“I didn’t know this going in, but the creators of the show [Bill Motz and Bob Roth] had planned to model Molly’s ethnicity after whoever was cast, so when they cast me, Molly became half-Thai,” Ashly Burch tells me about the titular character in the Ghost and Molly McGee, a new animated show coming to Disney Channel this October.
Known for her roles as Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn, Tiny Tina in Borderlands, and Chloe in Life is Strange, Burch is heading in a more wholesome direction with Molly, giving her a chance to lean into a new personality and spread a message to young viewers that it’s okay to be different and love who you are.
“I love [Aloy] and [Tina] so much, they’re so dear to me, but it was really nice to be on a project that’s so sweet and hopeful,” Burch says. “It’s based solely on friendship, learning, life lessons, and all that kind of stuff. Not only as a performer, but as a person, I need that kind of stuff. It’s nice to be a part of something where the goal is to try to help people feel seen and hopeful, and to play a character who is so optimistic is kind of calming. It’s really nice.”
The Ghost and Molly McGee follows a young girl and her family as they move to the unassuming town of Brighton. Having spent much of her life hopping across the country, Molly has never had time to make friends, so when she stumbles upon a ghost called Scratch who is bound to her house by an immovable curse, she labels him as her best friend in mere moments. Having struggled to form personal connections with people in the past, Molly worries about suffocating those around her, being labelled as an outcast who will be thrown aside by anyone she tries to become close with.
Burch highlights how this blends with her own experiences with anxiety and trying to fit in amidst a society that doesn’t always agree with you. “I think the goal of the show is to let kids know that being different is not something to be afraid of, or to take shame in yourself for,” Burch tells me. “It’s something to be proud of, something that enriches life. Molly meets a ghost and her first instinct is to say, ‘Hey, let’s be best friends!’ instead of being scared of him. What I find most interesting about Molly is how she’s quite self-assured, which is not how I was as a kid. I also think it’s nice for kids to see a character that is confident and loves herself, especially a girl that’s biracial, and that’s really cool to see. Obviously, Molly does get anxious sometimes, and it’s not hard for me [as an actor] to summon that particular emotion.”
Molly’s ethnicity - specifically Disney matching her heritage to that of Burch - is something we’ve seen the company do twice now. Avi Roque, the non-binary actor behind The Owl House’s Raine Whispers, told me of a similar experience in a separate interview. It’s delightful to see, and highlights how Disney understands the importance of characters accurately representing the talent behind them. Choices like these often result in more diversity, ensuring that not all leads in shows come from a privileged white background. “I’m really excited because I’ve never played a character that reflects my heritage before,” Burch says. “What’s been really rewarding about that is how it isn’t just surface level inclusion - the show isn’t going, ‘Yeah, she’s half-Thai, let’s move on.’
“They’ve done a beautiful job of showcasing different aspects of Thai culture. There’s even an episode later on in the show where Molly struggles with what it means to be biracial and not feeling Thai enough, which is something I really, really relate to. I feel a lot of biracial folks feel like they’re in the middle of two cultures, not knowing how to integrate into them both fully or not feeling enough like one or the other. It’s really meaningful and really special to see my culture showcased in a Disney show like this.”
As for being in a Disney show like this for the first time, Burch is feeling mixtures of delight and nostalgia for landing a main character like Molly. “Being the lead role is absolutely bonkers,” she says. “I was a Disney kid. I loved The Little Mermaid, I even had the bedsheets and everything. Being in a Disney show like this is absolutely bonkers.”
Burch is right - it is bonkers. Many shows in the zeitgeist right now are subject to unimaginably large fandoms, with The Owl House and Amphibia attracting obscenely passionate legions of fans interacting with the talent behind them. On top of producing fanart and fanfiction, these people have even launched petitions to keep the series alive after they were cancelled by the powers that be. While she hasn’t interacted with many of them directly just yet, a curious peek has already exposed Burch to what she can expect once the show kicks off next month.
“It’s kind of amazing,” she says. “There have been a few snippets and clips released and I’ve already been tagged in Molly McGee fanart, or I’ve looked at the hashtag once on Twitter and there’s already a bunch of fanart of Molly and Scratch. It’s cool to see such a robust fanbase for this Disney stuff. I haven’t got to interact with anyone in person yet, because who knows what’s happening with conventions, but hopefully soon. It’s really cool to see engagement already happening before the show is even out.”
This sentiment also carries over to the performance itself, with much of Ghost and Molly McGee being recorded during the pandemic from the comfort of Burch’s own vocal booth. Directors, producers, and fellow talent can all communicate over Zoom, a practice which has become commonplace in the past couple of years not just for animated shows, but for games like Horizon Forbidden West and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, too.
“I’ve almost entirely been recording from home,” Burch tells me. “There was some stuff for Horizon Forbidden West that I was going into the studio for because we were getting facial capture, but there was a whole section of the pandemic where they sent me a head rig. I had all of this behind the booth over there and it was just a tonne of wires. It all worked out because we absolutely needed to keep working on the game, but there’s so much stuff that would be easier in a studio with a talented engineer being able to do everything. So I would go in for Horizon sometimes, but all of my Molly sessions were done from my vocal booth.
“Me and Dana Snyder [voice of Scratch] were just on Zoom together going back and forth,” she says. “It’s weird, because I assumed that once the world started opening up again that people would want to go back into the studio, but predominantly that hasn’t really been the case. I think I’ve done two projects outside of my house, but everything else has been from here.”
Having experience with motion capture, traditional voice acting, and live-action roles, I wanted to pick Burch’s brain about the big differences between each form of acting, as well as what sort of environment she personally prefers. “What’s really nice about voice recording versus being on camera is that you can do a scene so many times and there’s so many other things happening that have nothing to do with you,” Burch says. “You’re racing for light and getting to scenes that don’t even include you. There’s entire departments that are trying to get the right shot as you’re doing your performance, so you probably only have like three bites of the apple. In voice acting, it’s only about your voice in the moment, so you can go as many times as you like.
“Animation is so cool because you get the collaborative aspect of working on camera with the replayability of video games. Dana and I are always recording together, so it’s nice that we can do two takes of a scene and go back and do a pass that’s entirely improv or whatever we want. There’s so much flexibility in terms of how much we can mess around and play. We’ll do improv runs that run on for way too long, but there’s no time pressure or anything. It’s a lot more freeform - the performance feels playful just like the show is very playful, and it works because of that.”
Ashly Burch has become a household name in the world of video game voice acting, and so I couldn’t help but ask about her three favourite roles and the impact they’ve had on her career. “That’s so hard!” Burch says. “I’m going to put Molly and Rachel from Mythic Quest aside for now, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you guys. I love you!
“In terms of what I can look back on now and go ‘That was a huge stepping stone or this was a big linchpin,’ it would be Tiny Tina, Chloe from Life is Strange, and Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn. These are the three seminal step ups that helped me become a better actor. I think it was the perfect order to get these roles now I think about it. I learned stuff from Tiny Tina that I could take to Chloe, and I learned stuff from being Chloe that I could take to Aloy, then all the things I’ve learned from Aloy I’ve now put forward into all the roles that I’ve done. It’s hard because it feels like I’m picking my children.”
You can catch The Ghost and Molly McGee on Disney Channel from October 1