Last week, I had a great time participating in a Q&A session with the stars of Psych, James Roday and Dule Hill. Psych returns tonight for the final 7 episodes of the sixth season, starting with the extended-length mid-season premiere tonight!
I was the first person to get to ask a question, and the moderator announced my name and said that I was calling for “TV Is My Pacifier.” So after my question was answered they moved on to the next person, but the following transpired:
James Roday: …By the way, we should have told Kyle to suck it when we were done with his question, because his TV is his pacifier.
Dule Hill: Pacifier, you know what I’m saying? Should have said suck it. You suck it.
And when I got through the queue again to ask the final question of the session, I was greeted with James and Dule singing “Suck it, Kyle. Suck it.”
The call was a lot of fun! Here’s some of the highlights.
The banter between Shawn and Gus seems so natural, is any of that improvised?
James Roday: Yes, yes, we’ve sort of – we’ve got a nice balance of scripted stuff and improvisation since the very beginning. I think it’s part of what sparks the show and keeps things lively for Dule and I, and luckily we’ve been doing it long enough that we can make it – we can generally make it sound like it belongs in the scene.
Are there any upcoming parodies or tributes that we should be looking for?
Dule Hill: Well, James Roday has directed one, I think airing second. Maybe you might want to fill them in on what that is, there, James.
James Roday: Thanks for bringing that up, man.
You know what? We’ve got an episode called “Here’s Lassie” up second, which is our tribute to The Shining, not so much the book, more the Stanley Kubrick adaptation – film adaptation of the book, and that turned out pretty well. I think the highlight is easily Dule Hill’s impression of Shelley Duvall. Everyone can look forward to that.
Dule Hill: Okay. Yes, Gus Duvall is in the house.
James Roday: Gus gets his Duvall on in a big way.
Dule Hill: Yes, I see an opening too, I guess as an homage to the Indiana Jones series.
James Roday: Yes, that’s true. That’s absolutely true. And then we also send up The Bachelor.
Dule Hill: Oh, that’s right.
James Roday: That comes later in the season.
Dule Hill: Yes, that’s right.
James Roday: So we do our version of the reality looking for love thing. And then we close down the season with a little nod to Chinatown, which we call Santa Barbara town.
Dule Hill: Santa Barbara town. See the play on words there, Chinatown, Santa Barbara town? See how we do it?
James Roday: So, yes, you’ve got some tributes to look forward to coming up.
Dule has been doing an amazing job at Stick Fly this hiatus, what did you do over the hiatus, James? And everyone’s pretty curious about what they’ve dubbed “Ro-hawk” for your hair.
James Roday: Wow. Well, yes. I was not doing an amazing job in Stick Fly, which allowed me to shave off 75% of my hair and spike the other part of it so that, you know, so that I could pretend like I’m a lot younger than I really am basically. I actually spent a good portion of this hiatus writing, which is another reason why I could do that to myself. So it was good. It was good, and hopefully something will come of it. But I kind of took it on easy, and spent some time renovating a house, it was very – it was a very domestic sort of break for me.
Dule Hill: There it is.
When the series first started, it had Monk as a lead-in, but what do you attribute to the long-term success of the show?
Dule Hill: I would say it’s a perfect storm. I mean, I think it has to do with the writing. I think it has to do with the acting. I think it has to do with the fans. I think it has to do with the network. It has to do with the studio, the crew. I think it’s everybody.
You know, creating a hit television show is – it’s not easy, and it’s – there’s no perfect science to making it happen, so when it does, you just kind of enjoy the ride. I think for us to sit back and say – to attribute it to any one thing would be very presumptuous of us, I feel like, that we know what the answer is.
Like I said, it’s just all these great things coming together, and people seem to enjoy it, and we have fun. I think nobody takes themselves too seriously, and I think that helps the process.
James Roday: And you mentioned Monk, which was sort of a great shepherd for us, and you know, the truth is, you know, Monk managed to stick around long enough for us to kind of find our sea legs and get really comfortable doing what we were doing, so by the time that they did call it a series for Monk, we were sort of confident in our own skin and ready to spread our wings. So they kind of timed that out really nicely for us as well.
Dule Hill: You know, and I think also – I think like having the – like the support of the fans, especially like when we do our fan appreciation days, like we did our college [tour] and things like that, also I think allowed the studio and the network to see how much they enjoyed what we do, which also allows us to have more freedom to have more fun.
James Roday: Right, and we get everything that keeps kind of playing into each other.
So thank you to the fans.
Are there still plans to do a musical episode?
James Roday: You know what? That’s – the only person that can answer that question is Steve Franks. I’m pleading the fifth from now on. I’m not promising anything because it’s all on his shoulders. And I’ll say this. If he wants to do it we’ll do it, and that’s all we got. That’s all we got.
It’s all on Steve Franks.
Dule Hill: I think when we had a conference call – we have a conference call with Steve Franks, I think about 20 of you are asking the same question about a musical.
James Roday: You know, to Steve’s credit, I think obviously we’re all very excited by the possibility of doing a musical, but knowing that there – you know, it’s not unprecedented and that other shows have done it, I can tell you it’s very important to him that we not just do it, but that we do it incredibly well.
And I think he just doesn’t want to short change the fans or our show by delivering anything less than you know, a home run. And I’m not entirely sure if we’ve figured out what the home run is. So until that happens, it’s just a big question mark.
Who would be declared the winner in a fight between Shawn and Gus?
Dule Hill: I think what would happen, would – one of us would declare a winner, and then we probably would start fighting over who the winner is. So it’d be like this little black hole that we’d go into where we’d continue to fight over new things.
And then someone would say, you know, fine, you win, and then we would start fighting over who the – like, you know, I said you win, and he would say, “No, you won.” You know what I’m saying? It would just keep going back and forth.
James Roday: It would be tough, because I – they’re both – I don’t think either of their pain thresholds are very high, and I also don’t think they have it in them to truly hurt the other person. So I think it would come down to semantics and debate as opposed to…
Dule Hill: Exactly.
James Roday: …one man standing over the other.
Has Shawn been hiding any secret kung fu moves from his four classes?
James Roday: Shawn would like to think that he has unlimited moves from any number of disciplines, but I think we all know the truth, which is that when danger is near, those guys run as quickly as they possibly can in the other direction.
James Roday: They ran faster in the early seasons. I can tell you that.
How do you come up with those nicknames?
James Roday: Well, you know in the very beginning, it – I was just pulling them out of my behind to make Dule laugh, mostly. And then they really caught on, so with our writing staff. And now there is never any shortage of options for Gus’s nicknames, along with alternatives … in every episode.
And I do think the fans have embraced it as well, and send in suggestions, and we hear those sometimes too. It’s a – it’s been sort of a fun give and take that if you’d told me back in the first season that it would become what it was, I probably wouldn’t have believed it. But it’s been a good time.
Could you talk about filming the upcoming The Shining-themed episode, “Here’s Lassie”?
James Roday: I can tell you that we got pretty lucky … with the set of twins that we found. You know, I think initially we were going to go with sort of more traditionally and closer to what you have in the original movie. And then they had come in and auditioned for a different episode, and I think it was Steve’s episode and he remembered them. And he was like you have to watch this.
And we watched the audition, and it was like, oh my gosh. We’re going to do this instead, which was better because it allowed us to sort of put our own little spin on it. But they were I thought pretty effectively creepy. They were lovely ladies, and a hoot to have around, but I thought it was pretty – I thought it was just as creepy as the little girls in the movie quite frankly.
Dule Hill: Yes.
And the little boy too. The little boy breaking his little pinky, that little finger – that was pretty spooky for me, especially when we’re down there in the laundry room and he comes by the window. It’s like – that was pretty spooky.
James Roday: Little kids and twins, man. You can’t go wrong with those, you know what I mean?
Dule Hill: Two of the scariest things in the world.
How much fun was it to get to work with Cary Elwes again?
Dule Hill: Well, it’s always fun working with Cary Elwes. He’s such a delight to work with. He’s a great guy, brings so much fun energy to the set. And being that he came back around for the third time, you start to really be familiar with people. But we had a blast. I mean, it was a wonderful experience, and if we have a chance to work with him again, we’ll look forward to that too.
James Roday: Yes, Cary’s the real deal. I would actually that’s probably my favorite of the Despereaux episodes. It was really a good time.
Dule Hill: Definitely.
It seemed to be like a little bit more of an action adventure episode rather than a mystery kind of who-dun-it thing.
James Roday: Yes, but yes, by design, I think that was sort of Steve’s take on this one, was to go sort of Spielberg adventure, swinging from things and running and blowing up boats and to jam, you know, 50% more action in than we have in the past.
What was it like working with John Rhys Davies, and was that intimidating at all?
James Roday: With John Reese Davies.
Dule Hill: Oh, yes, definitely. Oh, yes, yes, definitely. Oh, yes, that was really cool.
James Roday: You know, that guy is bigger than life. There wasn’t even a moment to be intimidated. He – you know, he came over and it was kind of like – I don’t know. It was like working with Santa Claus or something almost.
You know, he’s got such – he’s got that big voice and that big personality and his laugh is really infectious, and yes, it was great. And I got the added bonus of working with Madchen Amick in that episode too, who was like my original TV crush. It was just lots of good stuff going on.
Are there any other big name guest stars that we can look for?
Dule Hill: Jaleel White, Makai Pfeiffer, Lou Gossett Jr., Wayne Brady, Greg Grumberg…
James Roday: Anthony Anderson.
Dule Hill: Anthony Anderson.
James Roday: Oh, yes. And Bill pops in again.
Dule Hill: That’s right.
James Roday: The Shat comes back for a little something something.
Dule Hill: That’s something. I mean, I think people come to our show and they enjoy, you know, just from what they hear, that they don’t really have much fun on a lot of other shows, and everyone who comes to fight has a good time for a week …
They enjoy being up there, and I think word has started to spread to the – through the town that it’s a fun place to come and work, and to – you know, and to give actors a chance to come and play something interesting and different and have a week in Vancouver where we get a chance to laugh, laugh a lot. And we can laugh a lot.
Do you guys come up with the random pop culture references as you go, or do you have one and try to find a way to get it in there?
James Roday: I think it’s a little bit of everything, I think.
Dule Hill: Right.
James Roday: I think for one, between me and Steve and the rest of our writing staff, it’s a pretty deep well of obscurity. And with, you know, each opportunity we get to come back, you know, we’ve got a list of ones that we haven’t gotten to yet, and then in addition to that, we’ll come up with stuff in the moment based on, you know, a song we’ve been singing, you know, in between takes. And we kind of – we jam all those in as well. It’s a pretty fantastic format, our show, because it kind of lends itself to doing just about anything you’d want and getting away with it.
Dule Hill: I know, I think, because for example, … I was in my trailer one day, you know, and somebody emailed me or I’d seen it somewhere like on the Web, you know, “Ed Lover’s, come on, son,” and I was just crying.
I think maybe on Facebook I think I saw it, and I was just rolling in my trailer and I finally said, “Oh, James, you got to come see this,” or I emailed it to him. And then we – he – it made him die laughing, and by chance we were filming the episode that Bruce Davidison did, I think a season ago. And we just started dropping it in there, and it made it to the air.
And then of course this year, now, we were running with the “Come on, son,” and we were having dinner one day for Andy Berman’s episode. You know, why don’t we have Ed Lover come out and do “Come on, son.” And it just happened. So I think it kind of…
Dule Hill: …saying come on, son.
James Roday: Bringing the original article.
Dule Hill: You know?
What do you imagine that would be the most likely way that Shawn and Gus kick the bucket?
James Roday: Shawn has joked on several occasions that Gus will somehow inadvertently be the cause of his own death. I think Steve’s thrown that joke in like two or three times over the years, like Gus is going to accidentally walk into traffic or something and have no one to blame but himself. I don’t know, I – it’s a good question. I mean, I think these – I don’t know if these guys have given a lot of thought to mortality. They’re kind of stuck in the past…
Dule Hill: In denial. In the past, and in denial.
James Roday: …and clinging to the idea of not growing up, so I think Shawn is probably convinced that he’ll never die, and I think, you know, Gus probably just doesn’t like thinking about it.
Dule Hill: Right. He doesn’t want to be putting any choice to talking about that.
James Roday: Exactly.
Are there still plans to do a Clue-themed episode?
Dule Hill: James Roday?
James Roday: That I can say with a reasonable degree of confidence is still happening. The reason that we were unable to do it in season six was sort of a perfect storm of scheduling issues with some of the pieces of talent that I think we could all agree you have to have on board if you’re going to do a clue episode.
So we basically just put a pin in it and pushed it to season seven, if there was going to be a season seven, and now that there is one, I can say here with confidence, barring some unforeseen glitch, you’re going to get your clue episode next up.
Dule Hill: There it is.
Could you talk about how Shawn and Gus are growing up and becoming more mature?
Dule Hill: I think you have to. I mean, I think, you know, we’ve been on the air for six years, going into our seventh. And you know, it would be false for us not to. I mean, the fact is they are trying to hold onto the past and to be never growing up, but the fact is they are growing up.
And as you see, you know, with Shawn, you know, and getting more serious with Juliet, and even Gus trying to find his own significant other and things like that, I think that’s a – the general, or – that’s going to be the arc of the characters. Otherwise I think it’d just be getting boring if we kept doing the same exact thing as season one.
What kind of crossover do you want to see with Psych and any other show?
Dule Hill: Well, I’m still on the whole Monk train. I would love to have Tony Shaloub come and do an episode of Psych. Really, that’s my big – I wouldn’t mind that, and I wouldn’t mind either Zachary Levi. That would be cool. You know, he’s a cool dude, and I really could have fun hanging around. And I think big Chuck fans would enjoy seeing – the Chuck and the Psych fans would enjoy seeing Zach come and do an episode of Psych. So those are my two.
James Roday: I think the one thing that we’re not allowed to do on Psych in terms of like a mandate creatively that probably will never change is anything that’s truly supernatural. Like, stuff can appear to be supernatural, but then there always ends up being an explanation.
So I think it would be fun to get dropped into like The Walking Dead or True Blood or something and have Shawn and Gus have to deal with something that truly can’t be explained.
And also, I think Gus would probably – he would probably warm up to the idea of vampires pretty quickly once he realized that – and they were interested in doing more than, you know, just talking to him.
Dule Hill: I think you’re right about that.
And of course he wouldn’t say that. He would have had Sookie in mind, so…
James Roday: That’s right.
Dule Hill: You know Gus gets down with the vampires.
James Roday: Gus and Sookie I think make a lot of sense, so…
Have you ever discussed doing a Wacky Wednesday episode, where Shawn is Gus and Gus is Shawn?
James Roday: Well, we kind of stuck our big toe in the water. We probably tried it to early, but it was back in I think season two.
Dule Hill: Two, right.
James Roday: And it was the episode where Gus’s uncle comes to town, and Gus has lied to his family and said that he’s the psychic in the duo. And so he kind of had to do his best Shawn impression. But it was a little undercooked, and Shawn didn’t have to do any kind of Gus impression, so – and it’s a fairly unmemorable episode, so maybe we can go back to the drawing board and give it a shot.
Dule Hill: It would be fun.
James Roday: Yes. Nobody remembers that.
Yes, man, we’re putting it on the board.
Dule Hill: You heard it here first.
You both have very strong backgrounds in theater as well as TV and film. Do you have a favorite?
Dule Hill: For me, by far it’s theater. I feel like when I’m on stage I learn more. During a play every night, I learn more as an actor and I grow as an actor much faster I feel and more dynamically than I do in any other medium. But I do enjoy doing television and film.
So my ideal situation really would be to do a cable show for four months, be able to go do a film, then go do a play for another three months, and keep doing that cycle, you know, oh, every three years or something like that. I think I could do one medium – just one medium too long, you can very easily get stale and boring. If I had to choose, I would choose theater, as long as I can get my TV paycheck.
James Roday: So eloquently laid out for you. I don’t even know how to follow that. But I would definitely agree. I mean, theater is the actor’s medium for sure. And you know, it’s sort of where you get to flex your muscles the most. It generally presents the most challenges. It’s the most dangerous. It’s the most fulfilling, and I think more than anything it just makes you a better actor on camera. So you know, if I could only do one, I guess it’s back to bartending and theater for me.
Dule Hill: If you could see the difference between me and Roday, he said it’s back to bartending and theater. I said as long as I can get my TV paycheck. That’s the difference between James and Dule.
How long until Gus gets a steady romantic love interest?
Dule Hill: That’s a good question. I’m – I hope that I – and Roday might be able to answer it better, being that – actually, I think you’re here in New York, now, but when you go back to LA, you might be able to answer it better. I hope that this season, we’ll get a chance to see Gus be in some kind of relationship that lasts over an episode or two.
I wouldn’t want to see him being in a relationship all season. I wouldn’t – I don’t – just I think that would not be fun, but hopefully we’re going to see what it’s like when he’s in some kind of relationship over a short period of time, and not just one episode and – or swinging and striking out.
And of all the girls that you’ve got to have a romantic relationship with so far, who’s been your favorite to work with?
Dule Hill: Well, that’s kind of a loaded question there, because I would have to go back to – from earth to Starbucks, because that was my wife.
I’m no idiot. I’m no idiot.
James Roday: It takes the fun out of it a little, seeing as how I pretty much have to say Maggie, so there you go.
Dule Hill: But also too, because in that episode came the line, “Did you hear about Pluto?”…
James Roday: That’s true.
Dule Hill: …which was not scripted, I don’t think. I think that was something that, you know, we just came up with on the day and dropped it in there and…
Does it ever bother you when you’re snubbed by the Emmys?
Dule Hill: I think we would be lying if we said no. You mean, I know, you always say you don’t care until you actually get a nomination. Then you’re like, “Oh, that’s the greatest organization ever!” I mean, it would be nice to be honored. I think we’ve had some – I think we’ve put together some really funny episodes and I think that we’ve consistently been a funny show.
We got a little bit of love by being added into, you know, some of the opening promo stuff that was going on for the Emmys this year. But it would be nice to get a little more Emmy love in some shape or form for the show. I think Psych is a very funny show and it deserves to be included among the best.
On this President’s Day, I would like to know who your favorite presidents are, real or fictional, and why.
Dule Hill: Oh, well, that’s very easy. Fictional wise, it’s our President Josiah Bartlett, because I think he’s the ideal president. You know, he’s someone who thought about issues in a way, the pros and cons, and felt like he let his heart lead him, and really put the country first and doing what’s right, beyond doing what is – doing what the polls say.
And most politicians nowadays beyond what they say really do kind of lean towards polling. In terms of real, well I mean, it would have to be – that’s a toss-up. For me it would either be a toss-up between President Clinton and President Obama.
And I’ve been fans of both of theirs, so I can’t go too far back because I don’t really remember too many presidents before that. You know, I know Reagan and I know Clinton and I know both Bush presidents, and I know President Obama. So I would say Clinton and Obama, presidents, would be my two choices.
James Roday: I was a Bill Clinton guy for sure. He was my man. And then fictionally I got to go with Tiny Lister. I’m pretty sure he suited up – what was it, in The Fifth Element, I think?
…I think so. He had an eye patch. That’s my on-screen president. No one’s touching him.
Is there any favorite film or TV series of yours that you wish you could do as an episode?
Dule Hill: What’s Happening Now? I don’t know. I don’t know. Let me think.
James Roday: Well, you know I got – I sort of got mine when we did Twin Peaks. That was my favorite show of all time, and that is an experience that I will never forget. So it’s going to be tough for anything to come close to that one, but we’ll keep rolling them out for sure. For sure.
Dule Hill: There it is.
