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Monaghan. Dan Morgan, played by Wahlberg, and his family work to stay alive as everything they once knew gets turned upside down. Along the journey of this family, comedy meets action film, their paths cross with Valkyrae as it turns out the son, played by Van Crosby, is a bit of a gamer himself.
“Honestly, I feel like it’s the best first role I could have ever, ever asked for. I was just, when I
-Valkyrae, The Family Plan–
learned that they wanted me to literally be Valkyrie. I was like, wow, this is great. Because I don’t have any acting experience. So just to be able to play myself in a gaming role felt appropriate. And it felt genuine as well. So, I was just stoked. It was over the moon.”
The interesting thing is that while they wanted Valkyrae to be her usual self, all of the game play in the film was pre-recorded and not even from her prior games. During the interview she touched on the fact that she was the only gamer on set and even helped her co-stars in how to play. While this maybe helped her social skills because she never has been in a room with so many non-gamers before, the whole process made her feel like she was really acting.
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“It was! It was completely recorded from; I don’t even know who was playing that. So pretty
much they showed me like what was going to be played and in the order that is going to be played and we would have to act as if we were doing it in the moment. So that was all it was so mind-boggling to me because I’ve just never done that before.So it was, I definitely felt like I was acting. It was interesting to say the least. But I mean, it made sense because like, the certain gameplay had to happen in the show or to have a certain outcome. So it had to go exactly how it was going to go and it had to be intense because it was the finals, you know, so it made sense. But, you know, would love to actually play, play with them sometime for sure.”
-Valkyrae, The Family Plan–
Valkyrae The Valiant Actor In the making
It wasn’t just acting to someone else’s game play that was different for Valkyrae. Being on a movie set compared to her usual set up, no matter if it’s a live stream or her published videos on YouTube, was a new experience. She breaks down some of the differences during our interview.
“…I’ve never had like lines like that. I mean, when it comes to streaming, there’s no record or there’s no editing, it’s not recorded, it’s live. And so when we were filming, it was just I had these lines, and it was like concrete. And then we, you know, even the game was prerecorded. And so we had to act like in the moment, we were doing that gameplay that was happening.
So it was just so different from what I normally do because I’m so used to just like, you know, being very in the moment, don’t know what’s gonna happen next kind of thing. When we’re filming, it’s like, I know what’s gonna happen. And memorizing everything was crazy.”
-Valkyrae, The Family Plan–
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Shifting from her time on set, we took a pivot to check in with Valkyrae and her desires for future roles. It was clear that she is excited to follow this new adventure forward and see what other roles might be out there for her. This included touching on her desire for a horror role if she had her pick. This is what she had to say,
“Absolutely. I mean, this experience with Family Plan and Apple has been so great that it makes me look forward to doing it again, because I was so nervous and was so far out of my comfort zone that I just didn’t know I’d be up for it.
But my dream would be to be in a horror movie, but a horror movie based off of a game, I feel like would be really cool. I feel like there’s a lot of really good scary games out there that I’ve played that I can totally see being a really good film. And I feel like, you know, I have a lot of experience in screaming and now that I’ve got a little bit of acting on my belt, I feel like I can do it.”
-Valkyrae, The Family Plan–
Not missing an opportunity to talk about the most recent horror game sweeping the streaming communities, we asked what her thoughts would be on a Lethal Company horror parody film. Now while she wasn’t sold on the idea, here are a few of the games she thought should get the green light.
“I feel like that would be really funny if they could come up with a really good storyline, because I feel like the game doesn’t really have like, more like a storyline to it. But I feel like games like Little Nightmares or Outlast or Resident Evil, where there’s like an actual storyline could really be a good film. Like, also this game called Until Dawn, it’s a scary game, but like your actions decide the fate of certain characters. So I feel like games like that could be really good as a movie. Yeah, we’ll see.”
-Valkyrae, The Family Plan–
Valkyrae has made a splash for herself across a variety of platforms and now you will be able to see her in Apple’s new movie, The Family Plan on December 15th.
About The Family Plan
Release Date: December 15, 2023
Director: Simon Cellan Jones
Writer: David Coggeshall
Producers: David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson
Executive Producer: John G. Scotti
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Monaghan, Zoe Colletti, Van Crosby, Saïd Taghmaoui, Maggie Q, Ciarán Hinds
Synopsis
Dan Morgan (Mark Wahlberg) loves his quiet suburban life as a devoted husband, father of three and successful car salesman. But that’s only half the story. Decades earlier, he was an elite government assassin tasked with eliminating the world’s deadliest threats.
When enemies from his past track him down, Dan packs his unsuspecting wife (Michelle Monaghan), angsty teen daughter, pro-gamer teen son, and adorable 10-month-old baby into their minivan and takes off on an impromptu cross-country road trip to Las Vegas.
Determined to protect his family — while treating them to the vacation of a lifetime — Dan must put his long-dormant skills into action, without revealing his true identity.
Will Dan Morgan’s past jeopardize his family’s future, or will it bring them closer together? How will this suburban family adapt to life on the run? And what surprises await them in the city of sin? Share your thoughts, expectations, and whether you’d want to be part of The Family Plan of Morgans on social media.
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