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Though you may know her best as a founding member of Critical Role, Ashley Johnson's roles have been a lot darker than The Legend of Vox Machina's Pike Trickfoot or even The Mighty Nein's Yasha Nydoorin. But for someone deeply interested in psychology, having a role in something like, say, The Killing or The Last of Us is a fascinating mental experiment for Johnson - basically, the lifelong actor asks herself, can she understand why these messed up characters do what they do?

And sometimes, to experience that mental experiment in a different way, Johnson leaves the world of fiction and tunes into Netflix true crime.

Johnson was a recent guest at a live taping of Collider Ladies Night, hosted by Peri Nemiroff. Joined by fellow OG Rolers Laura Bailey and Marisha Ray, Johnson spoke at length about her varied acting career, from her motion capture work to which franchises she would still love to be a part of though she hasn't yet had the chance. But at one point, the discussion narrowed in on what Johnson uses to explore the psychological aspect of her career, and the voice actor had a very particular anecdote to share.

"I just watched this really disturbing documentary that can't stop thinking about," Johnson began, "It's called Maternal Instinct. It's sitting with me because it was very disturbing. I think for me, why I can't stop thinking about it is because when I watch that, I'm like, what the fuck is the psychology of this? Why did this person get to this point that they did this?"

In case you don't know, reader, Maternal Instinct is the true story of Taylor Rene Parker, a woman whose faked pregnancy led to the murder of her friend. The documentary is on Netflix now but, I'll tell you this, I'd strongly advise viewer discretion. 

While Johnson makes it clear she's not trying "to take something so tragic that happened," and turn it into "art," the same part of her that explores the characters she meets in a script tries to understand the awful psychological places that human beings like Parker can get to.

"You're wanting to understand," Johnson explained, "At least [I am], why we work the way that we work? I think that's a beautiful thing for us all to be thinking when we watch stories of characters that are awful people or, you know, don't have the same beliefs as us. [We can ask], 'Well, why are you this way?' Because then maybe we can find a way to talk to each other."

The Legend of Vox Machina is streaming now on Prime Video. Maternal Instinct is streaming on Netflix. 

With two animated series on Prime Video, Campaign 4 in full swing, and so much more Exandrian lore to come, Critical Role is showing no signs of slowing down. That's why the adventuring party at Popverse are here to bring you everything we can from those nerdy-ass voice actors & Bo., including:

• Critical Role release schedule
• Critical Role's Campaign 4 characters ranked
• How to watch Critical Role in order
• Ways for you to relive the Critical Role panel from ECCC '26
• Taliesin Jaffe on playing Mollymauk Tealeaf for Campaign 2 vs. playing him for Prime Video
• Matt Mercer's homebrew warrior class (created originally for Vin Diesel)

...and much, much more. Roll initiative, player. Magic awaits.