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 Even
Shawn Spencer could have seen this one coming... PSYCH, the
hit original series starring James Roday ("The Dukes
of Hazzard"), Dulé Hill ("The West Wing")
and Corbin Bernsen ("Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," "L.A.
Law"), returns with its fourth season on USA Network.
With a bit of romance and plenty of mayhem, the hit series
launches all new episodes on Friday, August 7, 2009 at 10/9c.
The action intensifies this
season as the crime fighting duo of Shawn and Gus save an
old western town from a corporate take-over which ends with
an old fashioned showdown and prove an exorcism may not be
the only way to exorcise a demon. On the personal side, Shawn
and his girlfriend Abigail's (Cook) relationship grows and
Shawn has to adjust to being in a relationship. In the
premiere episode, "Extradition: British Columbia," Shawn and
Gus outwit a notorious international art thief, Despereux
(Cary Elwes), and when they travel to the ski slopes of Vancouver,
they discover that he's not an art thief but an insurance
scam artist.
PCM's Kristyn and several
other jounalists had the opportunity to particpate in a recent
conference call interview with
James
and Dule where they discuss the upcoming season!
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Q: I know that you've
both played very different characters in other things. I know
that Mr. Roday had actually played alongside to Maggie Lawson
in Fear Itself and Mr. Dulé you had a wonderful part
on West Wing for a while. So how do you feel now about playing
comedy? Do you enjoy it better; do you like doing horror or
drama more? How does it feel?
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D. Hill: I actually enjoy comedy; it's
a lot of fun. After doing seven years of drama on West Wing
to be able to come and work with Roday and the rest of the
cast has been a blast. It's something different, especially
working with Roday where he likes to improv a lot it challenges
me to work on different muscles that I haven't used before.
J. Roday: Well, first of all I just
want to thank you for reminding me that I did in fact appear
in Fear Itself; I often forget that. Secondly, I would say
I've actually done a lot more comedy than I've done drama.
It's weird the way that worked out, because when I came out
of theater school I took myself way too seriously, so it's
kind of ironic that I ended up sort of going down the comedy
path.
But I think what makes this role special compared
to some of the other stuff that I've done is just the fact
that I've had the opportunity to live with it so long and
sort of watch it sort of grow and nurture it, not unlike you
nurture a plant. And working with a great group and an unbelievable
cast and sort of having the freedom to do what we do on the
show sort of sets it apart from any role that I've played,
comedy or drama. It's just been a special ride. It's been
a special ride.
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Q:
Basically, this is for both of you; the show is known a lot
for its kind of fast-paced banter between your characters Shawn
and Gus. And so what I want to know is how much sort of say
do you guys get in what goes on in the dialog, particularly
between the humorous segments and something like the nicknames
that Shawn makes up for Gus? What goes on with those types of
moments?
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J.
Roday: Unlike, I think, the majority of shows on television
right now we actually have a frighteningly high amount of say
in what we do with the dialog. A lot of times it comes in great
and all we have to do is say it, but any time we sort of recognize
an opportunity to throw something in or add something or if
we have a better name for Gus than the one that came in we just
pull the trigger.
We're pretty good at monitoring ourselves
so that we only do it if we're making it better, and it's
very rare that we find out later that the people down in LA
were disappointed because we changed something. They're usually
pretty pleased.
D. Hill: Yes. And the names that we
come up with most of the time it has to do with somebody that
we know, somebody in the cast knows or somebody that one of
the writers knows or a producer, something like that. I would
say pretty much eight times to of ten there is some relation
to the crazy name that Gus is being called.
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Q:
What detectives, in real life or in fiction, have been an
influence for the characters?
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J.
Roday: You know what, I go to this movie called Without
a Clue that not a lot of people saw. It was Michael Caine and
Ben Kingsley, and the idea behind the movie was that Watson
was the brains of the operation and Holmes was just this very
theatrical sort of charlatan that diverted people's attention
and got all the ladies. It's a very, very funny movie that not
a lot of people have seen.
But I love the fact that it was sort of rooted
in the idea that these two guys absolutely, positively were
dependent on one another to solve a crime, because Holmes
was sort of the face of the franchise but Watson was the guy
that sort of kept their feet on the ground and did a lot of
the thinking. That's not exactly what the dynamic is on Psych,
but the sort of ying yang element of it of there's no way
that either of these guys could work on their own and there's
no way that they could accomplish what they were doing without
the other one is definitely sort of a big element of what
we do on Psych.
So that's my answer. I feel decent about it.
I'm passing it off to Dulé.
D. Hill: I guess for myself it's not any real I guess
template that I came in to with a preconceived notion about
like in terms of a previous detective team. I guess if I had
to choose one I would say Cosby and Poitier in Uptown Saturday
Night. I want to say that would be the equivalence that I
could think of, but besides that there's not really anything
that I've thought about before to say yes, this is what the
template is.
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Q:
I really enjoy the pop culture references that you make in the
series, and I just wondered if you could be in any television
show of the past which would it be? Or if you could spoof a
show as an episode what would it be?
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J. Roday: Well, my answer is one in
the same. I would have given anything to be on Twin Peaks,
and if we last another season we will be doing a Twin Peaks
episode. So there you go.
D. Hill: I guess for myself if I could
have been a Cosby kid. If I could have been on Cosby that
would have been great for me. And I guess if we could spoof
any show I would say maybe Fame; I could be Leroy.
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Q:
If you could investigate anybody who would it be?
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J. Roday: I think I might have to just
really roll up my sleeves and investigate Monica Bellucci
and just make sure that she's living her life along the straight
and narrow, she's not cutting any corners in life, in her
work; just really get in there and make sure that she's on
the up and up.
D. Hill : And from my side I would
investigate Halle Bear, who is also Halle Berry.
J. Roday: That's it; this is classy
stuff you're getting from us today.
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Q:
I was wondering if the show is as much fun to shoot as it is
to watch?
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D.
Hill: Yes.
J. Roday: Absolutely.
D. Hill: We have so much fun up there.
The cast is great, the crew is even greater, and we just have
a lot of fun. No one takes themselves too seriously; we all
come to work and we are pretty much getting paid to laugh
all day. We sing songs; we have the best singing crew in Vancouver.
One day if you get a chance you come up there and we'll have
them sing you Happy Birthday just for no reason in particular.
We sing Happy Birthday about three or four times a day just
because. There's a really great bunch of people up there.
J. Roday:
And
we don't pay royalties for it. It's free; we can sing Happy
Birthday for free.
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Q:
Do you guys have a favorite episode to film or that you think
is the best episode you guys have done so far?
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J.
Roday: I like different ones for so many different reasons,
but I can say that for me personally, just as an actor, I think
the most fun I've ever had on our show was an episode called
Life's Camera Homicidio when my character got thrust into the
world of a Spanish telenovela and I got to improvise in both
English and Spanish. That was a blast.
D. Hill: Well I guess for that episode
I guess Roday to be able to improvise in Spanish he was getting
in touch with his roots so he was really excited about that.
But for myself it would still have to go back
to American Duos. I just can't help it, I just loved dressing
up as Michael Jackson and being able to do a moonwalk, have
John Landis direct me while I'm dressed up as Michael Jackson
in Thriller. And there was a crowd there, too, so you can't
really beat that. You can't really beat that. That's one of
my all time favorite experiences on Psych.
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Q:
Do you have any things that you could tell us about this upcoming
season, whatever you feel free to share either overall or specifics
about what we can expect this season.
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J.
Roday: In terms of sort of themes for episodes you saw that
we're doing sort of an expedition Canada, catch a jewel/art
thief episode, and we're doing sort of a Shawn and Gus save
an old western town and everything that comes along with that
that you could imagine, including a grizzled, gray bearded James
Brolin.
D. Hill: Exorcism episode.
J. Roday: Yes, we're paying tribute
to the Exorcist with our exorcism episode featuring the aforementioned
Ray Wise, who is just fantastic in the episode I have to say.
Just really came in and knocked it out of the park.
D. Hill: American Werewolf in London
homage.
J. Roday: That's right, a little love
letter to American Werewolf in London and werewolf movies
in general featuring David Naughton, obviously, and Josh Malina.
And lots of other fun stuff.
I have to say I think we're kind of storming
out of our gates this year with some really good stuff. I
think last year we stormed in our heads, but we were actually
like trotting at a casual pace, and this year I actually think
we're storming out of the gates for real.
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Q:
How does becoming co-producers affect your roles on the show?
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D.
Hill: I don't know what Roday thinks, but from my side I
don't think it really changes that much. I think from the beginning
of the show the dynamic has pretty much been what it is. Maybe
say from Roday's side he may write a few more episodes, but
he was already writing episodes anyway. From my side I would
think it's more of a title; it hasn't really changed the actual
working dynamic that much. Maybe a little bit changes, but nothing
too major.
J. Roday: Yes. I think,
like Dulé said, the dynamic was sort of set from the
first season. Because none of our producers are up in Vancouver
with us it was just sort of a necessary thing that we take
on a little more responsibility to help the show sort of run
smoothly. They finally decided to throw us a title for it.
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Q:
Just this year they released two books for Psych and your characters
and everything, and I was wondering if you were to ever read
those yourselves and you could come up with your own kind of
merchandise what would you like to see?
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D.
Hill: Well I would read it if I had one and if I knew there
was one that was out.
J. Roday: I was going to say it's good
to know that there are books out. I didn't know that.
D. Hill: Maybe I'll try to read it
one day on the set.
J. Roday: Merchandise.
D. Hill: I would have to say a video
game. I love video games anyway, so a Psych video game somehow
that I could play on Xbox or Wii would be great.
J. Roday: I have to say I think the
idea of a talking bobblehead was pretty solid, and someone
actually came up with already and did it. I love the idea
of little Shawn and Gus bobbleheads.
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Q:
Which one of you is the most like your character on the series
or are you completely different?
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J.
Roday: I think we're both pretty different. I do. I think
that's one of the things that is really cool about our show
is that we have as much fun as we do, A, and B, we get to play
characters that are pretty different from our real life personas.
D. Hill: But actually going back to
someone's previous question about useless information I would
say that Roday is more like Gus in that area, especially with
film trivia, ‘80s trivia. He and Steve Franks can lift off
songs on an album. I guess—
J. Roday: I have the trunk of useless
knowledge.
D. Hill:
Yes.
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Q:
There's a danger in comedy when you go across a number of seasons
that you could become predictable or stale. How do you guys
keep this show so fresh?
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J.
Roday: It's a good question, and I think part of the answer
is that all of us, from producers to writers to actors and everybody,
is sort of hyper aware of what you just said. You couldn't have
a group that was sort of more acutely aware of not getting complacent,
of recognizing how important it is to not become predictable
and to not get stale, because it happens to so many other shows.
And so when we go to break stories and we're on set it sort
of pushes us, quite frankly, to not settle for stuff that feels
like it could be better and that's sort of the way we've been
treating the show from the beginning.
And while it may get more and more challenging
the longer that we last the truth is we don't ever want to
be considered one of those shows that dropped off after season
blank and then was just sort of on autopilot until the end.
And I don't think anyone will ever sort of break in that regard;
we'll always continue to challenge each other and make sure
that everybody is working as hard as they possibly can.
D. Hill: And I think it's very easy
to, I guess, just to do what you think works. I think, as
Roday was saying, we keep challenging ourselves to keep raising
the bar, to keep staying engaged, and even as the actors on
the set to keep staying connected and staying alive each time
we do it.
And then also I think certain things we try
to make sure we don't run certain things to the ground, like
Gus is not going to run screaming out every episode. After
you find yourself doing certain things for a while you kind
of say okay, let's go someplace else with it to keep the characters
alive.
J. Roday: Absolutely.
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Q:
What do each of you think is your character's most difficult
trait to capture and what moment in the show has allowed that
character element to shine?
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J.
Roday: Well that's very insightful and thoughtful indeed.
For me I would say the most challenging thing about playing
Shawn is the tight wire act between slacker and man child, and
then also somebody that you really do want to invest in emotionally
and like every week. And the line between wanting to rub his
head and slap his face is very, very, very thin. And sort of
walking that line and always knowing when to stop is sort of
the most challenging on a day-to-day basis.
In terms of like a single event that sort
of helped me with that I would say probably when we brought
Shawn's mother onto the show, first episode of season three.
Kind of we peeled back a layer that I think by tapping into
it has allowed that sort of tight wire act to get a little
easier just because you sort of saw a side of him that was
way vulnerable that he didn't have complete control over.
And once we sort of put that out there I think it made things
a little bit easier in terms of the balancing act.
D. Hill: And then just for myself is
one I don't I guess get too cerebral with my character, so
I don't really think about it like that too often. I guess
when a question comes up it makes me think about it, but in
my day-to-day action on the set I don't really process it
I just do it.
I would say I guess for me it would be that
Gus to not make him too nerdy but not make him too cool, because
he is a nerd. But at the same time you want him to be cool
also, and I think too far in either direction would change
the dynamic of the show. So it's always trying to find that
balance of cool nerdiness or nerdy coolness or something like
that. That would be my answer to that.
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Q:
So in season three we got to see a lot more of the serious side
of the characters. Are we going to get more of that in season
four?
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D.
Hill: Definitely.
J. Roday: Yes, a little bit. You don't
ever want to go too far in that direction, because I think
people have plenty of shows that they watch to watch people
be serious. I think at the end of the day it's always going
to be important for us to mostly deliver what has made us
successful, but there will definitely be episodes this year
where you see us flip our serious switches. Gus has a serious
jackal switch where it's still a jackal but it's a serious
jackal.
D. Hill: Yes. That will have to make
its way out some time this year.
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Q:
What has it been like to be on USA Network, and I was wondering
if you think kind of there's any big differences being on cable?
And also, kind of related to that, do you guys ever feel like
you're kind of in friendly competition with newer series, other
multiple of detective, spy, comedy series?
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D.
Hill: From my side I think it's great on USA. They really
take the time to nurture their shows, they give you the chance
to grow, and they give you the freedom to try different things.
I would say everyone over there at USA, Jeff Wachtel, Bonnie
Hammer, they all are very brilliant at what they do and they
know what works. They know what works for their network and
their track record proves it.
In terms of like feeling in competition I myself don't. I always
feel that your journey is your journey and what's good for one
is good for all. If the network is doing well then it's great
for all of us, so if they have a show that comes and premiers
well great; that makes us that much more stronger. As long as
we can hold down our spot then I think we can keep going along
for a good ...
J. Roday: Yes. I think what we do is
fairly unique on Psych, and we just have to keep doing that
because that's what got us where we are. So you can't really
worry about any other show, whether it's on USA or not. You
have to stay true to yourselves and hope that people keep
watching, and in the meantime just be, like Dulé said,
just be happy for the family because it seems like everything
they churn out right now turns to gold.
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Q:
If people haven't started watching Psych yet why should they
tune in now?
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D.
Hill: Well there's so much serious stuff going on in the
world I think it's a great show to come and sit back, put your
feet up, and laugh for a little bit; just clear your minds.
I think anyone who comes and watches this show definitely laughs
out loud at least once, so if you're looking to just step away
from all the stress for a second then I would say check out
Psych.
You know we're like kids in a candy store,
and it kind of brings people back to a time in their youth
when people just dared to do anything, and that's what we
do on Psych.
J. Roday: And there are so few rules
that we have to follow in terms of making this show. I don't
think there are a lot of other shows out there where one week
you're wearing chaps and spurs and riding a horse and the
next week you're running from a potato sack headed killer
chasing you into the woods with a machete, and yet you're
still laughing both times. I think it's a pretty unique little
hybrid; it has something for everyone.
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Q:
You've had a ton of fantastic guest stars. Who would you like
to see on the show and who do you think they would play?
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J.
Roday: My answer is going to stay the same until we get
him on. The answer is David Bowie, and anybody he wants is whom
he will play.
D. Hill: And for myself I would like to get someone like
Chris Tucker on the show. It would be great if he could play
some kind of, I mean he could play anybody he wanted to also,
but he could play some kind of relative of mine or something.
It would be a lot of fun.
J. Roday: I think David Bowie could
also play David Bowie if he wanted to, and Shawn and Gus could
just have an episode where they hung out with David Bowie.
D. Hill: I think David Bowie could
play Mr. Guster in season five.
J. Roday: He could.
D. Hill: There you go—because we change
my dad all the time. Like dude, your daddy is David Bowie.
… is not showing.
J. Roday: That would be fantastic.
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