Spoiler Tv was invited by USA network this week to chat with Psych Stars James Roday and Dule Hill (@DuleHill) about their upcoming season. Below you can find a transcript of the Conference Call. This has to be my favourite interview that I have done so far, the guys were brilliant. They didnt mind talking off topic and joking on with everyone involved. They clearly have a strong relationship and really do love the fans. So thanks guys if you read this :)
Psych returns tonight (Wed 12 October) at 10/9c on USA Network. I've seen the episode and I can tell you it is one of the best ones yet so please check it out.
Also check out our video podcast this week where we will include some of the audio of the call.
Beware there is discussion of future episodes, themes and guest stars.
Enjoy
CJ
cjsonic@spoilertv.com
@cjsonic
First of all I wanted to hear about the fan appreciation day, what's going down and how did that come about?
James Roday: last season after we wrapped we did a little four-day college tour where we kind of hit every major region of the country and said, "Hi," to some of our fans at a couple different universities. And in lieu of something like that again, we're kind of centralizing the whole celebration to one location, which is the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City.
So Thursday we'll be kicking it at the Ziegfeld, and we'll get to hang out with about 1000 of our fans that will be attending from all over the country. And we'll screen the premier and we'll do a little Q&A and we'll give away some swag. And it should be fantastic and a great opportunity for us to say, "Thank you."
Since you just wrapped, is there anything you can dish about the season finale, is it a cliffhanger?
James Roday: Yes, there's - that is fair to say. There is a shocking ending that I hope our fans will not soon forget.
You hinted, not only about the Clue episode, which I understand is not part of the season now, but also about a Halloween episode I believe with vampires and also an Indiana Jones inspired episode as well as a Cuckoo's Nest inspired episode. Could you talk a little about that?
Dule Hill: We also have a Shining episode this year too.
James Roday: Shining is what you get in place of Clue. So we still felt like we should swing big.Halloween is the vampire episode. And I think it's airing the week of Halloween.
And is there any special guest stars in that one or?
James Roday: Kristy Swanson, the original Buffy, and Corey Feldman, one of the Frog Brothers from The Lost Boys, and Tom Lenk, a regular on Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV Series.
Dule Hill: And Blacula makes a guest appearance also.
how did you come up with those weird accents in the premiere, I just - I thought they were hilarious.
James Roday: You know what, our key Makeup Artist, Wendy Snowden -- shout out -- is British, and I literally sat, I sat with her that morning and was like, "All right, walk me through like, all the bad British, like regional dialects that there are and let me just butcher one." And that's how we landed on that.
Maggie has Twitter, Dule has Twitter, Tim has pseudo-Twitter, when is James getting Twitter?
James Roday: You know what it's - I'm not anti-Twitter, I just, I'm warming myself up. I'm just doing some pre-Tweeting loosening up exercises, making sure that my diet is in order. I just want to be in the best possible shape when I take this exciting journey into the Twitosphere.
Speaking of social networking, you guys are embarking onto some new territory with the Hashtag Killer, what is that - how do you guys feel about embarking on that new territory?
Dule Hill: I think it's fun. I mean obviously, you know, that whole interactive and social network stuff is a big part of today's society and our fan culture, so anything that we can do to engage them some more and keep them interested in our show, I think is a fun journey. And it's something different. And I hope people are enjoying it. I haven't had a chance to play it myself yet, but it seems like it'll be a fun thing to play.
I'm wondering if you can tell me a little bit more about the Joey McIntyre episode.
James Roday: That was the super - our Superhero episode. There's like a vigilante superhero like combing the streets of Santa Barbara, cleaning them up one bad guy at a time. And it may or may not be Joey, we don't know.
Now that you guys are done shooting, what are you going to get into during your free time?
James Roday: Well if Dule will allow me to sing his praises, he will be appearing on Broadway in New York, starting in December, in a play called Stick Fly opposite Mekhi Phifer and Ruben Santiago-Hudson and a trio of wonderfully rich Broadway stage actresses that everyone should make a point to circle in their calendars and get to New York to see the man on stage.
what's your favorite Psych-Out that you've done? They all seem like so much fun, but what's your favorite?
Dule Hill: It would be the one that we did with Joey, and then it would be the original one that we did in the pilot, Man in the Mirror, because that's kind of what started the whole machine going with the Psych-Outs. And that was just really just Roday and I having a lot of fun off camera. And then we got to the final shot just, "You know what, let's put it on tape. Let's just do it." And it turned into this whole big Psych-Out phenomenon....
James Roday: Yes and in the spirit of doing Psych-Outs with the original artists, I'll mention a drunken rendition of Head Over Heels that we did with Chris Smith.
You're probably also the show with the biggest amount of pop references and stars, you're getting Danny Glover and William Shatner, that's probably pop references heaven. What is your favorite Season 6 reference?
James Roday: There's a visual reference in our vampire episode where we're in a very strange vampire bar and we approach the bar and the bartender has his back to us and when he turns around to face us there's a music queue and the actual casting of the bartender that comes together to create what I feel is a pretty delicious 80s visual reference. So I'll go with that.
If you could have any crossover with whatever show, which would it be?
Dule Hill: I would want to do White Collar. I mean, that's on the air right now, I would say White Collar, a show that was off the air, I would still go back to Monk.
James Roday: Well if it's any show I would say we should crossover with The Walking Dead because I think we're due for a zombie episode.
Dule Hill: For myself I would say if it's any show I would say, "Modern Family," because I just love the show so much. And I think it would be fun to have Shawn and Gus interact with all of those characters over there.
So what was it like, tell us a little bit about what it was like working with William Shatner.
James Roday: Unbelievable.
Dule Hill: Right.
James Roday: The man is - I mean he's an icon obviously but watching him work was an honor in and of itself. I mean he's a machine. He was totally invested. He had - and I say this - this is not me editorializing or exaggerating, he had the heaviest load that we've ever given a guest star on our show. He pretty much drives the entire episode. He had the same schedule as Dule and I. And it was just remarkable. I mean not only did he know everything, he had questions, he had thoughts, he had concerns. You know, he was modulating his performance and he just - he really, really wanted to knock the role out of the park. And then to top it off, when the weekend came and you know, and Dule and I basically beach ourselves and recharge our batteries so that we can get back to it Monday morning, (Bill), flew to Calgary and did two live shows on Saturday and Sunday, and then flew back to Vancouver and was back at work at 6:00 am Monday morning. The man is 80 going on 20. And like I said, "It was humbling and it was a really honor just to watch him work and pick his brain and be around him."
you both have a good relationship with each other, but have there ever been times where you've had a falling out and you had to do a scene together and kind of get through it?
Dule Hill: No.
James Roday: No.
Dule Hill: No.
James Roday: Not even once.
Dule Hill: And if it happens next season, It's going to be your fault. I mean because I think we respect each other too much. We respect each other's process and even as individuals there's a mutual respect there. I really - I would be shocked to see that happen during the run of the show.
James Roday: Yes, I think the closest thing to any sort of real difficulty is I think we both had to fight our way through scenes when we were very, very ill. That's about the worst of it.
now this kind of goes against what you said, but if you could replace each other with a different actor for one episode, who would it be?
Dule Hill: I would replace myself with Deon Richmond, who is the real "Bud," to see if anybody noticed the difference.
James Roday: I would - for one episode, I would replace Dule with David Bowie. It would be a different take on Gus, and I would get to work with Bowie. And I wouldn't feel bad because I'd know Dule would appreciate the time off and he would be back the next week.
So now that Shawn has Juliet, now Gus is all by himself. Is he ever going to have a longer relationship than like an episode or two?
Dule Hill: I think we'll have to see what happens in Season 7, but in Season 6 he makes a valiant effort to attain that. He goes for it.You know, you can't blame Gus for trying in Season 6, he's actually put his - throwing his hat into the ring and he's out there, you know, really trying to make it happen. But we'll see what happens going into Season 7, maybe he'll get past the one-episode love interest then.
And you know, you have a whole bunch of themed episodes I guess, you know, you did the Twin Peaks episode. Is there something you haven't done yet? I know you said you're going to do the Clue episode next season. But is there something you really want to do that just hasn't happened?
Dule Hill: Well I know Steve Franks has talked about it for a couple of season now and it hasn't actually happened yet, but I hope that in Season 7 we can actually make the musical episode happen. I mean I started - that's how I started in the business -- doing musicals -- so it would be great to bring that to Psych and be able to sing and dance in an episode, and not just in a Psych-Out.
James Roday: Agreed, yes I think that's kind of the pinnacle of theme episodes that we've yet to do. So that's the big apple that hopefully we'll be able to slice up and feed to all of our fans.
Lassiter found out about Shawn and Juliet. How do you think that's going to affect their relationship with him?
James Roday: You know, it's a little touch and go out of the gates, but Lassiter himself finds love this season and I think that kind of helped cushion the blow. And you know, it's pretty much back to business down the stretch.
If the whole cast of Psych were on Survivor, who do you think would win?
Dule Hill: My guess? I would probably say Lassiter, because he probably trained for like 15 years for a situation just like that.
James Roday: Yes, you've got to throw Shawn and Gus off first and second, just because the comfort items and the food that they're accustomed to eating wouldn't be there. So I think they would probably be out first.
And then you'd have some kind of showdown between Lassiter, Juliet and Henry. And I don't know, you know what, I'm going to keep it in the family, I'm going to say that Henry Spencer pulls out the upset victory.
Are we going to see more development between Henry and Shawn's relationship this season?
James Roday: I think it's less relationship driven and more just Henry driven, in terms of where he is, and where he is in his life, and what he wants, and stuff like that. The season finale addresses some of that stuff. But you know they are kind of - he's still at the police station and they're forced to sort of work with one another on a daily basis so that's still happening. But then you know, I think we take it a little further with Henry towards the end of the season.
Can you guys tell us anything about the episode you just finished filming because everyone's totally in the dark, except we know that Jennifer Lynch directed it.
James Roday: Well it's a - it was an episode that Andy Berman and I wrote knowing that Jennifer was directing it. So that should give you a little insight there.
So it's going to be dark?
James Roday: Yes you know, it's just a strange little episode that kind of shows you some parts of Santa Barbara that you're not used to seeing, and some characters that you're not used to seeing. But it's all still very much in the spirit of our show. It's not a big - I wouldn't call it a, "Big dark departure episode along the lines of the Yangs or anything like that. But just a little left of center. And Jennifer did an absolute bang-up job of it. So we're pretty excited about it.
So you know, this show has had so many guest stars in every single season, and this one is no different. So do you guys have any initiation rituals? You know, how do you bring them into the Psych family?
Dule Hill: We don't have initiation rituals, we do have I guess, sendoff rituals.
Yes, whenever a guest star has wrapped, we always send them off with a Happy Birthday song by the Psych cast and crew, which I've got to say, "We sing pretty well."
James Roday: It's the one song everybody knows and we've been able to really start playing with some unorthodox harmonies and crescendos. I think the cast - I think the guest cast get down with it. There's always...
Dule Hill: They always cry.
James Roday: There's always that initial sort of moment of, "But wait a minute it's not my birthday." But then they get it.
Will we be getting any special renditions of the theme song this season?
James Roday: Yes, as a matter of fact. Our Shining episode will feature a brand new, completely different rendition of the theme song.
Dule Hill: And we do get a re-run. We get a re-run of the Boyz II Men a cappella version.
So can you talk a bit about the Indiana Jones episode and working with John Rhys-Davies?
James Roday: Yes that episode came out really well, and it's also the third installment of the episodes involving the Despereaux character, played by Cary Elwes. And for my money, it's the best of the trilogy for sure -- a lot of fun.
And yes, John Rhys-Davies was a blast man. We didn't get to work with him a ton but, you know, he came in and he was, you know, kind of bigger than life and sort of what you would imagine. And he was a real sweetheart.
Dule Hill: Fun guy to work with. Full of energy.
You were talking about how you've got British family; have you ever thought about coming across to England and visiting and kind of seeing your small-mid Psych fans across here?
Dule Hill: I actually do want to come over, and I was planning to come over this fall but then the play came up, then the schedule couldn't really work with me making my way over there. But probably next summer. Probably on one of my hiatus' I plan to make the trip over to the U.K. and see what it's talking about over there. you know, I definitely want to see some family, and I have a lot of friends over there too, so you will see me soon.
Dule Hill: Glad that you all are still interested after six seasons. And I hope you all enjoy what we have coming up.
James Roday: Enjoy Season 6. We'll talk to you guys later
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